The recent past has witnessed a global resurgence of aggressive nationalism, with each nation looking for a distinctive identity at the expense of broader ideals of universal humanism and cosmopolitanism. India, too, has experienced the rise of a narrow, exclusivist nationalism that Rabindranath Tagore, India’s first Nobel laureate, had warned us about in the early twentieth century, in his novella Char Adhyay.
Four Chapters tells the tragic love story of Ela and Atin, both members of a revolutionary nationalist group fighting for independence from British rule. Their love for each other is tested against their love for the nation. Ela pledges herself in service to her country while Atin, drawn to revolutionary nationalism because of Ela, soon becomes disillusioned with the violent path that goes against the values of love and humanism.
Through this intensely emotional personal drama set against 1930s’ Bengal, Tagore presents a trenchant and sobering critique of exclusivist hyper-nationalism that placed the nation above humanity, and senseless violence over compassion and love. A controversial book at the time of its publication in 1934, and a subsequent classic of Bengali literature, it has regained relevance in the current political climate.
Sekhar Bandyopadhyay in his introduction contextualises this work through a discussion of nationalist politics in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century India, and Tagore’s engagement and disenchantment with it. He details Tagore’s ideas on nationalism and situates the story within the broader historical narrative of the nationalist movement in Bengal and India.
This compelling and impeccable translation of a modern classic is a must-read for lovers of Tagore and all those reading him for the first time.
The Author Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), India’s first Nobel Laureate, polymath, philosopher, poet, painter, musician, novelist, essayist, playwright, educationist and more, was a central figure of the Bengal Renaissance, and one of the most influential and creative minds of India. His corpus of work is enormous and astonishing in its range and complexity, including 14 novels, plays, some 60 volumes of verse, more than 100 short stories, over 2,300 songs including the Indian national anthem, and essays on diverse subjects, spanning nationalism, religion and education. He has been translated equally widely, with many of his works being translated into English more than once. Tagore’s stature as a pioneer and founding father of modern India and as an institution remains undiminished.
The Translators Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is Emeritus Professor of History at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where he was previously the Director of New Zealand India Research Institute. He has published extensively on the history of Indian nationalism, including From Plassey to Partition and After: A History of Modern India (Second edition, 2014); Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947–52 (2009); and (ed) Nationalist Movement in India: A Reader (2009). His other recent works include three co-edited volumes, The Long History of Partition in Bengal: History, Memory, Representations (2024); Caste in Bengal: Histories of Hierarchy, Exclusion, and Resistance (2022); and Calcutta: The Stormy Decades (2015). He is a Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand and a recipient of the Rabindra Puraskar.
Subhransu Maitra worked as Superintendent (Publication) at Netaji Subhas Open University, Kolkata. A student of English literature, educated at Presidency College and Banaras Hindu University, Maitra is a poet and a translator between Bengali and English. His published translations include Parineeta: The Betrothed (2017) by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay; Education as Freedom: Tagore’s Paradigm (2014) by Rabindranath Tagore; Wrong Number and Other Stories (2005) by Mahasweta Devi; and the poems of Sankha Ghosh and Jibanananda Das. When My Mother Sang (2023) is his first collection of poems.
Preface Introduction: Tagore and Revolutionary Nationalism in India Sekhar Bandyopadhyay Four Chapters Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four
Glossary