Amit Shah’s recent visit to Shantiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore’s home, sparked yet another debate on the BJP’s attempt to appropriate the Nobel laureate, considered to be one of the greatest Bengalis. The BJP’s desperate attempt to appropriate Tagore, in the wake of upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, is not a recent or standalone phenomenon. It is a part of the BJP and RSS’s well thought out strategy to popularise and strengthen Hindutva politics in Bengal.
Tagore had an uneasy relationship with the Hindutva ideology. His philosophy was incompatible with the ideas espoused by the votaries of Hindutva. While the RSS is an organisation build upon the idea of Nationalism, Tagore criticised the concept, calling it an ‘evil epidemic’ and ‘brotherhood of hooliganism.’
For the RSS, the Indian Nation is an organic product of 5000 years of History, but for Tagore, a ‘Nation’ was a machine devoid of soul, trampling under its tread the very essence of being a Human.
The Hindutva ideology and Tagore stand opposed to each other on the ideas of religious tolerance and diversity, too. In 2017, the RSS affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, headed by Dina Nath Batra, recommended the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to make changes in its textbooks. One of them included the removal Rabindranath Tagore’s thoughts on Nationalism.
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