Contributed articles on Ghare baire, Bengali novel, and its English translation, The home and the world.

Combining two classic texts by Rabindranath Tagore, this special edition features a new Introduction by eminent scholar Sugata Bose. Nationalism is based on Tagore's lectures, warning the world of the disasters of narrow sectarianism and xenophobia. Home and the World is a classic novel, exploring the ever-relevant themes of nationalism, violent revolution and women's emancipation.

The Home and the World illustrates the battle between the ideas of Western culture and revolution against the Western culture in India. These two ideas are portrayed in two of the main characters, Nikhil, who is rational and opposes violence, and Sandip, who will let nothing stand in his way from reaching his goals. These two opposing ideals are very important in understanding the history of the Bengal region and its contemporary problems. The novel is set in early 20th century India. The story line coincides with the National Independence Movement taking place in the country at the time, which was sparked by the Indian National Congress.

Rabindranath Tagore's Ghare Baire was first serialised in 1914 and published as a novel in 1916. The events in the novel deal with the period 1905-7, a period of tremendous political unrest in Bengal. The public upheaval takes place alongside another revolution that of women's emancipation and a new gender equation. Ghare Bhaire (The Home and the World) is the first fictional exploration of the tangled web of crucial issues related to the two spheres, the home and the world, in early twentieth century Bengal. Towards Freedom is a collection of critical essays on the issues raised by Tagore's novel in a contemporary world where differences of religion, region, class, caste, gender, etc., constantly demand to be addressed. It focuses upon the crafting of the novel out of complex historical contexts of caste, class and gender politics. By examining the play of ideologies in this novel, the anthology aims to help students recognise the importance of locating imaginative literature within its histories. Given that most of these structured hierarchies of oppression function powerfully in our lives even today, Towards Freedom stresses the continuing relevance of engaging with the issues raised by a novel which looks at the private and the political as intertwined.

Big new changes in the British electoral system - devolved assemblies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, proportional representation for the European parliament and the direct election of London's Mayor - have all been introduced since the last general election in 1997, and others may be on the way. They are described and discussed by Dick Leonard, a leading political journalist and former MP, and Roger Mortimore, a senior opinion pollster, in this completely revised and updated edition of the standard work on British elections.

This volume of 22 essays spans a wide trajectory, foregrounding the texts of Tagore and Tagore as text. The Tagorean spirit that makes the bard so relevant in the 21st century forms the basis of this compilation. Tagore's travels to various parts of the world, his reception and response to diverse cultures, his scepticism about the rigid parameters of nationalism all establish the perception that Tagore was remarkably at home in the world. Tagore's concern was with life, play and contingency-with the momentary as well as the eternal. It is this strain of unacknowledged modernism and life-affirming vision that make his work powerful. A believer in freedom of the individual, creative freedom and freedom of all, his words are as pertinent in today's context as they were in his time. This volume analyses how the constrictions of the specificities of place, location and geographies have always been interrogated by Tagore for whom space was a defining trope. With contributions from some leading Tagore experts both from India and abroad, this volume enables us to re-read Tagore as a messenger of world harmony and peace.

A unique autobiography that provides an incomparable insight into the mind of a genius The Renaissance man of modern India, Rabindranath Tagore put his country on the literary map of the world when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. My Life in My Words is, quite literally, Tagore on Tagore. Uma Das Gupta draws upon the vast repertoire of Tagore’s writings to create a vivid portrait of the life and times of one of India’s most influential cultural icons. The result is a rare glimpse into the world of Tagore: his family of pioneering entrepreneurs who shaped his worldview; the personal tragedies that influenced some of his most eloquent verse; his groundbreaking work in education and social reform; his constant endeavour to bring about a synthesis of the East and the West and his humanitarian approach to politics; and his rise to the status of an international poet. Meticulously researched and sensitively edited, this unique autobiography provides an incomparable insight into the mind of a genius.

The Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - 'the Indian Goethe', as Albert Schweitzer called him - was not only the foremost poet and playwright of modern India, but one of its most profound and influential thinkers. Kalyan Sen Gupta's book is the first comprehensive introduction to Tagore's philosophical, socio-political and religious thinking. Drawing on Rabindranath's poetry as well as his essays, and against the background theme of his deep sensitivity to the holistic character of human life and the natural world, Sen Gupta explores the wide range of Tagore's thought. His idea of spirituality, his reflections on the significance of death, his educational innovations and his relationship to his great contemporary, Gandhi, are among the topics that Sen Gupta discusses - as are Tagore's views on marriage, his distinctive understanding of Hinduism, and his prescient concerns for the natural environment. The author does not disguise the tensions to be found in Tagore's writings, but endorses the great poet's own conviction that these are tensions resolvable at the level of a creative life, if not at that of abstract thought.

Nobel Prize-winning author Rabindranath Tagore’s most ambitious work Gora unfolds against the vast, dynamic backdrop of Bengal under British rule, a divided society struggling to envisage an emerging nation. It is an epic saga of India’s nationalist awakening, viewed through the eyes of one young man, an orthodox Hindu who defines himself against the British colonialist culture and finds himself approaching his nationalist identity through the prism of organized religion. First published in 1907, Gora questions the dogmas and presuppositions inherent in nationalist thought like few books have dared to do. This new, lucid and vibrant translation brings the complete and unabridged text of the classic to a new generation of readers, underlining its contemporary relevance.