The Home and the world

 Rabindranath Tagore(7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) :-

Rabindranath Tagore sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

 In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of modern India. A Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At age sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhanusi?ha , which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. He graduated to his first short stories and dramas and the aegis of his birth name—by 1877. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and strident anti nationalist he denounced the Raj and advocated independence from Britain. Asan exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy endures also in the institution he founded, Visva Bharati University Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed or panned for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: the Republic of India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla. The composer of Sri Lanka's national anthem: Sri Lanka Matha was a student of Tagore, and the song is inspired by Tagore's style.

The novel, The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore, was published in 1916 and is a metaphor for the Indian caste system in the early twentieth century. The Home and the World

The three significant characters are Nikhil, his wife Bimala, and Sandip.

Nikhil comes from a family which has both wealth and tradition. Because of his social status, he could have married a woman that has both beauty and standing. However, unlike his family, Nikhil is a man without vanity and he falls in love, and marries, Bimala who is described as having neither wealth nor beauty. When he encourages Bimala to have a life outside of the palace she joins the Swadeshi movement and meets Sandip. While Nikhil sees the relationship between Bimala and Sandip develop he doesn’t do anything to prevent it. When he realizes that Bimala has stolen from him, he forgives her. When a Swadeshi riot erupts Sandip disappears while Nikhil tries to calm things down.

Bimala, Nikhil’s wife, is a quiet woman who loves her husband very much. She is happy with the traditional life she leads. However, Nikhil feels that she needs to embrace the outer world and encourages her to join the Swadeshi movement. When she attends a rally she meets and becomes infatuated with Sandip who she invites to live with them. Sandip gets her to steal from her husband. But, when Nikhil forgives her for what she has done, she realizes that it is her husband, not Sandip, who truly loves her.

Sandip is a member of the Swadeshi movement and moves into Nikhil and Bamala’s home and makes it his headquarters. He and Bamala are attracted to one another but Sandip is a selfish man who gets her to steal from her husband. Bamala becomes a fervent follower of the Swadeshi movement due to her attraction to Sandip. However, when a Swadeshi riot breaks out, Sandip flees.

NIKHIL :-

Nikhil is a good man who prides himself on being generous and thoughtful. He is unusual in that, given the tradition and wealth of his family, he could have married a woman with both beauty and social status. However, he marries Bimala, who is not a beauty. Nikhil’s love for Bimala and marriage to her, show that he is no lover of vanity. His needs are simple.

Nikhil’s insight is not a product of his education. He embraces a contemplative life and lives according to the dictates of his own conscience. However, Nikhil’s insistence on putting thoughtfulness and kindness over rushing into brash action puts him at odds with naïve idealists who fall under the sway of Sandip’s rhetoric. Though his moral code puts him at odds with rioters and results in tragic consequences, there is reason to suspect he is at peace with the outcome.

BIMALA :-

Bimala progresses through the novel from a humble maiden who enjoys being devoted to her husband, to a capricious, unhappy woman who allows an infatuation with Sandip to bring disaster into her life. Her humble beginnings account for her relative lack of education. However, during the happy times when she wants nothing but Nikhil, she is not presented as being ignorant.

The character of Nikhil is presented without  substantial change. Bimala is the household goddess and the queen in the happy limited world of home. She is supremely blissful and joyful in her domestic world. In fact, her husband, Nikhil is absolutely modern in his views and tastes. He brings in Miss Gilby to teach Bimala and to be her companion. He did not mind the consequent criticism at home and outside for the sake of Bimala. Bimala is humble enough to admit that although she is his queen and has her seat by his side, her real joy is in taking her place at his feet. Nikhil’s greatness is in not giving Bimala any opportunity for worshipping him. Bimalais happy that she had been educated and introduced to the modern age.

Nikhil is sympathetic towards the Bara Rani. The Bara Rani is somewhat jealous. When Nikhil brings modern garments for Bimala, the Bara Rani shows wrath on Bimala. Nikhil knows all these matters. He requests Bimala to forgive the Bara Rani. Nikhil is sensitive more to the widow’s lot of the Bara Rani than to the defects in her character. Nikhil plays an important role during the new era of ‘Swadeshi’ in Bengal. The main object of the Nationalist movement is to encourage indigenous industries. Nikhil tries to teach Bimala political economy. He also tries to teach people the need of thrift. He starts a small bank. He has a long list of charities. But Sandip’s fleecing Nikhil on the pretext of ‘Swadeshi’ work annoys Bimala. It is strange that Nikhil and Sandip differ in their views. Nikhil is not in any way against ‘Swadeshi’. He is willing to serve his motherland. He reserves his worship for the Right, which was far nobler than any country. One day Sandip with his followers comes to the neighbourhood of Nikhil to propagate his ideas, aims and objectives of ‘Swadeshi’. There are shouts of ‘Bandemataram’. They thrill Bimala. She finds that the light in Sandip’s eyes do not shine true. She feels that Sandip is imposing on Nikhil’s friendship and taking advantage of him. Sandip’s bearing is not that of one sincerely devoted to a cause. Sandip is foppish. But Sandip’s speech seems wonderful to Bimala. He seems to her like a messenger from the Gods to the mortal men and women. Suddenly, she fees that she is no longer the Raja’s lady but the sole representative of Bengal’s womanhood and that Sandip is the Champion of Bengal. She says to herself that his language had caught fire from her eyes. A beginning of sudden change in her character is noticeable here.

CONCLUSION

Tagore’s The Home and the World is a novel with political background and it is about the partition of Bengal in 1905. Yet, it is a fictional work consisting of characters that have individuality of their own. The translation of the novel from Bengali into English is approved by Tagore himself.