Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore

 

Hello Readers! 

This blog is a response to a task given given by Megha ma'am as we are having Home and the World in our syllabus.

Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".

Tagore's writings "reveal his deep understanding of human psychology and his profound sympathy for the oppressed". His novels, stories, poems, plays, and songs address a wide range of political and social issues, including nationalism, colonialism, religious tolerance, and caste discrimination.

Tagore was also a prolific painter and essayist. He founded the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal, which he described as "an institution where the human spirit is free to realize itself in a creative harmony of the Orient and the Occident".

Tagore's legacy is vast and enduring. He is considered one of the greatest writers and thinkers of modern India. His work has been translated into over 100 languages and continues to be read and enjoyed by people all over the world.

Here are some of Tagore's most famous works:

• Gitanjali (Song Offerings)
• Gora
• Ghare-Baire (Home and the World)
• Shesher Kobita (The Last Poem)
• Chokher Bali (A Grain of Sand)
• Kabuliwala
• Rakhibandhan
• Jana Gana Mana (national anthem of India)
• Amar Sonar Bangla (national anthem of Bangladesh)

Introduction of the Text :  Home and the World (Ghare-Baire in Bengali) is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore, set in Bengal during the British colonial era. It tells the story of a young couple, Nikhilesh and Bimala, whose marriage is tested when Nikhilesh's friend Sandip, a charismatic nationalist leader, enters their lives.

This book is a Nationalist response to the Act of Partition, engineered by the British colonial administration, at a time when “Bande Mataram” (a song composed by Tagore’s senior contemporary in Bengali literature, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) had become a much used rallying cry among the nationalists. The Home and the World challenges the notion of India as an exclusive Hindu nation. It questions the validity of a nationalism that focuses on emotion rather than on economic selfsufficiency and social justice. It takes exception to the aggressive masculinity of the nationalist project.

A Detailed Concept( click here for a detailed concept).

Indian nationalist projects in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century revolved around the issue of “Home” versus “World,” tradition versus modernity, culture (humanities) versus technology. Prior to 1885, Indian intellectuals thought that the imitation of British ideas about society and culture should lead to a better, more correct India. After 1885, resistance grew against colonial involvements in the cultural dynamics of India, and more than that, the

Home – Indian culture – was thought to obsovereign from the “the West” and should keep a distance from Western control. Nineteenth century in India. The novel’s main female character, Bimala, performs the role as a conveyor of such a project. She judges Nikhil’s ideas of the position of the woman in the outside world as being ideologically false:The voice of Bimala seems to be a mixture of individuality (“I felt”) and collectivity (mandatory “ought to” and plural “men”). However, in a closer reading it is obvious that she does not speak for herself; the mixture does not

present her introspective conflicts of values5 and her sentences run like a machine, recycling late nineteenth century nationalist discourses about the

virtue of women – the Home – in British India and other colonies. It is easy to find voices of nineteenth century nationalists about “women’s respectability”

(Reed 200) in Bimala’s words, terms and arguments of the Indian nationalist projects that are abundantly repeated in the quoted paragraph: “the outside,”

“these matters,” “womanly guidance,” “what the household stand for.” Even Bimala’s speech is the repetition of the nationalist rhetoric: “leaving everything in the hands of the enemy – nothing short of owing defeat.” It is also easy to find in Bimila’s narrative the imitation of nationalist projects of womanly virtues in the way she decorates her domestic services with light flowers, supreme powers and feeling of happiness, for instance: I know from my childhood’s experience, how devotion is beauty itself, in its inner aspect. When my mother… gently waved her fan to dry away the flies while my father sat down to his meals, her service would lose itself in a beauty which passed beyond outward forms. Even in my infancy, I would feel its power. It transcends all debates, or doubts, or calculation: it was pure music. I would autiously and silently get up and take the dust of my usband’s feet without walking him, how at such moments I could feel the vermilion mark upon my forehead shining out like the morning star. 

Rabindranath Tagore explores a number of complex themes in this text, including:

The conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility: Nikhilesh believes that individuals have a responsibility to their families and communities, while Sandip believes that individuals should be free to pursue their own goals, even if it means sacrificing their personal relationships. Bimala is caught in the middle of these two conflicting ideologies, and she must ultimately decide where her own loyalties lie.

The relationship between tradition and modernity: Nikhilesh and Bimala represent traditional values, while Sandip represents modernity. The novel explores the challenges and opportunities that come with the clash of these two cultures.

The role of women in society: Bimala is a strong and independent woman, but she is also bound by the traditional expectations of her society. The novel explores the ways in which women can navigate these conflicting demands.

The nature of love, patriotism, and sacrifice: Nikhilesh and Bimala's love is tested by Sandip's arrival. Bimala must also choose between her love for her husband and her commitment to the nationalist cause. The novel explores the complex relationship between these three concepts.

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