Nationalism, Genuine and Spurious A VERY LATE OBITUARY OF TWO EARLY POSTNATIONALIST STRAINS IN INDIA (original) (raw)
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INTERROGATING NATIONALISM: LOCATING INDIA IN TAGORE'S NATIONALISM
The debate on constituting India as a nation has been a deeply contentious issue in the decades both preceding and following Indian independence in 1947. Tagore, a multifaceted genius and a versatile figure, is one of the most reverential names in the literary-cultural world in India as well as abroad. Tagore was a great visionary. He observed and critiqued the idea of nation at a time when most of the Indian people were steeped deeply in the intoxicated wave of patriotism. His foresightedness was greatly misunderstood and critiqued by then nationalists. This paper revisits Rabindranath's essay Nationalism to analyze how the writer's views contribute to the creation of a nation in Indian context and offers an alternative framework to the idea of a nation. The paper further attempts to locate Tagore's idea of nation in the present context and concludes by establishing the fact that Rabindranath Tagore's vision has become more appropriate and relevant than ever in today's violent world of intolerance, vengeance and fanaticism.
SEJARAH, 2016
This article is aimed at an analysis of the imagining of Indian Nationalism and in locating scholarship that highlights such nationalism's inability to encompass the intense cultural diversity of the country. The article reviews a) early writings on Indian Nationalism that insisted on some form of homogenising civilizational core that would promote a sense of 'Indian-ness' above group identities to b) current scholarship's understanding of Indian Nationalism as a nation of multiple histories and voices not needing any sort of homogeneity and locating firmly the Nation as a site of debate and dispute. It is at this point that a reading of B.R.Ambedkar's conception of Indian nationalism provides a unique insight into the current thinking on the imagining of the nation. Ambedkar argues that democracy can provide for a site of debate and dispute and also the much needed homogeneity or sense of belonging that is required among peoples for effective non-ascriptive nation building. The article also analyses how this version of democracy can be viewed as a progenitor of deliberative democracy formulated by Jürgen Habermas and at the same time provide for meaningful perspective on possibly solving some of the issues that Habermas' conception failed to answer.
IJFMR, 2023
Rabindranath Tagore, the multifaceted Indian poet, philosopher and artist, critically investigated the origin and evolution of [Western] nationalism and surmised the dangers of its adoption in the Indian anti-colonial struggle. Thus, he developed a unique perspective on nationalism that challenged the prevalent nationalist ideas of the prominent political thinkers and provided with a nuanced understanding of the intricacies of India's struggle for Independence and the subsequent nation-building processes. His concept of nationalism immediately became a matter of great controversy and many people even started regarding him as 'anti-nationalist.' This paper aims to investigate and tackle the controversy regarding the relevance of Tagore's nationalism both in the colonial period and the post-colonial period. It will try to emphasize how his concept of nationalism contrasts with that of Mahatma Gandhi regarding its role as an anticolonial force, and also with that of Benedict Anderson regarding its importance in shaping national and cultural identities, and international relations in the post-colonial era. By focusing on his essay on 'Nationalism' and his three renowned political novels, such as, Gora, The Home and the World, and Four Chapters, the paper intends to analyze the value of Tagore's ideas in the context of the anti-colonial struggles and their validity in the context of the contemporary socio-political and cultural movements, and give an insight of his philosophical conception on the discourse of nationalism.
DISCOURSE ON NATIONALISM DURING INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT
Indian scholars and western scholars have presented different views regarding emergence of Indian nationalism. Scholars like Benedict Anderson are of the view that Indian Nationalism emerged in India because of British rule. According to Anderson, print media and railways helped in the emergence of nationalism. Valentine Chirol refuses Indian Nationalism. Another British scholar, Christopher Belle has tried to find the roots of Indian nationalism in ancient India. According to him, good government and patriotism always existed in ancient India. Anthony Smith focuses on understanding the origins and formation of modern nations to understand nationalism. Cultural identity is an important part of nations. Smith has found ethno-history as an important part of modern nations. The major concern with ethno-symbolism is the manner in which modern world's nations have been formed. Smith has seen nationalism as a modern ideological movement. Nationalism is aspiration for various social groups to defend, create or maintain nations. Nationalism maintains autonomy, identity and unity of nations. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay argues about the reasons that were responsible for the rise of nationalism in India. Cristopher Jaffrelot writes about the monopolization of the Hindu nationalist movement on the front pages of Indian newspaper in 1990s when Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) came strongly Indian political arena. Radhakumud Mookerji argues about the existence of nationalism in ancient Indian society, particularly, in Hindu culture. Mookerji states that ancient Indian society had a systematic bureaucracy, rules and laws. Big empires were setup by the kings like Chandragupta Maurya, Asoka and Gupta Kings. Trade and commerce developed during these empires. Mahatma Gandhi argues about nationalism through his non-violent ideology whereas Ravindra Nath Tagore sees nationalism as a tool of violence. In this sense, the present paper is an attempt to understand the debate on Indian nationalism. This paper will also limelight on different views on the ideology and nature of Indian nationalism.
