Rabindranath Tagore In The 21st Century

Rabindranath Tagore is the second most popular literature laureate of all time (after John Steinbeck) according to the official website of the Nobel Prize. Writers ranked below him on the popularity chart include Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda and Ernest Hemingway. Tagore won the prize in 1913, but a hundred years later readers continue to flock to his work because it possesses all the qualities essential to keep it fresh and relevant despite the passage of time-big ideas, complex themes, stylistic brilliance, a deep engagement with nature, beauty, family, love, and passion, and above all, a profound timelessness. Keeping the 21st century reader firmly in mind, this volume brings together some of Tagore's most celebrated works. In The Home and the World, perhaps his most popular novel, intricate issues of devotion-to the motherland and to the family-are explored through a story of two friends and a woman coming into her own. The Monk-King, with its devious priest and marauding armies, is also about the power of sacrifice and loyalty. In 'The Laboratory', Tagore's last short story, he creates a world that is materialistic and amoral with a light yet ruthless touch. In poems like 'Camilla' and 'An Ordinary Girl' he describes the sadness of unrequited love. His drama, Chandalika, is about the angst and helplessness of being in love with an unattainable ideal. Brilliantly translated by Arunava Sinha, this selection of Rabindranath Tagore's fiction, poetry, lyrics and drama is evidence of his position as one of the world's greatest writers and reinforces the enduring nature of his words, emotions and beliefs.

This critical volume addresses the question of Rabindranath Tagore's relevance for postmodern and postcolonial discourse in the twenty-first century. The volume includes contributions by leading contemporary scholars on Tagore and analyses Tagore's literature, music, theatre, aesthetics, politics and art against contemporary theoretical developments in postcolonial literature and social theory. The authors take up themes as varied as the implications of Tagore’s educational vision for contemporary India; new theoretical interpretations of gender, queer elements, feminism and subalternism in Tagore's literary and social expressions; his language use as a vehicle for a dialogue between positivism, Orientalism and other constructs in the ongoing process of globalization; the nature of the influence of Tagore's music and literature on national and cultural identity formation, particularly in Bengal and Bangladesh; and intersubjectivity and critical modernity in Tagore’s art. This volume opens up a space for Tagore’s critique and his creative innovations in present theoretical engagements.

This book is a fresh examination of Rabindranath Tagore’s ideas on nationalism and his rhetoric of cosmopolitanism. It critically analyses the poetics and the politics of his works and specifically responds to Tagore’s three lectures on nationalism delivered during the early years of the twentieth century and later compiled in his book Nationalism (1917). This volume: Discusses Tagore’s perception of nationalism – the many-sidedness of his engagement with nationalism, the root causes of his anathema against the ideology, ambiguities and limitations associated with his perception and his alternative vision of cosmopolitanism or global unity; Cross-examines an alternative view of cosmopolitanism based on Tagore’s inclusivist ideology to “seek my compatriots all over the world”; Explores how his ideas on nationalism and cosmopolitanism found myriad expressions across his works – in prose, fiction, poetry, travelogue, songs – as well as in the legacy of cinematic adaptations of his writings; Investigates the relevance of Tagore’s thoughts on nationalism and cosmopolitanism in relation to the contemporary rise of religious, nationalist and sectarian violence in the twenty-first century. A key study on the relevance of Tagore’s political philosophy in the contemporary world with contributions from eminent Tagore scholars in South Asia as well as the West, this book will be of great interest to readers and researchers in the fields of literature, political science, cultural studies, philosophy and Asian studies.

This new addition to Springer’s series on Key Thinkers in World Education tracks the intellectual and philosophical journey of a trail-blazing innovator whose ideas have fired the imaginations of progressive educationalists for almost a century. The volume’s in-depth analysis of the educational philosophy of Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore offers an unrivalled focus on his highly influential views. Tagore—poet, internationalist, humanist, and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature—lived on the cusp of change between two momentous centuries in world civilization and foresaw the dissolution of colonialism and the globalization of culture. His ideas on education placed the creative individual at the centre of the quest for knowledge. Eschewing the artificial distinctions between elementary and higher learning, he advocated the importance of sowing the seed of humanism as early as possible, and fostering the individual’s enjoyment of education as well as their courage to challenge conventions. In doing so, he anticipated the modern concern with critical thinking at the same time as he was encouraging independence of thought and action as a counter to colonial oppression and condescension. Concise yet thorough, this volume on one of the most original thinkers of the last century covers every aspect of Tagore’s highly original educational philosophy.

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2014. This volume critically reviews the role and the teaching of humanities. Explored within are human rights and challenges, humanizing science, the cultural mission of philosophy, and modern teaching in the area of liberal arts.

This book looks at Rabindranath Tagore’s, experiments and journey as an educator and the influence of humanistic worldviews, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in his philosophy of education. It juxtaposes the educational systems and institutions set up by the British colonial administration with Tagore’s pedagogical vision and schools in Santiniketan, West Bengal—Brahmacharya Asram (1901), Visva-Bharati University (1921) and Sriniketan Institute of Village Reconstruction (1922). An educational pioneer and a poet-teacher, Tagore combined nature and culture, tradition and modernity, East and West, in formulating his educational methodology. The essays in this volume analyse the relevance of his theories and practice in encouraging greater cultural exchange and the dissolution of the walls between classrooms and communities. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of education, Tagore studies, literature, cultural studies, sociology of education, South Asian studies and colonial and postcolonial studies.