ABSTRACT

This book presents an alternative view of cosmopolitanism, citizenship and modernity in early 20th-century India through the multiple lenses of mysticism, travel, friendship, art, and politics. It makes a key intervention in the understanding of cosmopolitan modernity based on the lives and experiences of Rabindranath Tagore, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa, James Cousins, Paul Richard, Dilip Kumar Roy, and Taraknath Das. Using archival texts and photographs, Mohanty interrogates the ideas of tradition and modernity, the local and the global, and Self and the world as integral to the conception of a cosmopolitan world order.

This second edition will interest scholars and students of modern Indian history, comparative literature, cultural studies, Indian philosophy, and South Asian studies and the general reader.

chapter |32 pages

Introduction

Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Citizenship

chapter One|18 pages

Celtic Twilight

The Eastern Journey of James Cousins

chapter Two|33 pages

Utopian Longings and the French Connection

Paul Richard and the Politics of Friendship

chapter Three|21 pages

Yoga for a New World

Dilip Kumar Roy and Sri Aurobindo

chapter Four|16 pages

‘The World in a Nest’

The Cosmopolitanism of Rabindranath Tagore

chapter Five|19 pages

Cosmopolitanism through the Arts

The Art Criticism of Ananda Coomaraswamy and Sri Aurobindo

chapter Six|15 pages

The Revolutionary as the Cosmopolitan

The Many Lives of Taraknath Das

chapter |7 pages

Conclusion