The Home and the World illustrates perfectly the struggle of the Swadeshi movement in Bangladesh, and the struggle that so many nations see happening where almost all production is done outside of the country. Its something that has been seen throughout history, and it is something that is seen today in the United States. Do we take the higher cost of goods to have production be done in the native country? What happens to the poor when the cost of goods go up and highly valued products are now at costs that are inaccessible to the poor? Tagore does a great job throughout the book of making this struggle so apparent, and manages to keep entertainment within the struggle through a love story. The power Sandip has over the people in his radical speeches and actions in the burning of the clothes and goods makes the movement understandable and angry as a reader and wanting to join the cause. But with Nikhil playing the reasonable land owner who understands that his people cannot afford to be buying goods that are made in the country, a struggle for what is the right thing to do begins. Soon a war begins on which is the position that the people should be taking. Tagore makes the struggle more accessible to readings by making the a love triangle central to the story line and playing it parallel to the Swadeshi movement. Nikhil’s wife, Bimila who Nikhil strives to make her a part of society and educate herself through allowing her to leave her compounds and talk with Sandip and understand the things going on. Bimila takes her opportunity in the completely wrong direction though, falling for the charm and grace of Sandip and ignoring the kindness and level headedness of her husband. The book brings things to a complete full circle when Bimila realizes her mistakes, but a little bit too late, as her husband is killed trying to keep peace as he had been from the beginning. The story truly looks at the Swadeshi movement from all angles, and takes you through the process of Tagore’s thoughts and feelings on the movement as each character plays a part of society, swadeshi Sandip, the government Nikhil, and the citizens of the nation, Bimila. I enjoyed the way that Tagore made the love story run parallel to the struggle the nation was going through, you can understand the charm of Sandip from the speeches he gives and understand how Bimila was so drawn to the cause.
I wanted to talk about the poste that I made, Motherland in The Home and the Wrold, and just expand on what I was talking about. More than once, one of the narrators/characters make metaphors on how the land, the country embodies a woman. All three characters need to imagine the country as a woman in order to make their vision clear. Bimala tends to make herself the country, “I have my desire to be fascinated and fascination must be supplied to me in bodily shape by my country. She must have some visible symbol casting its spell upon my mind. I would make my country a Person, and call her Mother, Goddess, Durga-for whom I would redden the earth with sacrificial offerings.’ I am human, not divine’”. In this quote, Bimala is comparing herself to the motherland. Saying she is the mother of the country. Bimala becomes the mother, as she embodies the vision of her country. When she embodies herself as the country both Sandip and Nikhil are able to control her in the way in which they wish. Sandip also sees Bimala as the country. One could say he is using her as his muse. In more than one circumstance, Sandip discusses why he needs Bimala as his muse and what he plans do with her, “If only women could be set free from the artificial fetters put round them by men, we could see on earth the living image of Kali, the shameless, pitiless goddess. I am a worshipper of Kali, and one day I shall truly worship her, setting Bimala on her altar of Destruction. For this let me get ready”(84). Sandip creates her into the nation by making her goddess. His rational makes her believe that she embodies the nation; he swoons her into believing that he is her woman. A woman of the nation not a woman of power; Bilama is controlled by Sandips dreams and visions. Nikhil as shapes Bimala into the country that he wants and the person he wants her to be. Nikhil says he allows his wife freedom, but really what he is doing is creating the woman he wants. It is not about freedom; it is about power, “I must acknowledge that I have merely been an accident in Bimala’s life. Her nature, perhaps, can only find true union with one like Sandip”(65). Nikhil set his wife free to have her make a choice, he did not do it for her, he did it for himself. Nikhil wanted a wife who was independent enough to make her own decisions; to stand by herself. The same thing can be said for the way he wants his country. He wants a country free from the British and free to stand on its own. Nikhil is making his wife into a symbol of her nation. These men have made her into what they expect her to be; what they expect their nation to be. Their two different visions of nation are shown with how they treat Bimala.
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