Gora is a tall, fair, fiercely argumentative young man in late nineteenth century Calcutta who has made himself the champion of orthodox Hinduism against both British contempt and the reformist Brahmo Samaj. His closest friend Binoy is gentler and more open, and when Binoy is drawn into the household of Paresh Babu, a wise Brahmo elder, the two friends start to drift apart.
Paresh Babu's daughters and ward, especially the thoughtful Sucharita and the spirited Lalita, challenge Gora's rigid views in long conversations about caste, ritual, women's freedom and what it means to love a country. Gora's own mother, Anandamoyi, quietly ignores the purity rules her son preaches. A walking tour through rural Bengal shows Gora how caste and colonial power actually grind down poor villagers.
Serialised between 1907 and 1909 and published as a book in 1910, the novel is a sprawling novel of ideas, dense with debate yet driven by its romances and by a secret that the reader senses long before Gora does. It is Tagore's fullest argument for an inclusive Indian identity that rises above sect, and it repays readers willing to follow its long arguments.
Book details
| Author | Rabindranath Tagore |
|---|---|
| First published | 1910 |
| Original language | Bengali |
| Translated by | Sujit Mukherjee |
| Genre | Classic |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 480 |
| Setting | Calcutta and rural Bengal, 1880s |
Themes
- Religious orthodoxy
- Indian identity
- Caste
- Friendship
- Brahmo Samaj reform
Who should read it
Readers who enjoy novels of ideas and want to understand the debates over religion and nationhood in colonial Bengal.