Tagore: India’s Society
Born into a wealthy family Rabindranath Tagore took over his family’s estate. At
the main office in Shilaidaha, Tagore was able to write most of his stories. According to
Basu, in Tagore: Ideas & Themes, “The writer got an insight into the life of the ordinary
people in the village, about their sorrows and happiness, about their difficulties, hopes
and disappointments. This acquaintance with the new world inspired (Tagore) in the
creation of realistic works of art.” (Basu, 56)
Due to the struggles many people in India faced and the inequality that was
present, Tagore wrote to put a mirror in front of the people of India so that they can see
how their feudal values has created a weakness in their country and how this weakness
made it possible for the British Empire to colonialize in their homeland. By recognizing
these social evils that have weakened India, Tagore illustrates in some of his writing the
values India should have in order to reach true independence. In order for India to
prosper and reach independence, India must strengthen from within with the Bengal
Renaissance values and the concept of swaraj, which is self-rule/self-government.
Tagore intended for his stories to help India overcome these feudal values and become
independent.
Feudal Values
Many of the people in India had the mindset of living in the “lower mind,” they are
the reason why their society cannot become independent. Having this lower mindset
would lead to cruelty, war and death, things that are not only good for their country but
also not good for humanity. This mindset is considered to be the feudal values, which
include ignorance, prejudice, cruelty, and bigotry. Throughout Tagore’s stories, the writer
shows us characters that show these values.
In Profit & Loss by Tagore, these social evils are present in Nirupama’s mother-
in-law and other in-laws. Since she has been living at her in-laws home, she has been
treated as if she was a servant. Living there she could never be at peace, because
everyone in the family looked down on her and caused her mental and physical
suffering. When she became ill her mother-in-law did not even attempt to bring her back
to good health, because of this Nirupama dies. “When her illness got worse, her mother-
in-law said ‘It’s all a put on.’ …the evening when Nirupama’s breath began to fail was
when the doctor was first called, and it was the last visit that he made too.” (Tagore, 53)
Nirupama’s mother-in-law did not give her the proper care that she needed and she
