ABSTRACT
Drawing on Tagore’s poems and prose writings, this chapter argues for an exploration of modern ideas of cosmopolitanism and global connectedness that have emerged in the non West. Moved by the many wars of colonialism and then the First World War that appeared to be its culmination, Tagore reacted with strong feeling and criticism of the global order that was based on the ever expansive appetites of nation-states. Tagore possessed a deep belonging to the global and to global events of war and colonialism that was cosmopolitan but also exceeded cosmopolitanism in the directness and intensity of its attachment to the global. The chapter details the exceptional status of Tagore in making a strong critique of policies towards blacks in Southern Africa, a criticism that included Indian attitudes as well. The essay concludes with two experiments that sought to produce an alternative framework of existence to the violence of the existing global order. The first was through a network of peace activists located mainly in Europe. The other was to produce Viswa-Bharati, an educational institution that sought to frame locality and country by the global.
