But the same vices which seem so natural and innocuous in its own life make it surprised and angry at their unpleasantness when seen in other nations. fourteen It is merely the side of power, not of human ideals. Thus, man with his mental and material power far outgrowing his moral strength, is like an exaggerated giraffe whose head has suddenly shot up miles away from the rest of him, making normal communication difficult to establish. The hope of the unexpected was never absent, and a freer play of imagination, both on the part of the governor and the governed, had its effect in the making of history. .hide-if-no-js { To be a copy was like wearing the skeleton with another skin. Mahatma Gandhi wished to develop a more Indian-centric nationalism which would be far more welcoming and rooted to Indian -traditions, and cultures rather than being influenced by the west Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – August 7 , 1941) was an ardent supporter of nationalism until the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914-1918. At the least turn of its screw, by the fraction of an inch, the grip is tightened to the point of suffocation around every man, woman and child of a vast population, for whom no escape is imaginable in their own country, or even in any country outside their own. It profiles individuals and organisations that explore a southern perspective on a broad range of disciplines, including creative arts, humanities, professions, social and physical sciences. Now let us from our own experience answer I the question, What is this Nation? Japan had been taught in a modern school the lesson how to become powerful. Eduardo Devés Valdés, “El Pensamiento Latinoamericano en el siglo XX”, 3 volúmenes, Editorial Biblos, Buenos Aires, 2000-2004. They caused sufferings and unrest from which we are glad to be rescued. It was only the other day that Persia woke up from her age-long sleep at the call of the West to be instantly trampled into stillness by the Nation. But must you say that it is not the soul, but the machine, which is of the utmost value to ourselves, and that man’s salvation depends upon his disciplining himself into a perfection of the dead rhythm of wheels and counterwheels? This reign of law in our present Government in India has established order in this vast land inhabited by peoples different in their races and customs. Second, in spite of European imperialism, Tagore was able to discriminate between the European domination in Asia (specifically in India) and the virtues of the Western modern thought. It is [14] not about the British Government, but the government by the Nation—the Nation which is the organized self-interest of a whole people, where it is the least human and the least spiritual. With the growth of power the cult of the self-worship of the Nation grows in ascendency ; and the individual willingly allows the nation to take donkey rides upon his back ; and there happens the anomaly which must have its disastrous effects, that the individual worships with all sacrifices a god which is morally much inferior to himself. This description applies to the governing of India, which is as little touched by the human hand as possible. I felt they were right. [6]. Cushing & Co. ... Contributor University of California Libraries Language English. Turn a tree into a log and it will burn for you, but it will never bear living flowers and fruit. It has also a political side, but this is only for a special purpose. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery [26] with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness. Some may even be driven by hand, thus leaving a margin of comfortable looseness in their tension, but in spirit and in method their differences are small. Therefore we must not forget that the scientific organizations vastly spreading in all directions are strengthening our power, but not [41] our humanity. We have felt the greatness of this people as we feel the sun ; but as for the Nation, it is for us a thick mist of a stifling nature covering the sun itself. You say, these machines will come into an agreement, for their mutual protection, based [31] upon a conspiracy of fear. [1] The Peripheral Thought Theory have been proposed in Chile by Eduardo Devés, from the beginning, as an academic parameter to study the Latin American thought throughout the 20th Century, but actually this theory is being used also to research about contemporary Asian and African thoughts, in order to achieve a global perspective and a best understanding about the non-Western thought. The governors need not know our language, need not come into personal touch with us except as officials ; they can aid or hinder our aspirations from a disdainful distance, they can lead us on a certain path of policy and then pull us back again with the manipulation of office red tape; the newspapers of England, in whose columns London street accidents are recorded with some decency of pathos, need but take the scantiest notice of calamities happening in India over areas of land sometimes larger than the British Isles. According to Tagore, nationalism was the root of violence. Basically, the Japan of Meiji had been the period in which this country was able to successfully achieve "Modernization".