Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was born on the 7th of May 1861 inside the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta. He was the youngest of thirteen surviving children to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi. His mother died when he was very young, leaving him mostly under the care of servants. The family home buzzed with literary magazines, theatre recitals, and Western classical music performances. Professional Dhrupad musicians stayed at the house to teach Indian classical music to the children. His brother Dwijendranath became a philosopher and poet while Satyendranath broke barriers as the first Indian appointed to the elite Indian Civil Service. Another brother, Jyotirindranath, worked as a musician and playwright. His sister Swarnakumari rose to become a novelist. Kadambari Devi, his brother's wife, was a powerful influence until her suicide in 1884 left him distraught for years.
Tagore began writing poetry at age eight and released substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiñha by sixteen. Regional experts accepted these works as long-lost classics from the seventeenth century. He published his first short story titled Bhikharini in 1877 when he was only sixteen. This work effectively invented the Bengali-language short story genre. The period between 1891 and 1895 known as Sadhana yielded more than half the stories in Galpaguchchha. This collection contains eighty-four stories that examined rural life with penetrating depth. Tales like Kabuliwala and Kshudita Pashan typified this focus on the downtrodden. Tagore wrote novels including Chokher Bali which pilloried the custom of perpetual mourning for widows. Ghare Baire emerged from a bout of depression in 1914 and ended with Hindu-Muslim violence. Gora raised controversial questions regarding Indian identity through an Irish boy orphaned during the Sepoy Mutiny.
In November 1913 Tagore learned he had won that year's Nobel Prize in Literature. He became the first Asian to win any Nobel Prize category and the first non-European to win the Literature award. His translation of Gitanjali into English gained attention from William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound while touring London. The Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic nature of his translated material focused on Song Offerings. A limited edition appeared through London's India Society before Poetry magazine published selections. In 1915 King George V awarded him a knighthood but Tagore renounced it after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He wrote to Lord Chelmsford stating badges of honour made shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation. The repudiation letter declared he wished to stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of his countrymen. Later events included the theft of his actual Nobel Prize medal from Visva-Bharati University vaults on the 25th of March 2004.
Tagore lampooned the Swadeshi movement in an acrid essay titled The Cult of the Charkha published in 1925. He rebuked British administration as a political symptom of social disease rather than seeking blind revolution. Evidence from the Hindu-German Conspiracy Trial affirmed his awareness of Ghadarites and support for Japanese Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake. Yet he escaped assassination narrowly during a stay at a San Francisco hotel in late 1916 when would-be assassins fell into argument. Songs like Ekla Chalo Re gained mass appeal though they were favoured by Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore was key in resolving a dispute between Gandhi and Ambedkar involving separate electorates for untouchables. This resolution mooted at least one of Gandhi's fasts unto death. In 1934 an earthquake hit Bihar killing thousands while Gandhi hailed it as divine retribution avenging Dalit oppression. Tagore rebuked him for these seemingly ignominious implications and mourned the perennial poverty of Calcutta.
Visiting Santa Barbara in 1917 Tagore conceived a new type of university to connect India with the world. The foundation stone for Visva-Bharati was laid on the 24th of December 1918 and inaugurated three years later. Teaching often took place under trees using a brahmacharya system where gurus gave personal guidance. He staffed the school and contributed his Nobel Prize monies to keep duties as steward-mentor busy. Mornings involved teaching classes while afternoons and evenings saw him writing textbooks for students. He fundraised widely across Europe and the United States between 1919 and 1921. In 1921 he set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction renamed Shriniketan in Surul near the ashram. With agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst they sought to free villages from helplessness and ignorance by vitalising knowledge. By the early 1930s he targeted ambient abnormal caste consciousness and untouchability successfully opening Guruvayoor Temple to Dalits.
Tagore composed around two thousand two hundred thirty songs known as Rabindra Sangeet. These works merged fluidly into literature including poems novels stories and plays alike. Influenced by thumri style Hindustani music they ran the gamut of human emotion from dirge-like Brahmo hymns to quasi-erotic compositions. Some songs mimicked raga melodies faithfully while others blended elements of different ragas. About nine-tenths of his work was not bhanga gaan but tunes revamped with fresh value from Western or regional flavours. Amar Shonar Bangla became the national anthem of Bangladesh in 1971 though written ironically to protest the 1905 Partition of Bengal. Jana Gana Mana was first sung in 1911 at a Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress before adoption in 1950. Even illiterate villagers sing his songs according to Modern Review observations. Tagore influenced sitar maestro Vilayat Khan and sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan.
At age sixty Tagore took up drawing and painting after successful exhibitions debuted in Paris. He likely suffered red-green colour blindness resulting in strange colour schemes and off-beat aesthetics. His artist's eye revealed itself through simple artistic leitmotifs embellishing scribbles cross-outs and word layouts. In 1937 Nazi regime removed paintings from Berlin's baroque Crown Prince Palace and included five in degenerate art inventories compiled during 1941-1942. India's National Gallery of Modern Art lists one hundred two works by him in its collections. His last five years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness beginning when he lost consciousness in late 1937. A period of prolonged agony ended with Tagore's death on the 7th of August 1941 aged eighty inside an upstairs room of Jorasanko mansion. A.K. Sen received dictation from Tagore on the 30th of July 1941 a day before a scheduled operation for his final poem.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When and where was Rabindranath Tagore born?
Rabindranath Tagore was born on the 7th of May 1861 inside the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta. He was the youngest of thirteen surviving children to Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi.
What major literary works did Rabindranath Tagore publish during his career?
Rabindranath Tagore published his first short story titled Bhikharini in 1877 when he was only sixteen. This work effectively invented the Bengali-language short story genre and included collections like Galpaguchchha containing eighty-four stories that examined rural life with penetrating depth.
Why did Rabindranath Tagore renounce his knighthood from King George V?
Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre because he stated badges of honour made shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation. The repudiation letter declared he wished to stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of his countrymen.
How did Rabindranath Tagore contribute to education through Visva-Bharati University?
The foundation stone for Visva-Bharati was laid on the 24th of December 1918 and inaugurated three years later to connect India with the world. Teaching often took place under trees using a brahmacharya system where gurus gave personal guidance while Tagore staffed the school and contributed his Nobel Prize monies to keep duties as steward-mentor busy.
Which songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore became national anthems?
Amar Shonar Bangla became the national anthem of Bangladesh in 1971 though written ironically to protest the 1905 Partition of Bengal. Jana Gana Mana was first sung in 1911 at a Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress before adoption in 1950.