The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
Download 467.3 Kb. Pdf ko'rish
|
The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) (Ashgate World Philosophies Series) by Kalyan Sen Gupta (z-lib.org)
The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
This, as Gandhi sees it, defines the true spirit of non-cooperation which aims at ‘real, honourable and voluntary co-operation based on mutual respect and trust’. 40 These, in outline, are the differences between Rabindranath and Gandhi. The question is worth asking whether these differences are as substantial as they might seem. It is true that they have opposed outlooks. Gandhi thinks that India’s fundamental problem is political, the struggle for swaraj or emancipation from British imperialism; while Rabindranath thinks that it is a social one, the regeneration of a self-reliant society based on fellowship and co-operation. He is afraid that a political movement like non-cooperation will isolate India from other nations and so threaten human solidarity. But this difference in outlook apart, they do not perhaps differ in their basic convictions. Gandhi, as we have seen above, is not flatly opposed to English education which, he believes, can open the door to higher knowledge. Non- cooperation is directed only against the sense of cultural inferiority induced by an education that disdains India’s mother tongues. Nor does Gandhi seek alienation from the West. Indeed he insists on the harmony or convergence of East and West, but only on equal terms and on the basis of mutual respect. On all these matters, we hear the same voice as Tagore’s. Both men shared the common enterprise ‘of building educational institutions outside of the state-sponsored system in the colonial mould’. Both of them underlined the importance of the mother tongue in teaching and learning, and advocated a schooling in tune with India’s culture. As for the seemingly irreconcilable dispute over the charkha, even Tagore once conceded that ‘in the products of the handloom the magic of man’s living fingers finds its expression, and its hum harmonizes with the music of life’. 41 Indeed, in spite of his polemic against the charkha and the boycott of foreign cloth, he sometimes makes remarks that remind one of Gandhi’s. There is surely a distinctly Gandhian flavour in his following observation, for example: So long we have blindly imitated the West even in trifling matters. Today when our country is in utter economic distress, it is time to say boldly that we should use our own products even at the cost of some of our comfort and convenience. We have to protect our little possession. A large amount of money is running out of our country to the West. Perhaps we cannot check it completely, but it will be a great crime if we do not try our utmost to resist this flow as much as we can. Every one of us should take the oath that we should use only our home-made products. 42 Moreover, we learn from Gandhi himself that Rabindranath gladly agreed to give a talk at the invitation of Suresh Banerji, the manager of the Abhoy Ashram at Comila established for the purpose of khaddar development. This, according to Gandhi, showed that Tagore was not totally opposed to the charkha and the khaddar movement. Tagore’s acceptance of the invitation to Politics, Gandhi and Nationalism 49 speak, says Gandhi, ‘dispels … the superstition that the Poet is against the spinning-wheel and the khaddar movement in every shape and form’. And he goes on to quote Tagore’s own words: ‘An animal has got its fur, but man has got to spin and weave because what the animal has got, it has got once for all and ready-made. It is for man to rearrange and reshuffle for his purposes materials he finds placed before him.’ 43 So, even over the issue that most obviously divided the two men, the gulf may have been less than their rhetoric would suggest. More generally, it is fair to conclude, beneath the level of the differences in their thinking, there was a very real resonance between their fundamental positions. Download 467.3 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
Ma'lumotlar bazasi mualliflik huquqi bilan himoyalangan ©fayllar.org 2024
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling
ma'muriyatiga murojaat qiling