Rabindranath Tagore: A Timeless Guide for Today’s Divided World
Ashesh Sengupta
May 8, 2025
In a world fractured by suspicion and strife, where fault lines of identity and ideology carve deep divides across continents, the insights of Rabindranath Tagore shine with undiminished relevance. Long before social media magnified every grievance and political rhetoric hardened into hostility, Tagore envisioned a humanity united by empathy rather than estranged by loyalty to arbitrary borders. This vision translated into living experiments in the classrooms of Santiniketan, on the stages of his dance-dramas, and through global conversations with thinkers and activists, that still offer a blueprint for healing even the most entrenched conflicts.
Tagore viewed extreme patriotism as a menace that sacrifices moral judgment for power. In his 1917 essay Nationalism , argued that true patriotism must be guided by moral conscience. His renunciation of the knighthood awarded by the British crown in the wake of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre was not merely symbolic, it embodied his conviction that human dignity must eclipse blind allegiance to any flag. Refusing to accept honours tainted by violence, Tagore declared that no symbol of authority could justify violence against the vulnerable.
This principle was fully expressed at Santiniketan (Visva-Bharati University), the open-air Tagore institute founded in Bengal. Rejecting colonial-era schooling that prized rote memorization, he embraced a curriculum called Manabdharma (human values). Art and nature became teachers, and stories from diverse traditions cultivated respect for difference. Tagore’s collaboration with Japanese agrarian reformer Okakura Kakuzō infused the curriculum with rural pragmatism, rejecting Oxbridge elitism. Under trees, children painted their own experiences, learned folk songs alongside classical poetry, and explored spiritual ideas from Vedic, Buddhist, Sufi, and Christian sources in unforced dialogue under one roof. Tagore believed that such an environment had been nurtured, every child, even those later lured toward violence, might have discovered a path of understanding instead. Many youths drawn into militancy on the Kashmir border grew up in a climate of trauma, where narratives of us vs. them eclipse shared humanity. Had they been steeped in human values to see themselves in the stories of others, resolving conflicts through dialogue rather than violence, their choices might have differed.
Across continents, Tagore treated art not as escape but as engagement. He invited collaboration with scientists, poets, and activists from his thoughtful exchanges. Tagore treated art as a weapon against division. His 1937 poem Africa , a powerful indictment of colonial violence, inspired leaders like Nelson Mandela and helped galvanize anti-colonial movements from Ghana to Indonesia. He collaborated with Albert Einstein to explore how science and spirituality seek truth, and with Japanese poet Yone Noguchi to bridge Asian philosophies. At home, his dance-drama Chandalika dramatized the liberation of an ostracized girl, challenging caste-based prejudice with the simple beauty of shared humanity. Tagore’s Gora (inter-sectarian dialogue) and Kabuliwala (transnational empathy) provide narrative frameworks to dismantle structural othering in pluralistic societies. By harnessing theatre, music, and painting, he showed how creativity can dismantle walls of suspicion and rebuild trust.
When modern conflicts erupt, like most recently in the valleys of Kashmir, where violence and reprisal have once again inflamed relations between two major countries of South Asia, Tagore’s methods offer concrete alternatives. In 1940, following the Lahore Resolution, Tagore wrote to Nehru with a prescient caution against founding states on religious identity, warning that such foundations could, over time, nurture rigid nationalism and sectarian tensions—dynamics that continue to challenge the subcontinent through both ideological extremism and cross-border unrest. He believed that building trust required more than defensive postures. It demanded cultivating empathy at the source of division. His forest metaphor teaches that neighbouring communities, however different, thrive when each respects the other’s space and voice. His lessons encourage neighbouring countries to prioritize educational outreach and cultural understanding, using art and dialogue to counteract forces that seek to deep root hostility. Despite the state's disregard, Karachi’s libraries preserve Gitanjali, and progressives invoke it to critique military nationalism—proof of Tagore’s subversive endurance. Small initiatives like joint exhibitions, student collaborations, and shared storytelling platforms can begin to neutralize the narratives that fuel extremism and open channels for genuine connection.
Today, these lessons can guide a renewed approach to South Asian reconciliation. Educational reforms inspired by Manabdharma can replace fear-based narratives with critical thinking and collaborative inquiry. Tagore did not leave his insights confined to essays or speeches. He turned them into living experiments: a school that shaped young minds, performances that stirred audiences across faiths, and friendships that crossed national lines. In today’s polarized climate, his example calls for a revival of educational programs grounded in empathy, expanded cultural exchanges, and a commitment to personal kindness.
As the world commemorates Rabindra Jayanti, Tagore’s legacy transcends ceremonial remembrance and demands a moral reckoning with contemporary divisions. His life, a testament to the transformative power of curiosity, compassion, and creative courage, challenges societies to reimagine collective futures. In an era where divisions are weaponized, Tagore’s philosophy offers a radical antidote: an education rooted not in dogma but in dialogue, not in exclusion but in empathy.
Tagore’s hymn Where the Mind is Without Fear is no utopian fantasy but a clarion call to dismantle the narrow domestic walls of prejudice that stifle human potential. The moral urgency of Rabindra Jayanti lies in translating philosophy into action. Indian Subcontinent, as the cradle of his vision, is positioned to lead by reviving cultural exchanges, embedding Manabdharma in curricula, and amplifying grassroots peacebuilders who, like Tagore, wield art and dialogue as acts of resistance.
This Rabindra Jayanti, the challenge is clear: societies must pledge not merely to admire Tagore’s vision but to inhabit it, transforming fragments into forests, fear into fellowship, and checkpoints into crossroads of connection. Thus, as Tagore envisioned, human dignity will ascend to its rightful place as civilization’s truest measure.
(Tripurainfo)
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