When Ghare
Baire was written in serial form (between May 1915 to February 1916),
Tagore had already gone through some serious deliberation over the questions
about patriotism and nationalism. The novel clearly shows the poet’s
preoccupations with the kind of nationalism that was emerging at home and
abroad. The dangers of nationalism had already manifested before the First World
War. The Home and the World, English
translation of Ghare Baire generated
considerable discussions and debate over its message when published in
Though Tagore was
introduced in the Lusophone world in 1914 through the Portuguese translation of
Chitrangada, it took almost
twenty-six years before any of his novels to be available in that language. The
Portuguese translation A Casa e o Mundo
was done by the Goan political-literary figure Telo de Mascarenhas (1899-1979)
and published in 1941 by a famous
Telo
de Mascarenhas together with his compatriot Adeodato Barreto (1904-1936)
deserves credit for inspiring interest in studying Tagore’s literature and
philosophy not only among the aportuguesado Goans but also among the
Portuguese intellectuals in general. Their literary activities in
The
aspect of inclusiveness and harmony in Tagore’s philosophy always received
special treatment in the writings of the nationalist Goans. In 1926, Telo de
Mascarenhas founded in
Why
did Mascarenhas select Ghare
Baire for translation at that point of time? The answer
lies in the contemporary socio-political conditions of the
When Mascarenhas started
working on his translation, perhaps the Civil War was already ravaging the
neighbour-country
Mascarenhas left a very brief and lucid elucidation of the poet’s ideas of nationalism and patriotism in reference to Ghare Baire in an article written in 1928. He underlined the uniqueness of Tagore’s patriotism which has a solid base of inclusiveness, unlike the patriotism that was fast spreading in the post-World War Europe. Though some European scholars read Ghare Baire as a novel of triangular love, Mascarenhas considers it a discourse on a type of nationalism that brings unity of Mankind. He thinks that the greatness of Tagore lies in placing patriotic discourses in the realm of domestic affairs in the novel.
A compariosn of the
Portuguese and the English versions of the novel leads to some interesting
findings. It is to be noted that what is “atmakotha”(autobiography) of Ghare Baire has been called “narração”
or story in A Casa e O Mundo. The
narration of each character is further subdivided by numbered sections in the
Portuguese version. A Casa e O Mundo
is reorganised into thirteen chapters, unlike the original Bengali version with
eighteen and the English with twelve. As a translator, Mascarenhas could make
successful transposition in the Portuguese translation capturing most of the
nuances of the original Bengali text. The diction of the translated version
shows Mascarenhas’s deep understanding of Indian culture. Some parts of the Bengali text have been deleted in the Portuguese version. Whatever changes
were made by the translator, the discourse of nationalism of the novel was
skilfully introduced through the translation to the readers of the socially and
politically ravaged
The members of these literary groups were sincere advocates of democracy and
non-violence in politics, and were highly critical of any apolitical position
of a writer. Transcending all narrow racial, religious and national boundaries,
Tagore emerged for them as a true internationalist. Agusto Casimiro, a
prominent poet of the Renascença Portuguesa, expressing his
reverence for Indian thinkers, explained how they imbibed Tagore’s nationalism
that was built on a solid base of cooperation and understanding among peoples
beyond their narrow political boundaries. It’s nationalism that begets unity of
mankind. Casimiro affirmed later that the members of the Renascença Portuguesa synthesised Tagore’s kind of nationalism with
their own.
Thus
reception of Ghare
Baire in