RABINDRANATH TAGORE - HISTORY
News: South Korea: Why Indian poet
Rabindranath Tagore’s sculpture stands in Seoul
What's in the news?
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In the early 20th century, Indian Nobel laureate
Rabindranath Tagore wrote a few lines that reached the masses and generations
and marked the beginning of a long-standing association between South Korea and
India.
Rabindranath Tagore:
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He was a world-renowned
poet, litterateur, philosopher and Asia’s first Nobel laureate.
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He was born in Kolkata on May 7, 1861.
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He was the son
of Debendranath Tagore, a prominent philosopher and religious reformer.
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He was popularly known as Bard of Bengal, and people used to call him Gurudev.
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He introduced new prose and verse forms and the use
of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from
traditional models based on classical Sanskrit.
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He was highly
influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa.
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In 1913, he became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
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He was also an influential artist and musician. He
wrote around 2230 songs and painted 3000 paintings. His songs are known as
Rabindra Sangeet.
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Rabindranath Tagore wrote India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. He also
wrote Amar Sonar Bangla, the national anthem for Bangladesh. The Sri Lankan
national anthem was inspired by his work.
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He was awarded
a knighthood in 1915, but he repudiated it in 1919 as a protest against the
Amritsar (Jallianwalla Bagh) Massacre.
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Viswa Bharti University, which was known as Shantiniketan founded by Rabindranath
Tagore.
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Major Works:
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Tagore’s most notable work of poetry is Gitanjali: Song Offerings, for which he
received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
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Other notable poetry publications include Sonar Tari and Manasi.
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He wrote novels, plays, and short stories in both
languages, including the plays Chitra
and The Post Office.
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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.