Rabindranath Tagore was born May 7, 1861 in Calcutta,
India into a wealthy
Brahmin family. He won the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1913 — the first Asian to receive the honor. He wrote poetry,
fiction, drama, essays, and songs; promoted reforms in education, aesthetics
and religion; and in his late sixties he even turned to the visual arts,
producing 2,500 paintings and drawings before his death. He was educated at
home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England
for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years,
in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family
estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and
increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental
school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. Tagore
was poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, educationist,
spiritualist, painter, lyricist, composer and singer – a rare set of
distinctions, an unbelievable conjunction of talents. His creative works, which
still influence billions of people globally, are a matter of pride for the
people of India
and Bangladesh.
He was born, grew up, worked and died here. India
chose his Jana gana mana as the national anthem in 1947, Bangladesh
chose his songs amar sonar bangla as the national anthem in1971. Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941, at 80 years of age. Tagore belongs
to India, and Bangladesh
too. But in the truest sense, he belongs to the world.
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