NationalismAuthor/s: Rabindranath Tagore

Few people in the history of India have had the clarity of thought that Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore did. This clashed with those of his peers. He joined global rationalists of the time, international citizens who like him saw the menace that was ravaging through the world in these guises. They recoiled with horror when they saw the full force of the idea of nationalism and patriotism as the world plunged into World War I. It was during this first Great War, that Tagore crystallized his ideas into a lecture he delivered across the world. These were later compiled as a book titled ‘Nationalism’ in 1917. It has ideas that can guide and even help understand the current discourse about nationalists and anti-nationalists raging in India.