Colonised Society Definition of Terms 1. Ambivalence

traditional Sandip and modern Nikhil perspectives in Swadeshi. Tagore seems on the side of the modern o r western perspective. Not as a ‘bootlicker’ as Lukacs said, but the writer sees that Tagore has an ambivalence character in his writing due to the history of British imperialism in India. Thus the writer uses different perspective to see the conflicting v alues in Bimala’s attitudes and thoughts as she is presented as both traditional and modern Indian woman. The second study was written by Chi P. Pham, which concerns on the nationalist projects in India during the Swadeshi Movement. As Pham stated on his writing, he focused on the modernism and nationalism issues as one of the causes of the nationalist project’s failure presented in the novel. This paper attempts to compare the novel with early twentieth century Vietnamese novels. The Home and the World is a novel that reads like an allegory on the failure of the Indian nationalist projects, circling around the issues of “Home” versus “World,” tradition versus modernity, created by the active involvement of the colonisers in the cultural, economic and administrative life of the colonised. It could be read as an allegory on the failure of Indian nationalism to accept tradition and modernity, home and the world, concurrently 2013: 299. In terms of character, Pham analysed Bimala as the woman main character in the novel. In this part, Pham analysed women as one of the big causes of nationalist mov ement’s failure because women are represented as the core of the ‘home’ or a group that strictly hold to tradition of local custom. Concurrently, the project of carrying women to the World – the outside – becomes unrealistic, romantic and emotional, excluded from knowledge and wisdom. Women’s thoughts and activities remain stuck in the shadow of tradition, also in the new nationalist projects 2013: 307. Indirectly, in Pham’s writing, Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World: Story of the Failure of the Nationalist Project, he showed criticism on characteristics of Bimala. Pham stated that the voice of Bimala seemed to be “a mixture of individuality “I felt” and collectivity mandatory “ought to” and plural “men”. It symbolised that she did not speak for herself”, and her words were just like a repeater, recycling late nineteenth century nationalist discourses about the women’s righteousness 2013: 303. Using the postcolonial feminism perspective, the writer finds that Pham criticized Bimala with modenist perspective. One of Pham’s statement showed his modernist perspective, “it is the lack of education and wisdom that drives the “illusionary” way Bimala sees the outside world” 2013: 306. Pham study is reversed to this writing. The writer tries to see Bimala’s actions and thought in the novel as the rebellion to the patriarchal custom and imperialism, no matter how the result of the Independence movement was. The third study is derived from Mohammad A. Quayum. He wrote a journal that reviewed The Home and the World using the spiritual commonwealth approach. Quayum in his journal, In Search of a Spiritual Commonwealth: Tagores The Home and the World, analysed Bimala character and characterization as in relation to the representation of Hinduism belief. Sandip calls her [Bimala] shakti of the Motherland 31, Queen Bee of our hive 48, and goddess Durga. Shakti in the general sense refers both to personal inner strength and to the public strength of the nation. In this latter sense it is also associated with the all-powerful mother-goddess Kali, in Bengal called Durga, the formidable goddess of creation and destruction. The mostly Muslim tradition of cloistering and veiling wives was a common phenomenon at many levels of Indian society, both Muslim and Hindu, during this period. One of the results of the more progressive social and political movements at this time was to bring women out of purdah veil. Just as the goddess Durga is unveiled and carried in procession during the fall celebration of Durga Puja worship in Bengal 1997: 40.