The Three Tagores—Dwarkanath, Debendranath and Rabindranath by Chakrabarty, Bidyut;

Short description:

This book maps the intellectual and cultural transformation that India witnessed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the three Tagores—Dwarkanath Tagore (1794–1846), Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905), and Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941).

Long description:

This book maps the intellectual and cultural transformation that India witnessed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the three Tagores – Dwarkanath Tagore (1794–1846), Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). It examines how these three generations of Tagores drew on the intellectual strands of the time to chart a different course for India’s socio-cultural and politico-ideological development in the wake of colonial rule. The author looks at the various progressive measures introduced by the Tagores that sought to combat the prevalent socio-cultural practices which were aimed at segregating people on the basis of caste, religion and ethnicity.

An important addition to the study of India’s social metamorphosis, the book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, political science, colonialism, cultural studies and South Asian studies.

Table of Contents:

Preface and acknowledgements viii Introduction xv PART A Dwarkanath Tagore 1 1 Shaping Bengal’s socio-ideological universe 7 2 A successful entrepreneur in adverse circumstances 30 PART B Debendranath Tagore 63 3 Continuity with Dwarkanath Tagore’s socio-ideological ideas 69 4 Breaking with the past by reinforcing the indigenous intellectual traditions 94 PART C Rabindranath Tagore 127 5 Espousal of both derivative and contextual socio-economic and politico-ideological thoughts 133 6 Articulation of an innovative ‘nationalist’ design 165 Concluding observations 195 Select bibliography 199 Index 205