[5]. There were two Japanese organizations that had a key role in this achievement: Kokuryukay and Genyosha. But this time it was different. But is not this order merely a negative good? Tagore is very clear that a naturally-built human society is much more humane in essence than the so-called artificially created nationhood. In this sense, Tagore admired some Western ideas related to freedom and, in consequence, he was motivated to achieve a better Indian society. But paradoxically, this humiliation was not produced by Europe´s dominion over Asia; the root of the humiliation was could be found into Asia. [12] Rabindranath Tagore, essay includes in Ramachandra Guha´s book entitled “Makers of Modern India”, Penguin Books, India, 2010, p. 189. But we feel that our task is not yet done. Great China, rich with her ancient wisdom and social ethics, her discipline of industry and self-control, is like a whale awakening the lust of spoil in the heart of the Nation. For then it goads all its neighbouring societies with greed of material prosperity, and consequent mutual jealousy, and by the fear of each other’s growth into powerfulness. The West in the voice of her thundering cannon had said at the door of Japan, Let there be a nation—and there was a Nation. Finally, reviewing Peripheral Thought Theory and this small sample of Tagore´s ideas, it is possible to state that this Indian intellectual was a man who strove to achieve a balance between ideas from the Centre and the Periphery. What I was about to say is this, take it in whatever spirit you like, here is India, of about fifty centuries at least, who tried to live peacefully and think deeply, the India devoid of all politics, the India of no nations, whose one ambition has been to know this world as of soul, to live here every moment of her life in the meek spirit of adoration, in the glad consciousness of an eternal and personal relationship with it. According to Tagore, if in India people acquired these kinds of fanaticisms, the consequences could be devastating[9]. These have offered us problems and claimed their solutions from us, the penalty of non-fulfilment being death or degradation. timeout Her mission has been like that of a hostess to provide proper accommodation to her numerous guests whose habits and requirements are different from one another. Europe owes all her greatness in humanity to that period of discipline, [33]—the discipline of the man in his human integrity. But the chief part of this is done, not by moral sacrifice, but by intellectual power. I feel more and more sure it is not the country for me”.[10]. when her hoard of wealth is bursting into smoke and her humanity is shattered into bits on her battlefields? Then came the age of intellect, of science. But you see signs of it everywhere. The only reason for this is that power has become too abstract—it is a scientific product made in the political laboratory of the Nation, through the dissolution of the personal humanity. As a result, the suspicion of man for man stings all the limbs of this civilization like the hairs of the nettle. The aim of this site is to promote a south-south dialogue of ideas. Because her homes, her fields, her temples of worship, her schools, where her teachers ‘ and students lived together in the atmosphere of simplicity and devotion and learning, her village self-government with its simple laws and peaceful administration all these truly belonged to her. It is like the pack of predatory creatures that must have its victims. It has evolved a perfect organization of power but not spiritual idealism. Bengali nationalism is rooted in the expression of pride in the history and cultural heritage of Bengal. Men, the fairest creations of God, came out of the National manufactory in huge numbers as war-making and money-making puppets, ludicrously vain of their pitiful perfection of mechanism. Reality is the harmony which gives to the component parts of a thing the equilibrium of the whole. Has not this truth already come home to you now, when this cruel war has driven its claws into the vitals of Europe? Tagore compares the social inequality and crime of caste divisions in India to the crimes the West committed by nearly eradicating the native populations of the Americas and Australia, to the curse of racism in the United States, and to the anti-asiatic agitations in Western countries that look to deprive foreigners from earning a living in these lands. Its one wish is to trade on the feebleness of the rest of the world, like some insects that are bred in the paralyzed flesh of victims kept just enough alive to make them toothsome and nutritious. In this war, the death-throes of the Nation have commenced. Often they brought devastations in their wake, but they were like catastrophes of nature whose traces are soon forgotten. And thus there where cooperation is natural has intruded competition. In this sense, reviewing the Japanese experience, this country was a failed instance: “unfortunately, all his armour is not living, some of it is made of steel, inert and mechanical. Her pitiful attempt to shake off her traditions of humanity, her social ideals, and spend her last exhausted resources to drill herself into modern efficiency, is thwarted at every step by the Nation. And then there will come from her own children those who will break themselves free from the slavery of this illusion, this perversion of brotherhood founded upon self-seeking, those who will own themselves as God’s children and as no bond-slaves of machinery, which turns souls into commodities and life into compart- [45] ments, which, with its iron claws, scratches out the heart of the world and knows not what it has done. Download This … Nationalism by Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861-1941. We have seen in our country some brand of tinned food advertised as entirely made and packed without being touched by hand. I have not come here, however, to discuss the question as it affects my own country, but as it affects the future of all humanity. