Politics of Faith in the Regions of Ideologies and the Spiritual Principle of Emancipation as the Greatness of Life: A Critical Reading of Rabindranath Tagore’s Bisarjan

Author(s): Dr. Shahman Moishan

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is an exponential figure of modern literature, culture, and philosophy in colonial Bengal. He is still remaining appealing for his politically significant and imaginatively creative contribution in dramatic literature. Bisarjan (lit. Sacrifice) is considered as a drama of “maturity.” He deals with a treacherous zone of life in his play Bisarjan that progresses a dramatic action within the conflicting regions of ideological apparatuses as systems of belief and state. The play revolves around the Indian religious thought which critiques the dogmatic prejudice and intolerance within the socio-political dynamics of the state. The action resolves the dramatic question by seeking the spiritual notion of greatness of life through the act of sacrifice. This essay examines how the play Bisarjan, as a ‘social drama’ defined by Victor Turner’s anthropological theory of theatre, exposes the ideological conflict in the terrain of the politics of faith as well as embraces the emancipatory principle of sacrifice as the spiritual meaning of life. In response to the question, this article employs the critical theory of ideology originated from the Marxist school of thinking the idea of power as well as Rabindranath Tagore’s philosophy about the relationship between human and religion.