Idea of Nation and Nationalism by tagore (india)
Rabindranath Tagore was extremely clear about his sense of nation and nationalism. Aside from being a poet and making extensive use of smiles and images in many of his writings on nation and nationalism, Tagore is vivid and surprisingly clear, when it comes to national question. To him, “the nation is as a perfect human as an organized body. The organization continues to press people to be the story and work well. But this hard work behind power and efficiency drains a person’s energy level from being self-sacrificing and intelligent”.
Because by that the power of self-sacrifice was shifted from one’s last thing, which is morality, to the preservation of this organization, to mechanization and all this became very dangerous to humanity. A person feels overwhelmed when he delegates his responsibility to the machine, which is to create his own understanding and not his entire moral character. In this sense of nationalism, freedom-loving people promote slavery in much of the world with a sense of freedom and pride. Man was treated unfairly in their actions and thoughts, accompanied by the feeling that they were helping the world to find its deserts, faithful men could continue to blindly deprive themselves of some of their human rights by self-promotion, always abusing those who were deprived of their rights.
According Tagore’s observation ‘nationalism is a serious threat. It is a special issue that has plagued India for years. And since we have been ruled and controlled by a completely politically motivated nation, we have tried to build within ourselves, despite our past legacy, the belief in our political destiny.’
Tagore was of the view that nationalism was “a political and commercial entity only”, bringing “the harvest of wealth” by spreading greed, selfishness, power and prosperity “.
Nationalism, according to Tagore, is not “automatic self-expression of man as humanity”, in which human relationships are naturally controlled, “so that men develop the goals of life collectively”, but rather political and commercial social grouping, where they come together to maximize profits, progress and power. It is the “unplanned interest of human beings, in which they are at least human and less spiritual”. Tagore saw that nationalism was a recurring threat to humanity, because by its tendency to material and intellectual, it trampled on the human spirit, human nature and human emotions, “hiding its human side under the shadow of a soulless organization”.
In the modern world it has been taught that the worship of tribal gods is better than the veneration of gods and humanity, but Tagore believed that it was his belief that his people would find their own India by fighting for that education which taught them that country was superior to humanity.
Tagore represents a different concept of nationalism, rather than popular in today’s world. Tagore was opposed to the nationalist state, but he was very opposed to India as a society joining this nationalist party and nationalist system. Tagore believed that the west had seen political domination for social purposes — and this is what India was trying to impersonate. As Tagore points out, “our real problem in India is not political. It’s a community”. Western civilization has taken the traditional politics of business violence. Western civilization was established under conditions of national unity and inadequate natural resources. They had no internal problem. They focused on how to empower when boundaries.
Indian civilization, on the other hand, came under conditions of total contradiction. He had a serious racial problem. This does not mean that India is the only country that has experienced a racial crisis. The United States has also seen the problem of racial unity, which we have been trying to solve for so many years to deal with.
India is very big in its area and very different in its races. Many countries are packed in one reception area. It is the opposite of what Europe really is, namely one country being made plural.
Tagore stressed that India must first address the issue of caste. The class system has become very complex and has captured people’s minds with addiction; what was once intended to introduce social order through racial segregation in India, has now become a major system of cold blood pressure suppression.
According to Tagore “India has never had a real sense of nationalism”. India educated in western history and history of nationalism as it had developed in the west. This would do no good to Indian civilization. Indian must understand that the history of man is the history of both the east and the west. India must not consider herself merely as a ‘beggar of the west’ — she too has her own contribution to make in the history of civilization and this contribution is the attempt to bring into its fold all races by acknowledging the real differences that exist between these social group, and at the same time seek some basis of unity. Tagore believes that this basis of unity of India has come forth through the saints like kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya, who preached one God to all races in the sub-continent.
Conclusion
Rabindranath Tagore was quite clear about his idea of nation and nationalism. For him nation is the ‘aspect of whole people as an organised power and this organisation focus on becoming strong nation and efficient’, this drains out the man’s energy. Whereas, for him nationalism as only an ‘organisation of politics and commerce’ that brings lot of wealth by spreading tentacles of greed, selfishness, power and prosperity. According to Tagore India never had a real sense of nationalism. The problem of India was not political but social and cultural. Tagore maintained that problem in India is that there is no common birth right, whereas in other countries we don’t have that physical repulsion. India’s concept of youth could carry in dead weight of her social organization stiffened to rigid perfection. According to Tagore after education only we can understand that after all we all are humans, but this is not possible because our education system itself is based on these norms.
References
Tagore’s notion of Nationalism and Nation state: A Potential Solution to Fundamentalist Nationalism in Post-Independence India? Arghya Bose
Rabindranath Tagore, “Nationalism in India” (1917)
