This paper examines how Orientalist views of Rabindranath Tagore have changed in the West due largely to World War I. Focusing on his Nationalism, this research shows that the normative perception of Tagore in the West took a sharp turn because of his political opposition to colonialism and imperialism. The West’s adoption of Tagore as part of its canon proved to be a failure as he showed his true colors by taking a critical stance against nationalism, a key feature of Western imperialism, especially during the first world war. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates that Tagore had hoped to achieve a confluence of the East and West by embracing Western ideas in a selective manner, expecting a conflict of their narrow-minded interests to be eclipsed by the higher standards of humanity.