24 Towards a New Indian Culture: Political Freedom and Modernity: Rabindranath Tagore, Gora
Ananya Bhattacharjee
Introducing the Author
Rabindranath Tagore is a major presence when one thinks of Bengal and its culture; a paramount figure in Bengali literature. A collection of poems, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), secured for him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. He excelled in various genres of art and culture and became renowned as a poet, dramatist, novelist, composer, actor, singer, editor of the Bengali literary journal (Sadhana). He composed more than 2000 poems and 3000 songs. As a literary genius he had deep knowledge of the society of his days and was a staunch lover of nature. Tagore founded Shantiniketan in a natural surrounding thereby giving vent to his passion for nature and a new education system. It is common knowledge that Tagore was absorbed in the world of words and his imaginative world resulted in the production of a great number of novellas, songs, poetry and plays. During pre–independence times, Tagore travelled to various places to perform and collect funds for the establishment of his university (Vishvabharati). It was during those days that his troupe staged a dance-drama, Notir Puja, based on a story he had written and it was later filmed in 1932 by New Theatres.
Tagore is one of the most versatile writers and artists who has innumerable number of works credited to his name. Some of his most memorable volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890), Sonar Tari (1894), Gitanjali (1910), Gitimalya (1914) and Balaka (1916). Tagore’s major plays are Raja (1910), Dakghar (1912), Achalayatan (1912), Muktadhara (1922) and Raktakaravi (1926). He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels; among them are Chokher Bali (1903), Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916), and Yogayog (1929). Tagore had also composed a number of dance dramas, musical dramas; he also wrote travel diaries and autobiographies. Besides these he also took interest in paintings and drawings. Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7 in 1941.
The novel Gora (1910) deals with the period of colonial Bengal that is marked as the Bengal Renaissance. It is an age of awakening in Bengal in the various fields of philosophy, literature, economics, science and politics. The Bengal Renaissance initially was confined within the elite Bengali society but later spread out to all socio-cultural classes including the residential Muslims. This period began with the emergence of Raja Rammohan Roy and lasted through the nineteenth century. Rabindranath Tagore was one of the important leaders of the Renaissance. Two prominent features of the Renaissance in Calcutta were: the formation of associations, societies and organizations; and emergence of innumerable newspapers and magazines. Another important aspect of the Bengal Renaissance movement was the formation of reform movements in both religious and socio-cultural fields. Western ideals and principles influenced this Renaissance movement in Bengal considerably. Thoughts about nationalism and independent ruling derived from the west were disseminated by the educated Bengali elite to all the masses through the various organisations, movements, and magazines.
Introducing the Novel
Gora is one of the most ambitious works of Rabindranath Tagore that deals with an individual’s search of his own self. The novel is set in the colonial Bengal society in Kolkata which was characterised by distinctly two varied forms of religious groups; one was the orthodox Hindus and the other was the modernised and liberal Brahmos. Both these groups were in conflict with each other having their own unique principles and customs and such a scenario is represented in the novel Gora. The protagonist of the novel, Gour Mohan or Gora belongs to an orthodox Hindu family. His father had been killed during the Sepoy Mutiny and his mother, who was originally Irish, died the next day following the death of his father. Gora’s foster parents are Krishnadayal and Anandamayi who look after Gora with much love and sympathy. As a boy, Gora was high-spirited, energetic and confident but he was also an orthodox Hindu and a staunch Indian patriot. He cautioned his friend, Binoy Bhushan Chatterjee, not to mix with the Brahmos but not only did he become intimate with a Brahmo family, he also married a Brahmo girl named Lolita much to Gora’s disappointment who was strictly against inter-community marriages. Binoy was initially in love with Sucharita, foster daughter of Paresh Chandra Bhattacharjee, a Brahmo, who was a matured and sober man respected by all the members of his family and also supports Sucharita whenever she faces any problem. Binoy as he was attracted towards Sucharita started visiting Paresh babu’s house pretending to meet his new friend, Satish who was Sucharita’s brother. When he becomes close with the members of the family, his infatuation for Sucharita fades away. Binoy becomes friends with Baroda, Sucharita’s foster mother, who tries to initiate Binoy into the Brahmo Samaj. Baroda changed Sucharita real name which was Radharani. Haran is a family friend and has close acquaintance with the family of Paresh babu. He is also unofficially engaged to Sucharita. Haran feels sceptical about Hindu customs and scriptures and wanted to remain aloof from the ideas and beliefs favoured by the orthodox Hindus.
