Rabindranath Tagore - A Biography

Author: Uma Das Gupta
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 105
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195669800

Description

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) is known to us today primarily as a poet and litterateur. Not many people, however, are aware of the vital significance of his efforts in the field of education and rural reconstruction. He loved the people of his country and strove for the rights of the rural poor to dignity and social justice. A pioneer in the field of education, he gave the last forty years of his life towards crating Visva-Bharati, an institution in rural Bengal, envisioned at the time as an Indian alternative to colonial education.

This brief biography draws on the history of Visva-Bharati to sketch the relatively lesser known aspects of Rabindranath’s life, namely, his work as an educator and rural reformer. It also deals, though less prominently, with the poet and the writer within him. Its primary focus, however, is the issues that concerned Rabindranath all his life and featured regularly in his writings, such as Indian history, nationalism and internationalism, racial humiliation and the search for self-esteem, education, religion, Religion of Man, humanism and a Jiban-debata or lord of Life.

This biography includes an appendix of selected letters by Rabindranath Tagore and will be of enduring interest to students as well as readers with an abiding interest in his life.

Contents

PREFACE

A NOTE ON CITATIONS

The Poet and His Times

A Man Among Men

Constructive Swadeshi and Santiniketan

Santiniketan, 1863-1941

Sriniketan, 1922-41

Nationalism and Mahatma Gandhi

Creative Writing

Nobel Prize and Beyond

Visva-Bharati, a World University

His Personal World and His Legacy

Appendix: Select Letters of Rabindranath Tagore

Select Bibliography

Published English Translations of Cited Texts