The Pandemic and the Poet: The Renewed Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore

In the midst of a raging pandemic that is currently in its second, more ferocious spell in my country, it might seem elitist to be celebrating a poet’s birth anniversary, even if he happens to be Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. But it is precisely this context—that of a deadly disease sweeping through the globe—that makes Tagore newly relevant to the world. It is this backdrop indeed that highlights the marvellous prescience of his observations on geopolitics and on the future of humanity—observations he made in his lectures delivered in India and abroad and in his numerous essays. Expressed nearly a hundred years back, in the context of British imperialism and the First World War, these reflections brought out the nub of the global scenario then, highlighting the dangers to humanity of hyper-nationalism and the absolute need for countries and communities to come together.

Observing that the coming together of diverse people of varied ethnicities was “the most important fact” of the modern age, post-Industrial Revolution, Tagore asserted that peace and stability could not be attained in such circumstances by never-ending competition and mutual enmities but by finding a “true basis of reconciliation” through cooperation and mutual help (Nationalism in India). Condemning both British imperialism and the nascent religio-ethnic nationalism then brewing in India, Tagore pronounced nationalism to be a canker to humanity. By promoting “hatred of aliens” and a spirit of competition with other countries, the dogma of nationalism fosters intellectual parochialism, enmity, and aggression. And, one nation’s intense nationalism infects other nations by spurring them on to participate in the competition for material possessions and power, so that nationalism becomes a worldwide contagion—an “epidemic of evil” that eats into “the moral vitality” of the human world (The Nation).

While there are obvious differences between Tagore’s times and ours, the one fact of strident nationalism defining geopolitics emerges as a commonality that is hard to miss. In place of the hegemony of one colonising nation, we are witnessing a more diffused, world-wide spread of ultra-nationalistic regimes; and, although these regimes are practising an ideology of isolation, they are promoting ethnic and religious intolerance and politico-economic rivalries, leading to unquiet and violence both within and among nations, and damaging everywhere the ethos of democracy. In his lectures and essays Tagore persistently harped on the dangers of belligerent, competitive nationalism. Observing the economic transnationalism that was upon the world, he pointed out the urgent need for more understanding and tolerance among peoples, and more sharing of resources and ideas.

Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to devastate much of the world has highlighted anew both pervasive global inequity and the need for transnational co-dependence. In this milieu, Tagore’s far-sighted political vision—defined by an inclusive global humanism and an urgent thrust on inter-faith, international amity—becomes all the more relevant for the world. If democracy is an ideal arrangement for collective living imbued with individuals’ respect and sympathy for each other, then Tagore’s message of mutual cooperation among varied people, and his appeal to all to recognise and revere the humanity of the ‘Other’ sound the truest note of democracy. While the world realises the absolute need of transnational co-dependence, his pan-cultural ideal of humanism and his thrust on inter-ethnic, inter-faith harmony emerge as the creed of today.