Gora
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~210,000 words · 975 passages
Cite this work
- APARabindranath Tagore. (n.d.). Gora. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora
- MLARabindranath Tagore. "Gora." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora.
- ChicagoRabindranath Tagore. Gora. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rabindranath-tagore/gora.
What it is about
Tagore's novel about a militant, orthodox young Hindu who discovers at the end that he was born Irish and brought up as a Bengali during the revolt of 1857.
Context and history
Published in Bengali in 1910. The final revelation is not a twist for effect: it is the argument, since it dismantles from within the idea of an identity given at birth that Gora has defended throughout the book. Tagore argues at once with Hindu nationalism and with the reformism of the Brahmo Samaj, without wholly granting either the point. This version is an English translation; for citing Tagore, the original is the Bengali.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
It was the rainy season in Calcutta; the morning clouds had scattered, and the sky overflowed with clear sunlight. Binoy-bhusan was standing alone on the upper verandah of his house, watching in leisurely idleness the constant ebb and flow of the passers-by. He had finished his college couiso some time before, but had not yet started any regular work. Ho had written a little for the papers, it is true, and had organised meetings,— but this had not satisfied his mind. And now, this morning, for want of anything in particular to do, he was beginning to feel restless. In front of the shop opposite, a Baul mendicant was stand¬ ing, dressed in the motley robe of those wandering minstrels, and singing : , Into the cage flics the unknown bird. It comes I know not whence. Powerless my mind to chain its feet. It goes I know not whore. Binoy felt that he would like to call the Baul upstairs and take down this song about the unknown bird. But, just as in the middle of the night, when it turns suddenly cold, it is too much exertion to reach for an extra blanket, so the Baul remained uncalled, the song of the unknown bird remained unwritten, and only its strains kept echoing through Binoy a Just then an accident occurred in front of his house. A hackney-cab was run into by a grand carriage and pair, which went off at full speed taking no notice of the half-overturned gharrv which it had left in its trail. Running out into the street, Binoy saw a youfig girl getting out from← Back to Rabindranath Tagore