Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World [Ghare Bhaire] : A Gripping Portrayal of Swadeshi Movement

Abstract

Tagore’s novel Ghare Bhaire has historical significance when we look at it from nationalistic perspective. The Swadeshi movement predominantly began with the partition of Bengal by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon in 1905 and continued up to 1911. This was precisely the most successful of the Pre- Gandhian movements. MK Gandhi strategically focused on Swadeshi who described it as the Soul of Swaraj (Self-rule). The movement was officially announced on 7 August, 1905 at the famous Calcutta Town Hall, in Bengal. Later, this was used to boycott all the British goods in the country. The spirit of the movement was to use goods produced in India and burning of British–made goods. Swadeshi movement paved the way to the successive movements such as Satyagraha movement and Non-Cooperation movement. Written against the backdrop of the partition of Bengal by the British in 1905, Home and the World (Ghare Bhaire) by Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate, is a telling portrayal of the chasms inherent in the nationalist movement. Any movement by people is particularly interesting and a movement such as Swadeshi movement holds special significance in the history of Indian Freedom Struggle. Swadeshi was a clarion call to rebel against the imported goods. In the words of Anita Desai, the noted Indo-English novelist, “Home and the World” has the complexity and tragic dimensions of Tagore’s own time and ours”. Readers are reminded that Tagore protested the Jallianwallah Bagh massacres and rejected the knighthood honour. He set himself an example by leading the country against the oppressions. His patriotism finds literary expression in the novel “Ghare Bhaire” Where Swadeshi Movement dominates the collection.