How does a 100 year old novel predicts every modern political crisis?
A summary and analysis of Tagore's "The Home and The World".
In 1916, while Europe was tearing itself apart in the Great War and the seeds of fascism were still germinating in back rooms and beer halls, Rabindranath Tagore published a novel that might as well have been written yesterday. "The Home and The World" features a charismatic revolutionary who promises simple solutions to complex problems, manipulates divisions for political gain, and seduces rational people into abandoning their principles; sound familiar?
Spoiler alert: authoritarian populists haven't changed their playbook in over a century.
Set against the backdrop of colonial Bengal, Tagore crafted one of the most prescient political novel ever written, predicting not just the rise of authoritarianism, but the exact psychological mechanisms that make smart, educated people hand over their agency to strongmen. The terrifying part? We're still falling for the same tricks over a century later.
The novel was read and analyzed as part of a reading project under Prof. Usha Mahadevan.
The novel can be consumed as a Penguin Classic, as an audiobook narrated by either Siddharth Arora or Deepti Gupta and as a Criterion collection film by Satyajit Ray. I have consumed it mainly as a book.
Historical Notes
Let’s just quickly review (or learn, for the non-Indian readers) some colonial Indian history.
The ‘great’ Britain being a small rainy island with more debt than landmass with a perpetually understaffed army never wanted a straight fight. This led to the policy of “Divide and Rule”. In 19th century Bengal, this took the shape of exploiting the religious differences in Hindus and Muslims.
Hinduism and Islam are religions with stark differences. Hinduism, with its polytheistic pantheon, accepts multiple gods and multiple paths to the divine. On the other hand, Islam, with its strict monotheism, demands singular devotion to Allah and uniform practice across its followers.
These differences weren't just theological abstractions; they manifested in everyday life through marriage customs, dietary practices, and social hierarchies. While Hindus and Muslims had coexisted for centuries through practical accommodations and shared cultural practices, a lot of rulers (irrespective of religions) had built their empires by exploiting these differences. The British were also one of them, and perhaps the most successful (considering the British Empire in India started from Bengal and lasted for two centuries).
“The Home and The World”, set in 1908 and published in 1916, references the partition of Bengal into East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and West Bengal (now a state in India of the same name) by Viceroy Curzon. The former had a Muslim majority and the latter a Hindu majority. This religious division became the forerunner to the partition where India was divided into India and Pakistan on the basis of religion.
While the official reason given by the crown was ‘administrative reorganization’, it is universally believed to be false. While I shall not partake in this speculation, I think you will be able to guess the official one from the summary of the text.
This had caused religious tensions to reach a boiling point with riots breaking out every once in a while.
This had clashed with the reforms in the education system. There was the creation of formal schooling systems in India(with Wood’s dispatch in 1854 and a lot of Indian education acts being passed in support of the dispatch) as well as Indians gaining higher education in Britain as the universities there started accepting Indians. On the other hand, the Orientalists (British who wanted the Indians to be educated through Indian works and ways of living) were gaining steam as the Asiatic Society of Bengal and the journal called Asiatick Researches became prominent. There was also the presence of the third faction, missionaries, who were establishing their own Christian schools (called Convents) as well as Christian colleges.
Many of these institutions still exist. Christian Medical College in Vellore is one of India’s top medicine institutes. A lot of the convent schools still stand and ‘Convent educated’ is taken to be synonymous with well educated, well spoken and well read. The standardization of Indian education with the European standards allowed Indians to go to prestigious universities like Cambridge and served as the foundation for Indian institutes like ISIs(Indian Statistical Institute) and IITs(Indian Institute of Technology). The Oriental institutes evolved into presidency colleges and laid the foundation for Indian arts and humanities and are the reason a lot of texts and works penned by regional authors were published and preserved, which would otherwise be lost.
This was leading to Indians getting more aware of the world around them, and wanting to find their place. While there were supporters of all three approaches to education, a middle ground was hard to find given the passionate, intelligent and well read people in each of the camps.
Finally, as the industrial revolution came, Indian markets were flooded with cheap, machine-made, British goods. This caused immense losses to Indian handicrafts. A very common story about this time is Warren Hastings, then governer-general of India, had ordered soldiers to offer the Indian craftsmen a hefty sum of money in exchange for cutting off their thumbs. This was done to allow British goods to flourish. He believed that once the Indians saw the prices of the machine made goods, what would these craftsmen even do with their thumbs?
But as it turns out this was a manufactured claim which was created during the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings. After a lengthy trial lasting over 7 years, with 148 appearances, he was unanimously cleared and acquitted. Those who made the allegations included MPs such as E. Burke and C.J Fox who were opposed to Hastings because he was a key ally of the Prime Minister William Pitt. Whilst we can’t say definitely that Hastings was innocent of all the charges I think the fact that his accusers were based in London and were his political opponents speaks volumes as does the fact that he was able to get plenty of people who were in India at that time, both Indians and Europeans, to speak in his defence.
An effect of this were the Swadeshi movements. These movements sought to persuade people to give up the use of machine made cloth and use the handcrafted ones instead.
The main failure of such movements was their practicality or lack thereof. Most Indians (or people in general) couldn’t afford handcrafted white cotton clothes. After all, for a long time, white clothing was a symbol of wealth across the globe. Once machine-made clothes made this status accessible and also helped reduce many hygiene-related diseases; it was simply not possible to go back.
