Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore

Subject: History

Section: Persoanlity

Context: Rabindranath Tagore celebrates 161st birth anniversary

Rabindranath Tagore:

• Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, novelist, and painter, who was born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861 and was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the west.
• He was also referred to as ‘Gurudev’, ‘Kabiguru’, and ‘Biswakabi’.
• He was the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for his work on Gitanjali in 1913.
• In 1915, Tagore was awarded knighthood by the British King George V. However, in 1919, following the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre he renounced his Knighthood.
• Rabindranath Tagore was a good friend of Mahatma Gandhi and is said to have givenhim the title of Mahatma.
• He not only gave the national anthems for two countries, India and Bangladesh, but also inspired a Ceylonese student of his, to pen and composes the national anthem of Sri Lanka.
• Tagore believed in open-air education and had reservations about any teaching done within four walls. This was due to his belief that walls represent the conditioning of the mind.
• Tagore did not have a good opinion about the Western method of education introduced by the British in India; on this subject, Tagore and Gandhiji’s opinion matched.
• So, in 1921, he founded the Vishwabharati University at Santiniketan. He believed it stifled creativity. He conceived of an educational system where the students’ curiosity was kindled and learning became more natural.
• He had spoken at the World Parliament for Religions in the years 1929 and 1937.