Short description:

This book demonstrates that Rabindranath Tagore, the poet-educator, was an intensely political figure with a distinctive vision of politics.

Long description:

This book demonstrates that Rabindranath Tagore, the poet-educator, was an intensely political figure with a distinctive vision of politics.

Its innovative approach treats the educational pedagogy of Tagore practised at his ashram in Santiniketan as the most eloquent expression of his political will. In doing so, it identifies three key ideas, swadeshbhakti, mukti, and manush, as the pillars of his political vision. Using a combination of conceptual and textual analysis, this book explores a wealth of archival sources—manuscripts, letters, journals, newspapers, and magazines—as well as Tagore’s rich body of work.

The hitherto untold story of Tagore’s Santiniketan ashram vis-à-vis the political landscape of twentieth-century India will make this book particularly interesting to Tagore scholars, but it will also be of interest to scholars of South Asian history and global conceptual history, as well those in undergraduate and postgraduate studies looking to familiarise themselves with the history of twentieth-century India.

Table of Contents:

Introduction; 1. Tagore’s ideas on education: Comparing Santiniketan ashram with the Kanya Mahavidyalay and The Dawn Society; 2. Santiniketan ashram’s political context: Swadeshi Bengal of the early twentieth century Tagore’s political context; 3. Dharmashiksha and swadeshbhakti at the Santiniketan ashram; 4. Mukti versus swaraj: Freedom at the Santiniketan ashram; 5. Conquering ethnic identities: Manush as Tagore’s notion of unique individuals at the Santiniketan ashram; Concluding Remarks; Bibliography; Index