Book Review of The Poet and His World: Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagore, edited By Mohammad A. Quyayum (original) (raw)
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Rabindranath Tagore: A Reappraisal of His Universality and Relevance
Rabindranath Tagore stands as a millennium in himself reflecting the ancient Indian wisdom through the raptures of his lyrics and mystic vision. His metaphysical bent of mind was quite rooted to the realities of his time inasmuch as he served as an anchor of intellectual moorings upon which the emerging nation state was to set foot on to shape a new course of journey. As a liberal humanist he advocated for Inclusive nationalism. The national anthem itself speaks of universality of Indian thought. He crystallised the Indian Renaissance of new awakening in the 19 th century via the path of Bengal Renaissance which first stimulated all the Indian vernaculars of a promise of lofty creative potentials. Tagor's international repute as the first noble Laureate of Asia helped the subalterns to gain a voice during freedom struggle. Though the English translation of his poems and other literary works lost the vitality of language, the mellifluous rhyming quality, lyrical beauty and the word-magic but the power of his vision continues to be a source of great inspiration for whoever reads them. This paper is attempted to illumine on Tagore's universality as a poet-seer and his relevance in modern time when the world is still reeling under indeterminacy of post modern fluidity that continues to witness global terrorism, religious hatred, racism, rampant corruption and discrimination of various sorts. Hence, it is worth that the myriad minded man, 'the East of Suez', may be reviewed afresh for his universality and relevance ever.
Deconstructing Universalism: Tagore's Vision of Humanity
[Abstract: In the article, I consider the debates on the issue of universality in contemporary Postcolonial and Poststructuralist Studies. I particularly draw on Rabindranath Tagore's ethical writings on universality to demonstrate its influence on the recent revival of universalism in postcolonial literary scholarship. In terms of organization, the first section of the article takes up some recent reflections on colonialism and universalism. This allows us to turn, in the second section, to Tagore's prescient observations on universalism in his socio-political writings on India. The final section then explores Tagore's views on Universalism in greater detail through a close reading of his short play, The Post Office.]
Southeast Asian Review of English, 2021
Rabindranath Tagore has stood out prominently in world literature for more than a hundred years. Although his literary works are primarily in Bengali-one of India's many languages which is also the world's seventh most widely spoken languagehis output in English too is plentiful. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his English Gitanjali (1912), a collection of reworked versions of mostly devotional and spiritual poems written in Bengali, and became the first non-European to receive this accolade. Tagore's own English translations of his original Bengali work consolidated his literary acclaim. His literary and non-literary writings have been extensively read and assessed. This latest edited anthology of essays by Mohammad A. Quayum is a welcome addition to this scholarship. With four volumes of books on Tagore, including criticism and translations, to his credit, Quayum is a knowledgeable hand at Tagore. In a comprehensive Introduction to this collection of fourteen essays, including
The Village and the World: A Political Reading of Rabindranath Tagore’s Prose Fiction
This dissertation is the end product of research into the prose fiction of the Bengali writer, Rabindranath Tagore, who is best known for his poetry. The works chosen for analysis are short stories and novels in English translation, written between 1890 and 1915. The study involved a political reading of these texts in order to explore how, in the 1920s, Tagore came to establish a centre for rural reconstruction and an international university, as his practical contribution to bringing into reality his vision of a world of cooperation and community. Recognising Tagore’s identity as Poet and Reformer is crucial to interpreting his stories and longer fiction, and leads to questioning criticism of the work according to established Western models. The Introduction puts the chosen texts in the context of Tagore’s life and the historical background, in particular looking at how the British Empire disrupted village life, and created an urban middle class of landlords and administrators, who became Westernised due to their having benefited from the Raj. The first main chapter is focused on the Village, and the short stories Tagore wrote during the 1890s whilst he was managing the family estates. One particular short story, ‘Punishment’, is examined closely to reveal the layers of meaning underlying Tagore’s method of story-writing. The study revealed Tagore’s particular interest in the role of women in traditional domestic and village life, and introduced the idea of ‘dharma’ as the duty of a wife towards her husband and her family. The second main chapter is focused on the World and how the novel form brought from the West developed in India. Three of Tagore’s novels are examined: The Wreck (1906), Gora (1909) and The Home and the World (1915). Tagore employed the technique of allegory to challenge urban values and social divisions, and to show that the individual has a responsibility to shun group identity and embrace universal understanding, tolerance and cooperation. The novels take the Western reader further into the Indian concept of ‘dharma’, as the means by which the individual in relationship with others can become a practical reality. The concluding chapter summarises how the study has demonstrated the need to question Western assumptions, in literature studies, and in the dominant model of world economics and politics, in order that Tagore’s alternative vision may be appreciated by the wider world.
History, Identity and Nation in Tagore’s Fiction
K. L. Tuteja and Kaustav Chakraborty, ed. Tagore and Nationalism (New Delhi: Springer), 2017
My paper will examine the construction of fictional identities in some of Tagore's novels in relation to questions of history, nationhood, and the self. In both Gora, written during the swadeshi agitation of the first decade of the 20th century, and Ghare Baire (At Home and in the World), which explicitly deals with that period of crisis, Tagore forces us to engage in a sustained interrogation of history, personal identity, and political action, reconstituting identity as difference. I will attempt to relate some of these concerns to the views Tagore expresses in the essay 'Atmaparichay' (1912), suggesting that Tagore offers a radical and philosophically innovative understanding of identity in general, and personal identity in particular. I will further argue that this has an important bearing upon his critique of nationalism.
know. I have chosen this re-formulation because it condenses the many questions I would like to ask anew today about the age-old tension between the claims of local or communitarian cultural specificity (or difference, not quite the same thing) and those of universal values, using examples from Indian literature(s) and Indian literary theory and criticism. The Indian subcontinent, because of its long and complex history, because of its prolonged exposition to colonial and neo-colonial domination, with important sequels of all sorts but a virtually uninterrupted and stable democratic governance for 70 years after Independence, and for many other reasons, offers a privileged model to test theoretical approaches to multiculturalism, universalism and cosmopolitanism. Having to confront at least two or three traditions between them and with their respective modern and post-modern discontinuities, its literature(s), in many languages, have been led to carry out varied and unusual experiments at all levels, which in turn bear witness to a high degree of ideological subtlety as well as innovative ways of negotiating particularism and universalism within a vast network of thinking and creative populations, now dispersed in varied diasporic configurations.