Abstract
Tagore’s resolute opposition to nationalism is widely known but it is not often acknowledged that in contrast, most of his contemporary writers in the Indian languages were passionate supporters of Gandhi and the Indian national struggle for freedom. This is illustrated here through referencing the life and works of Premchand, who was as eminent a writer in Hindi as Tagore was in Bengali and who found Tagore’s writings a little too emotional and ‘feminine’ for his liking.
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Notes
- 1.
In consonance with common usage in the past, no quotation marks are used in the Hindi text—except, in contrast, where unspoken thought is reported! The word ‘bhavana’, used repeatedly in Hindi here, is translated as ‘feeling’ except once as ‘emotion’. The word ‘reminiscent’ is used by Premchand in English. (My translation, as elsewhere too, except when otherwise indicated.)
- 2.
The words ‘Masculine’ and ‘Feminine’ are used by Premchand in English. The word he uses for ‘effeminacy’ is ‘zananapan’.
- 3.
As reported in conversation by Sripat Rai to the Hindi poet and art critic Prayag Shukla, probably sometime in the 1970s. (Personal conversation with Prayag Shukla, November 2015.) Sripat Rai later became known as a critic, literary editor and abstract painter.
- 4.
The key words in the Bengali text here are akarshan, kautuhal, shraddha and akshunna.
- 5.
‘bhakti-shraddha o gaurava-bodh’ in the original Bengali.
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Trivedi, H. (2017). Tagore’s Nationalism—And Premchand’s: A Complementary Comparison. In: Tuteja, K., Chakraborty, K. (eds) Tagore and Nationalism. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3696-2_14
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