2.3 the Emergence of Nationalism in India
2017
In the previous Unit, you have been introduced to some of the major theories of and approaches towards nationalism. You have learnt how to understand and define the concept of the nation, as well as the various factors involved in these understandings and definitions, such as ethnicity, culture, language, race and gender. You have also been introduced to some of the issues that have been central to the debates around nationalism, such as territoriality, common heritage, the invention of histories and traditions. In addition, you have been introduced to feminist perspectives on nations and nationalism, on the issues noted above, as well as on the ways in which masculinity and femininity are deployed in these nationalist discourses.
Man’s history is being shaped according to the difficulties it encounters. These have offered us problems and claimed their solutions from us, the penalty of non-fulfillment being death or degradation. Rabindranath Tagore’s politics exhibited a marked ambivalence- on the one hand, he turned down the notions of Imperialism, as set by the centre (Europe) and on the other, he also shunned the Swadeshi Movement. Tagore viewed the British control as a political symptom of our social disease, urging Indians to accept that there can be no question of blind revolution, but of steady and purposeful education. Rabindranath Tagore saw World History as the steady unfolding of an idea. The dissertation paper aims to show what is Nationalism, in a way explaining Tagore’s take on Nationalism in his poetry. Nationalism, according to Tagore, is not a “spontaneous self expression of man as social being”, where human relationships are naturally regulated, “so that men can develop ideals of life in co-operation with one another”, but rather a political and commercial union of a group of people, in which they congregate to maximize their profit, progress and power; it is “the organized self-interest of a people, where it is least human and least spiritual.” Tagore deemed Nationalism a recurrent threat to humanity because, with the prosperity for the material and the rational, it trampled over the human spirit and emotion; it upsets man’s moral balance, obscuring his human side under the shadow of soul-less organization. The definition of Nationalism, as given by Rabindranath Tagore, calls for a re-working on the definition itself, as it makes a sharp contrast with the idea of Nationalism, as it rose in the nineteenth century India. The paper also focuses to show this marked contrast; and in showing this, I would mainly concentrate on the nationalist poems of Tagore, such as The Last Sun of the century; Africa and Bharat-tirtha.
TAGORE ON NATIONALISM AND INDIAN SOCIETY
The question of Rabindranath Tagore on nationalism has been a much debated among the scholars. The various opinions about Tagore's 'anti-nationalism', 'internationalism', 'ambivalent nationalism' could be understood through a closer observation of Tagore's understanding of the history of Indian society and civilization at large, as also his holistic approach to humanity. Though Tagore condemned nationalism, he wanted for the Indian independence through some of his politically motivated songs. Although he supported Indian nationalists but he publicly criticized European nationalism and imperialism. Tagore firmly emphasized on racial and religious unity of India. He urged that all Indians have to unite above their race, class and religion. They should give up their differences, and stand above the dusty politics, of caste and ethnicity in order to bring the development of India. Tagore argued that India's immediate problems were social and cultural and not political. India must continuously struggle to resolve her burden of heterogeneity, by evolving out of these contradictions, which would be a great synthesis of all.
Tagore : Seductions and Perils of Nationalism
2010
Nationalism, implicated as it is in the modern imagination, is a deeply contested idea. So is nation – also referred to as an “imagined community” – which evolved as a sociopolitical institution, fairly recently, and which is characterised by either a unifying cultural signifier or an overarching ideology. Empirical studies reveal that the idea of nationalism often originates with the elite or with an aspiring middle-class, the rest of the society are appropriated into it. Tagore dismissed such nationalism as “the organised self-interest of a people,” which is “least human and least spiritual.” He saw it as a constant threat to humanity. This paper argues that Tagore’s diatribe against nationalism is a recurrent motif in all his writings and lectures. For him the nation is distinctively and exclusively Western. He developed an alternative conception of modernity which would take into account inclusive and synergic interaction between cultures that can take the world towards harmony ...