This book explores Tagore’s socio-political ideas through his novels, short stories, and essays. It looks at Tagore beyond his literary achievements and examines his notions of friendship, religion, nationalism, civilization, and knowledge. It highlights his uniquely textured and innovatively argued views on critical aspects of humanity in the tumultuous phase of Indian nationalist campaign that also witnessed a kaleidoscope of myriad ideological voices, besides the hegemonic mainstream nationalist campaign, led by Gandhi. It captures the bard’s creative ideational priorities and his attempts to radically transform the prevalent socio-economic and politico-cultural environment. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, politics, literature, and South Asian studies.

Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi constitute the key pillars of Indian nationalist thought. In this book Bidyut Chakrabarty demonstrates how Tagore and Gandhi drew on each other as they articulated their unique mode of thinking, which led to an innovative discourse. Tagore and Gandhi agreed on many ideas but also had serious differences on quite a few, for instance, on whether to support the British during the Boer War. Confluence of Thought brings out the compatibility as well as the differences in their thoughts by asserting that both of them, despite their differences in approach, are essentially informed and shaped by Western and indigenous discourses as well as by colonial rule. The chapters in the volume dwell on their views on nationalism, civilisation, religion, rural construction and religion. These ideas and arguments moulded the freedom struggle and shaped the future of a free India.

This book explores Tagore's socio-political ideas through his novels, short stories, and essays. It looks at Tagore beyond his literary achievements and examines his notions of friendship, religion, nationalism, religion, civilization and knowledge. It highlights his uniquely textured and innovatively argued views on critical aspects of humanity in the tumultuous phase of Indian nationalist campaign that also witnessed a kaleidoscope of myriad ideological voices, besides the hegemonic mainstream nationalist campaign, led by Gandhi. It captures the bard's creative ideational priorities and his attempts to radically transform the prevalent socio-economic and politico-cultural environment. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, politics, literature, and South Asian studies.

The destruction of wildlife habitats ... organized crime ... AIDS ... illiteracy ... acid rain -- these are among the 130,000 topics documented and discussed in the new edition of the Encyclopedia. But its truly unique goal is to present this complex set of issues in ways that facilitate an organized response. To this end, the book also focuses on the complex relationship between problems and society's own ideological relationship with these problems. How do human priorities and perceptions aggravate or enable problems? What are the established and alternative responses? The Encyclopedia contains over 158,000 cross-references between entries, an extensive 91,000 practical key term index, bibliographies, and full cross-referencing to the Yearbook of International Organizations. For anyone concerned with the world community, here are the means to explore and participate in today's most crucial endeavors. Volume 2, Human Potential: Transformation and Values, contains 7,700 entries reflecting a spectrum of problem-solving approaches based on such human development issues as self-learning, creativity, and modes of awareness. The volume also focuses on specific religious beliefs, value systems, and thought patterns.