By nineteenth century, the carefully constructed idea of a nation and the sense of nationalism were being seen as natural. Benedict Anderson defined the nation as an “imagined community” which traces its roots to the European Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. A lot Indian literature produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was characterized by a stress on nationalism and the need of forging an Indian identity. However, there were some writers, like Rabindranath Tagore, who saw the dangers of ignoring specific and local issues in the rubric of the nation-state.
According to Humayun Kabir, the principles of federalism and non-alignment were Tagore’s contributions to Indian Foreign policy. Even if one sees this as far fetched, it is no doubt true that Tagore was one of the earliest public figures to critique the discourse of the nation. Ashis Nandy has pointed out that Tagore’s viewpoint was a valorization of patriotism over nationalism and a refusal to recognize the nation-state as the organizing principle of Indian civilization and politics. India was like a miniature of the world with an incredible diversity that could not be brought together under a single rhetoric. India’s primary problems were social and thus for Tagore, issues like caste had to be dealt with before any attempt at unity. In any case, Tagore opposed the concept of Nationalism as it was organized on the basis of politics and commerce; it trampled over human spirit and human emotion. In fact, Tagore later claimed that he was against the idea of the nation in itself. Tagore realized that Europe’s colonial enterprise was often carried out on the bandwagon of nationalism. He realized that violence, hatred and war could be justified for the sake of this powerful myth of nationhood.
Tagore’s political ideology is reflected in his most political works, including Ghare Baire or Home and the world, Gora and Char Adhyay or Four Chapters. The three books span twenty five years and exhibit a steadiness of political opinion. In all three novels, Tagore shows both the fragility and resilience of political authority and though the challenge to this authority is very often moral, it is also rooted in the cultural and political reality of India. They indicate that the unthinking imposition of Western nationalism would try to forcibly try to create a shared sense of community among people who actually have almost nothing in common. The outcome would be an act of violence on the less privileged and lead to the destruction of the social fabric. Nationalism was a Western import and while it consolidated the western ideals on the cultural level, it resisted the domination of West on the political level. The inherent alienation of nationalism to India’s socio-political and economic reality was obvious to Tagore when the it was the agenda of most nationalists. Often referred to as the liberal –humanist , Tagore’s acute views on nationhood are actually similar to those of Gandhi iwho revolutionized Indian politics and the approach to nationalism, on similar grounds.
~ Ipshita ghosh
No comments:
Post a Comment