With India so much in the foreground of affairs to-day,
The Political Philosophy of Rabindranath, by Mr. Sochin Sen (Asker and Co., Calcutta, Rs. 2.8), might profitably be studied, for the poet laureate of Bengal is frank in his avowal of the faults of his countrymen, and equally explicit in his detestation of British rule in India. Such plain speaking all round might serve to clear the air, if it were really to the point, but we fear that in this instance the British reader will not really gather what the poet's ideals are. This, however, is not a criticism of Dr. Tagore, but rather a statement of the inevitable divergency between Eastern and Western outlook. Many interpreters have tried and will try again to explain the difficulties, and books such as this, sympatheti- cally read, will do their share in showing where the races can help each other and where they must agree to differ.
But we wish there had been fewer it is only human to be irritated by such things and to feel tat a people that cannot trouble about punctuation are likely to stumble in other ways. But that, again, is certainly not Dr. Tagore's fault.
* *
Previous page
