SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL.

8, ISSUE 8, AUGUST 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24113/ijellh.v8i8.10732

Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World [Ghare Bhaire]: A

P.V. Laxmiprasad

Satavahana University

Karimnagar, Telangana, India

[email protected]

Abstract

Tagore’s novel Ghare Bhaire has historical significance when we look at it from nationalistic

perspective. The Swadeshi movement predominantly began with the partition of Bengal by the

Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon in 1905 and continued up to 1911. This was precisely the most

successful of the Pre- Gandhian movements. MK Gandhi strategically focused on Swadeshi who

described it as the Soul of Swaraj (Self-rule). The movement was officially announced on 7

August, 1905 at the famous Calcutta Town Hall, in Bengal. Later, this was used to boycott all the

British goods in the country. The spirit of the movement was to use goods produced in India and

burning of British–made goods. Swadeshi movement paved the way to the successive

movements such as Satyagraha movement and Non-Cooperation movement. Written against the

backdrop of the partition of Bengal by the British in 1905, Home and the World (Ghare Bhaire)

by Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate, is a telling portrayal of the chasms inherent in the

nationalist movement. Any movement by people is particularly interesting and a movement such

as Swadeshi movement holds special significance in the history of Indian Freedom Struggle.

Swadeshi was a clarion call to rebel against the imported goods. In the words of Anita Desai, the

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noted Indo-English novelist, “Home and the World” has the complexity and tragic dimensions of

Tagore’s own time and ours”. Readers are reminded that Tagore protested the Jallianwallah

Bagh massacres and rejected the knighthood honour. He set himself an example by leading the

country against the oppressions. His patriotism finds literary expression in the novel “Ghare

Bhaire” Where Swadeshi Movement dominates the collection.

Keyword: Nationalism, Patriotism, Swadeshi, Partition, Boycott

In the introduction to ‘Ghare Bhaire’, Swagato Ganguly writes that “The Vande

Mataram” (Hail Mother Land) slogan that is strewn through “Home and the world” is the name

of a hymn the first appeared in Anandmath, and subsequently became the marseillaise of the

Indian nationalist Movement (X-Introduction to Ghare Bhaire)

Swadeshi Agitators organized boycotts of foreign goods, chiefly textiles, and made

occasional bonfires of them. Nikhilesh, the protagonist, observes that “Sobriety needs to

manifest itself” Today all our needs are linked to those of the world”. It resonates with the

swadeshi versus globalization debates in the country today. At this point, the wave of swadeshi

swept through the country side. The young boys who went to school or college in Calcutta,

came back for the holidays. They appointed sandip as their chief and wholeheartedly lent

themselves to the task of spreading the swadeshi message. One of the boys said, “You will have

to ban foreign threads and clothes from the suksayar market” (Home and the world – 107)

At this, Chandanath Babu overrode what others were saying. He remarked that, “The

country is not just this land and soil, it is also the people. Have you ever bothered to spare these

people a second glance? Today, suddenly you have woken up to the fact that you must decide

what they’d eat and what they’d wear. Why should we tolerate that and why should we let them

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tolerate that and why should we let them tolerate that? They replied, “But we ourselves have

taken to indigenous salt, sugar and cloth.” (Home and the World – 107-108).

There were heated dialogues in the novel among the students and ex-professors who

argued for and against the Swadeshi Movement. But, Chandranath Babu in dissident tone and

rebellious voice said “Moreover even those who have taken the vow seem more intent on

causing havoc. You would like to force the uninitiated to buy the thread, weave the cloth and

also buy the fabric. By what means? By force and the use of the Zamindar’s henchmen and their

lathis. In other words, the vow is yours, but the ordinary people are the ones who will fast and

you will celebrate that fasting” (Home and the world – 109) one finds that there are supporters,

agitators and rebels for and against the swadeshi movement. There were people who backed and

rebelled. Dissidence and distrust made them rebellious. Endless debates continued among the

students of different disciplines. It was a typical zamindari swadeshi movement that Tagore

largely referred to in the novel.

An account of Zarmindari’s aggression (Harish Kund) and subsequent fining of panchu is

found in his outbursts: “he sold foreign cloth. He went to the Zamindar and fell at his feet saying

that he had bought this cloth with money taken on loan and once these were sold off, he would

never do such a thing again. The Zamindar said, “Impossible”. Burn the cloth in front of me and

only then will I let you go”. Panchu couldn’t take it. He shouted, “I cannot afford it, I am poor;

You have enough. Why don’t you buy the cloth and then burn it? “At this, the Zamindar flared

up and said. “You bastard, your tongue wags too much–give him the shoe”. One round of

humiliation followed and then he was fined a hundred rupees”. These are the kind that follow

sandip around, shouting Vande Mataram” (Home and the World – 110)

