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WORKS BY

SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE


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NATIONALISM


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MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA. MADRAS
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

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THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

TORONTO




NATIONALISM

BY

SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1918


COPYRIGHT

_First Edition 1917_
_Reprinted 1918 (twice)_




CONTENTS

                              PAGE
NATIONALISM IN THE WEST          1

NATIONALISM IN JAPAN            47

NATIONALISM IN INDIA            95

THE SUNSET OF THE CENTURY      131




NATIONALISM IN THE WEST


Man's history is being shaped according to the difficulties it
encounters. These have offered us problems and claimed their solutions
from us, the penalty of non-fulfilment being death or degradation.

These difficulties have been different in different peoples of the
earth, and in the manner of our overcoming them lies our distinction.

The Scythians of the earlier period of Asiatic history had to struggle
with the scarcity of their natural resources. The easiest solution that
they could think of was to organize their whole population, men, women,
and children, into bands of robbers. And they were irresistible to those
who were chiefly engaged in the constructive work of social
co-operation.

But fortunately for man the easiest path is not his truest path. If his
nature were not as complex as it is, if it were as simple as that of a
pack of hungry wolves, then, by this time, those hordes of marauders
would have overrun the whole earth. But man, when confronted with
difficulties, has to acknowledge that he is man, that he has his
responsibilities to the higher faculties of his nature, by ignoring
which he may achieve success that is immediate, perhaps, but that will
become a death-trap to him. For what are obstacles to the lower
creatures are opportunities to the higher life of man.

To India has been given her problem from the beginning of history--it