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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.

Rabindranath Tagore, an icon of humanism and universalism who always privileged India's argumentative traditions, remains a source of inspiration for humanity. However, Tagore's social and political ideas appear to have received inadequate attention presumably because of the hegemonic influence of derivative Western ideas and thoughts. This is where Tagore stands out, not only as a poet but also a visionary who charted a course of action in tune with human betterment, cutting across all kinds of man-made barriers and customary restrictive social, economic and political practices. Socio-political Thought of Rabindranath Tagore presents a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the socio-political, socio-economic and ideological preference of Tagore, with emphasis on nationalistic, inclusive and gender development ideas. It shows that Tagore's socio-political ideas continue to remain relevant not merely as a package for intellectual rejuvenation but also as a meaningful device for socio-economic transformation for the world.

The Ideological Condition is a feminist critique of ideology as a barrier to self and social transformation. Himani Bannerji explores the problematic of praxis by connecting forms of consciousness and politics. We see how people make history in spite of hegemony.

This volume is the first comprehensive exploration of Rabindranath Tagore’s works on education and pedagogy. It presents a valuable account of the creation of Santiniketan and Visva-Bharati, Tagore’s vision of social regeneration, and his rejection of the colonial scheme; while reflecting on significant events of his life and his ideas. The book evaluates Tagore’s unique contribution to education and discusses his views on fundamental issues, such as aim, method, discipline, and medium. It reinforces for readers today the relevance of his experiments and activities in the field of education. Drawing from various sources, the book also offers bibliographic information on Tagore’s writing on education. This new edition with a new Introduction and Foreword will be of immense value to educationists, teachers, policymakers, and those interested in modern Indian history and the philosophy of education.

A new history of French social thought that connects postwar sociology to colonialism and empire In this provocative and original retelling of the history of French social thought, George Steinmetz places the history and development of modern French sociology in the context of the French empire after World War II. Connecting the rise of all the social sciences with efforts by France and other imperial powers to consolidate control over their crisis-ridden colonies, Steinmetz argues that colonial research represented a crucial core of the renascent academic discipline of sociology, especially between the late 1930s and the 1960s. Sociologists, who became favored partners of colonial governments, were asked to apply their expertise to such “social problems” as detribalization, urbanization, poverty, and labor migration. This colonial orientation permeated all the major subfields of sociological research, Steinmetz contends, and is at the center of the work of four influential scholars: Raymond Aron, Jacques Berque, Georges Balandier, and Pierre Bourdieu. In retelling this history, Steinmetz develops and deploys a new methodological approach that combines attention to broadly contextual factors, dynamics within the intellectual development of the social sciences and sociology in particular, and close readings of sociological texts. He moves gradually toward the postwar sociologists of colonialism and their writings, beginning with the most macroscopic contexts, which included the postwar “reoccupation” of the French empire and the turn to developmentalist policies and the resulting demand for new forms of social scientific expertise. After exploring the colonial engagement of researchers in sociology and neighboring fields before and after 1945, he turns to detailed examinations of the work of Aron, who created a sociology of empires; Berque, the leading historical sociologist of North Africa; Balandier, the founder of French Africanist sociology; and Bourdieu, whose renowned theoretical concepts were forged in war-torn, late-colonial Algeria.

This book looks at Rabindranath Tagore’s, experiments and journey as an educator and the influence of humanistic worldviews, nationalism and cosmopolitanism in his philosophy of education. It juxtaposes the educational systems and institutions set up by the British colonial administration with Tagore’s pedagogical vision and schools in Santiniketan, West Bengal—Brahmacharya Asram (1901), Visva-Bharati University (1921) and Sriniketan Institute of Village Reconstruction (1922). An educational pioneer and a poet-teacher, Tagore combined nature and culture, tradition and modernity, East and West, in formulating his educational methodology. The essays in this volume analyse the relevance of his theories and practice in encouraging greater cultural exchange and the dissolution of the walls between classrooms and communities. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of education, Tagore studies, literature, cultural studies, sociology of education, South Asian studies and colonial and postcolonial studies.

What is fascism? Is it an anomaly in the history of modern Europe? Or its culmination? In Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism, Michael Ortiz makes the case that fascism should be understood, in part, as an imperial phenomenon. He contends that the Age of Appeasement (1935-1939) was not a titanic clash between rival socio-political systems (fascism and democracy), but rather an imperial contest between satisfied and unsatisfied empires. Historians have long debated the extent to which Western imperialisms served as ideological and intellectual precursors to European fascisms. To date, this scholarship has largely employed an “inside-out” methodology that examines the imperial discourses that pushed fascist regimes outward, into Africa, Asia, and the Americas. While effective, such approaches tend to ignore the ways in which these places and their inhabitants understood European fascisms. Addressing this imbalance, Anti-Colonialism adopts an “outside-in” approach that analyses fascist expansion from the perspective of Indian anti-colonialists such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Bose, and Mohandas Gandhi. Seen from India, the crises of Interwar fascism-the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Munich Agreement, and the outbreak of the Second World War-were yet another eruption of imperial expansion analogous (although not identical) to the Scramble for Africa and the Treaty of Versailles. Whether fascist, democratic, or imperialist, Europe's great powers collectively negotiated the fate of smaller nations.