Tagore’s nationalism-and Premchand’s: A complementary comparison

Abstract

Tagore’s resolute opposition to nationalism is widely known but it is not often acknowledged that in contrast, most of his contemporary writers in the Indian languages were passionate supporters of Gandhi and the Indian national struggle for freedom. This is illustrated here through referencing the life and works of Premchand, who was as eminent a writer in Hindi as Tagore was in Bengali and who found Tagore’s writings a little too emotional and ‘feminine’ for his liking.