A Study Of Rabindranath Tagore’s View Of Nationalism:Between Tradition And Modernity

Tagore’s view of nationalism cannot be separated from the context of his time and family origins.As a member of the upper class in Calcutta,Bengal,he experienced the rapid development of nationalism in India and Asia.In the late nineteenth century,with the awakening of modern political consciousness among Asian peoples,the political ideology of nationalism also spread to Bengal,and Bengali intellectuals began to seek national autonomy;the 1905 Swadeshi movement in Bengal was a product of nationalist ideology.However,the conflict and violence revealed in the autonomy movement made Tagore realize that nationalism was a great threat.Later,Tagore published his representative novel “The Home and the World” based on the Swadeshi movement-a novel in which the protagonist is caught in the whirlwind of nationalism and ends in tragedy.The impact of World War I in 1914 made Tagore realize that the persistent problems of Western civilization urgently needed the help of Eastern civilization.He went to Japan and other countries to deliver lectures on the crisis of civilization and the spirit of the East,denouncing the homogenization of humanity caused by Western nationalism.The contents of these speeches were compiled into a book,Nationalism,which is Tagore’s more detailed exposition of the problem of nationalism.Tagore’s view of nationalism is closely linked to his ideological claims such as his view of civilization.The nationalism he opposed was a political ideology closely tied to imperialism,an ideology that did not apply to India and other Eastern countries,but was seen by most intellectuals as an important means of achieving national progress and modernization.Tagore clearly recognized the tendency of a high degree of human homogenization that lurked behind this curtain of Western modernization.He believed that true modernization was the spiritual quest of mankind,and that true autonomy likewise depended on the achievement of self-reliance.However,in the view of the East Asian countries,which were deeply involved in nationalistic fervor,the ethno-civilizational concept articulated by Tagore represented only tradition and backwardness and did not contribute to the modernization of the country.As a result,he was misunderstood and treated with indifference in China and Japan.Nonetheless,Tagore’s nationalist ideas were forward-looking.He opposed the high degree of homogeneity and narrow exclusivity demanded by Western nationalism,and the violence,conflict,and expansion that nationalism leads to.He was early to realize the various problems posed by modern nationalism,which are still present in the present age.Tagore’s view of nationalism was closely linked to the context of his time.The colonial powers of the period were keen to imitate the Western path of modernization,but Tagore was keenly aware of the relationship between nationalism and modernization and the hegemonic discourse of colonial domination implicit behind it.Tagore believed that the Western-style modernization advocated by nationalists was not applicable to the realities of Indian society,and that modernization and industrial civilization had resulted in the instrumental rationalization of human beings and the destruction of the natural ecology.Thus,as an intellectual influenced by various eras,he was more sensitive to the issue of nationalism,and his attitude toward nationalism is still worthy of consideration in the present age.