Shakuntala, critique of eurocentrism, and the grotesque: Herder and Goethe on India

Abstract

Herder’s writings on India contain his profound reverence for Indian inclination to retain a harmony with nature. The Sanskrit drama “Shakuntala” confirmed Herder not only about man’s immense love to nature, flower, animals but testified simultaneously to the ‘voice of heart’ resonating in this work. During the age of colonization, the notion of ‘noble savage’ had helped towards the implicit justification of the colonization of the primitive native people. Herder’s India, a culture in childhood was, however, holistic, pure, simple, and close to God. With such an image of India, Herder embarked on a polemic against the enlightened Europe resting on the ideal of progress. Herder, being aware of the contemporary misery of the indigenous people, anticipated future repentance on the part of Europe vis-à-vis the colonized world. Herder has played out the childhood of culture against European senescence. Contemporary postcolonial discourse has sought to make Herder relevant for the critique of colonial plunder, which Herder was vocal of in his writings scattered over years. Nonetheless, Herder did take a dim view of the inhuman practices prevailing in India and remained unsparing about the widow-burning and ill treatment given to the pariahs. Goethe held “Shakuntala” in a high aesthetic esteem and this drama bore distinct influence on the contemplation of shaping his drama “Faust”. Goethe’s ambivalence toward India is however marked by his disdain for the forms and images worshipped in India, which has recently been typified as Goethe’s encounter with the ‘grotesque’ India.