Nationalism in the west PDF

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Summary of Tagore's Nationalism in the west...

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Critique of nationalism in the west

Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, musician and artist of India who was highly influential in introducing the Indian culture to the west. He was the first non- European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He wrote successfully in all literary genres. His book ‘Nationalism’ was written in 1917 which has become a contemporary in later years. He translated the work from Bengali to English himself and the first volume included three lectures given in Japan. Tagore wished to dedicate his work to Woodro Wilson, the then US president but due to the political conditions, was unable to do so. The book was a compilation of three lectures of Tagore- “Nationalism in the west”, “Nationalism in Japan” and “Nationalism in India”. The conclusion is drawn with a poem- ‘The Sunset of the Century’ which was written on the last day of the century. In all these lectures or volumes Tagore rejected the term “nationalism” as understood in the western text. He begins his text by highlighting the problems faced by India from the beginning of history. This included the problem of race, which needed to be faced and dealt with fullest truth. He describes how the other people in the world had to overcome obstacles from the neighbours but India’s difficulties were internal which has made our history a history of continual social adjustment. He says, “Neither the colourless vagueness of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce self-idolatry of nation worship, is the goal of human history. And India has been trying to accomplish her task through social regulation of differences on one hand, and the spiritual recognition of unity on the other.” India’s mission has been that of a hostess and its history has not been about rise or fall of kingdom but that of the social life and attainment of spiritual ideals. Tagore mentions that the teachings and examples of west runs counter to what India has to achieve. India has made an attempt to live peacefully without politics, without being a Nation. Upon this remote portion of humanity, the west came in the picture. Usually the thrones and kingdoms did not matter and their devastation were soon forgotten. But this time it wasn’t cavalry and foot soldiers, this time it was the nation of the West rooting machinery in our soil. Our history has experienced Mughals and Pathans who invaded us, but they were known to

us as a human race with religions and customs. They were liked at times and fought against at times. But with British, it’s not the king or human race but the nation. Tagore boldly declares that “we are no Nation ourselves”. He holds that a Nation is a political and economic union of people who are organised for mechanical purpose. He specifies nation as an end in itself and not a means to an end. It is a natural regulation of human relationship and also has a political side with no ulterior purpose. With science and perfection power begins to grow which leads to greed of material prosperity, mutual jealousy with neighbours and fear of others growth of power, thus the present-day nationhood would by considered as evil by Tagore. Tagore is very clear that a naturally built human society is much more humane in essence than the artificially created nationhood. According to Tagore living bonds of society are breaking up, giving place to mechanical organisation. For example, man is driven to professionalism and women are left unaided to die. Thus, a war has been declared between men and women. He said that the evil day begins when the organisation and politics or nation becomes powerful at the cost of the peace and harmony of the social life. He compares this situation to a father who becomes a gambler makes his family his secondary policy and becomes automated with power and greed. The government of India is compared to tinned food, this is because tinned food are very negligibly touched by human hands just the way the government remains aloof of the citizens, they don’t know the language and do not have any personal touch. Even the newspaper of England would have the local news of accidents but none about the calamities happened in India. Tagore considers a nation as an abstraction but he does not consider the governed as an abstraction. When the nation which is organised in self-interest of people where it is least human and least spiritual. But at the same time we need to see that west is necessary to the east and because of our different outlooks which has given us a different aspect of truth we can be called complementary. Tagore claims nationalism as “cruel epidemic evil” it has been called so because nationalism is sweeping over the human world and finishing moral vitality. He wrote this in the backdrop of the extreme nationalism of Hitler and Mussolini which caused more than 10 million deaths. And Tagore holds that man is giving away room for political and commercial man with limited purpose its way without realising it. But just because Tagore criticises the nationalism of the west doesn’t

mean he disrespects the British race, as he has written “I have deep love and great respect for the British race as human beings. It has produces great hearted men, thinkers of great thought, doers of great deeds. It has given rise to great literature.” He further says that the government by the Nation is not by the British but is applied science and is similar to the principles wherever used. It means that the government could be formed by the Dutch, French or Portuguese but the fundamental feature of the Nation would have remained the same. Even though India had kingdoms before, but there have been instances of injustice which caused unrest among the masses. But the difference we face now is that there is a universal standard of justice to men irrespective of caste, class and colour. This has led to the common bond of comradeship among different races. But it is not because of the Nation of the west, but because of the spirit of the west. For eg Japan could resist the dominance of the west, thus it could benefit from the western civilisation. There is a conflict between spirit of the West and Nation of the West, the spirit of western civilisation is distributed in a small measure by the nation. The western nationalism is the origin of the spirit of conflict and conquest; it may have organisation of power but lack spiritual idealism. The spirit of the west has lead India to understand justice and equality but on the other hand the Nation of the West has proved to be a dominance in many cases.

