Abstract
This essay revisits the political persona of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) in the period following his receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. While Tagore's political voice in Bengal and India had already been radicalised in 1908 with his unequivocal rejection of British imperialism and militant Indian nationalism, he would formulate his mature critique of the 'nation' only during his post-Nobel visit to Japan and the United States in 1916. To the reader who could access Tagore's works only in English translation, there is a world of difference between the poet of The Gitanjali and the author of Nationalism. This essay revisits the contexts of that difference.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 172-191 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2012 |
Keywords
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Tagore's critique of colonialism and imperialism
- Tagore's critique of nationalism
- dissent as discourse in Tagore
- misrepresentation of Tagore
- post-nationalism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- Development
- History
- Sociology and Political Science