Politics

Tagores political thought was tortuous. He opposed imperialism and supported Indian nationalists, and these views were first revealed in Manast, which was mostly composed in his twenties. Evidence produced during the Hindu German Conspiracy Trial and latter accounts affirm his awareness of the Ghadarites, and stated that he sought the support of Japanese Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake and former Premier okuma Shigenobu. Yet he lampooned the Swadeshi movement, he rebuked it in The Cult of the Charka, an acrid 1925 essay. He urged the masses to avoid victimology and instead seek self help and education, and he saw the presence of British administration as a political symptom of our social disease. He maintained that, even for those at the extremes of poverty, there can be no question of blind revolution, preferable to it was a steady and purposeful education.

Such views enraged many. He escaped assassinationand only narrowlyby Indian expatriates during his stay in a San Francisco hotel in late 1916, the plot failed when his would be assassins fell into argument. Yet Tagore wrote songs lionising the Indian independence movement Two of Tagores more politically charged compositions, Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo (Where the Mind is Without Fear) and Ekla Chalo Re (If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone), gained mass appeal, with the latter favoured by Gandhi. Though somewhat critical of Gandhian activism, Tagore was key in resolving a Gandhi Ambedkar dispute involving separate electorates for untouchables, thereby mooting at least one of Gandhis fasts unto death.