INTRODUCTION

• Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is an outstanding literary figure of India and a legendary figure in world literature.

• He is widely acclaimed not only in India but also globally.

• Apart from his remarkable contribution in literature, Tagore made a notable contribution to the discourse of nationalism and cosmopolitanism.

• To understand his views on nationalism and cosmopolitanism, it is essential to explore insights into his life and works.

BACKGROUND

• Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter during the Bengal Renaissance.

• He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art, with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• Tagore authored the “profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful” poetry of Gitanjali.

• In 1913, Tagore became the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize in any category and the first lyricist to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

• His poetic songs were seen as spiritual and mercurial, with his elegant prose and magical poetry widely popular in the Indian subcontinent.

• Tagore was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and was referred to as “the Bard of Bengal.”

• He was known by the sobriquets Gurudeb, Kobiguru, and Biswokobi.

• A Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta with ancestral roots in Burdwan district and Jessore, Tagore began writing poetry at the age of eight.

• At sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha (“Sun Lion“), which were later hailed as long-lost classics.

• By 1877, Tagore began writing short stories and dramas under his real name.

• As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent critic of nationalism, he denounced the British Raj and advocated for independence from Britain.

• Tagore was an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, creating a vast canon that included paintings, sketches, doodles, hundreds of texts, and approximately two thousand songs.

• His legacy also includes the founding of Visva-Bharati University.

• Tagore modernized Bengali art, rejecting rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures.

• His works covered political and personal topics, including novels, stories, songs, dance dramas, and essays.

• His best-known works include Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World).

• His verse, short stories, and novels were praised or criticized for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation.

• Two nations adopted his compositions as national anthems: India’s “Jana Gana Mana” and Bangladesh’s “Amar Shonar Bangla”.

• The Sri Lankan national anthem was also inspired by his work.

• His song “Banglar Mati Banglar Jol” was adopted as the state anthem of West Bengal.

His Life

• Rabindranath Tagore (popularly known as Tagore) was born on 9th May 1861 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), Bengal into an eminent and influential Bengali Brahmin family.

• He was the fourteenth and youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious reform organization established by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

• Tagore’s grandfather, Dwarkanath Tagore, was a rich landlord and social reformer and a close associate of Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

• Tagore’s family was among the earliest to join Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s Brahmo Samaj.

• Under the influence of the liberal tradition of his family and the philosophy of the Upanishads, Rabindranath developed a positive view of life and a love for humanity.

• He was educated at home and through his travels. He wrote his first verse at the age of eight.

• He made regular trips to Europe and was admitted to a school in England, but he dropped out to pursue self-education.

• Tagore married Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri in 1883 and had two sons and three daughters.

• In 1901, he settled at Shantiniketan (meaning ‘Abode of Peace’) and began his educational experiment, trying to implement his Upanishadic ideals of education.

• Most of his work was written at Shantiniketan.

• Tagore conceived an innovative system of education at Shantiniketan, using the school as a base to participate in India’s social, political, and cultural movements.

• A significant part of Tagore’s life was spent in developing the school at Shantiniketan.

• In 1913, Calcutta University conferred on him a D.Litt. degree.

• Oxford University conferred a Doctorate on Tagore in 1940 at Shantiniketan.

• He passed away on 7th August 1941.