Tagore is viewed through the medium of five books of essays which he wrote in English. Most of the essays are the texts of lectures Tagore delivered to audiences in England and America. They are important because they constitute what Tagore actually communicated to audiences and readers in the West during his tours outside India. The five books are taken chronologically in the chapters of this thesis, each one being a stage on Tagore’s journey. They are read in conjunction with information about his activities in India prior to each particular tour, his encounters during the trip, and any relevant correspondence, in order better to understand the ideas he expresses. A key finding from close study of the essays is the extent to which Tagore draws on his understanding of the evolution and special capabilities of the human species. This philosophical anthropology, or ‘deep anthropology’, is used to describe what mankind ought to be, as well as what we are. Tagore was critical of what he considered the dehumanising economic systems of the West, which were supported by educational methods that focussed narrowly on training people to participate in such systems. The ideal behind the design of Tagore’s own practical projects was a modernised and less restrictive form of traditional society, comprising networks of self sustaining villages or small communities, where children and young people are encouraged to develop their natural curiosity and creativity, and to express themselves freely with body and mind. Tagore’s approach to education and rural reconstruction, if implemented widely as he intended, could lead to a radical redesign of society, a turning of the world upside down. The aim of my dissertation is to help encourage a wider appreciation of Tagore’s pioneering work in this field.

Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize winning Bengali poet and polymath, is an eminent figure in the history and culture of modern India. As the Indian Independence Movement grew in the early twentieth century, Tagore used his renown to establish a university in the rural community of Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, “where the world meets in a single nest.” All of Tagore’s efforts — artistic, educational, and social — were informed by a universalist philosophy that he developed based on the Upanishads. Tagore’s philosophy facilitated unity between all creation, including harmony between the peoples of humanity and between humanity and the natural world. The architecture of Santiniketan is a tangible manifestation of Tagore’s philosophy. Designed under his direction by his associates Nandalal Bose, Rathindranath Tagore, and Surendranath Kar, Tagore’s residences at Santiniketan, in particular the houses Udayan and Shyamali, illustrate Tagore’s universalism in two primary ways. The designs unify a diverse set of traditions within a Modernist framework, and provide for maximum interaction between indoor and outdoor spaces. Udayan is a synthesis of Indian, Japanese, Javanese, and European designs, finding commonalities in the traditions through abstraction and modern materials. Shyamali also draws from a variety of influences and, in service to a connection between man and nature, the design blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors by using the natural material of mud. The architecture of Santiniketan, because it is a product of Tagore’s unique values, does not fit easily within the major trends of Modernist architecture in India or beyond. It is best evaluated as a single thread in the contrapuntal nature of Modernism.

In the wake of the First World War, reformers across the Western world questioned laissez-faire liberalism, the self-oriented and market-driven ruling doctrine of the nineteenth century. This philosophy was blamed, variously, for the war, for industrialisation and for urbanisation; for a way of life shorn of any meaning beyond getting and keeping; for the too great faith in materialism and in science; and for the loss of a higher, transcendent meaning that gave a unifying altruistic or spiritual purpose to individual existence and to society as a whole. For many, the cure to these ills lay in reforming the liberal social framework in ways that made it more fulfilling to the whole person and that strengthened ties between individuals. Dartington Hall was an outstanding practical example of this impulse to promote holistic, integrated living. It was a well-financed, internationally-minded social and cultural experiment set up on an estate in South Devon in 1925 by American heiress Dorothy Elmhirst (née Whitney) and her second husband, Leonard, son of a Yorkshire squire-parson. The Elmhirsts' project for redressing the effects of laissez-faire liberalism had two components. Instead of being treated as atomised individuals in the capitalist market, participants at Dartington were to achieve full self-realisation through a 'life in its completeness' that incorporated the arts, education and spirituality. In addition, through their active participation in running the community, they were to demonstrate how integrated democracy could bring about the perfection of individuals and the progress of society as a whole. The Elmhirsts hoped that Dartington would provide a globally applicable model for a better way of life. This thesis is a close study of Dartington's interlinked constellation of experiments in education, the arts, agriculture and social organisation - experiments that can only be understood by tracing them back to their shared roots in the idea of 'life in its completeness'. At the same time, it explores how Dartington's philosophy and trajectory illuminate the wider reform landscape. The Elmhirsts' community echoed and cross-pollinated with other schemes for social improvement in Britain, Europe, America and India, as well as feeding into the broad social democratic project in Britain. Dartington's evolution from an independent, elite-led reform project to one split between state-led and communitarian reform matched the trajectory of other such enterprises begun in interwar Britain, making it a bellwether of changes in reformist thinking across the century.

