‘Maitri’ and ‘Mukti’ in Global Politics: Tagore’sSearch for Alternatives

• RITAMBHARA MALAVIYA

  University of Allahabad

The paper explores how the ideas of Rabindranath Tagore provide a useful lens to delve into the concepts and categories of contemporary international politics and proposes that his critique of nationalism and realism contributes a valuable vantage point for understanding the history of resistance to Eurocentric ideas. This scholarly legacy of opposition to the Westphalian order also provides the foundation for constructing alternatives to this order. Tagore emphasized how the Western idea of nationalism was alien to his region of the world, and how a view of society based on cooperation, rather than the nation based on competition, had historically been the mode of existence in the East. He averred that politics among nations, based on the theoretical assumption of atomistic, conflicting individuals, was detrimental to the peace and harmony of the world. He further offers a unique definition of the nation as an organization of people whose primary purpose is the acquisition of wealth and power. This exposition emphasizes the mechanical and artificial nature of the nation-state. Tagore also posits that many creative and humane capabilities are overshadowed by this organization. The paper discusses Tagore’s assessment of realist ideas that were gaining attention in his time. It concludes with a discussion of what Tagore proposes as alternatives to this politics: Mukti (freedom) and Maitri (friendship and harmony) as the basis for a global society grounded in swaraj (self-rule).

• pdf

Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Polity and Society

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.