The same inertia which leads us to our idolatry of dead forms in social institutions will create in our politics prison houses with immovable walls. Suchandra Ghosh recommends a chapter from Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya’s book which is an inquiry into how the ‘other’ has been perceived by historians and how sources have been read, particularly with regard to Islam and Sanskrit sources. India, therefore has very little outlet for her industrial originality. Written in an era of great instability and strife but remains relevant even today. Whatever may be its merits you will have to admit that it does not spring from the higher impulses of civilization, but from the lower passions of greed and hatred. Beauty is the signature which the Creator stamps upon his works when he is satisfied with them. Subject-wise Notes. It is ruthlessly ready without a moment’s hesitation to crush beauty and life out of them, moulding them into money. He is deriding his human sentiments into shame because they are apt to stand in the way of his machines. he died after two years when WWII started, yes, but he'd been disappointed, disheartened, shocked, hurt and pained if he knew about the holocaust. Tagore was continuously warning people about the perils of nationalism, and in his visits to the United States in the early part of the twentieth century, to gather funds for his university, ‘Vishvabharati’, he advises the US not to follow the footsteps of European nation states, who had placed the nation on the pedestal of divinity and ultimate being. “Come, Peace, thou daughter of God’s own great suffering. Mains; Search for: Subject-wise Notes. And when we in our blindness insult humanity for its ragged appearance it sheds its disguise to disclose to us that we have insulted our God. However I found the lavish use of metaphors a little distracting from the main flow of content. Economist Siddharth Chandra's pioneering work traces the spread of the Spanish Flu in India, in 1918, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's statements on Diwali, Rama, Ravana and Ramarajya, from three different years, A chronicling of the history of caste politics in Bihar, from the Janeyu Movement of the 1920s and the Triveni Sangh, through Ram Manohar Lohia, the JP Movement and Karpoori Thakur to the making of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Albert Einstein in Conversation with Rabindranath Tagore, A window to a time we can learn from, this essay raises questions of state force & violence that remain relevant today, ‘Annihilation of Caste’ by BR Ambedkar needs to be read and reread, The second and most crucial part of ‘Annihilation of Caste’ followed by a Gandhi-Ambedkar debate, A piece that illustrates the workings of caste on ground and in politics that, tragically, is still relevant today, A profile of Shapurji Saklatvala, a man of paradoxes from India and Britain, That critique of Nehru which said: “We want no Caesars”, from The Modern Review. The party, however, lost power because the people soon came to realize how futile was the half policy adopted by them. The nations have decreed that we must remain purely an agricultural people, even forgetting the use of arms for all time to come. This book was written in 1917 about the nation state and how the east should adjust to modernization. This book was written in 1917 but is very much relevant even a century later. This is a set of essays by Tagore on the phenomenon of nationalism as he saw it at at the dawn of the 20th century. It is based on the idea of that nation. It's amazing how much of what we take for granted is just a cultural convention that has, once you. We’d love your help. Those who are enamoured of their political power and gloat over their extension of dominion over foreign races gradually surrender their own freedom and humanity to the organizations necessary for holding other peoples in slavery. But in this scientific age money, by its very abnormal bulk, has won its throne. The naked passion of self-love of Nations, in its drunken delirium of greed, is dancing to the clash of steel and the howling verses of vengeance. I bought this the weekend after the referendum result and it is still eerie and prophetic, but full of hope. Europe has been cultivating these hedges of habits for long years till they have grown round her dense and strong and high. I think book discussed less of a nationalism than it suppose to do. Now we come to her industries, and I am very often asked whether there is in India any industrial regeneration since the advent of the British Government. We know that to exceed that limit is to exceed the limit of health. Thy morning waits behind the patient dark of the East. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. "Then fell the darkness of night upon all the lands of the East. If it is given at all to the West to struggle out of these tangles of the lower slopes to the spiritual summit of humanity, then I cannot but think that it is the special mission of America to fulfil this hope of God and man. Furthermore, after victory, Japan colonized Manchuria and Korea (1910). In America and Australia, Europe has simplified her problem by almost exterminating the original population. If a man tells me he has heterodox ideas, but that he cannot follow them because he would be socially ostracized, I excuse him for having to live a life of untruth, in order to live at all. But your history has been disinterested and that is why you have been able to help Japan in her lessons in Western civilization and that is why China can look upon you with her best