Remembering Rabindranath Tagore Volume - High Commission of ...

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Remembering Rabindranath Tagore
What I really feels is this, that those who cannot find food for their enthusiasm
in a knowledge of their country as it actually is, or those who cannot men just
because they are men, who needs must shout and deify their country in order to
keep up their excitement more than their country…
Nikhil simultaneously realizes that his restraint individual patriotism would have no appeal
to the mass mind. The antithetical relationship of Nikhil and Sandip both friends provide
the main conflict of the novel as well as Tagore's opinions on the Svadeśi movement or the
nationalism blended within it.
The prime element of renaissance of India was the worship of past glories and the
circumstances made the past glory harked back predominantly to Hindu past. The 'awakened'
were also Hindu by origin. Therefore, these factors combined to make up the second
element, the Hindu superiority. It was understandable that the majority of Indians are
Hindus but non-Hindus, especially Muslims also formed a sizeable part of the population.
Tagore could not really suggest any concrete social or economic program which would suit
the masses, for his nationalistic ideas were largely influenced by humanitarianism which
rather had a universal touch. Hindu, Muslim relations suggested a great challenge before
the Svadeśi movement. Tagore seems to have had a common national life than a 'Hindu'
one. In one of his poems he had stated,
“…Non-Hindu and Brahmin
What is the difference here? Surely not religion
God dwells only in the heart of men
And there all are but equal…” 15
Furthermore, Tagore asserts that if something like an Indian nation emerges, it can never
be by leaving out Muslims. His idea was that the Hindus are unique in this world and that
they may and may not be called a distinct nation, though in the west the political unity has
been the primary determination of nationhood. He says that Hindus never had this unity
but it does not follow that they were not a nation implying his subtle contempt towards
'Hindu' nationalism. The protest is voiced not only through poetic allegory but also in
direct prose.
Its our religion, not our human nature, which tells us to despise man in practice
in so unjust a fashion… it is this religion which tells the people that the majority
has no right to the full truth, that they must be satisfied with the incomplete…
To the Aryan non-Aryan disunity we have given the name of Hindu religion we
boast of an eternal heritage; it’s awful load has kept our people down in the dust
for untold ages… our educated people proclaim with pride that such amazing
diversity in religion is not to be seen anywhere in this world.. in Hindu society
alone we have both high and low found a place irrespective of their worth. But