RABINDRA NATH TAGORE

RABINDRA NATH TAGORE

Rabindra Nath Tagore fondly called ‘Gurudev’ is one of the great sons of India. He was a gifted genius in history. According to Mahatma Gandhi he was the greatest poet of Asia in twentieth century. Both as a poet and as a man Tagore earned a great fame and respect in the world.

Rabindra Nath Tagore was born on May 6, 1861 in a Bengali family. His father Maharishi Devendra Nath Tagore was a zamindar. Being the fourteenth child of his parents, young Rabindra grew up under the care of the family’s servants. He learnt Sanskrit, Grammar and Astronomy from his father. He studied English literature from his elder brother. Tagore started writing poems from a very early age. At the age of seventeen he went to England.

Tagore thought of starting a small experimental school, modeled on the ancient ideals of the Gurukula. So on December 22, 1901 he began his school at “Shantiniketan”. He wanted to provide children an environment where the mind of the young “might expand into love of Beauty and God”. He was against the conventional school system.

He wrote his famous book ‘Gitanjali’ a collection of 103 poems and got the Nobel Prize for it in 1913. He was the first Asian who got this highest honor. Gitanjali was translated from the original Bengali into English by Tagore himself which was passed by all. Later it was translated into many languages of the world.

Tagore experiment at Santiniketan proved to be a great success which later became “Vishvabharati University”. He built another Institution, “Shriniketan”, to work for village uplift. He was a great lover of forests. He introduced two seasonal festivals “Vriksharopana” (Tree Planting) and “Hala-Karshana” (Ploughing) at Shantiniketan and Shriniketan during the raining season. Thus it was he who initiated the tree-planting ceremony which is now an all-India festival actively sponsored by the Central and State Government.

Tagore was an ardent patriot. His patriotism con be seen in his poems and songs. The song “Bharata-Bhagya-Vidhata” is now sung all over India as the National Anthem. The massacre of Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar on April 13, 1919 deeply disturbed him. He wrote a letter to the viceroy in which he stated that the brutality of the action was “without parallel in the history of civilized government….” He even renounced the knighthood, with its title sir’ bestowed on him by the British Government in protest against the inhuman killings. It was perhaps tagore’s love for his country that brought him closer to Gandhiji. He acknowledged Gandhiji’s greatness by calling him “Mahatama”, great Soul.

Rabindra Nath Tagore breathed his last on August 7,1941 at the age of eighty. Now he not amongst us but his patriotic poems and songs are still there to inspire us to do something creative.

Overall Tagore was a educationist, a social and religious reformer and a politician. His relentless striving towards perfect harmony among people is a priceless gift’s to India.

A prolific writer in Bengali, Tagore’s collected poems, stories, novels and plays make up 26 volumes. A creative genius who excelled in painting and music as well, Tagore recomposed more than 200 songs, collectively called “Rabindra Sangeet”.

Tagore loved India and fought for freedom in the way he knew best with speeches and patriotic songs.