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion, in fact feeling dangerously resentful if it is pointed out. [8]. The reason would have been: Japan adopted the modernization with “all its tendencies, methods and structures, and dream that they are inevitable”. You say to yourself that it is not with Japan of the bushido, the Japan of the moral ideals, that you have to deal—it is with the abstraction of the popular selfishness, it is with the Nation ; and Nation can only trust Nation where their interests coalesce, or at least do not conflict. In fact your instinct tells you that the advent of another people into the arena of nationality makes another addition to the evil which contradicts all that is highest in Man and proves by its success that unscrupulousness is the way to prosperity, and goodness is good [40] for the weak and God is the only remaining consolation of the defeated. Tagore’s lectures show the ties between nationalism, modernity and science. In these essays Tagore wrote about expectations that India could achieve thanks to its encounter with the West: “On us to-day is thrown the responsibility of building up this greater India, and for that purpose our immediate duty is to justify our meeting with the Englishman. notice.style.display = "block"; Free delivery on … ... been born this fully developed apparatus of magnificent power and surprising appetite which has been christened in the West … 1-46. This could never have been possible if the god had been as real as the individual. But this time we had to deal, not with kings, not with human races, but with a nation, we, who are no nation ourselves. Obviously God made man to be human ; but this modern product has such marvellous square-cut finish, savouring of gigantic manufacture, that the Creator will find it difficult to recognize it as a thing of spirit and a creature made in his own divine image. Trading upon [9] the greed and fear of man, it occupies more and more space in society, and at last becomes its ruling force. It gives him freedom in the material world. The helplessness with which it weighs down its world of victims exerts its force of gravitation every moment upon the power that creates it. The first way of the Peripheral Thought is called “Identitario” which means “be like us”, whereas the second way is called “Centralitario” which means “be like the Centre”. The truth is that the spirit of conflict and conquest is at the origin and in the centre of the Western nationalism ; its basis is not social cooperation. I am just coming from my visit to Japan, where I exhorted this young nation to take its stand upon the higher ideals of humanity and [38] never to follow the West in its acceptance of the organized selfishness of Nationalism as its religion, never to gloat upon the feebleness of its neighbours, never to be unscrupulous in its behaviour to the weak, where it can be gloriously mean with impunity, while turning its right cheek of brighter humanity for the kiss of admiration to those who have the power to deal it a blow. Specifically this kind of thought has been yielded when non-Western thinkers have followed a special feeling of fascination, perplexity or rejection about the centre. [12], Tagore thought that “in the heart of Europe runs the purest stream of human love, of love of justice, of spirit of self-sacrifice for higher ideals (…) in Europe we have seen noble minds who have ever stood up for the rights of man irrespective of colour and creed”. You break it, and have in your hands the nomadic atoms fighting against one another, therefore unmeaning. Over all this is a very good book and every one must read it to understand the true nature of Nationalism. And having the conscience of a ghost and the callous [37] perfection of an automaton, it is causing disasters of which the volcanic dissipations of the youthful moon would be ashamed to be brought into comparison. These monsters grow into huge shapes but never into harmony. She had never let herself suspect what slow decay and decomposition were secretly going on 60  in her moral nature, which often broke out in doctrines of scepticism, but still oftener and in still more dangerously subtle manner showed itself in her unconsciousness of the mutilation and insult that she had been inflicting upon a vast part of the world. Why is it that I saw in an English paper an expression of bitterness at Japan’s boasting of her superiority of civilization—the thing that the British, along with other nations, has been carrying on for ages without blushing? Our history is that of our social life and attainment of spiritual ideals. Moving towards Rabindranath Tagore, as has been argued, he considered imperialism as an external expression of nationalism and cherished the idea of 'internationalism' by moving above the narrowness of the idea of nationalism. It’s interesting to see how the South helps focus on the politics of knowledge in US academic circles. But when with the help of science and the perfecting of organization this power begins to grow and brings in harvests of wealth, then it crosses its boundaries with amazing rapidity. And when in India we shall be able to assimilate in our life what is permanent in Western civilization we shall be in the position to bring about a reconciliation of these two great