Rabindranath Tagore a Rennaisance Man

Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate, who tried to deepen mutual Indian and Western cultural understanding. His name in Bengali is Ravīndranātha Thākura. He was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), into a wealthy family, the son of the philosopher Debendranath Tagore. He began to write poetry as a child; his first book appeared when he was 17 years old. After a brief stay in England (1878) to study law, he returned to India, where he rapidly became the most important and popular author of the colonial era, writing poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. He composed several hundred popular songs and in 1929 also began painting.

A dedicated internationalist and educator, Tagore established a school (1901) in his estate, Santiniketan, in Bengal, to teach a blend of Eastern and Western philosophies. In 1921 his school was expanded into an international university, Visva-Bharati. He also traveled and lectured throughout the world.

Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but translated many of his works into English himself; critics agree they are much more effective in the original. Tagore's writing is highly imagistic, deeply religious and imbued with his love of nature and his homeland. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature, and in 1915 he was knighted by the British king George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following the Amritsar massacre of nearly 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops. His Collected Poems and Plays was published in 1966.

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