Tagore, Rabindranath (1861–1941)

Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata) into a wealthy, prominent, and large Bengali family, Rabindranath Tagore became one of India's greatest modern intellectual figures and the first Indian writer to attain global fame. His father, Debendranath, played an influential role in Bengali society as leader of an important modern Hindu reform movement, the Brahmo Samaj (“Society of God”); thus, the environment in which Rabindranath grew up not only was steeped in the richness of Hindu traditions but also was one on the cutting edge of India's engagement with modernity.

Sent to study law in England, Tagore returned prematurely to India and pursued writing instead; he went on to become an accomplished and profoundly influential poet, novelist, playwright, songwriter, and painter. His ideas sparked, among other things, a sense of “national” feeling that crystallized in his compositions, later being used as anthems for what would become the independent states of India and Bangladesh. That his work could be used in this way illustrates its “international” or “global” character and that of the themes on which he wrote: a deep love of God and nature; the fellowship of mankind; the nature of freedom, both political and spiritual; and socio-religious criticism. Outside India, Tagore won international fame for English translations of his own Bengali poetry, particularly his Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a project that helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913—the first Indian, or even Asian, poet to receive the award. His literary accomplishments allowed him to travel extensively and correspond with many of the towering figures of his day, including W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Bertrand Russell, Einstein, and King George V, who knighted Tagore in 1915, only to see that honor renounced in protest of British brutality during the Amritsar massacre of 1919.

His personal correspondence, as well as the impact of his poetry, which circulated in the English-speaking world generally, made Tagore a prominent and deeply articulate voice of India's cultural and religious heritage. Tagore was also an important voice in India's independence movement, but he eventually took a step back from political activism, being deeply disturbed by the violence associated with blind nationalism and religious discord. In keeping with his general humanist and rationalist ideals, Tagore believed that education of the Indian masses should be a larger part of the independence movement; only then could India attain a deeper freedom—a freedom that merely Britain's exit from the subcontinent would not accomplish. To this end, Tagore started his own university, Visva-Bharati, in Santiniketan, near Kolkata, which aimed to combine the best of both Indian and European education. Despite his global [Page 1257]appeal, Tagore's legacy is more deeply tied to the Bengali language, of which he is the single greatest literary figure.