1st Edition
Pedagogy as Politics in Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan Ashram
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The slippery slopes
Sources
Method
The concepts as discussed in the chapters
a) Swadeshbhakti through dharmashiksha
b) Mukti for humanity
c) ‘Manush’ versus identity
1 Tagore’s ideas on education: Comparing Santiniketan ashram with the Kanya Mahavidyalay and the Dawn Society
Discontent with education in India
Education as a sociopolitical category
Educational reform movements in India
The importance of the ashram in alternative education initiatives
The ‘ashram’ within the debates of the ‘social’ versus the ‘political’
The Kanya Mahavidyalay and the Dawn Society in comparison with Santiniketan
Tagore’s ideas on education
Conclusion
2 Santiniketan ashram’s political context: Swadeshi Bengal of the early twentieth century
Tagore’s political context
a) Bankim’s influence on the Swadeshi movement vis-à-vis Tagore’s distance from him
b) Tagore and the Brahmo Samaj: overlaps and disagreements
c) Tagore and the national movement: association and withdrawal
The nation versus the village: Tagorean samaj
Tagore and boycott: education’s association with politics
Swaraj for the nation and Mukti for humanity: Tagore’s views
The Santiniketan ashram and Swadeshi Bengal
Conclusion
3 Dharmashiksha and swadeshbhakti at the Santiniketan ashram
‘Dharma,’ ‘Jivan Devata,’ and the ‘guru’ at Santiniketan
The practice of ‘spirituality’ in the ashram as distinguished from religious instruction
Dharmashiksha and Tapovan
Swadeshbhakti as Tagore’s alternative to nationalism
Conclusion
4 Mukti versus swaraj: Freedom at the Santiniketan ashram
Mukti as Tagore’s ideal
Education and freedom
Freedom through the pedagogical practices of the ashram
Chhatraswaraj versus Chhatrashashantantra: freedom versus obedience to discipline
Compromises on freedom
Conclusion
5 Conquering ethnic identities: Manush as Tagore’s notion of unique individuals at the Santiniketan ashram
Tagore’s notion of Manush/‘supreme person(s)’
Tagore’s opposition to ‘identity’
Tagore’s distance from his ‘bhadralok’ background
Institutionalising ‘personality’ at the Santiniketan ashram
Manush as relational personality: Tagore the exemplar
Conclusion
Concluding remarks
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Ankita Banerjee holds a doctoral degree in history from King’s College London, UK. She obtained her MPhil and Master’s from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Her research interests span South Asian History, intellectual history of the Global South, history of education, and history of civilisations.
