And it is at this time she meets Sandip, a fiery nationalist, who thinks and feels differently from her husband. Not only does Bimala leave the introverted but her mind and sight, her hopes and desires become red with the passion of the new ages. A mighty political agitation that sweeps over the country and breaks the barriers of age, gives the Indian wife an opportunity to come out of her secluded existence. When, early is the novel, Nikhil urges Bimala, so long a typical Hindu wife to come out of her secluded existence and to meet the world, Bimala is at first indifferent to the idea, saying ‘what do I with the outside world.’, Nikhilesh is not a Torvald Helmer and does not make a doll of his wife, neither does he try to impose anything of his own on her.
Unlike Nora, Bimala does not stand for women’s liberation. The former sands far an idea, which the latter is an individual woman who may be distantly connected with an idea. Ibsen’s Nora ( A Doll’s House) and Tagore’s Bimala belong to two different worlds.
The novel is full of political discussions and they are important only is so far as they help to reveal the working in the minds of Sandip, Nikhilesh and Bimala. The swadeshi agitation is a necessary political backdrop only became it is through this upheaval that an Indian wife can suddenly tear the moorings of a sheltered domestic life and float adrift in the high seas of a countryside agitation. However, many would feel that the real meaning and interest of the novel lies in its moving portrayal of man -women relationship, in the psychological conflict, in the personal drama of husband and wife knowing each other both at home and in the world. The novel has been regarded as an allegory, Bimala, standing for modern India, Nikhilesh for ancient India and Sandip for modern Europe. Nikhilesh’s passion for absolute truth reminds us of the sages of ancient India, and the dominating force in Sandip’s character is greed which is the lane of modern western nationalism. Bimala, the central character of the novel, who has been given a large number of autobiographical narratives than the other two principal characters, is torn between these two contending forces which exercise a powerful fascination over her mind. For Nikhilesh, the Ideal is the principal ingredient in the real for Sandip the Ideal is tolerable only when it is a means to the attainment of the Real. Nikhilesh worships nothing but truth which is greater than the country, and which is alone all temporary crazes for Sandip the success of the moment, no matter by whatever means it is the only thing that matters. V iewed purely as a social political novel, Tagore 's The Home and the World seems to make a sharp distinction between two rival political impulses, Nikhilesh representing the pure passion for constructive work in swadeshi (nationalism), and Sandip its greed and destructive energy.