Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t20.25

v2.c10.s2.t20.25

There were, however, people like Lu Xun who initially did not agree with Tagore. As early as in 1907, he expressed how in the modern times, the tendency to decline and sink in order to become a British colony, India had already become a “shadow state” in an article titled *Forces of Poetry*. He argued that it was a failed state, no longer able to produce enough for “exotic circulation” of its great writers and their works. However, Lu Xun’s misunderstanding of Tagore, may be a result of the lack of information, or it could also be the influence of Japanese newspapers. Tagore on his part had criticised the Japanese nationalism and militarism about which the Japanese were uncomfortable. Later, Lu Xun’s attitude towards Tagore underwent change.