Tagore and Naipaul on Indian and European Civilisations: Patriotic and Biassed Views Changed their Perspectives

Abstract

V.S. Naipaul was writer of Indian origin writer settled in Great Britain and Rabindranath Tagore was Bengali writer born and brought up in India. Both were Nobel Laureates in Literature. Based on their overall behavior and treatment with the colonized people, Tagore a patriot to the core, saw and judged the foreign colonisers from his Indian patriotic point of view. He realised how and why they sucked India for their own benefit to the utter neglect of Indians. But Naipaul’s ancestors migrated perhaps under compulsion to the Caribbean islands where Naipaul was born (Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobagos). He settled in England and stayed put there for the major part of his life. Compared to his background Britain was new found paradise for him. Ambitious, he studied English and was imbued in their culture. He wrote as if Britain was more than his birth land. He was awarded Nobel Prize as a British, a European. From his perspective he was not only indebted but deeply moved to love that country and continent. His name and fame spread from there. India had nothing to do about it except his Indian origin background taking the clue from his ancestors. He had some tilt towards India nothing of it remained when India was compared to Britan or Europe. He was obliged to see the world through their spectacles. His ideas and favour for Britain and Europe was generated by his position and interest in life. Judged  Neutrally it was a biased view.