Rabindra Nath Tagore
Ra bindra
Nath Tagore With a literary life spanning over 60 years, Tagore
astounds one with his copiousness, variety, and innovation. His
literary output: over one thousand poems, nearly two dozen plays
and play-lets, eight novels, eight volumes of short stories, over
two thousand songs (words and music), and an extensive body of prose
on literary, social, religious, political, and other topics. In
addition are his English translations, paintings, travels and lecture-tours
in Asia, America, and Europe, his activities as educationist, social
and religious reformer, and politician. This is the measure of the
man.
Rabindranath (or Kavi-Guru as he is fondly called by Bengalis),
was born into a cultured and wealthy family. His father Devendranath,
wa s
one of the leaders of the Brahma Samaj; the Nobel Laureate's early
life was steeped in the arts, principally literature, music and
painting. The early musical influence on Tagore was principally
classical Indian; as a composer he used this training to divert
from classical orthodoxy and introduce variations of form and phrase:
from Bengali folk-music of the Bauls and Bhatiyalis, as well as
from European popular and classical music , including Border Ballads
and Moore's Irish Melodies. that he heard during his first trip
to England.
In 1901 he founded the famous school at Santiniketan, to propagate
his theories about the need for a holistic education for young minds.
The school was a great success and gave birth to Viswabharati University
. The publication of the English translation of his Gitanjali and
the award of the Nobel Prize for literature made him world-famous.
This was the first time that an Asian has recieved the Nobel Prize
for Literature. The rest of Tagore's life was spent at Santiniketan,
except for several travels and lecture-tours in which he carried his
message of human unity to all the important countries of Asia, America
and Europe.
As a social novelist, Tagore represented upper middle-class life in
Bengal in Naukadubi, Chokher-Bali and later, in Gora and Ghare
Baire. The last two study the impact of Western ideas on Indian life.
His plays represent different genres: social comedies such as Chirakumar
Sabha, Goray Galad and Vaikunther Katha; symbolical plays such as
Raja, Phalguni and Rakta Karabi; and short romantic play such as Malini,
Chandalika and Natir Puja.
Tagore's gifts of lyricism, mysticism, and song are very evident in
his enormous collection of songs and poems. Rabindra sangeet, the
body of songs originating with Tagore, forms the bulwark of Bengali
culture and aesthetics even today. Careers of artists like suchitra
Mitra (currently Calcutta's Mayor), have been made out of singing
the songs of Tagore.
Tagore was also a proud and ardent partiot. His most intense period
of political activity was in the years following 1905, when the agitation
against the partition of Bengal was at its highest. He renounced his
knighthood in 1919 as a protest against the Amritsar affair in a letter
to the Viceroy, which which is among the great documents of freedom.His
patriotic poems and songs, particularly the latter, have passed into
the common heritage of his country; the song Bharata-bhagya-vidatais
now sung all over India as the national anthem.
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