The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) PDF
Preview The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series)
THE PHILOSOPHY OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE The Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) – ‘the Indian Goethe’, as Albert Schweitzer called him – was not only the foremost poet andplaywrightofmodernIndia,butoneofitsmostprofoundandinfluential thinkers. Kalyan Sen Gupta’s book is the first comprehensive introduction to Tagore’s philosophical, socio-political and religious thinking. Drawing on Rabindranath’s poetry as well as his essays, and against the background theme of his deep sensitivity to the holistic character of human life and the natural world, Sen Gupta explores the wide range of Tagore’s thought. His idea of spirituality, his reflections on the significance of death, his educational innovations and his relationship to his great contemporary, Gandhi,areamongthetopicsthatSenGuptadiscusses–asareTagore’sviews on marriage, his distinctive understanding of Hinduism, and his prescient concerns for the natural environment. The author does not disguise the tensions to be found in Tagore’s writings, but endorses the great poet’s own conviction that these are tensions resolvable at the level of a creative life, if notatthatofabstractthought. AshgateWorldPhilosophiesSeries TheAshgateWorldPhilosophiesSeriesrespondstotheremarkablegrowthof interest among English-language readers in recent years in philosophical traditions outside those of ‘the West’. The traditions of Indian, Chinese and Japanese thought, as well as those of the Islamic world, Latin America, Africa, Aboriginal Australian, Pacific and American Indian peoples, are all attractinglivelyattentionfromprofessionalphilosophersandstudentsalike, andthisnewAshgateseriesprovidesintroductionstothesetraditionsaswell as in-depth research into central issues and themes within those traditions. The series is particularly designed for readers whose interests are not adequately addressed by general surveys of ‘World Philosophy’, and it includes accessible, yet research-led, texts for wider readership and upper- levelstudentuse,aswellasresearchmonographs.Theseriesembracesawide variety of titles ranging from introductions on particular world philosophies and informed surveys of the philosophical contributions of geographical regions, to in-depth discussion of a theme, topic, problem or movement and criticalappraisalsofindividualthinkersorschoolsofthinkers. SeriesEditors: DavidE.Cooper,UniversityofDurham,UK RobertC.Solomon,UniversityofTexas,Austin,USA KathleenM.Higgins,UniversityofTexas,Austin,USA PurushottamaBilimoria,DeakinUniversity,Australia Othertitlesintheseries: AnIntroductiontotheMadhvaVedanta DeepakSarma Buddhism,KnowledgeandLiberation APhilosophicalStudy DavidBurton ZenBuddhismandEnvironmentalEthics SimonP.James ZhuangziandEarlyChinesePhilosophy Vagueness,TransformationandParadox SteveCoutinho Buddhism,VirtueandEnvironment DavidE.CooperandSimonP.James The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore KALYANSENGUPTA JadavpurUniversity,India ©KalyanSenGupta2005 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recordingorotherwisewithoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher. Kalyan Sen Gupta has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and PatentsAct,1988,tobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork. Publishedby AshgatePublishingLimited AshgatePublishingCompany GowerHouse Suite420 CroftRoad 101CherryStreet Aldershot Burlington,VT05401-4405 Hampshire,GU113HR USA England Ashgatewebsite:http://www.ashgate.com BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Gupta,KalyanSen,1936– ThephilosophyofRabindranathTagore.–(Ashgateworld philosophiesseries) 1.Tagore,Rabindranath,1861–1941 I.Title 181.4 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Gupta,KalyanSen. ThephilosophyofRabindranathTagore/KalyanSenGupta. p.cm.—(Ashgateworldphilosophiesseries) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-7546-3036-6(alk.paper) 1.Tagore,Rabindranath,1861–1941—Philosophy.2.Tagore,Rabindranath,1861– 1941—Politicalandsocialviews.3.Tagore,Rabindranath,1861–1941—Knowledge— Arts.4.Philosophers—India—Bengal—Biography.I.Title.II.Series. PK1727.P45G872004 891.4'414—dc22 2004005415 ISBN0754630366 TypesetinTimesRomanbyN2productions. PrintedbyMPGBooksLtd,Bodmin,Cornwall. ToMyParents This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix 1 RabindranathTagore:HisLifeandThought 1 2 Society,MarriageandEducation 18 3 Politics,GandhiandNationalism 38 4 CommunionwithNature 58 5 Self,Art,EvilandHarmony 78 Bibliography 97 Index 101 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface Tagore’swritingshaveinspiredsuchanextensivesecondaryliteraturethatyet another book on him may seem redundant. In this volume, however, I hope to have discussed aspects of Tagore’s thought in a way that does not merely reiteratepreviousstudiesbutwillalsoprovokeafreshinterestinhisthought amonganewgenerationofhisreaders.Whatthebookemphasizesaboveall is Tagore’s conception of people’s harmony both with humanity as a whole and with nature. For Tagore, this is an aesthetic condition that explains why he refers to his own religious perspective as a poet’s religion or the religion of an artist. I argue that Tagore’s notion of harmony is the central one in his thinking, around which the other concepts that he discusses revolve. The chapters of the book accordingly examine the ideal of spiritual harmony, interpersonalhumansolidarity,kinshipwithnature,andself-integritythrough artisticcreativity.Ialsoaddressthequestion,onethattaxedTagorehimself,of howthepossibilityandidealofharmonymaybedefendedinthefaceofthe palpabledisharmonyandevilthatcharacterizetheactualworld. IamgratefultoProfessorDavidE.Cooper–afriendaswellasaneditorofthe series in which this volume is published – whose detailed comments and suggestionshavehelpedmeimprovethisbookandwho,indeed,hascarefully edited the whole text. I am also indebted to my wife Ananya Sen Gupta, who herself wrote a PhD thesis on Tagore, for providing me with important materialonTagoreandforencouragingmeinmywork.Ishouldalsoliketo thank my daughter Kanya, who was awarded an MA in Philosophy at the UniversityofDurham,forhermanyvaluablesuggestionsandforproducinga computerized version of the book. I am grateful, as well, to several friends whoseideasandsuggestionsIhavemadeuseof.Finally,Iexpressmythanks toSarahLloydandhercolleaguesatAshgatePublishingforcommissioning thisbookandseeingitthroughtopublication. KalyanSenGupta ix
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