What is Nationalism?Nationalism in India by Rabindranath Tagore

Q. What is Nationalism ?What, according to Tagore,is Nationalism?

Nationalism is a very difficult concept to define. Many scholars have tried to define the term. For example, Benedict Anderson, in his well-known writing, Imagined Communities (1983) defined nationalism as “a bond between people that comes to exist when the members of a nation recognize themselves and their compatriots to be part of a nation.” Another important scholar Ernest Gellner in his Nations and Nationalism (1983) argued that a nation is formed “if and when the members of the category firmly recognize certain mutual rights and duties to each other in virtue of their shared membership. It is their recognition of each other as fellows of this kind which turns them into a nation.” Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger in their seminal work The Invention of Tradition (1983) argued that “many traditions which appear or claim to be old are often quite recent in origin and sometimes invented. This is particularly related to the modern development of the nation and nationalism, creating a national identity promoting national unity, and legitimizing certain institutions or cultural practices.”

However, these are the ideas on nationalism mostly dominated by Eurocentrism.The conditions of non-European world were different. For example, nationalism in India grew in the wake of India’s national movement for independence against the British Rule. This nationalism was naturally an emancipator as it would be the rhetoric upon which the Republic of India would be founded. In our own history, there have been those who have provided us with alternative narratives. These alternative narratives on nationalism provide us broader understanding of and contribute significantly to the discourse of nationalism. It provides alternative to dominant understanding of nationalism which is mostly dominated by Eurocentrism. One of such alternative narrative can be found in the writings of Tagore, whose conceptualization and understanding of nationalism is important to study for our understanding.

Tagore had attempted to define his understanding of a nation and nationalism in his book Nationalism (1917). He also dealt with the idea of nationalism in several of his novels, short stories, plays, letters, lectures, essays and articles. Most of the scholars agreed that Tagore was firmly opposed to nationalism as defined in the Western sense and favoured a cosmopolitan worldview instead. He was one of those who sought an alternative to narrow aggressive nationalism.

As mentioned earlier, Tagore was not only a poet. He was a philosopher who tried to engage with different concepts. During the period of Tagore, nationalism was one of the important concepts upon which many scholars were discussing and debating. During that time, India was under the control of the British. Thus,Indian people were also developing the sentiment of nationalism among themselves. Tagore understood the importance of nationalism, and observed it very carefully. After his careful analysis of nationalism, Tagore developed a critique of nationalism. However, it does not mean that he did not have affection towards India. However, his emotions were not limited to Indian territory and its population. He had a broader vision of world unity and cooperation. Let us try to understand his views on nationalism.

Tagore had observed and analyzed the Eurocentric idea of nationalism. After seeing the Indian experience of nationalism and the influence of Eurocentric idea of nationalism on Indian nationalism, Tagore raised some serious questions and doubts. He then gradually developed his criticisms of the Eurocentric idea of nationalism. This is considered as a significant contribution of Tagore in the discourse of nationalism studies. He tried to move away from the discourse of nationalism from an Eurocentric form of nationalism, and focused on non-European countries’ form of nationalism. According to a renowned political thinker and Indian educationist Humayun Kabir, Tagore was the first great Indian, who defied the Eurocentrism introduced by colonialism into India and revived India’s ancient ties with Asia and Africa.

Tagore was against the false, diseased, perverted, and exaggerated nationalism

which has developed in the West. Tagore talked about the example of Japan which was trying to imitate Western nationalism in the East. Tagore at first admired Japan for demonstrating the ability of an Asian nation to rival the West in industrial development and economic progress. But then Tagore went on to criticize the rise of a strong nationalism in Japan, and its emergence as an imperialist nation.

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