Rabindranath Tagore The Home And The World Analysis

By the time “The Home and the World” was published in 1916, many of the movements which would characterise Indian Nationalism had already been started, the most important, at least in this context, being the Swadeshi movement, the boycott of cheap British goods in favor of homemade Indian products, started in 1905. The book’s author, Rabindranath Tagore, was a big supporter of the movement at least in the early years, writing songs and poems that would inspire the masses, but when he saw the violence and damage the movement was causing, especially among the lower classes, he largely stopped supporting the movement. The most we can conclude about Tagore based on his actions up to the point of the book’s publication was that he was unsure …show more content…
It would be his most famous writing, “The Home and the World” that would define his position on nationalistic Indian movements and in many ways he has been done a disservice by the way many people have interpreted the characters and how he, as the author, relates to them. Many writers have described Tagore relating to and being more sympathetic to the character Nikhil whom was opposed to the patriotic and nationalist Sandip. However we cannot, as many have done, simply say that Tagores opinion is that of Nikhil’s because, although they are in similar situations, history shows that this is not exactly true. So in this paper the characters will not simply be looked at as characters, but as the societal forces that Tagore felt were the most powerful during the period of the Swadeshi movement and it will also look at how he shows both to be fundamentally flawed ways of thinking when not in proper …show more content…
It is unfair to claim he or Nikhil were against the movement entirely, in the end Nikhil comes through for the people where Sandip does not, and more importantly in real life Tagore supported other nationalist experiments after the period in which he withdrew his support of the swadeshi movement. What “The Home and the World” tries to point out to the reader is that it is very important to be careful while in these situations and to refrain from becoming someone like Sandip who is so absorbed in the cause that he abandons his morals. Much like Nikihl claims, it may be unwise to allow yourself to be swept up in the excitement of a cause because it is possible to hurt the people you are trying to protect in the process. A good example of this is the time affordable British products were destroyed and replaced with Indian products many could not afford. But at the same time turning into somebody like Nikhil who refuses to act on his feelings to the degree that his own wife is being seduced right in front of him and he does nothing, is not a option many would choose, while at the same time resources and capital are being extracted from the place he calls home which receives nothing in return. The goal of Tagores “The Home and the World” is not to convince the reader that nationalist movements are inherently wrong but that we need to be careful about how we interact with them, rework them