confidence in this her darkest period of danger. These last few months we have found ourselves in the throes of two serious crises – one after another. This is possibly why, he writes, “Englishmen can never truly understand India” whereas Germany or France have produced a greater number of scholars who have studied Indian literature and philosophy with “sympathetic insight and thoroughness”. This essay carries prescriptions for it all – an idea of an inclusive India that is not hostile to outsiders; an idea of an independent India that builds its economy as per the interests of its own masses and its own imperatives, rather than a one size fits all idea of globalisation; and finally, an idea of a free India that rejects the shackles of social rot and endemic exploitation to give all Indians common birthrights. Therefore political freedom does not give us freedom when our mind is not free. But it was this moral spirit of combination which was the true basis of their greatness, and this fostered their art, science and religion. For she was tempted out of her path by her pride of power and greed of possession. They wanted scraps of things, but they had no constructive ideal. "Nationalism is a great menace". Each individual has his self-love. I personally do not believe in the unwieldy organizations of the present day. The same social weaknesses would prevail. It is the glimmer of the funeral pyre burning to ashes the vast flesh,—the self-love of the Nation—dead under its own excess. The warnings he gave to Europe of its own coming demise due to its nationalist fervor ended up being eerily prescient, its clear that he foresaw the devastation of the World Wars well in advance not to mention Japan's own nuclear annihilation after it too took part in these ideals. And it is the privilege of man to work for fruits that are beyond his immediate reach, and to adjust his life not in slavish conformity to the examples of some present success or even to his own prudent past, limited in its aspiration, but to an infinite future bearing in its heart the ideals of our highest expectations. Nationalism – comprising three essays or lectures, and a poem in English by Rabindranath Tagore – was first published in 1917. The East, in fact, is attempting to take unto itself a history which is not the outcome of its own living. The gigantic organizations for hurting others and warding off their blows, for making money by dragging others back, will not help us. Therefore his brute instinct leads him to fight with others in the sole pursuit of his self-interest. In the West you are still able to carry your head high though your humanity is suffering every moment from its dipsomania of organizing power. During the evolution of the Nation the moral culture of brotherhood was limited by geographical boundaries, because at that time those boundaries were true. The book was a product of Tagore’s speaking tours in the United States of America and Japan. How One Should Celebrate Diwali, According to Gandhi, A History of Caste Politics and Elections in Bihar, The Modern Review Special: On the Nature of Reality, The Modern Review Special: The Mind of a Judge, The Modern Review Special: The Defeat of a Dalit Candidate in a 1936 Municipal Election, The Modern Review Special: An Indian MP in the British Parliament, Ambedkar warns against India becoming a ‘Democracy in Form, Dictatorship in Fact’, The Emergency Package: The Prehistory of Turkman Gate – Population Control, The Indo-China Conflict: 10 Books We Need To Read. All our products that insolently ignore the laws of perfection and are unashamed in their display of ungainliness bear the perpetual weight of God’s displeasure. But this you must also concede, that the West, being more favourably situated as to homogeneity of races, has never given her attention to this problem, and whenever confronted with it she has tried to make it easy by ignoring it altogether. Anyone who reads this book clearly gets an understanding as to how much this author has studied human mind and its social aspects that had been troubling the humanity ever since power and materialistic possessions have taken over spiritual freedom. I did, however, find his writing to be too dreamy and imprecise. You are the country of expectation, desiring something else than what is. Must read. Yet, he preferred to speak for he believed in what he said. We are producing the last essay, titled ‘Nationalism in India’ here for you, as well as Tagore’s own translation of a poem written in Bengali on the last day of the nineteenth century. Posted by Penguin India at 10:25 PM. Have we an instance in the whole world where a people who are not allowed to mingle their blood shed their blood for one another except by coercion or for mercenary purposes? The tie has been as loose as possible, yet as close as the circumstances permitted. Therefore of all countries of the earth America has to be fully conscious of this future, her vision must not be obscured and her faith in humanity must be strong with the strength of youth. You have constantly felt and complained of its disadvantages when you compared your nomadic restlessness with the settled traditions of Europe – the Europe which can show her picture of greatness to the best advantage because she can fix it against the back- ground of the Past. It is so eerily prophetic given what unfolded in the decades that followed, especially given that Tagore speaks directly to Europe and Japan. Men in those times were rightly ashamed of the instinct of mere money-making. Required fields are marked *. In this work we must take all risks and go on