Tagore’s Ideas of Patriotism with Reference to Gora

Abstract

Nationalism and patriotism often attracts attention and imagination of people. But Rabindranath Tagore was known critique of the traditional concept of Nationalism which he thought was a western import. The multiple meanings of Nationalism and patriotism gets newer definitions in the character study of the novel Gora. The political ideologues Tagore and his Cosmopolitan Humanism gets fleashed out through his writings often. This paper, in trying to understand Rabindranath Tagore’s reservations against nationalism and his concept of patriotism, tries to perceive the nature of nationalism in reference to his novel Gora. Finally looks at the criticism led against Tagore’s ideas of nationalism and how he answered them.