The Cultural Fabric of Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism

Abstract

The paper explores into the concept of cosmopolitanism in Rabindranath Tagore’s Philosophy. Though Tagore couldn’t travel fully with his critique of nationalism and the entire extent of the debate, which determined India’s destiny later, the authenticity of Tagore’s perspective foresaw the most decisive themes of coexistence of our times symptomatically for us, such as, the criticism of nationalism and transnationalism, religion as humanism, the idea of cosmopolitan freedom and education as encounter with nature etc. The paper argues that Tagore’s concept of cosmopolitanism is composed of his philosophies of humanism, religion, art and aesthetics and the critique of nationalism. The discussion that is carried out in the paper though briefly examines some of the major works of Tagore. It looks at the theoretical engagements of some of the major contemporary thinkers made with Tagore’s thought, especially with his idea of cosmopolitanism. The paper, as it affirms the contemporaneous nature of Tagore’s concept of cosmopolitanism, however, suggests a new dimension that it adds to the philosophy of cosmopolitanism