Practicing Cosmopolitanism in Knowledge Spaces, Cityscapes and Marketplaces

In this article, we observe the possibility of practicing cosmopolitanism in three distinct experiential spaces intrinsic to human existence: knowledge spaces, habitation spaces and marketplaces. Although cosmopolitanism has been overwhelmingly deliberated upon across multiple disciplines, it has been confined to conceptualisms in the Western scholarship. On the other hand, we find that some of the works of thinkers, such as, Rabindranath Tagores Creative Unity (1922), Aurobindo Ghoshs The Ideal of Human Unity (1915-1918) and Mikhail Bakhtins Rabelais and His World (1984), open the possibilities of experiencing cosmopolitanism in lived human spaces. Cosmopolitanism emerges through knowledge generation and exchanges in the academic vision of Tagores ideal Visva-Bharati, in the everydayness of city life through Aurobindos Auroville and in the cultural spaces of the Bakhtinian marketplace. Further, we find that cosmopolitanism in these thinkers interweaves the physical place with spaces of the mind. The individual emerges as a core of their cosmopolitan worldview. We argue that these thinkers not only pave the way for recognizing cosmopolitanism in real, lived spaces but also inspire a future vision, practicable in the society through academic institutions, human habitats and regular interactions at marketplaces.