Oxford India Tagore

Description

Poet, playwright, novelist, short story writer, essayist, composer, and painter, Rabindranath Tagore was a visionary nationalist, an internationalist, and a committed educationist. Tagore experimented with novel methods of teaching and pioneered comprehensive rural development at his university in Santiniketan as an experiment for the whole country. The goals were a revitalized peasantry, village self-reliance through small scale enterprises, cottage industries, and cooperative values. The Oxford India Tagore focuses on Tagore’s views on nationalism, internationalism, and his work on education. Including essays, letters, lectures, addresses, poetry, and his novel Four Chapters (Char Adhyaya), the selections bring to light how persistently Tagore sought a solution to the problems of his times in a new and creative education, in scholarly exchange between East and West, and in national self-respect. The writings—given as substantial excerpts or as full texts—make it clear that in many ways Tagore’s educational work and his nationalism deviated from both the colonialist historiography and the nationalist ideology of those times. The Introduction by Uma Das Gupta locates the author in his times, while the Notes provide additional information. The detailed chronology of Tagore’s life and times—a special feature of this volume—helps to link events in Tagore’s life with world events, and also provides a broad framework within which his work can be appreciated. The photographs, prefacing each section, vivify the life of one who wanted to bring the West on equal terms to an India of his aspiration: an India of multiple cultures; an India where the impoverished village is given education and dignity of life; an India building its strength and self-respect by uniting castes and communities under an enlightened leadership. Part of the prestigious ‘Oxford India Collection’, The Oxford India Tagore is as much for those who admire Tagore generally as for scholars of Indian history and culture.