worlds. Generally, nationalism is inextricably linked with patriotism. Because this civilization is the civilization of power, therefore it is exclusive, [21] it is naturally unwilling to open its sources of power to those whom it has selected for its purposes of exploitation. Please reload CAPTCHA. Source: CALAMEGS SYMPOSIUM // Approaches to the Global South: Archives, Futurities, and Mediation. The nation has thrived for long upon mutilated humanity. [43]. These only become possible where the man is represented by an octopus of abstractions, sending out its wriggling arms in all directions of space, and fixing its innumerable suckers even into the far-away future. Therefore, I say to you, it is we who are called as witnesses to give evidence as to what the Nation has been to humanity. The protection of law is not only a boon, but it is a valuable lesson to us. In the West the national machinery of commerce and politics turns out neatly compressed bales of humanity which have their use and high market value; but they are bound in iron hoops, labelled and separated off with scientific care and precision. In his book, Nationalism, Rabindranath Tagore says that nationalism is an invention of the west. It is thanks to these works that it is possible to see the Western influence on Tagorian thought. Tagore explains the true meaning of Nationalism and explains it in the context or Japan, western culture and India. Our intellect is an ascetic who wears no clothes, takes no food, knows no sleep, has no wishes, feels no love or hatred or pity for human limitations, who only reasons, unmoved through the vicissitudes of life. When he finds the law, he is able to teach people how to master words. Has it not been one of the causes that raise the cry on these shores for preparedness to meet one more power of evil with a greater power of injury? For greed of wealth and power can never have a limit, and compromise of self-interest can never attain the final spirit of reconciliation. It is the fifth act of the tragedy of the unreal. Yes, one cannot but acknowledge that these facts are the facts of the world of the Nation, and the only moral, of it is that all the peoples of the earth should strain their physical, moral and intellectual resources to the utmost to defeat one another in the wrestling match of powerfulness. I am quite sure in those days we had things that were extremely distasteful to us. Tagore was continuously warning people about the perils of nationalism, and in his visits to the United States in the early part of the twentieth century, to gather funds for his university, ‘Vishvabharati’, he advises the US not to follow the footsteps of European nation states, who had placed the nation on the pedestal of divinity and ultimate being. According to Tagore, Europe had increased its power over Asia. Therefore, when you produce your statistics to compare the number of gravels which our feet had to encounter in former days with the paucity in the present regime, they hardly touch the real points. Read Rabindranath Tagore (Set of 5 Books) - Gitanjali, My Boyhood Days, Nationalism, Kabuliwala and Other Stories, Gora book reviews & author details and more at Amazon.in. [16] Rabindranath Tagore, essay includes in Ramachandra Guha´s book entitled “Makers of Modern India”, Penguin Books, India, 2010, p. 198-199. This is a power,—the power which fulfils some special usefulness, some particular need of man. First, Tagore, the Indian man, had to suffer with the European imperialism in Asia, and specifically in India. setTimeout( The answer is, that the West has been systematically petrifying her moral nature in order to lay a solid foundation for her gigantic abstractions of efficiency. The law meant the balance between power and freedom, because the British government established order (or at least more stability) and respect among castes, colours and religions. In some parts of India it has been enjoined as an act of great piety for a widow to go without food and water on a particular day every fortnight. The amount of its power may vary in different engines. Politics in the West have dominated Western ideals, and we in India are trying to imitate you. It was not new say that the West was not guilty, or at least, that West was not the prime culprit for Asian humiliation. Like gaseous particles forced into a too narrow space, they come [10] in continual conflict with each other till they burst the very arrangement which holds them in bondage. "Nationalism in Japan" is based upon two lectures delivered in Japan before the Imperial University and the Keio Gijuku University in June and July, 1916. NATIONALISM IN THE WEST. Races ethnologically different have come in this country in close contact. ); Knowledge and efficiency are powerful in their outward effect, but they are the servants of man, not the man himself. In his Nobel acceptance speech, he said, “India is there to unite all human races.” He saw India with its spiritual heritage as being particularly well-equipped for this mission, and went on to say, Only perhaps, in some cases, the organization might not have [17] been so densely perfect, and, therefore, some shreds of the human might still have been clinging to the wreck, allowing us to deal with something which resembles our own throbbing heart. [2] Devés Valdés, Eduardo, “Las disyuntivas del pensamiento latinoamericano y periférico”, Seminario de Investigación Interdisciplinaria. For the elements which have lost their living bond of reality have lost the meaning of their existence. You ask in