The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
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The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) by Kalyan Sen Gupta (z-lib.org)
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Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Gower House Suite 420 Croft Road 101 Cherry Street Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401- 4405 Hampshire, GU11 3HR USA England Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Gupta, Kalyan Sen, 1936– The philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore. – (Ashgate world philosophies series) 1. Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861–1941 I. Title 181.4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gupta, Kalyan Sen. The philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore / Kalyan Sen Gupta. p. cm.—(Ashgate world philosophies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7546-3036-6 (alk. paper) 1. Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861–1941—Philosophy. 2. Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861– 1941—Political and social views. 3. Tagore, Rabindranath, 1861–1941—Knowledge— Arts. 4. Philosophers—India—Bengal—Biography. I. Title. II. Series. PK1727.P45G87 2004 891.4'414—dc22 2004005415 ISBN 0 7546 3036 6 Typeset in Times Roman by N 2 productions. Printed by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall. To My Parents vii Contents Preface ix 1 Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Thought 1 2 Society, Marriage and Education 18 3 Politics, Gandhi and Nationalism 38 4 Communion with Nature 58 5 Self, Art, Evil and Harmony 78 Bibliography 97 Index 101 This page intentionally left blank Preface Tagore’s writings have inspired such an extensive secondary literature that yet another book on him may seem redundant. In this volume, however, I hope to have discussed aspects of Tagore’s thought in a way that does not merely reiterate previous studies but will also provoke a fresh interest in his thought among a new generation of his readers. What the book emphasizes above all is Tagore’s conception of people’s harmony both with humanity as a whole and with nature. For Tagore, this is an aesthetic condition that explains why he refers to his own religious perspective as a poet’s religion or the religion of an artist. I argue that Tagore’s notion of harmony is the central one in his thinking, around which the other concepts that he discusses revolve. The chapters of the book accordingly examine the ideal of spiritual harmony, interpersonal human solidarity, kinship with nature, and self-integrity through artistic creativity. I also address the question, one that taxed Tagore himself, of how the possibility and ideal of harmony may be defended in the face of the palpable disharmony and evil that characterize the actual world. I am grateful to Professor David E. Cooper – a friend as well as an editor of the series in which this volume is published – whose detailed comments and suggestions have helped me improve this book and who, indeed, has carefully edited the whole text. I am also indebted to my wife Ananya Sen Gupta, who herself wrote a PhD thesis on Tagore, for providing me with important material on Tagore and for encouraging me in my work. I should also like to thank my daughter Kanya, who was awarded an MA in Philosophy at the University of Durham, for her many valuable suggestions and for producing a computerized version of the book. I am grateful, as well, to several friends whose ideas and suggestions I have made use of. Finally, I express my thanks to Sarah Lloyd and her colleagues at Ashgate Publishing for commissioning this book and seeing it through to publication. Kalyan Sen Gupta ix This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 Rabindranath Tagore: His Life and Thought The primary aim of this book is to introduce to readers who are not familiar with the writings of Tagore, or who know only his poetry, the main philosophical themes discussed by this remarkable Indian man of letters. In the second part of this opening chapter, an overview is offered of the essentially ‘spiritual’ inspiration for and orientation of Tagore’s philosophy, and the issue is addressed of the extent to which, and the sense in which, he was ‘a philosopher’ at all. Before that, it will be useful to provide a brief account of Tagore’s long, full and varied life. This account is not only of biographical interest, for his was a life intertwined in various respects with his philosophy. Indeed it was his conviction, as we shall see at certain stages in the book, that problems which defy solution at an abstract, intellectual level may nevertheless be resolved at the ‘existential’ level of one’s everyday life. Certainly he viewed his own life as one in which he struggled to resolve such issues. Download 467.3 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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