doing our duties which by right are ours, though in the teeth of persecution; winning moral victory at every step, by our failure, and suffering. Nationalism is based on lectures delivered by him during the First World War. Yet, remember that in Switzerland the races can mingle, they can intermarry, because they are of the same blood. But we have found out to our cost that human nature is not what it seems, but what it is in truth; which is in its infinite possibilities. Her caste system is the outcome of this spirit of toleration. Before we accept them and pay their value by selling our own inheritance, we must pause and think deeply. Let your crown be of humility, your freedom the freedom of the soul. You can read more about his life and work here. He presents a chilling and prescient picture of what an India which attains political freedom without conquering its social ills will look like: “ …whatever weakness we cherish in our society will become the source of danger in politics. We, in India, must make up our minds that we cannot borrow other people’s history, and that if we stifle our own, we are committing suicide. To have perfect combination among themselves and a watchful attitude of animosity against others was taken as the solution of their problems. He is a great master of metaphor, poetic prose and a profound thinker who moves his readers. The most important fact of the present age is that all the different races of men have come close together. Regardless of that, the 'poet turns philosopher' still managed to raise some good points and was at his metaphoric best in some examples. Nationalism is another sick form of vile separation that keeps the humane away from on... Read More. Importantly, Tagore delves into the meaning of freedom in this essay. The swimmer who is an expert does not exhibit his muscular force by violent movements, but exhibits some power which is invisible and which shows itself in perfect grace and reposefulness. The power structures of nations make an abstract machine upon which an ordinary man has no control. However I found the lavish use of metaphors a little distracting from the main flow of content. “It is just the opposite of what Europe truly is, namely one country made into many.”. Domain of Nationalism Banibrata Goswami Panchakot Mahavidyalaya, India Abstract Rabindranath Tagore was born in a family which, on one hand, inherited a legacy of rich Indian culture, and on the other, did not hesitate to welcome the modernism, freshly arrived from Europe through waves of Enlightenment. The passions which are unbridled in them are creating huge organizations of slavery in the disguise of freedom. This book is more relevant to today's politics than any other day. At that-early time the most important fact that man had to take count of was the fact of the members of one particular race of men coming in close contact with one another. Book is full of metaphysical philosophical thought. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Tagore’s Nationalism written by Ram Guha. Only those peoples have survived and achieved civilization who have this spirit of cooperation strong in them. In fact we want to dam up the true course of our own historical stream and only borrow power from the sources of other peoples’ history. This not only deadens their moral sympathy but also their intellectual sympathy, which is so necessary for the understanding of races which are different from one’s own. Rabindranath Thakur might have been a great poet and philosopher, but he seems to have known little about the art of conveying the ideas succinctly so that they can reach their target audience. But this strenuous effort after strength and efficiency drains man’s energy from his higher nature where he is self-sacrificing and creative. In my country, we have been seeking to find out something common to all races, which will prove their real unity. Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861. In this India was right; but what she failed to realize was that in human beings differences are not like the physical barriers of mountains, fixed forever – they are fluid with life’s flow, they are changing their courses and their shapes and volume. This commercialism with its barbarity of ugly decorations is a terrible menace to all humanity. Not merely your freedom from habits of mind in the individuals but also the freedom of your history from all unclean entanglements fits you in your career of holding the banner of civilization of the future. The nations of the West, with a capital "W," are the great evil whos peoples, regardless of the nation to which they belong, have all sacrificed their moral souls in order to press Asia in slavery. I picked up this book thinking I want to learn about what Tagore – one of the foremost freedom fighters of our country – thought of the word ‘Nationalism’ - this word that is being so misconstrued and used and abused by so many in our nation today. “In these national carnivals of materialism are not the Western peoples spending most of their vital energy in merely producing things and neglecting the creation of ideals? And can a civilization ignore the law of moral health and go on in its endless process of inflation by gorging upon material things? For India has all along been trying experiments in evolving a social unity within which all the different peoples could be held together, yet fully enjoying the freedom of maintaining their own differences. It was not a country of a nation. Therefore life departed from her social system and in its place she is worshipping with all ceremony the magnificent