Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

164 I Ramnath
about deviating from the principles of science and rationality
is quite understandable, given what they were positioning
themselves against-the bloodbaths of communalism,
the religiously sanctioned degradation of the caste system,
and recently the growth of religious politics both Hindu
and Islamic. Yet this made the entire category of the spiritual
or nonrational our of bounds for progressive politics,
ceding it to the Right rather than allowing it other modes
of expression.
The bifurcation between the Marxist and Gandhian
schools of thought-sometimes coding for the rationalist/
modernist and its antithesis-has been one of the major
influences shaping the Indian radical spectrum, both during
and after the independence struggle. Applying an anarchist
lens here allows for the possibility of conceptually
straddling the line.
Ta go re
Most renowned as a writer of poetry, novels, and plays,
and the first non-European winner of the Nobel Prize in
1913, Tagore was also a musician, painter, educational innovator
and social reformer, generally regarded as having
revolutionized Bengali culture. In 1901 he founded an
ashram in Shantiniketan, linked to his Institute for Rural
Reconstruction and later to an alternative university that
he opened in 1921. Its philosophy aimed at replacing rote
learning with holistic, creative pedagogy, featuring outdoor
classrooms, individualized mentorship, training in the arts,