Tagore’s Gora: a far-seeing pioneering step towards Feminism and Chauvinism in colonized India

Abstract

Tagore, the painter of 19^th century Indian society, a versatile genius produced an extensive volume of literary creation in comparison with any other literary personalities of the world. The present paper aiming at countenance the veiled side of Tagore’s feminism and chauvinism in the dawn of the Indian Renaissance during colonization in the light of his longest and most prominent novel ‘Gora’. Tagore portrayed his female characters with the natural hues of effeminate qualities along with the quest of search of the self and their crisis of cultural transition among the Brahmins, Brambhos (followers of Bramho Samaj) and Christians in colonized Bengal and India at large. Though the recurring themes (Nationalism, Chauvinism, Hindu philosophies) of the novel pivots round the central character Gora, other female characters of this novel are also equally important, in fact they stand as a spokesperson of Tagore’s renaissance thought, psychological crisis of the contemporary thinkers and his ideologies (Traditional Indian vs. Western ideology) about women.