ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Rabindranath Tagore's ideas of cosmopolitan modernity that radically departed from many of his contemporaries. It provides excellent theoretical tools and insights to fashion out a new cosmopolitan imaginary in the 21st century. The chapter argues that his deep interest in nationalism and internationalism led him to a rethinking of cosmopolitan modernity in the first half of the 20th century. It draws upon the works of biographer-critics, such as Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson, as well as those of social psychologists like Ashis Nandy. Nandy's notable work The Illegitimacy of Nationalism: Rabindranath Tagore and the Politics of Self (2004) is probably one of the best in the field. The chapter suggests that despite his reservations about Western 'civilization' and his roots in the Indian traditions, Tagore upheld a transcendence of cultural boundaries in favour of what he called the Universal Human.
