Tagore and Revolutionary Violence: Why the sanction to “burn” is not given

Gangeya Mukherji

This paper will seek to examine some of the ideas which could possibly seem to emerge from a discussion of Tagore’s position on, and his relationship with, the revolutionary violence of his times in Bengal. The presentation will consist of a some what detailed discussion of Tagore’s views on the question of violence as a means to achieve ‘legitimate’ political ends, as found reflected in his fiction and in his discursive prose.

It will also tangentially approach the eternal dialectics of what is invariably termed as ‘legitimate violence’ against “illegitimate orders’. Although such ‘violently revolutionary’ activity as is the subject of our discussion may seek to draw its legitimacy from the logic of history, should the present forever attempt to transfer its burden onto the past/history, and, can the sanction to “burn’ be ever taken to have been given?