Rabindra Nath Tagore
Essay No. 01
Rabindra Nath Tagore is the only Indian who won the Nobel Prize in literature. His book of poems titled `Gitanjali’ got him the coveted prize. It is a book of prayers written with incredible spiritual depth. A reader cannot help reading the lines again and again. Every time a deeper meaning emerges without any sight of the bottom. Nowhere in his hook there is any trace of anger, spitefulness, vengeance or violent thoughts. This fact took the western world by surprise.
Tagore was born on 6th May, 1867 to a reasonably rich family of Thakurs in Bengal. His mother passed away when he was very young. So, his father brought him up, From the very childhood he had mind of his own. He revealed his unwillingness to go to the conventional school to start his education. He thought that such schools were monotonous and stuck to set rules. It cramped the body and the soul of a student. Rabindra Nath’s father was considerate. He allowed his son to have his way. The son was allowed to be tutored at home. At that stage itself Rabindra Nath was dreamy and thoughtful like a philosopher. Cares would not touch him. He was a nature lover. This fascination kept growing by the time.
His father thought of giving his son the benefit of liberal western atmosphere. Rabindranath was sent to England-when he was barely sixteen years old. He did little studying there. After dawdling for some time he returned home. His mind was rooted in Indian values. Rabindra Nath had started writing poems in Bangla even before he went to England. His poems were well received and appreciated locally. After his return he delved deeper into poetry. His poems reflected his thinking and inner feelings. In short time he earned name and fame as a Bangla poet of a different class. His sentiments were deeply meaningful. His early poems were published under the titled ‘Morning Songs’. The songs reflected the depth of the thoughts of the young poet.
Rabindra Nath Tagore was a messenger of peace to the world. A true friend of the humanity he was. He loved his country. Although he admired the English for their qualities of statesmanship and discipline yet he opposed the colonial rule of the British over India. In his own soft and unique ways he revealed India’s ancient culture, thought and its past to the western world. Rabindra Nath was a man of many talents. Besides being a poet, he was a novelist, story writer, dramatist, performed music shows and painted with equal. He led a saint like life and impressed everyone who came into contact with him.
Rabindra Nath was an authority on ethical values. He could speak on any subject, topic or occasion impromptu. Such was his mastery.
Besides winning Nobel Prize and bringing glory to the country he set up an open air university called ‘Vishwabharti Shanti Niketan’. It has now grown into a world famous institution. Shanti Niketan offers a new environment of education where students live in close association with the nature, seek its blessings and work manually. It was based on ancient Indian ‘Gurukur system’.
Rabindra Nath Tagore also was decorated with Knighthood for his services to the literature and art. However, he later returned the title to the government in protest against Jalianwala Bagh massacre of innocents. His life itself was a poetry which came to an end in 1941. But he lives through the legacies he left behind to us.
Essay No. 02
Rabindra Nath Tagore
Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindra Nath Tagore are two Indians who are equally well known in India and abroad. His father Maharishi Davendra Nath and grandfather Sh. Dawarika Dass were landlords who began to be addressed as Thakur’. The term was later anglicised as Tagore. Rabindra Nath Tagore was born in Jorasanko in Calcutta on 8th May, 1861. His mother’s name was Sharda Devi. He was the youngest of the fourteen brothers and sisters.
Rabindra Nath Tagore is the most famous man of letters that modern India has produced so far. He is many things rolled into one. He is a novelist, playwright, painter, philosopher, educationist, freedom fighter and an actor. But above all he is a poet. His position as a world poet is now universally recognized through the English translations of some of his writings. Generally he is considered to be only a religious poet. No doubt he is a great religious poet, perhaps one of the greatest that the world has ever produced. But at the same time he is a nature poet, a love poet, a patriotic poet and a poet of childhood. But above all he is a maker of songs. On 13th November, 1913, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his collection of well known poems named Geetanjali.
Rabindranath’s childhood was not very happy. He lost his mother when he was very young. He could not meet or speak to his father frequently as the latter was pre-occupied with his own pursuits. Rabindra Nath could not develop love for schooling. He hated authority and coercion. Therefore, he was allowed to study at home. He was, in fact, not very much interested in private lessons either. He was too independent, too sensitive and too dreamy to fall into traditional ruts.
Rabindra Nath Tagore was a voluminous writer. Out of eighty years he lived, he did his literary work for seventy years. It is so because he started writing poems as a child of eight and he-continued it until his death. His literary production was vast and varied. Poems, songs, dramas, short stories, novels, letters, diaries, sermons, addresses and essays of various kinds flowed from his pen. He wrote on all kinds of subjects -politics, religion, education, social reform, literary criticism, language, music and science. His English books, whether translations or original works, form only a very small part of his writings.
Though Rabindra Nath Tagore learnt to write in English rather late, he was able to achieve a style of his own which is beautifully distinct. It is also very surprising that, though he started painting at a very old age yet he achieved an individuality of style in this art.
His father was a great traveller. He took the boy with him on his wanderings
During these journeys he developed love for fields. He also developed love for simple peasant folk. He enjoyed nature. He enjoyed the sights and sounds that these wanderings offered to him.
Rabindra Nath Tagore had great love for humanity. Love for mankind is the very comer-stone of his religion. He loves mother earth more than the fabled heaven. Man is the measure of all things for him. He once said, “If there be any truth absolutely unrelated to humanity, then for us it is absolutely non-existing.” He denounced the aggressive nationalism of the West. He deemed it a crime against humanity.
Tagore’s love for humanity is the outcome of his spirituality. His love for mankind is only the obverse of his love for God. He is a mystical poet, he sings of man. and nature, life and death, love and beauty and their relations to the infinite spirit. A critic has said, “Perhaps no living poet was more religious, and no man of religion was more poetical than Tagore. In fact Upnishads and the teachings of Buddha played a great part in shaping his spiritual life.
Besides our National Anthem ‘Jana Gana Mana’ Tagore gave us his famous Gitanjali, Sonar Tari, Puravi, The cycle of the Spring, The Evening Songs and the Morning Songs. Among his famous novels are: Gora, The Wreck, Raja and Rani, Mukt Dhara, Raaj Rishi, Nauka Dubi and Binodini. Kabuli Wallah and Kshudita Pashan are his two famous stories.
He was opposed to the foreign rule. He strongly disliked the slavish mentality of the Indian politicians of his time. He wanted Indians to be self-reliant and proud of their cultural heritage. He spent the entire amount of money that he got from the Nobel Prize on Shantiniketan. This is his great gift to the people at large and also his most enduring memorial. He wanted to bring the East and the West closer to eachother. Shantiniketan later on developed into the Vishvabharti University.
He was honoured with the title of ‘Sir’. But in protest against th6 Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, he returned the title in 1919. The great ‘Maker of Sopgs’ breathed his last on 8th August, 1941. His death was widely mourned throughout the world. But he lives forever in his lofty ideas:
Where the mind is without fear and where the head is held high In that heaven of freedom, O Lord! Let my country awake.
