The Dreams of Reason

This paper looks at Rabindranath Tagore's relationship and interaction with two scientific legends, Patrick Geddes, the Scottish biologist, and Jagdish Chandra Bose, and also between him and Gandhi. Each is an event on its own, but each telescopes into the other to give an intriguing picture of a multifaceted man. The letters that Tagore wrote and received from the two scientist-intellectuals are also analysed. Tagore was no ordinary nationalist and went beyond the tired categories of the modern nation state. He wanted India to smell the West, taste it and understand the differences within it. He realised that imperialism is only one phase of the West, that there were other Wests that one could talk to and conspire with.