SOURCE: “Modes of Questioning in Tagore's Short Stories,” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 5, No. 1, Fall, 1967, pp. 24–36.

In the following essay, Lago explores the themes of ethical dilemma and moral choice in Tagore's stories “Punishment” and “A Lapse of Judgement” in the context of Indian culture, politics, and history.

With a unanimity rare among literary critics, four contemporary Bengali scholars agree that with the work of Rabindranath Tagore the short story “came of age” in Bengali literature. Srikumar Banerjee, a teacher of Bengali literature, says that “it was he among Bengali writers who first discovered the form of the short story—its unprefaced opening, its quick movement and its suggestive culmination.”¹

Sukumar Sen, author of a comprehensive history of Bengali literature, says that “Tagore is the first writer of the true short story in Bengali (1891) and he has remained the best.”²

Bhudev Chaudhuri, literary historian, says: “The Bengali...