Rabindranath Tagore’s Broken Ties: A Book Review

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Rabindranath Tagore’s Broken Ties, posits a spiritual journey through a life that enlightens one to many of the nuances of Indian culture from the early twentieth century. Fashioned around the life of Satish, a man torn between his atheist uncle, his Hindu father, a Swami he will follow in his later years, and the love of the unrequited love of the widowed Damini, we see rise and fall of both confidence and spiritualism within a man. While meandering, the novel classically tracks the growth of Satish, his life, and more importantly, those around him. For Satish is a focus in a text he does not narrate and rarely directly acts upon. Instead we see his actions, his youth as a beloved (and begrieved) atheist, his wayward years with the Swami, and his final surrender to the world as Damini calls for his love. A quick read and didactic in nature, Tagore splashes the page with cultural splendor that reaches far beyond the man’s plight.