The Critique of Nationalism

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore’s critique of nationalism on the whole earned him more opprobrium than praise. The time was out of joint for a tirade against a concept which dominated the early decades of the century. The right to self-determination seemed a necessary truth and this was encouraging for new nations hoping to join the club, especially for countries belonging to dismembered empires or one which might hopefully in the future be dismembered. And yet, even so, immediately after a world war there was an audience for a different message. Wars were waged by nation-states and to those who saw in war one of the greatest evils, it was not difficult to identify in nationalism and the xenophobia it so often inspired a major cause of armed conflict.