Tagore Short Stories Literature Review

Feudalism is the practice of military and legal customs. Alternatively, feudal values involve the identification of individuals with land in the society. Feudal values are universal, the reason being that every person in the society owns a piece of land or offers some serve to the landowners. The characteristics of feudal values in a society are the presence of an inferior, or a central government that do not exist with some ranges of decentralized pockets of power. In feudal Europe, for example, there was the Catholic Church (Holy Roman Empire) which served as a very weak form of centralized power (Tagore, 11). The Catholic Church symbolized influence over different regions over a long period because it had several parcels of land in different parts of Europe. Different regimes could operate in perception that they were representing God under these parcels of land. Additionally, there existed a complete hierarchy of nobility in the order of kings, princes, and dukes.
The Tagore short stories combine traditional Indian culture with Western ideas. The story of the Postmaster concerns an unnamed postmaster assigned to a remote post office in a small rural Indian village. Near the village is a factory where its owner, who is an English person, manages to create a post office created. There is presentation of exploitation by the author to the village resident in the story of the “postmaster”. The nearby office employees spend most of their time working without time to socialize. On the other hand, the postmaster has few companions, and he does not have many activities to keep him occupied. As a result, he tries to write poetry inspired by the rural landscape in doing happy poetry he sought to do (Tagore, 12).From the story of the Fury Appear, feudal values are clear from the play characters. The story portrays happy relationship among the individuals clearly reveals happy living. The woman portrayed by the writer keeps rejecting her husband’s orders despite the frequent advice their father keeps on giving to her. The woman finally leaves her husband and goes home with an idea of studying law although she later regrets why she had left her husband and realizes that the man was a good person. The woman has only one way to reunite with her husband, writing a letter. She writes the letter, but the letter does not reach her husband; thus, her mother takes her to study the law, as she earlier wanted. The story portrays feudal values of in the customary reflection. These values include disobedience in the marriages, separation, and divorce and parents responsibility (Tagore, 16).
The story of “The Dumb Girl” discusses the theme of close affinity between man and nature. The dumb girl, Subha was the last born in the family of Bani Kanta. The dumb girl was a silent weight upon the heart of her parents, and her elder sisters had families. Subha and her parents lived in a small village called Chandipur. The little girl would attend to her chores and later spent a lot of her free time on the banks of the nearby river thinking that she was a curse to her father’s house. For this reason, she kept away from people and lived in the company of nature. The sounds of nature joined with the trembling of her heart. They story explains that they were her real language in which she could communicate Nature. She also enjoyed the companions of the two cows in the household both of whom she loved, treasured, and cared for very much. The little girl would console her hurting heart with these dumb friends and be becoming a comrade among the higher animals. The social customs reflect from this Tagore story. Such values that reflect from this section are desperation of the disabled groups in the society and the theme of suffering.
Bengal Renaissance values is a general term for socio-cultural, and religious reforms in the movements witnessed in undivided Bengal province of India during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. The Bengal resistance attested across the whole land of India. Past resources show that Bengal Renaissance was an innovation by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The renaissance continued even after the death of Radindrath Tagore in 1941. It attributed a revival of the effects of India's past and appreciation in the Modern West. This is because it emerged in the Fifteenth century during the European Renaissance. For this reason, the Bengal Renaissance blended the teachings of the Upanishad together in order to create public opinion against Hindu superstitions. The customs opposed were Sati, polygamy, infanticide, inter-castle hatred, child marriage, and dowry (Tagore, 14). However, Christian Missionaries and the British Colonial Government made efforts to introduce Western varieties of education in India. New laws and political administration also came to administer all those who indulged in superstitions and caste-based Hindu medievalism.
In the narration of the “The Landing Stairway” or “River Stairs”, Tagore creates an inanimate object. The Landing Stairway brings out the extreme beauty of his poetic talents making the reader understand the psychical elements in inert matter. In this narration, the author narrates ghat’s reminiscences with an insight and imagination. We see the pathetic story of Kusum, who used to fetch water from the Ghat together with her companions. The girl is later married to a man at a strange place, but he dies soon, leaving her as a widow at the age of eight. Together with other women, they could go to fetch blessings at from Sanyasi in the Siva temple.Through the story of living or dead, which Tagore published in 1892, he criticizes the feudal morals and customs. These rule and customs ruled and guided the life of Bengali women. In the story, Kadambini stayed as a widow together with her brother-in-law Saradasankar. They lived in Saradasankar’s house in a place named as Ra night. Kadambini had no relatives as they had died earlier. The son of Saradasankar was Kadambini’s favorite among other children where she spent most of her days nursing him.
Unfortunately, she dies on one night, and four of Brahmin servants took her body to the burial place at Ra night. These servants brought the body to a hut as they awaited the firewood. Surprisingly, the story portrays the dead body making some movements and going out of the hut. The scenario horrified the servants, and they all fled away. However, Tagore says that Kadambini had not died, but there was a suspension of some of her life functions. On her way back to the house of her brother, she realized that her appearance would cause problems. For this reason, some passerby helped her and directed her to her friend’s house where she stayed for some time. After staying there for a month without taking about the death of her husband, her friend suspected Kadambini was not well. She did not want to talk about her husband. However, after it was clear to everyone that she was not dead, she had to break her vessel with a glass to prove that she was not a ghost.
There has been a creation of tension from the differences between feudal values and Bengal renaissance in the freedom of India. In their culture, customs addressed in Tagore stories covers various themes. The themes are not only significant to the Indian culture, but also to the other East and West countries. Stories like furry appear dumb girl and the landing stairway addresses various issues in the Indian culture and customs. For instance, the way through which Tagore portrays the intense, and dejected feelings in the story of punishment, is remarkable. When Chandra’s husband went to the court, she defends him claiming that the two are in true love. The story proves freedom of expression and right to justice (Tagore, 18). It also entails a platform for fairness and decision-making. However, the courts deploy severe punishments as a method of curtailing the freedom and individual rights despite provision by the Indian customs.
The stories by Tagore are clear portrayal of the how the East and West take concern to the feudal values. In both cultures, despite the existence of differences, East and West endorse feudalism to a certain extent. According to the Bengal Renaissance, the socio-cultural values are universal. The Tagore Stories, they display the universal situations. Since these values addressed are universal, they attempt to strengthen the freedom of individuals worldwide.

Works Cited

Tagore, Rabindranath, and Joyasree Mukerji. 2004. She: a collection of short stories of Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: UBS Publishers' Distributors.
Tagore, Rabindranath, Fakrul Alam, and Radha Chakravarty. 2011. The essential Tagore. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Tagore, Rabindranath, and C. F. Andrews. 1916. The hungry stones, and other stories. New York: The Macmillan Company.