Tagore and Decolonization

Abstract

This paper revisits Tagore during the turbulent period of India’s struggle for freedom since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and how he demonstrated discursive strategies of decolonization while living under an offshore dominion. It is a brief attempt to underline the interface between Tagore’s obvious emergence as a prolific writer and his active participation in the nationalist politics of India since the late 1880s. By reinterpreting Tagore’s overtly political writings, public lectures replete with distinct nationalist themes, and by emphatically recognizing his idea of self-empowerment through indigenous economic enterprises, this study seeks to establish Tagore not just as an important nationalist figure of the time, but also a radical decolonizer, who was consciously producing a great body of literature to compliment his political vision and the contemporary nationalist movements.