RABINDRANATH TAGORE - MODERN HISTORY
News:
Rabindranath Tagore birth anniversary: PM Modi, Amit Shah, others pay tributes
to Asia’s first Nobel laureate
What's in the news?
● Prime
Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Nobel laureate writer-poet Rabindranath
Tagore on his birth anniversary, citing his legacy in several fields.
● In
his tributes to “Gurudev Tagore”, he
said, “From art to music and from education to literature, he has left an
indelible mark across several areas.”
Key takeaways:
● Known
to be the first Asian to win a Nobel
prize, Tagore was also a playwright, composer, philosopher, painter and
reformer.
● As
per the Bengali Calendar, ‘Rabindranath Tagore Jayanti’ is observed on the 25th
day of the Bengali month of Baishakh, and this day is being celebrated on May
9.
Rabindranath Tagore:
● Rabindranath
Tagore was a prominent Indian poet, philosopher, educationist, and musician who
lived from 1861 to 1941.
● He
was known by several names, including ‘Gurudev’,
‘Kabiguru’, and ‘Biswakabi’.
● He
reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual
Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
● He
was also an influential artist and musician. He wrote around 2230 songs and
painted 3000 paintings. His songs are known as Rabindra Sangeet.
National Anthems:
● His
compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems such as
○ India's
‘Jana Gana Mana’
○ Bangladesh's
‘Amar Shonar Bangla’
● The
Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.
Views on Education:
● Tagore
felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-learning,
outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the schooling system set up by
the British. Teachers had to be imaginative, understand the child, and help
the child develop her curiosity.
● According
to Tagore, the existing schools killed the natural desire of the child to be
creative, her sense of wonder.
● Tagore
was of the view that creative learning could be encouraged only within a
natural environment.
● He
saw it as an abode of peace
(santiniketan), where living in harmony with nature, children could
cultivate their natural creativity.
● Tagore
wanted to combine elements of modern
Western civilization with what he saw as the best within Indian tradition.
● Viswa Bharti University,
which was known as Shantiniketan
founded by Rabindranath Tagore.
Social Reform:
● He
used his literature to mobilize people towards political and social reform.
● Through
his works, he protested against Brahmanical social order, Caste System, narrow
sectarianism, untouchability and animal sacrifice.
Economy:
● In
1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the "Institute for Rural
Reconstruction", later renamed.
● He
emphasized on expansion of small-scale cottage industries in the villages. The
aim was to supply fresh blood to the rural economy depending on local
resources.
Nationalism:
● He
skeptically scrutinized the construction of the nation on narrow parochial
lines.
● Tagore
opined that the term nationalism was derived from the term nation-state. And it
was nothing but the embodiment of Western ideas of capitalism and
mechanization.
● He
believed that these ideals were intrinsically against the Indian tradition of
self-autonomy, pluralism and religious tolerance.
● Fundamental
to his belief was that nationalism could
not rise above humanity.
Freedom Struggle:
Partition of Bengal (Swadeshi Movement):
● Tagore
wrote the song Banglar Mati Banglar Jol
(Soil of Bengal, Water of Bengal) to unite the Bengali population.
● He
started the Rakhi Utsav where people
from Hindu and Muslim communities tied colorful threads on each other's wrists.
● He
urged the masses to seek self-reliance and unite themselves against oppression.
Protest against Jallianwala Bagh Massacre:
● He
was awarded a knighthood by King George
V in 1915, but Tagore renounced it
after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Friendship with Mahatma Gandhi:
● Rabindranath
Tagore was a good friend of Mahatma Gandhi and is said to have given him the
title of Mahatma.
Awards:
● He
was awarded a knighthood by King George V in the 1915 Birthday Honours, but
Tagore renounced it after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
● In
1913, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work on Gitanjali. He was the first
non-European to receive this prestigious award.
Major Works of Tagore:
● Tagore’s
most notable work of poetry is Gitanjali: Song Offerings, for which he received
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
● Other
notable poetry publications include Sonar
Tari and Manasi.
● He
wrote novels, plays, and short stories in both languages, including the plays Chitra and The Post Office.
● He
is credited with pioneering the short story form in Bengali literature, with some
of his best work collected in The Hungry
Stones and Other Stories and The Glimpses of Bengal Life.