Gora resented Binoy’s interaction with the Brahmo household and persuaded him to stop his relation with the family. But Binoy continued his visit to Paresh babu’s house and eventually fell in love with Paresh babu’s daughter, Lolita and Lolita also reciprocated his feelings for her. Gora, on the other hand, had pledged Brahmacharya in order to sacrifice for the cause of his religion and country. Although Gora tries to prevent Binoy from mixing with the Brahmos, he himself feels for Sucharita and is drawn towards her. The conservative views that Gora valued all his life was gradually losing its hold when his father Krishnadayal died. A number of events changed Gora’s perception towards life. The realisation of his newly born feelings towards Sucharita, the shock that he derived after the revelation about his birth, his resentment of the Brahmo society and finally the negligence that he showed towards his mother in his own pursuit. By losing all the rigidness of his life, he achieved all the happiness that he wanted. Binoy and Lolita; Gora and Sucharita are united in marriage and Gora hails his mother Anandamayi as the image of Mother India.
Characterisation in the Novel
Gora-He is the central character in the novel. He is an orphan who was raised by an orthodox Hindu couple. His main motive in life is to work for his country and his Hindu society. As an orthodox Hindu, he is strongly against any kind of communion with the Brahmo society.
Krishnadayal-He is Gora’s father who was a liberal and modern man in his early days but gradually returned to orthodoxy in his old days.
Anandamayi-Gora’s mother, Anandamayi, brought up Gora with lots of love and affection. She retained her liberal and noble spirit throughout her life.
Paresh Babu-He is a liberal Brahmo and as the head of his family, he is respected and honoured by all. He is the foster father of Sucharita, daughter of his late Hindu friend.
Baroda-She is Sucharita’s foster mother who changed her real name Radharani to Sucharita. She is a conservative Brahmo.
Sucharita-She was born to a Hindu family and later adopted by Paresh babu. She is young and intelligent lady. She is drawn towards Gora due to his strong nationalistic zeal and loves him in spite of his anti-Brahmo feelings.
Lolita-She is the younger daughter of Paresh babu who is rebellious and does not conform to any social beliefs and dogmas.
Satish-He is Sucharita and Lolita’s brother.
Binoy-He is Gora’s friend but does not share Gora’s conservative views on society. He values personal relationship more than orthodoxy.
Harimohini-She is a widow of the orthodox Hindu Community who takes shelter in Paresh Babu’s house.
Panu Babu-He is a hypocrite of the Brahmo Samaj who is inclined to the whites of the colonial India.
Abhinash-He is an active member of the Hindu community as well as great patriot. Nanda-He is a young and energetic follower of Gora, son of a carpenter and a good cricketer.
Themes and Issues in the Novel
Towards a New Indian Culture: The Creation of a Nationalist Self
The strife towards the creation of a ‘new nation’ went hand and hand with the construction of a ‘new self’. The main motif was to put an end to the British Raj and the formation of a modern nation-state. Many biographies and autobiographies that were published during the colonial period are testaments of the fact that the creation of a ‘new nation’ should be seen as the manifestation of the creation of a ‘new individual’. Sibnath Sastri’s Ramtanu Lahiri O Tatkalin Bangasamaj is a socio-historical book of the nineteenth century Bengal and Surendranath Banerjee, one of the strongest political leaders of his times in Bengal, wrote his autobiography called A Nation in Making. Both these books and many others showcase the unique merging of the idea of Nation and Self in the pre-independence times of India. Such a scenario is also evident in the novel Gora by Tagore. Gora is set in colonial Bengal during the early period of the twentieth century, a period which is marked by the emergence of the nationalist discourse and novel is set against the background of the consolidation of such discourse. Along with the formation of a nationalist self, there occurred a split and therefore it was problematic in understanding one’s identity formation. The intellectuals of Bengal were preoccupied with the rift that was there between nationalism and nationalist consciousness. Ashis Nandy, in his The Intimate Enemy, talks of the same stance that Tagore and Gandhi took in the conflict between the ideologies of the ‘official imperial West’ and the ‘virile anti-colonial East’ and also the marginal forces of both the West and East. Tagore’s rendering of the nationalist self in Gora finds its expression before Gandhi’s deliberation on the ‘constructed nature of a nationalist self’. The concept of classical universalism coupled with maintaining one’s traditional organic community was manifested both in Tagore and Gandhi. Nandy also mentions that Gandhi had “borrowed his idea of non-violence not from the