With the history lesson out of the way, let’s begin with “The Home and The World” by Rabindranath Tagore.
Summary
The book revolves around(and is narrated by) three characters, Bimla, Nikhil and Sandip, against the backdrop of modernism, imperialism and nationalism all coming to colonial Bengal.
Bimla is a devoted wife to Nikhil, who is a foreign-educated nobleman. While Bimla has backward views, Nikhil is progressive and wants Bimla to leave the house and live her life to the fullest. This is the contrast of the home and the world at the crux of this book.
Sandip is a revolutionary. He is a powerful orator who is pushing the swadeshi movement. Sandip believes that the world is a jungle and only the animals who can snatch and hunt will survive. Hence, India must snatch what is its right, irrespective of any ethics or collateral.
While Nikhil is funding Sandip, he doesn't completely agree with Sandip's world view. This irks Bimla, who thus forms a negative opinion of Sandip.
The main story starts when Bimla, on Nikhil's urging, steps out of the house and attends a talk by Sandip. In this talk, we see Bimla convinced of Sandip's ideas. She eventually decides to invite Sandip for dinner which Nikhil is fine with(as he believes she is an equal in the household and should get to call over guests she pleases).
Over the dinner, in an uncharacteristic display of autonomy, we see Bimla side with Sandip in almost all discussions and is called a goddess by him in return. Sandip decides to make Nikhil's home his headquarters and Bimla his muse.
Nikhil doesn't mind. While he is afraid of Sandip wooing away his wife, he believes the ultimate choice is Bimla's to make. On the other hand, we see Sandip becoming more and more infatuated with Bimla. Sandip decides love, attraction or attachment is a sign of weakness and decides to ascertain his power over Bimla.
All this is in parallel with Nikhil refusing to ban foreign goods in his territory as he believes they are more affordable for the common man who can't afford swadeshi, Sandip starts forming gangs to snatch foreign goods seen in public, and to attack or sink foreign shipments. These gangs are religious in nature and often target people of other faiths.
What follows are a bunch of manipulations by an increasingly lawless Sandip leading to Bimla stealing jewellery from her own house 'for the sake of the nation'. Sandip runs off from the town just before the riots break. While communal divisions existed, the riots erupted due to these gang activities hurting the economic state of the citizens and each religion blaming the other for the hardships.
Nikhil goes to stop a shop from being looted in these riots and returns on a stretcher with an injury to the head, with the doctor declaring it a 'serious matter'. The fate of Nikhil is left for the reader to decide.
Analysis
While I am not a big fan of Rabindranath Tagore's writing style, I feel that his personal opinions bleed out rather too profusely throughout the text; I feel this story is remains relevant in today's political climate as well. While many interpretations can be made and many parallels drawn, I feel a simple one would be that Bimla is the commoner in tumultuous times, and Nikhil represents a reasoned, progressive centrism grounded in individual agency and ethical action, while Sandip embodies a populist, authoritarian nationalism that thrives on emotional appeal and divisive rhetoric.
Bimla, with her newly afforded freedom and responsibility of saving the nation, is confused. While Nikhil tries to help her, reason with her, even educate her by hiring a tutor; she is expected to make up her own mind and come to her own conclusions and take her own actions. Although Sandip offers a much simpler choice, "just agree with me and follow my lead, and I promise I will solve all your problems."
We are seeing a lot of nations vote for increasingly dictatorial politicians as the consequences of free markets and unchecked capitalism have come home to roost, For example, South Korea's President tried and failed to impose martial law on 3rd Dec last year, Trump winning the election and filling the cabinet with incompetent cronies, France’s government’s collapse and the right party gaining votes, Germany’s increase in support for the far-right party, Hungary almost electing a Hitler sympathiser over a leading number theorist among others.
The common person wants to use their freedom, but they don't want the outcomes of doing so to be their responsibility. This is what makes Sandip so captivating. He offers you an opportunity to switch off your mind and still use your freedom.
While the story predates the proto-fascist parties of Bengal, the cracks were visible. A lot of Nazi-like ideals could be seen in Bengal either with respect to Hindus or Muslims. These were further intensified after Curzon's partition of Bengal and growing unrest with the British. Colliding with the effects of education and modernisation finally hitting Bengali society, this book serves as a PSA urging the common man not to abandon rational thought over the promises of an 'I will fix everything' leader and what the ill effects might be in doing so (incurring economic loss and personal tragedy, both of which struck Bimla).
Conclusion
Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and The World is a hauntingly prophetic novel that exposes the timeless allure of authoritarian populism and its devastating consequences.
A century later, and Sandip’s playbook remains eerily unchanged: simplify complex problems, stoke resentment, offer a ‘one size fits all solution’, discredit and dismantle peacekeeping and power balancing institutions and offer the lie that freedom can exist without responsibility.
This is perhaps the most unsettling fact as the playbook still works. The question is not if we will face another charismatic authoritarian promising simple solutions to complex problems, because we will. The question if we will recognize the pattern when we see it, or will we let our self be convinced ourselves that this time is different.
Maybe the real tragedy of this story is the fact that we have read the book, seen the ending, and yet keep living it on repeat.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Unknown, often attributed to Edmund Burke
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin
“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” - George Bernard Shaw
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