Notre thèse a pour objectif de comprendre comment se sont effectuées l’appropriation et l’utilisation du gandhisme par des nationalistes modernistes dans le contexte colonial vietnamien entre 1919 et 1948. Plus précisément, cette étude examine quelles idées les nationalistes ont retenues du gandhisme et dans quels contextes elles furent discutées. Qu'elles furent les idées et les méthodes du gandhisme qu’ils ont privilégié. Comment ces idées et ces méthodes furent-elles appropriées? Comment les éléments retenus furent-ils ensuite diffusés et utilisés par ces nationalistes? Comment les enseignements du gandhisme inspirèrent-ils les solutions proposées par les modernistes? Nous arguons que, validés par la force et la puissance du mouvement nationaliste indien, les concepts et méthodes politiques proposées par le gandhisme devinrent, pour ces colonisés, des outils pouvant les aider à réformer leur propre société pour qu’elle retrouve son autonomie politique. Notre travail est divisé en deux sections. La première section qui comporte le chapitre 1 est une présentation du contexte matériel et humain dans lequel les textes ont été écrits et lus. Le but est de nous aider à mieux comprendre les éléments qui influencèrent l'appropriation du gandhisme au Việt Nam. Le chapitre analyse le monde de l’imprimé au Việt Nam, ses aspects matériels (technologiques) et économiques de même que les aspects humains comme les producteurs et les consommateurs d’information. Le chapitre 1 discute également de l’environnement politique du monde de l’information; les conditions dans lesquelles les journalistes et les écrivains vietnamiens travaillèrent comme les différentes lois régissant la publication de livres, revues ou journaux et les différentes formes de censures étatiques. Pour finir, le chapitre décortique différentes réceptions du gandhisme à l'étranger et dans la diaspora indienne ayant influencé l'appropriation du gandhisme au Việt Nam. La seconde section de notre travail porte sur les représentations du gandhisme par les Vietnamiens entre 1919 et 1948. Nous présentons dans quatre chapitres les différents thèmes abordés dans les textes portant sur le gandhisme. Ces quatre chapitres discutent de différentes formes de nationalismes inspirées par le gandhisme et proposées pour aider les Vietnamiens à retrouver leur autonomie politique. Le chapitre deux discute du nationalisme culturel pour lequel les réformes allaient régénérer la société vietnamienne par l’éducation et rendre la société vietnamienne apte à diriger sa destinée. Le chapitre trois continue la discussion sur le nationalisme culturel de ces modernistes en démontrant comment les débats entourant le pan-asianisme et l'universalisme humaniste défendu par Rabindranath Tagore purent leur représenter une affirmation identitaire et une légitimité morale. Le chapitre quatre se penche sur le nationalisme économique chez qui le gandhisme fut un exemple d’affirmation nationale basée sur le développement de leviers économiques et le contrôle sur les ressources. Le chapitre cinq discute de la représentation du gandhisme principalement sous un angle politique en présentant les débats sur la violence entourant les satyagrahas gandhiens comme un miroir tendu au Français et proposer des solutions pour éviter les mêmes problèmes au Việt Nam. À travers ses différentes solutions culturelles, économiques et politiques proposées par ces modernistes, le récit sur le nationalisme vietnamien tente de répondre aux préoccupations des acteurs du moment et représenter une conception du nationalisme vietnamien durant la période coloniale.

This thesis concentrates on literature during India's battle for independence from the British Empire. These publications look at the outcomes of Europe's intent to colonize and its impact on the marginalized, colonial subjects down to the personal level. Delving into the tragic reality of colonialism and investigating its impact as portrayed in the novels selected, this thesis argues that the selected texts operate as resistance literature subverting the colonial discourse in retrieving South Asian culture and history. This project explores specific forms of resistance within the tropes of memory, history, and gender to pose a larger question of decolonial futures in the postcolonial aftermath. The explorations of Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi, Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and the World, and R.K. Narayan's Waiting for the Mahatma all represent multiple ways of studying the independence movement in their resistance frame. Analyzing these works through a postcolonial perspective unveils underrepresented voices and the intricacies of the Independence landscape. Ahmed Ali incorporates nostalgia as an argument for abolition and articulates Muslim identity in India's rapidly transforming environment. Tagore writes from his real experiences, recounting the confusion and disarray that plagued the Independence movement as disputes erupted on how to fight for India's sovereignty. R.K. Narayan embraces the ‘Quit India' protest and Gandhi's pacifist ideals while worrying about the future after the Mahatma's death. These writers decolonize readers' minds, and campaign for India's independence against the Empire Such literature gives the colonized a voice as they actively resist the British colonization in every aspect of existence.