Rabindranath Tagore in South-East Asia: Culture, Connectivity and Bridge Making focuses on Rabindranath Tagore’s relations with the many mainland and maritime countries of South-East Asia he visited in the early twentieth century. This collection of essays probes the intellectual bases of Tagore’s theory of civilization, his ideas of East and West, his theory of cultural encounter in the context of South-East Asia, and also provides an in-depth analysis of his philosophy, i.e. his concepts of nationalism, internationalism and universalism. Opening up fresh and contextual perspectives on Tagore’s relations with and perceptions of South-East Asian cultures, this book shows how his visits to South-East Asian countries led to the establishment of cultural ties between India and South-East Asia over the years and finally resulted in a kind of permanent civilizational and cultural bond between them. Fittingly, many of the contributors to this volume are from the South-East Asian countries that Tagore had visited.
The essays in this book would draw attention of scholars and faculty members of Departments of South-East Asian Studies, Modern History, Literature and International Relations. This volume would also be of interest to libraries of colleges, universities and research institutions, like Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla), Indian Council of Social Science Research (Delhi), Center for Tagore Studies and Center for Studies in Social Sciences (Kolkata), etc.