Rabindranath Tagore and Music in the Age of Nationalism

Rabindranath Tagore and Music in the Age of Nationalism explores the political, social, cultural, and emotional history of Bengal, focusing on the development of modern Bengali subjectivity. The unifying theme is Rabindranath Tagore's creative and critical progress, highlighting his influence on modern Bengali culture and Indian music. The book employs modern critical theory and musicological methodologies to examine the interaction of music with significant developments in Bengali, Indian, and European life during colonial modernity and anti-colonial nationalism. It investigates Tagore's music and musicology through intertextual engagement with his other arts and activism, various music traditions, and the works of his contemporaries. The study traces the evolution of Tagore's music towards a personal secular religion and explores its implications for his pluralist nationalism, rural reconstruction, cooperative movement, and alternative pedagogy. It critiques the mechanical ethics of nationalist biopolitics, suggesting Tagore's music contributes to an alternative Indian modernity.