sacred texts of India but from the Sermon on the Mount.” One can refer to Tagore here because the religious sect to which he belonged that is ‘Brahmoism’ was also founded upon the ideas that were western in nature, for example, monotheism, a sacred script, organized religion and one leading God. In this context it is important to know what Tagore had opined about Raja Rammohan Roy, the founder of Brahmoism, in his essay called ‘Purba O Paschim’: “Rammohan Roy…one day stood alone in order to align India with the whole world on the basis of humanism. No custom, no prejudice could obstruct his views.” In the novel Gora we find that a ‘split’ occurs in an individual who is influenced by nationalism and is guided by such nationalist consciousness. In the novel the search for one’s self and that of the motherland becomes the main story. The narrative is structured in such a manner that we see a simultaneous quest of the hero, Gora, for his true self and for the country to which he belongs. In the ‘process of becoming’ a split is created by the ideas of nationalism and one’s nationalist consciousness which is depicted in all the major political novels by Tagore. In Gora, we find that the consolidation of a modern Indian culture that is non-western shows the mutual contradictions between the realm of the spiritual and the material in the spirit of nationalism. This becomes clear when Gora says,
When his friend Binoy asks him about his imagined community of India and its whereabouts, Gora answers,
In his essay titled “The Imaginary Institution of India”, Sudipta Kaviraj observes that the account of a nation, like that of Gora’s, is juxtaposed with the creation of a national collective self and the narrative of history of the nation articulated as the history of a community. Such kind of a narrative voice is heard when Gora speaks, “This message of India some may understand, some may not-that makes no difference to my feeling that I am one with all India, that all her people are mine; and I have no doubt that through all of them, the spirit of India is secretly but constantly working.” The nationalist endeavor in the formation of a new Bengali race and culture is clearly articulated through Gora’s voice when he speaks to himself,
Gora was determined to lead an isolated life and devote himself to the cause of the religion and maintain the lifestyle as ordained by the Brahmins. He wants to keep himself uncontaminated by the desires of the earth and be indifferent towards happiness and sorrow. He conceived himself as being one of India’s Brahmins who is destined to worship the Divine Spirit on behalf of the country. He said to himself, “I am a sannyasi, in my realization and worship it can have no place.”
Political Freedom and Modernity
Rabindranath Tagore writes in Nationalism, “India has never had a real sense of nationalism. Even though from childhood I have been taught that idolatry of the nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teaches them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity.” The theme of political freedom is recurrent in Tagore’s Gora. The idea of nationalism and patriotism is fostered in the representation of the central character of the novel, Gora, who is full of nationalist zeal like many of the other Indians during the colonial period. The novel highlights one of the most significant political questions, that is, the constant conflict between the ideals of the East and the West. The background of the novel is that of revolt and political freedom from the British rule. Gora observes the suffering of the underprivileged people and the injustice done by the colonial rulers. When Gora visited the village of Ghoshpara, he saw that the students of Calcutta were facing trials and were lashed as punishment. Even Gora was sentenced to one month of imprisonment as he interfered with the police authorities. Gora emerges as a true hero of the nationalist movement and fights for the independence of India. There was an upheaval in Bengal at that time due to the Partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon. It created a tumult in Bengal and Gora is portrayed as a patriot who went to the country side of Bengal and helped the Indian peasants during their hard times. As a true Indian and a Brahmin he vows to serve his country as her loyal servant. Gora visions an imagined community for his nation state as he says:
But Gora’s idea of his nation is dismantled when he sees the grim reality of the condition of the subalterns of the country,
When Gora and Binoy visit their locality on purpose of some social work they discover that Nanda has been dead. He was one of the followers of Gora and a very efficient cricket player. He was the son of a carpenter whose agility and enthusiasm was appreciated by others, “Nanda stood easily first in every kind of manly exercise.” He was the member of the Sports and Cricket Club where he mixed with the elite as well as the poor sections of the society. Nanda stands as an example of the young generation.
The novel Gora has been compared with Rudyard Kipling’s Kim many a times for the similarities of ‘in-betweenness’ seen in the characters of Gora and Kim. Both of them display a sense of cultural miscegenation but their treatment is differently done by the novelists. As far as Kim is concerned, we see him as an orphan Irish child who spends his days in India in the streets like any other poor child. Not much aware of his origin, he gradually loses his whiteness by the Indian sun and also develops the tongue of speaking like an Indian. But in Gora’s case his true identity is revealed at the end of the novel. Gora has led a life maintaining the status of a Hindu Brahmin and its culture during the times when Christian missionaries and the introduction of the Brahmo religion were coming to the forefront. His main efforts are to have an understanding of his own ‘self’ by relating to his dreams of the ‘other’ which is his country. He imagines himself to be the savior of his nation. Gora is seen on his quest to find a true sense of Patriotism and also to arrive at a fixed subjectivity. The other characters in the novel place their opinions about Gora’s nature of arriving at ‘subjectivity’. Binoy says:
Coming to the idea of modernity, it is embedded into the very narrative structure of the novel. Gora’s modernity lies in his realization that India will be a better country only if no discrimination exists among its people and he works for the wellbeing of not only the people of his own community but of all the people of his society. He regularly pays visit to all the people of his neighbourhood who belong to the lower class but after his contact with them he realizes that these people are surrounded by poverty and blind beliefs. At the same time he is also convinced that, “Our country will one day be free, that it will not remain enmeshed in superstitions and the British will not be able to carry us forever manacled at the back of their trading vessels.” Gora’s awareness of the overarching oppression of colonialism awakens him to a realization that the universal ideal of modernity will be achieved when colonial hierarchy defies marginalization and identifies with the people who are oppressed under colonial rule. In this regard one can consider the status of the middle class women who project some kind of modernity within the colonial hierarchy. The issue of modernity can be related to the character of Sucharita and Lolita but one sees how even this space is limited. In the novel we find them criticizing Gora’s conservative Hindu ideals and think themselves privileged to enjoy a more carefree life. Lolita not only violates the norms of womanliness set by her family but also refuses to participate in the event hosted by the magistrate who has put Gora in the prison. She protests and leaves for Calcutta alone with Binoy and this causes a stir in the Brahmo Samaj. She moves a step further from the constructed notion of ‘modernity’ of the Brahmo sect and projects a kind of ‘modernity’ that rejects inequalities of all kinds in a colonized country. Other incidents such as the old man who sheltered a Muslim boy and the Muslim peasant, Faru, who refused to listen to the indigo planter but instead would go to jail provided great hopes within Gora. The resistance against caste superstition and class oppression shown by the village people establishes the basis of modernity and the anti-colonial consciousness of the youths of Bengal like Gora could find some correspondence with it. This anti-colonial modernity also provides a place for the search of identity of the women like Anandamayi, Sucharita and Lolita in the novel. Anandamayi says,
Anandamayi’s decision of adopting Gora was not inspired by just an emotional call of a mother but she was fully aware of the social consequences in the future. The same can be said of Lolita who decides to live with Binoy thus dissolving the social norm and stricture placed upon a woman by the society. As far as Sucharita is concerned she thought to herself:
Gora himself emerges as a truly modern man when his real identity is revealed and he is now free from orthodoxy and conservative nature of Hinduism. He becomes liberal cosmopolitan as he declares, “Today I am really an Indian! In me there is no opposition between Hindu, Musalman and Christian. To-day every caste in India is my caste, every food is my food.” At the end of the novel, Gora sheds off his conservatism and acknowledges his mother’s love for him and her liberal attitude towards all the race and community in the society. He says to Anandamayi, “Mother, You are my mother!… You have no caste, you make no distinctions, and have no hatred….you are only the image of our welfare! It is you who are India.”
Narrative Technique in the Novel
The narrative of Gora revolves around the basic conflict between tradition and modernity, conservatism and liberalism, Hinduism and Brahmoism and so on. These conflicts are dramatised in the novel through the use of various speeches assigned to the characters, arguments and discussions. Tagore uses the third person narrator and the tension that is there in the novel is manifested through the use of double characters for example Gora and Binoy, Sucharita and Lolita. The realisation of one’s own ‘self’ is possible by relating it to the ‘other’ and the fulfilment of understanding one’s identity is achieved outside oneself, in its opposite. Irony runs throughout the narrative of Gora and the most interesting exposition of it is seen at the end of the novel where Gora loses all the aspects that characterised his early life to establish his identity, that is, the caste to which he belonged, his idea of nation, his parentage and so on. Now that his real identity is revealed he does not possess anything that marked his identity earlier but still it is now that he becomes aware of his true self and his role as an Indian. The truth of Gora’s parentage is kept as a secret and is revealed to him only at the end of the novel but ironically all his comments and ideas are coloured by this secret knowledge and perceived by the readers. The narrative of Gora basically has two main episodes, one is the struggle towards political freedom and the other is Gora’s transformation of his own self from the conservative to a liberal and free individual.
