Rabindranath Tagore: An Advocate Of Humanism

Rabindranath Tagore rejected nationalism as it is a source of war and carnage; death, destruction and divisiveness, rather than international solidarity that induces a larger and more expansive vision of the world- remains at the heart of the Tagore’s imagination in most of his writing: his letters, essays, lectures, poems, plays and fictions.  Despite this, Tagore was a highly patriotic poet. But he never placed patriotism above soul, conscience and love for humanity. He had a strong faith in an interactive, dialogical world given to a deep sense of sympathy, generosity and mutuality and in which nations would not be parochial, xenophobic and centripetal guided by more selfish and self –aggrandizement., but poised towards a morally and politically enlightened community of nations through the espousal of a centrifugal outlook, multilateral imagination, principle of universality and reciprocal recognitions. Modern nations, to him, seem to be merely an organization of politics and commercialization armed with power and wealth. It promotes only the material wellbeing of the people, but not their moral and spiritual health where the soul rests. So, it is important to restore the soul to its rightful place.

This requires a humanitarian intervention into present self seeking and belligerent nationalism