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While Nikhilesh’s nationalism is idiosyncratically indigenous, Sandip’s nationalism is of

foreign import. In the comments of Swagato Ganguly, “Sandip’s nationalism is a foreign import,

and he refers to west sex manuals while pursuing Bimala. Tagore underlines Sandip’s duplicity

as a swadeshi leader by having Nikhilesh point out that he keeps three shelves full of western

medicines in his living room, even as he claims to Bimala that he relies exclusively on

indigenous Ayurvedic medicine in treating his ailments. But, Nikhilesh and Chandranath would

have it, then there is a certain sort of nationalism here, an implicit brawn man’s burden. And

indeed, Nikhilesh cultivates his own brand of Swadeshi in the novel : he writes with a quill,

reads by lamplight, keeps indigenously manufactured furniture in his living room, and sponsors

swadeshi enterprises on his estate, But his version of Swadeshi is marked by sobriety and self-

control, and he draws the line at coercising those who don’t wish to participate. His anti-

imperialist strategy is not so much to oust the foreign ruler, as to ignore his existence” (Swagato

Ganguly – Introduction to Home and the World – 12)

What the readers particularly find in Nikhilesh is that he dresses his wife in western

fashions, and hires a British tutor to educate her. Bimala’s dress, her demeanor and her English

tutor have been considered ‘transgressive’ by the rest of the family members. Sandip’s duplicity

of nationalism is how Tagore describes : “The truth we need to formulate. Many lies are needed

to make the truth just as many illusions are needed to make the world. Those who have come

into this world solely to create, they do not accept truth, they formulate it”.

(Home and the world – 111)

Bimala’s comments on Swadeshi Movement are note-worthy here in the context of

growing interest for self-made goods. “Listen, in all of Bengal our market is the only one

stocking foreign cloth; does it look good? “I asked, “What will be the best thing to do? Why

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don’t you tell them to throw those-things away? But those things do not belong to me” But the

market is yours”. Why can’t they buy it, but if they buy indigenous goods? I’d be happy if they

do buy it, but if they don’t What? How can they dare to? I don’t have much time. What is the

point of arguing over this? I cannot bring over this? I cannot bring myself to exploit people”.

“The exploitation is not for your gain, it’s for the sake of the country” (Home and the world -

114-115)

There were real differences between Sandip and Nikhilesh about patriotism. But the

words that Bimala spoke in the name of movement were coming from Sandip’s mouth and not

from a greater idea. Bimala followed sandip in every spoken word. Eventually, Nikhilesh felt

that he would have to fight with those shadows that lay emaciated, tired and blinded by

ignorance on the one hand, and on the other hand that had thrived on the blood of the poor.

Realization dawns on Nikhilesh : “Today I felt I shall be a winner. I stand on the straight road; I

can see everything clearly. I have been freed and I have also freed – my salvation lies where my

world is. Oh truth, save me, help me. Don’t let me go back to that fake world of illusions and

artifice”. (Home and the world – 117)

While critically evaluating the drawing-rooms of both Nikhilesh and Sandip, Swagato

Ganguly rightly observes: “In terms of the cartography of the Swadeshi self of the house hold,

particularly its inner chambers where the women reside, is the bastion of tradition and expresses

one’s cultural core, whereas one ventures outside to meet the world. The drawing-room, as

Sandip points out, is an “ambiguous space, neither indoors nor outdoors”. It is where home

meets the world. Nikhilesh has important European guests over, but he makes it a point to

decorate his drawing room with Swadeshi objects, preferring a common brass pot over an

expensive European vase. When queried by Bimala about his choice, Nikhilesh tells her “my

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brass pot is as un-self conscious as these flowers. But yours foreign flower vase doggedly lets

you know that it is vase”. (Swagato Ganguly - Introduction to Home and the world – 14-15)

The Swadeshi formula implies that the indigenous is substituted herewith the homely and the

organic, while the foreign vase represents mechanical artifice.

To conclude the paper, I reckon that Rabindranath Tagore thoroughly deals with the

complexities and tragic dimensions of his own time in Home and the World (Ghare Bhaire). As

he was passionately attracted by the Swadeshi movement in the days of freedom struggle, he

presented those burning issues from his tripolar characters like Nikhilesh, Sandip and Bimala.

While Sandip decidedly looks at the west, the other Nikhilesh deals with the Swadeshi from the

Zamindar aristocratic family background. Of course, there were incidents for and against the

movement. There was a bulk of support and rebellion. Yet, the events portrayed that Home

meets the world towards the end. Truly, the novel is a mirror of its age so far as the concerns

and the relevancies are considered.

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Works Cited

Tagore, Rabindranath. Home and the World (Ghare Bhaire) Tra. Sreejata Guha, New Delhi

:Penguin Books India. 2005 Print.

Ganguly, Swagato. “Introduction”. Home and the World. ( Ghare Bhaire). 12-15. Print.

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