Story-board
Rabindranath Tagore: Life and works
- Born in 1861 into a renowned family, Rabindranath grew up in the heart of Calcutta.
- A collection of poems, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), secured for him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
- He excelled in various genres of art and culture and became renowned as a poet, dramatist, novelist, composer, actor, singer, editor of the Bengali literary journal (Sadhana).
- He composed more than 2000 poems and 3000 songs.
- Some of his most memorable volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890), Sonar Tari (1894), Gitanjali (1910), Gitimalya (1914) and Balaka (1916).
- Tagore’s major plays are Raja (1910), Dakghar (1912), Achalayatan (1912), Muktadhara (1922) and Raktakaravi (1926).
- He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels; among them are Chokher Bali (1903), Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916), and Yogayog (1929).
Gora
- The novel Gora (1910) deals with the period of colonial Bengal that is marked as the Bengal Renaissance.
- The novel is set in the colonial Bengal society in Kolkata which was characterised by distinctly two varied forms of religious groups.
- One was the orthodox Hindus and the other was the modernised and liberal Brahmos.
- Gora is the central character in the novel. He is an orphan who was raised by an orthodox Hindu couple.
- His main motive in life is to work for his country and his Hindu society.
- As an orthodox Hindu, he is strongly against any kind of communion with the Brahmo society.
- The realisation of his newly born feelings towards Sucharita and the shock that he derived after the revelation about his birth gradually made him lose all his rigid views.
Themes and Issues in the novel:
- One of the major themes in the novel is the introduction of a new Indian culture and the creation of a nationalist self.
- The strife towards the creation of a ‘new nation’ went hand and hand with the construction of a ‘new self’.
- The novel showcases the unique merging of the idea of Nation and Self in the pre- independence times of India.
- The narrative is structured in such a manner that we see a simultaneous quest of the hero, Gora, for his true self and for the country to which he belongs.
- In Gora, we find that the consolidation of a modern Indian culture that is non-western shows the mutual contradictions between the realm of the spiritual and the material in the spirit of nationalism.
- The theme of political freedom is recurrent in Tagore’s Gora. The idea of nationalism and patriotism is fostered in the representation of the central character of the novel, Gora, who is full of nationalist zeal like many of the other Indians during the colonial period.
- The novel highlights one of the most significant political questions, that is, the constant conflict between the ideals of the East and West.
Narrative Structure:
- The narrative of Gora revolves around the basic conflict between tradition and modernity, conservatism and liberalism, Hinduism and Brahmoism and so on.
- These conflicts are dramatised in the novel through the use of various speeches assigned to the characters, arguments and discussions.
- Tagore uses the third person narrator and the tension that is there in the novel is manifested through the use of double characters for example Gora and Binoy, Sucharita and Lolita.
- The realisation of one’s own ‘self’ is possible by relating it to the ‘other’ and the fulfilment of understanding one’s identity is achieved outside oneself, in its opposite.
- Irony runs throughout the narrative of Gora and the most interesting exposition of it is seen at the end of the novel where Gora loses all the aspects that characterised his early life to establish his identity, that is, the caste to which he belonged, his idea of nation and his parentage.
- The narrative of Gora basically has two main episodes, one is the struggle towards political freedom and the other is Gora’s transformation of his own self from the conservative to a liberal and free individual.
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Reference
- Kriplani, Krishna. Rabindranath Tagore. London: Oxford University Press, 1962
- Nandy, Ashis .The Intimate Enemy; Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986
- Rhys, Ernest. Rabindranath Tagore. London: MacMillan, 1945
- Sarkar, Sumit. A Critique of Colonial India. Calcutta: Papyrus, 1985
- Tagore, Rabindranath. Gora trans. Sujit Mukherjee, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2006
- Thomson, Edward. Rabindranath Tagore. London, Oxford University Press, 1948
- https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=1135636311
- books.google.co.in/books/about/Gora.html?id=9jifdxSPGx8C