Now Tagore points out the other aspect of the western civilisation, he states the most important thing is the law and order. Even though education and sanitation have not been effectively spread, but law and order has been maintained properly. This we can say that the Western civilisation has proved to be an important aspect for introduction of strong law and moral code. But this topic is debatable that whether this is a negative good or not. Even though the earlier governments lacked many benefits of the modern government as it was not a nation, it was loosely woven leaving big gaps. Now Tagore states that when we walk barefoot our feet get adjusted to the caprices of the inhospitable earth. But the nations are like shoes and the tiniest particle of gravel in the shoe creates inconvenience. It also shows closed up system with little liberty for self-

adjustments. This narrowness of freedom is considered evil and the spirit of west marches under its banner of freedom and nation of west forges its shackles.

When the humanity of India was independent of the government, the elasticity of change encouraged men of power and spirit to feel their destinies in their hands. But man lives in a delusion that he is free but he does not realise that his freedom is sacrificed every day in the fetish of nationalism. For example, japan voluntarily submitted all the people to trim their minds and clipping of freedom by their government. When questioned they will answer that with the nations being rampant in this world, they cannot develop higher humanity. Humanity is weakened not only by the subject race but also by those who are mistakenly believing that they are free. National symbols like the flag, hymns, prayers cannot hide the fact that “nation is the greatest evil for the nation” because all the precautions are against it, though nations have pastures, ancient wisdom, social ethics there is an attempt to shake off the tradition of humanity in every step of the nation. Tagore points out that Europe as a nation has shattered into the battlefields because the west has petrified her moral nature to lay a foundation of her efficiency. Man gets freedom from material world when his needs are satisfied. He does things in shorter time and outstrip the world of slower time. This process gives power to acquire a rapid pace and finally outruns humanity. But the moral man remains behind to deal with the whole reality. According to Tagore “man in his fullness is not power, but perfect” thus by curtailing his soul, one can turn him into mere power. If butchering animals is taken into consideration, the whole humanity has to be broken which will make the will dead, thoughts numb and thus out of abstraction a dissolution of complex personal man will come. It will have no relation with human truth and thus can be mechanical. The nationalism of the west has used humans like machines for artificial use and development but it has not focused on the development of humanity itself. Commerce and politics have witnessed the process of dehumanisation. Tagore deals with an important question of whether the world needs nationalism or humanism. The mechanical energy born with magnificent power has been in the

west as the nation. This abstraction causes suspicion in man that leads to the nation committing crimes because each nation has a history of broken faith. Tagore mentions how nation does not listen to the voice of truth and goodness and with machinery which tramples the faith of the living ideals of man. Thus Tagore says that “we must not forget that scientific organisations vastly spreading in all direction and strengthening our power but not our humanity” nation is the most powerful anaesthetics that humans have created but nation has thriven long upon mutilated humanity. Nation has breed hatred, selfishness, greed, hypocrisy and fear. These never grow into what is called humanity. The nation will grow into an artificial non living body of office building and steel and steam till everything starts getting cracked and we start breathing gas and the environment detoriate and every mechanism goes out of order. Tagore has faith that one day people will be free from this slavery of machinery and believe in their brotherhood and self seeking. Tagore states "And we of the No-Nations of the world, whose heads have been bowed to the dust, will know that this dust is more sacred thar the bricks which build the pride of power. For this dust is fertile of life, and of beauty and worship. We shall thank God that we were made to wait in silence through the night of despair, had to bear the insult of the proud and the strong man's burden, yet all through it, though our hearts quaked with doubt and fear, never could we blindly believe in salvation which machinery offered to man, but we held fast to our trist in God and the truth in human soul." By this he means to say that the whole idea of unity of humanism within us should superceed the very feeling of Nationalism that prevails because of formation of Nations. Conclusion The matter of the fact is Tagore used nationalism in its broadest sense, as he was the champion of internationalism and universal brotherhood so it's quite natural that he was not in favour of the kind of jingoistic nationalism we commonly observe. For that reason he had difference of opinion on the issue of nationalism with many great thinkers in India and Abroad at that time. There were a conflict of idea with thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi about the basic definition and difference of nationalism and patriotism. But his idea of nationalism which is based on the

nationalism of the West had a great impact and created a lot of discussion among the best minds of that time....