Rabindranath Tagore and the Democracy of Our Times

Capital is not simply an additive to the Foucauldian conception of power, but is integral to it. Karl Marx’s analysis of the worker shows the operations of biopower in the factory, in the governmental fashioning of the internal motivations of the worker that complements the disciplinary regime of the factory. While Marxist analysis holds out prospects of liberation, it remains too preoccupied with the state. In this context, Rabindranath Tagore is a figure who not only refuses to compromise with the totalising force of governmental power as manifested in colonialism (especially its education policy), but also identifies in cooperation, a social principle that holds out the possibility of freedom from capitalist power knowledge.

Translated by Jayanti Chattopadhyay and Pradip Kumar Datta. We are grateful to Visva–Bharati University for permission to publish this extract from Asok Sen’s book Rajnitir Pathokromey Rabindranath (2014: 1421). For constraints of space, a few portions have been omitted. Some subheadings have been added. Thanks are also due to Russwati Sen for her immense help.