amazement what has she done to deserve this? But they show how universalist values can prevail. To be fair, his estimation of European civilisation did not imply that there was only one alternative. Because each nation has its own history of thieving and lies and broken faith, therefore there can only flourish international suspicion and jealousy, and international moral shame becomes anaemic to a degree of ludicrousness. For this dust is fertile of life, and of beauty and worship. Take away man from his natural surroundings, from the fulness of his communal life, with all its living associations of beauty and love and social obligations, and you will be able to turn him into so many fragments of a machine for the production of wealth on a gigantic scale. [7], Thanks to his special relationship with Japanese intellectuals (one of them was the father of Pan-Asianism, Okakura Tenshin) Tagore was not indifferent to the Japanese triumph. In the ancient [27] days Sparta paid all her attention to becoming powerful and she did become so by crippling her humanity, and she died of the amputation. [10] Rabindranath Tagore´s letter addressed to C.F. Can it escape its nemesis forever? The personal experience which I have had of their literary men has roused my admiration not merely for their power of thought or expression but for their chivalrous humanity. This state of things inevitably gives rise to eternal feuds among the elements freed from the wholeness and wholesomeness of human ideals, and interminable economic war is waged between capital and labour. This is to maintain order. And, for the reason that it is a detached part of man, it soon outruns the complete humanity. "Nationalism in the West" is one of a series of lectures delivered throughout the United States during the winter of 1916-17. The book has three essays which talk about Nationalism in the West, Nationalism in Japan, Nationalism in India and ends with a poem called The Sunset of the Century. Before the Nation came to rule over us we had other governments which were foreign, and these, like all governments, had some element of the machine in them. This is demonstrated most obviously in his Nobel Prize in literature. Tagore was concern to be clear on this point. Because he is not seeking reality, but law. And this terror is the parent of all that is base in man’s nature. It is an end in itself. Note. And in the early days it had its separate place in society, restricted to the professionals. And what is their secret service but the nation’s underground trade in kidnapping, murder and treachery and all the ugly crimes bred in the depth of rottenness? It offers critical essays on mainstream solutions that ‘greenwash’ development and presents radically different worldviews and practices from around the world that point to an ecologically wise and socially just world. But, you say, “That does not matter, the unfit must go to the wall—they shall die, and this is science.”. And they were irresistible to those who were chiefly engaged in the constructive work of social cooperation. Their service is like the service in a hotel, where it is elaborate, but the host is absent; it is more convenient than hospitable. Tagore was aware of the dangers of a nationalism that was rooted in the Western concept of a nation state. While the small feeding bottle of our education is [22] nearly dry, and sanitation sucks its own thumb in despair, the military organization, the magisterial offices, the police, the Criminal Investigation Department, the secret spy system, attain to an abnormal girth in their waists, occupying every inch of our country. If we must believe our schoolmaster in his taunt that after nearly two centuries of his [20] tutelage, India not only remains unfit for self-government but unable to display originality in her intellectual attainments, must we ascribe it to something in the nature of Western culture and our inherent incapacity to receive it or to the judicious niggardliness of the Nation that has taken upon itself the white man’s burden of civilizing the East? FREE DOWNLOAD!THE ORIGINAL BOOKS COLLECTION. In fact, these nations are fighting among themselves for the extension of their victims and their reserve forests. [7]. }, He wrote a series of essays (1909-10) about the meeting between India and the Englishman. Towards this realization have worked from the early time of the Upanishads up to the present moment, a series of great spiritual teachers, whose one [5] object has been to set at naught all differences of man by the overflow of our consciousness of God. We all know that intellect is impersonal. [3] Tagore, Rabindranath, “Nationalism”, Norwood Press, USA, 1917, p.65-66. In quantity it is great, but it springs from the surface and spreads over the surface. His main concern was the thread to the freedom of downtrodden peoples across Asia. Therefore, while making use of it, man has to be careful to protect himself from its tyranny”. It is not the numerousness of the outside obstacles but the comparative powerlessness of the individual to cope with them. Those who covet power try to get mastery of these aboriginal- fighting elements and through some narrow [34] channels force them into some violent service for some particular needs of man. They are clean in their minds, frank in their manners, true in their friendships; in their behaviour they are honest and reliable. What is to happen to that larger part of the world, where fear will have no hand in restraining you? 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