Tagore and the theology of the global

Vishwabharati, the university that Tagore founded, was an early experiment in producing a global habitation. While many of the ideas that motivated this institution hold out resonances for the contemporary debate on cosmopolitanism, Tagore worked in the field of modern Indian thought. The tradition was strongly inflected by Vedantism.
In its modern incarnation Vedantism produced a universalism that announced its location. The presentation will look at how Tagore extended the theology of neo-Vedantism, shifting it away from its metaphysical orientation to outline a theory of global survival of which Vishwabharati, established in the rural hinterlands of Bengal, was designed as the institutional beginnings.

Professor Pradip Datta has worked on communal relations in Bengal and in contemporary India. He is now exploring non-antagonistic modes of identity formations through his work on Vishwabharati , the global university founded by Tagore. His publications include Carving Blocs (1999), Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags (co-author, 1993), Heterogeneities (2008).

This seminar series is organised with the support of the History Faculty.