Abstract
Rabindranath’s writings against nationalism during the 1916–1917 period is one of the most well-researched and commented aspects of Rabindranath’s writings. In contrast to this, his writings on Swadeshi nationalism are little known outside Bengal and little discussed. While such an evolutionary trajectory is true, the relation between these phases and the continuity of certain ideas across them needs to be looked into. This chapter shows how both these outlooks have resulted in his formation of Santiniketan, a secular community-based experiment in modern education through cultural exchange rather than mere adherence to a nation state.
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Notes
- 1.
Letter written from Shialidaha dated 29 November 1889, Choudhuri, p. 51.
- 2.
Letter dated Shahjadpur 1 February 1891, ibid, p. 72.
- 3.
Letter from Cuttack, dated February 1893, ibid, pp. 157–158. The issue is taken up again in another letter written from Cuttack dated 10 Feb 1893, ibid, pp. 160–162.
- 4.
Letter from Calcutta, dated 21 August 1893, ibid, pp. 213.
- 5.
Letter from Calcutta, dated 2 August 1894, ibid, p. 253.
- 6.
Presidential address to the Bengal Provincial Congress, Pabna, quoted from Das Gupta (2009, p. 263).
- 7.
Presidential address to the Bengal Provincial Congress, Pabna, quoted from ibid, p. 265.
- 8.
‘Swadeshi Samaj’, translated as Communal Life in India, The Modern Review, June 1913, p. 655.
- 9.
For a discussion of this part of his Swadeshi work, see Dutta and Robinson (1995, pp. 146–147).
- 10.
Rabindranath Tagore, letter to Myron H Phelps, dated 4 January 1909.
- 11.
Letter written from Bolpur, dated 14 May 1892.
- 12.
Translated by Ratna Prakash.
- 13.
Translated by Senetra Gupta.
- 14.
Based on the list of first performances provided by Lal, in ‘Appendix B’, 2001, pp. 375–377.
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© 2017 Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
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Siva Kumar, R. (2017). Santiniketan, the Making of a Community. In: Tuteja, K., Chakraborty, K. (eds) Tagore and Nationalism. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3696-2_7
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