Thinking Activity : The Home and The World by Rabindranath Tagore

 

Hello Readers!

 Welcome to my blog I'm going to write about the Novel The Home and The world by Rabindranath Tagore. This task was given by Heena ma'am. 

Rabindranath Tagore 

Rabindranath Tagore, , Bengali Rabīndranāth Ṭhākur, (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, painter, educator, philosopher and humanitarian. He also composed roughly 2,230 songs. His writings address a variety of topics. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the west and vice versa. In 1913 he became the first non-European as well as the first lyricist to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. In 1915, he was knighted by the George V, King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India, but he later renounced the knighthood as a protest against the 1919 Jaliānwala Bāgh massacre. His songs, Jana Gana Mana and Amar Śonar Bangla, later became the national anthems for India and Bangladesh respectively.

To the west, Tagore is mainly known as the voice of India’s spiritual heritage; and that certainly does not do justice to his all pervasive influence upon generations of authors as well as common people. In India, his authority is exploited to justify all sorts of political and ideological stance – expanding from extreme right to the liberal and the left. What is really missing is a healthy critical discourse on this great author. Tagore’s genius is comparable with that of Shakespeare's.

The Home and The world by Rabindranath Tagore  

The Home and the World (in the original Bengali, ঘরে বাইরে Ghôre Baire or Ghare Baire, lit. "At home and outside") is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore.  The book illustrates the battle Tagore had with himself, between the ideas of Western Culture and revolution against the Western culture. These two ideas are portrayed in two of the main characters, Nikhilesh, who is rational and opposes violence, and Sandip, who will let nothing stand in his way from reaching his goals. These two opposing ideals are very important in understanding the history of the Bengal region and its contemporary problems. 1 To see the growth of individual character. 

Write about Rabindranath Tagore’s art of characterization. 

The novel "The Home and The World" is a 1916 novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The book illustrates the battle Tagore had with himself, between the ideas of Western culture and revolution against the Western culture. Here our main concern is his art of characterisation. 

The ‘Home and the World’ is a superb study in the psychological analysis of character. In the novel, we feel Tagore’s adept use of the multiple points of view technique which makes for a clear renunciation of the motives and states of mind of the principal characters. The device of presenting separate segments of the story through different characters helps Tagore to highlight the internal conflicts and convulsions. The principal characters in the novel are Nikhil, his wife Bimala and his close friend Sandip. 

In the character of Nikhil, we see a true picture of a patriot who reflects the extra-national ideas that one should possess. Nikhil, a landlord of substantial means, is a man of noble ideas. Gently, rational and thoughtful, he cannot approve of any political programme based on violence and cunning. Nikhil has a rationalistic and constructive approach with emphasis on self-reliance and righteous means, to the problem of Indian emancipation. Nikhil though supports Swadeshi has not wholeheartedly adopted the spirit of Bande Matram. His “dull, milk and watery Swadeshi” does not appeal to his wife Bimala. Nikhil, though perturbed and pained by Bimala’s growing infatuation with Sandip, refuses to intervene and waits patiently for her to realize the truth of circumstances and recent herself headlong rush to ruin. He even refuses to banish foreign goods from the markets and argues that it is for the people to choose between indigenous and foreign goods. He declares, 

“To tyrannize for the county is to tyrannize over the country” 

He believes in the eventual triumph of the good. 

As opposed to Nikhil’s genuine patriotism, sandip is opportunistic and means for achieving personal power. He is a hypocrite, unscrupulous, capable of sweeping along everyone with magnetism, sophistry and rhetoric. He is a man of action, dynamic, adventurous, experienced in the use of stratagems. Sandip goes about inflaming the people with the cult of Bande Matram and the concept of freedom by force Sandip exploits Bimala, Nikhil’s wife by exploring her as the “Queen Bee” of the Swadesh workers. Through clever flattery she lays a share for her mind and body by hailing her as the “Shakti of the Motherland” A juggler of words, Sandip succeeds however in winning the sympathies of Bimala and also prepares her to steal the gold sovereign’s from her own house. Tagore has represented Sandip as a black-hearted Patriot who shut the door on humanity and truth, and for his own utterly selfish and inflamed, immature minds to frenzy in the name of patriotism. 

In characterizing Bimala, Tagore has put his great efforts to expose, beautiful young wife torn between two men she loves and likes. Bimala has lived the sheltered a life of a Hindu wife and the “Home” is the world for her until Sandip makes his disturbing appearance. In the opening chapter, we are acquainted with Bimala as a true house wife, devoted to her husband and shares his ideals until she is swept off her feet by the eruption of the Swadeshi Movement. It breaks down the barriers between the home and the world for Bimala. In this critical situation the fiery eloquence of Sandip holds Bimala spellbound. She admires the seemingly glowing patriotism of Sandip. Bimala’s attraction for Sandip at first is purely intellectual but soon changes from admiration to infatuation. Bimala is temporarily swayed by the maddening cry of “Bande Matram” and robs her own house. Like a cunning thief, for the sake of so called national cause. But, she is horrified when in lucid interval the ugly truth flashes on her, and she detests wholeheartedly the filthy means of Sandip to worship the Mother. His greed and lust masqueraded and paraded as nationalism, are extremely repulsive to Bimala now. She repents sincerely for her folly in looking down on her husband Nikhil, as an impotent idealist, whom she misunderstood up till now.