cage of countless compartments that she has manufactured. If this persists indefinitely and armaments go on exaggerating themselves to unimaginable absurdities, and machines and store-houses envelop this fair earth with their dirt and smoke and ugliness, then it will end in a conflagration of suicide. For we in our meanness have accepted bribes from its hands and our imagination has grovelled in the dust before its immensity of flesh. He is firmly of the view that "there is only one history- the history of man. Europe has lost faith in humanity, and has become distrustful and sickly. One of the best things a person can do to expand their horizons and challenge their assumptions, entrenched ways of thinking, the "grooves", as Tagore calls them, of their mind, is to read (or listen to, if they can) thinkers of a different part of the world - people who grew up in a different culture and inherited a different outlook to the world, people, the laws of society, the meaning of life. By this device the people which loves freedom perpetuates slavery in a large portion of the world with the comfortable feeling of pride of having done its duty; men who are naturally just can be cruelly unjust both in their act and their thought, accompanied by a feeling that they are helping the world in receiving its deserts; men who are honest can blindly go on robbing others of their human rights for self-aggrandizement, all the while abusing the deprived for not deserving better treatment. Also that America has the responsibility of, and the potential for (do note that this was in the 1910s), “a great future because you are untrammeled by the grasping miserliness of a past”. When you borrow things that do not belong to your life, they only serve to crush your life. In fact these essays/speeches, made long before Indian independence, should be a lesson to all those in India who are pushing for their own brand of nationalism that is driving deep wedge between various segments of Indian. This basis has come through our saints, like Nanak, Kabir, Chaitanya and others, preaching one God to all races of India. The party split, and there arrived the Extremists, who advocated independence of action, and discarded the begging method, – the easiest method of relieving one’s mind from his responsibility towards his country. The book has a wonderful and erudite introduction by Ramachandra Guha, which helped a lot to understand the exact the nature and philosophy of the theme. Mirza Ghalib’s chastisement of Syed Ahmad Khan for writing a new edition of Ai’n-e Akbari, via a poem. Indra has sent her the temptation to try her. Rabindranath was naturalist, he believed the essence of life lies in spiritual fulfillment while co-existing with mother nature. It was about a mosque in a temple. An automobile does not create freedom of movement, because it is a mere machine. Nationalism is a great menace. If we cherish the desire of paying our all for buying a political nationality it will be as absurd as if Switzerland had staked her existence in her ambition to build up a navy powerful enough to compete with that of England. Also how India is “many countries packed in one geographical receptacle”. I realize how much America is untrammeled by the traditions of the past, and I can appreciate that experimentalism is a sign of America’s youth. He says that the west will ultimately crumble from its own weight of greed and materialism. And therefore I believe that it does India no good to compete with Western civilization in its own field. But we shall be more than compensated if, in spite of the insults heaped upon us, we follow our own destiny. Apr 03, 2017 12:49 PM Read. To strive for political freedom without addressing India’s social ills, tantamounts to building “a miracle of freedom upon the quicksand of social slavery”. In a brief but illuminating history of the Indian freedom struggle and Indian National Congress, he attacks the approach of both the moderates as well as the extremists. Our social ideals create the human world, but when our mind is diverted from them to greed of power then in that state of intoxication we live in a world of abnormality where our strength is not health and our liberty is not freedom. A short but telling personal account of the life, music and times of M.S. It is a sign of laziness and impotency to accept conditions imposed upon us by others who have other ideals than ours. Rabindranath Thakur might have been a great poet and philosopher, but he seems to have known little about the art of conveying the ideas succinctly so that they can reach their target audience. February 28th 2002 And this is the source of her anti-Asiatic agitations for depriving the aliens of their right to earn their honest living on these shores. I speak bitterly of Western civilization when I am conscious that it is betraying its trust and thwarting its own purpose. One such idea which crystallised for mw in the course of reading this little book of three lectures is the idea of selfishness, greed, and competition being just human nature, and therefore inevitable; which in turn forms the basically universal western worldview that a society based on these is inevitable. I do not believe in an exclusive political interest. Indian History Collective’s first in a series on the Naxalbari movement, An excerpt from Gyan Prakash’s ‘Emergency Chronicles’ that will inform and remind you. The ideals that strive to take form in social institutions have two objects. I have great faith in human nature, and I think the West will find its true mission. 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