Description
This paper intercedes in the international normative landscape by bringing Rabindranath Tagore's Neo-Vedantic universalism to the forefront as a counter-discourse to Eurocentric and monocausal conventions that continue to influence global political thinking. Prominent global norms are deeply inscribed in the epistemic presuppositions of modernity, favoring rights over the good and individuality over relationality. These Eurocentric paradigms exclude ethical traditions based on community, coexistence, and reciprocity, thus constraining the plural possibilities of normativity. The guiding question energizing this paper is: How might Tagore's Neo-Vedantic humanism reframe global norms in a manner that surmounts Eurocentrism and creates possibilities of coexistence, plurality, and relational ethics in future world politics? In a close reading of Tagore's writings: Manusheer Dharma, Gitanjali, Kabuliwala, and The Religion of Man, the paper analyzes his philosophy of "Yatra Viswam Bhavati Ek Nidam" ("The world is a single nest") as a normative intervention. Tagore's relational ontology, where relations precede existence, presents a counter-narrative to Euro-American political thinking based on atomism and contractarianism. In focusing on universal humanism and interdependence between self and other, his approach disrupts the exclusivism and provincialism of such global normative orders. In doing so, the paper makes the case for normativism's heuristic value in overcoming homogenizing presumptions to reclaim the diachronic and plural dimensions of world politics. It aims to decolonize normative theory by situating Tagore in present-day discussions on global ethics, underscoring his importance to a vision of an international community based on inclusivity, harmony, and coexistence.
