Identity,Nationalism and East-West Synthesis:A Thematic Analysis of Rabindranath Tagore's GORA

The inception of this dissertation, "Identity, Nationalism, and East-West Synthesis: AThematicAnalysisofRabindranath Tagore’s Gora," wasborn out ofa fascination with the fluid nature of "belonging." In an era where the definitions of nationhood and identitare increasinglycontested,returningtoTagore’s1910magnumopusfeltnotmerelylikea literaryexercise,butamodernnecessity.Tagore’sGoraismorethanacolonial-eranovel.it isaprofoundphilosophicalinquiryintothesoulofIndiaand itsplaceintheworld.My interest in this subject was deepened during my graduate studies, where I began to see the striking parallels between the "Brahmo Orthodox" debates of the early 20th century and contemporary global discourses on multiculturalism. This study seeks to deconstruct the character of Gora— moving from his initial rigid, "hyper nationalist" stance to his eventual realization of a "universal humanity." The process of analyzing this synthesis required navigatingtheintricatelayersofTagore’sownevolvingphilosophyonVishwa-Bharati (GlobalCommunion).Iamdeeplyindebtedtomysupervisor,Mr.RajeshKumarYadav, whose insights into Post Colonial literature provided the compass I needed when lost in the vastness of Tagore’s thought. It is my hope that this work contributes to a deeper understanding of how Tagore envisioned a world "where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls."