Tagore, Imaging the ‘Other’: Reflections on The Wife’s Letter & Kabuliwala

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore in his Nobel Prize Acceptance speech said poignantly, “The spirit of India has always proclaimed the ideal of unity…. It comprehends all, and it has been the highest aim of our spiritual exertion to be able to penetrate all things with one soul…to comprehend all things with sympathy and love.” This ideal of a humanitarian world found expression in Tagore’s work in many genres and, to a great measure, he experimented innovatively by entering the minds of people substantially different from himself. The essay looks into his portrayal of a married Bengali woman and an Afghan trader in two short stories.

Keywords

• Tagore
• gender
• race
• women
• marriage
• child