Thinking Activity:The Home and The World

Hello readers

While discussing the novel The Home and the World our teacher had given us a group task on three major character of this novel.Mw and my group had discussed about the character of Bimala in detail.Before discuss that let’s see brief introduction about this novel.

The Home and The World by Rabindranath Tagore

The Home and the World is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore, set against the political and logistical nightmares of India’s 20th century caste system. Although the story focuses on the dynamic of a marriage—which shifts when a shadowy outsider enters the lives of the couple—much of the novel reads like a philosophical treatise. There are shifting viewpoints between the characters Bimala, Nikhil, and Sandip, and much of the book comprises their internal and external dialogues as they consider serious issues such as tradition, the roles of men and women in Indian culture, the nature of political change, the occasional need for violence in political activism, and other rhetorical exercises such as the weighing of the public good.

Here is the PPT prepared by me.

The home and the world from Daya Vaghani

As the novel begins, Bimala is happy with her life. She has married a good, kind man who is educated and generous. She is content to worship him and accept his support in all things. What she does not feel, however, is excitement. When the political firebrand Sandip begins making speeches in their village, she is infatuated by his words, but also stirred by some of his political ideas. She thinks of him constantly. Sandip, who is only interested in pursuing his own desires and climbing the social strata, does nothing to discourage her interest in him.

Her husband, Nikhil, sees what is happening, but is unwilling to intervene. Nikhil believes that, if one is committed to living morally and thoughtfully, one can accept whatever arises. He is sad that he feels like a burden to Bimala, but is determined to let her make her own choices.

Bimala’s choices lead her to steal from Nikhil to raise money for Sandip’s cause, money that he keeps for himself. Overcome with shame at how she has allowed a man who now disgusts her to cause such havoc in her life, Bimala must try to save her marriage, support her country, and recommit herself to living by her conscience, not her passions. As village unrest turns to outbursts of violence, the characters are all changed by the decisions they must make.

Character of Bimala

PPT on Group Task

Bimalas character in The Home and The World from Daya Vaghani

Bimala is a rare portrayal of womanhood by Rabindranath Tagore because unlike the other female characters in Indian literature, there are two sides of Bimala. She is obligated to serve her husband and take care of the household. Yet, she is also willing to overstep these boundaries to speak out for her people. This fact is what makes her a positive representation of women in The Home and the World. Bimala in Tagore’s The Home and the World is perhaps the liveliest character of the story. She is the centre of action as well as attraction of the novel. She emblematizes love amid the fire and fury of politics, and her psychological intricacy contributes much in making Tagore's novel an interesting study. 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Bimala is not a flat character. As we witness that she changes with the transition of events and situations. Now the change in Bimala occurs with the arrival of Nikhil's friend, Sandip, in the wake of the swadeshi movement. He appears to her as a hero of the swadeshi and Bimala gets almost overwhelmed and hypnotized by Sandip’s personality at the very first sight. She reveals her own feelings as she says:

 "The whole place is filled with an immense crowd, through which Sandip Babu is borne, seated in a big chair, hoisted on the shoulders of ten or twelve youths.” 

Sandip's spell seemed to stir her serene heart. His speech had a tremendous impact on her. She forgot her well sheltered aristocratic, conservative home, to which she belonged and started visualizing herself as the sole representative of Bengal's womanhood. Thus in the course of the novel Bimala transforms herself from a meek wife of the home to the inspired champion of the swadeshi in the wide world outside. However Bimala’s change, as portrayed by Tagore does not appear to be drastic. She had an intuitive attraction for the swadeshi. The storm of the swadeshi had effects on her even before she met Sandip. Earlier in the novel she proposed to burn her foreign clothes, but was prevented by her husband. She also wanted to get rid of her teacher Miss Gilby out of that intuition. Moreover, her husband Nikhil was also instrumental in bringing her out of her home of conjugal love to the world of the wild swadeshi fire. He sharply awakened her from her house-hold slumber to face the stormy real world. His advice was clear enough to draw her from the home to the world. Nikhil said -

 "Merely going on with your household duties, living all your life in the world of household conventions and the drudgery of household tasks—you were not made for that! If we meet and recognise each other, in the real world, then only will our love be true." 

After suffering disillusionment Bimala finally returned to Nikhil, the dear centre of her life and love. In fact, she had never loved Sandip truly, though she was fascinated by his external glamour and show. And when his tyranny and cupidity get exposed , Bimala’s retreat to her home and husband become all easy and inevitable. Her inner conflict, agony and tension pass away, and she returns to Nikhil who stands for Bimala’s true love, devotion and home. Thus after a through analysis of Bimala’s character we may conclude with the comments of Pradip Kumar Dutta, who in his book The Home and the World, A Critical Companion writes 

“Bimala in Tagore’s The Home and the World emblematizes Bengali womanhood in Tagore’s contemporary society. And at the same time, the subsequent changes in her way of living and thinking make her psychologically, an engaging personality”