Paper Details

Nationalism defines itself as the glorification or deification of everything that belongs to one’s own nation and a naked hatred for anything that belongs to the other. As Tagore believed in individual human dignity and had immense love for humanity, he rejected this venture of Nationalism. While on the one hand he reminded his countrymen of those days of the past when the whole of Eastern Asia was united in the tie of friendship and cooperation, on the other hand he denounced the spirit of violent nationalism and the deification of the country which have the potentiality to break the world into pieces. This paper aims to analyse the concept of Nationalism as revealed in the literary works of Tagore. While in The Home and the World and Four Chapters Rabindranath denounced the hypocrisies and violence associated with aggressive Nationalism and in the short story “The Patriot” problematises the meaning of patriotism, in Gora the very concept of Nationalism itself seems to be problematic and there is a search for an identity crossing the boundaries of religion and nation. His essays and poems reveal that it was his heart’s desire to traverse the artificial boundaries and borders that keep human beings apart and his creation “Visva-bharati” is the final transformation of the idea of One World into reality. A qualitative analysis is made in keeping with the aim of this paper, the exploration of the problematic of Nationalism in the works of Rabindranath. The paper seeks to be a part of the ongoing discussions on the problematic of modern Nationalism which is sweeping over the world like a pandemic.

Nationalism, patriotism, humanity, identity, violence, One World.