SOURCE: A review of Mashi and Other Stories, in Bookman, Vol. 55, No. 325, October, 1918, pp. 20–1.

In the following excerpt, Singh is critical of Tagore's stories in Mashi, asserting that they offer a harmful representation of Indians to Western readers.

In strange contrast with the note of joy and inspiration in Lover's Gift and Crossing, a note of pessimism runs through the pages of Rabindranath's Mashi and Other Stories. The only explanation for this that occurs to me is that most of his tales deal with one phase or another of the transition through which India is passing, and that transition is inspiring anxiety in the minds of men like Tagore, who are vitally interested in the preservation of Indian culture from the ravages of the vandal forces of indiscriminate Westernisation.

Mashi—maternal aunt—the chief character of the first story—is typical of the woman whom Indians adore. Her...