Tagore on the true sense of “modernism” — 5 books by Tagore that are important to understand the modern world
By Sayantani Chakrabarty
It is a fact undeniable that even today, a majority of us have not been able to catch up with the philosophies of Tagore, which were light years ahead of his time. On the 161st birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, let us try to understand what the bard had realized through his insurmountable literary and humanitarian efforts. Through his two thousand songs, 50 volumes of poetry, 12 novels, 50+ plays, and innumerable essays and short stories, Tagore evoked both sense and sensibility. His body of works, although a pioneering mountain, never stands to reflect only volume, but each and every word that he penned holds a meaning too strong, a depth too abysmal. This is not the work of a genius. This is something that scholars unanimously agree as divine. The surname “Tagore” is the anglicized version of the Bengali “Thakur”, which translates to “god”. And that’s fitting.
As a poet, philanthropist, educationist, and literary scholar, Gurudev Rabindranath is that brilliant sun of the Indian sky that can never be dimmed. He was the radiant flagbearer of modern India paving the way for unfettered thinking and revolutionary ideals during the Indian Renaissance, a movement that gained its momentum with Tagore’s blessing. In an age when aristocrats and Vedic scholars harked of a glorious past, Rabindranath time and again insisted on embracing a culture of modernity that is balanced with the wisdom of the past, the knowledge of the present, and the thrills of the future. He understood how important it was for the East to meet the West. Through his novels, poetry, plays and thought-provoking essays, Tagore made the country realise that modernity is not simply donning English clothes and speaking the coloniser’s tongue, but a state of mind. His writings illustrated that nationalism is not burning British inventions or bombing British officials, but is simply a term that restricts the country to the nomenclature of the Nation-State.
Tagore wrote, “Modernism is not in the dress of the Europeans, or in the hideous structures where their children are interned when they take their lessons…These are not modern, but merely European. True modernism is freedom of mind, not slavery of taste. It is independence of thought and action, not tutelage under European schoolmasters.”
Economist Amartya Sen writes, “Perhaps the central issues that moved Tagore most are the importance of open-minded reasoning and the celebration of human freedom.”
Let us talk about some of the most influential books by Tagore that are remarkably relevant in today’s modern world.
Home and the World
Also a brilliant movie created by the great Satyajit Ray, Tagore’s novel Home and the World (translated from the Bengali Ghare Baire) illustrates the hypocritical nationalistic zeal among people of power and the dichotomy they project in the domestic versus the public arena.
Here’s an excerpt from the novel:
“‘Is there any country, sir,’ pursued the history student, ‘where submission to Government is not due to fear?’ ‘The freedom that exists in any country,’ I replied, ‘may be measured by the extent of this reign of fear. Where its threat is confined to those who would hurt or plunder, there the Government may claim to have freed man from the violence of man. But if fear is to regulate how people are to dress, where they shall trade, or what they must eat, then is man’s freedom of will utterly ignored, and manhood destroyed at the root.’”
Gora
Another gem from Tagore’s pen, Gora celebrates the liberalism and the true meaning of Hinduism, which lies in stark contrast to the distorted version of the sanatan dharma, murdered ruthlessly by unworthy politicians. In a country currently dominated by the crisis of religious intolerance, Gora celebrates the idea of nationalism and motherhood from a completely different perspective. Rather than being presented as a sacrificing, idealized mother who is to be put on some pedestal, Tagore has presented the character of Anandamayee as a human being with humanitarian values and ideals. She was portrayed as a woman for whom class, caste or creed never mattered.
The Religion of Man
The contents of this work appeared as the Hibbert Lectures in Oxford in 1930. Tagore wrote The Religion of Man about 10 years before his death, where he summarized his religious beliefs, wide, open-minded, and undogmatic faith, that he had come to hold after a lifetime of creative and social endeavours. In the book of essays, he gradually unfolds what he believes as a highly individualistic and creatively-charged religion of mankind, where humans will find god and peace through science, philosophy, literature, arts and service. In his book, he underlines that the concept of God here is not an authoritative one, monopolized by distasteful and narrow traditions and superstitions, but a god realized through the simple practice of humanitarian values.
Here’s a superb excerpt from the book:
“I ask once again, let us, the dreamers of the East and the West, keep our faith firm in the Life that creates and not in the Machine that constructs — in the power that hides its force and blossoms in beauty, and not in the power that bares its arms and chuckles at its capacity to make itself obnoxious. Let us know that the Machine is good when it helps, but not so when it exploits life; that Science is great when it destroys evil, but not when the two enter into unholy alliance.”
Nationalism
We live in a dangerous era of jingoism. Rabindranath Tagore profusely refused to worship his country and did not accept the concept of the “Nation”. He understood, quite rightly, that the Nation in itself is a geopolitical entity that governs over citizens, marked by a political border. So, his argument in the book Nationalism and his subsequent works have been, why should we worship “Nation”, and not the motherland? Tagore believed that patriotism was intrinsic to the land and her people, and it should not arise as a checklist of things to do, decreed by the government.
In a letter to his friend written in 1908, Tagore had foreboded his thoughts that he mirrors in the book: “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.”
The Land of Cards
This is a very popular play staged even today because of its highly relevant political and social message. The story, wrapped under playful euphemisms, fantastic poetic lines and an allegorical significance, is essentially about the freedom of the self as opposed to the regimented cloning of one ideal. In a world where the current status of an iron-fist ruling signifies the silencing of individual voices and jailing liberal expressions, The Land of Cards seems highly topical.
With a little stretch of the imagination, the musical play sings of a Fascist rule that has intermingled with our everyday existence. This dystopian tale has a ruler who is also living in a state of illusion, his hands tied, adhering to a machine-state, of which no one is sure of the origin, but swears by the system. Tagore bares it all in this extremely ahead-of-its-time piece of work where he reflects on the mindless nation-worship to the inane caste system.
