Today is the birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, composer of our National Anthem “Aamar Sonar Bangla,” which inspired millions of Bangladeshis to fight for the independence. The song still rekindles in us the same spirit of daring of joining the great cause of freedom.
Rabindranath Tagore was born in a renowned and highly respected family on May 7 in 1861 in the Jorasanko Mansion in Kolkata, India. He was his parents’ fourteenth and last child. Although his mother died when he was very young, the life of his nationalist father inspired him greatly. He expressed the sentiments of his countrymen through poems, songs, essays, speeches and plays since the tender age.
Born Litterateur
Only for a very little while did Tagore receive regular schooling outside his home. He attended the Oriental Seminary and later the Bengal Academy for a few days. But their uncongenial atmosphere wearied him; he turned his back on schools for ever.
In 1874, his thirteenth year, he studied at St Xavie’'s High School for a while; but he was never a regular pupil of any institution whatever.
Educating himself only under private tutors only, he became proficient in Bengali, Sanskrit, English, History, Mathematics and Science.
He began to write when he was just eight and his work appeared in print before he was 15. He was greatly inspired by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Bangadarshan.
Rabindranath Tagore was sent to England to become a barrister. Instead he found solace in studying French and German to read some of the poets of these languages in original. His compelling interest in literature developed him into a versatile artist.
Poet of the People
Calamities in his personal life made a permanent impact on his sensitive mind. He lost his beloved wife in 1902 and the same year he lost his second daughter and, very soon, one of his sons. But he overcame his sufferings quickly and let his feelings show the way through poetry to bring hope and solace to other people.
Tagore’s fertile poetry assumed many forms but he was the master of short poems which could be set to music and sung by villagers and the boatmen on the Ganga. In his verses he expressed his desire to amalgamate himself with the humanity at large by communicating with it in its own language. While helping to manage his family estate, young Rabindranath came into deep contact with the labourers. He understood the needs and difficulties of the peasants. This revelation gave a new turn to his thinking. He conceived that the problem of India was social rather than civil or political.
The earliest glimpses of his deep love for humanity in Kodi O Komol where he expresses his desire “not to leave the beautiful world” and preferred to live among the ordinary people.
Kotha O Kahani consists of a number of poems which bear eloquent testimony to the poet’s sympathy for the oppressed. Through Gitanjali, Tagore warns people not to look down upon any one as inferior. There are references to the plight of the struggling humanity in Patraput, Senjuti and Prantik.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 shook him to the roots. Tagore marched through the streets of Calcutta reciting his poem ‘Rakhi’ with Tilak and Aurobindo for a holy mass dip in the Ganga and tied Rakhi to the people as a symbol of the unbreakable unity of Bengal. The orator in the poet was roused. The partition found him in the vortex of political turmoil in the country.
By this time Tagore had attained popularity as a poet in Bengal. But it was Gitanjali, written between 1907 and 1910, that brought him world fame.
In 1913, the Nobel Prize came his way as the acknowledgement of his being a world poet when the English version of Gitanjali translated by the poet himself, reached all over. He was the first Asian to attain this distinction and it was the first time when a poet who wrote in an entirely ‘foreign’ language was awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy.
A Nationalist to the Core
The fundamental tenet of Tagore’s political philosophy was self-reliance. It is by taking his stand on this principle that he first made a place for the Bengali language in political discourses. He had to face much criticism to establish that the country's affairs must be discussed in its own languages only.
The revolutionary idea of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction was his brain child. Rabindranath was the intellectual leader of the Swadeshi Movement.
As early as 1904, the poet drew up a complete scheme for the reorganisation of villages with the revival of cottage industries to help remove poverty. His idea of national regeneration through a comprehensive scheme of rural reconstruction is his signal contribution to constructive politics. His well-known work Swadeshi Samaj was published in 1904.
To arouse patriotic feelings among the youth, he wrote and composed many songs. They had been tuned in the baul style. One of his most popular numbers “Ekla Cholo Re” was composed during this period. In 1920, Gandhiji started non-cooperation movement. It was Rabindranath who first conceived the idea of using only Indian goods and discard the foreign ones. Many of his other ideas concerning social uplift were translated into practice by Gandhiji.
Tagore was an ardent votary of internationalism. To put his idea of universal humanity into practice, he started a university, Vishva Bharati, on December 23, 1921 - a unique centre of learning where one could train oneself as a citizen of the world. A number of scholars from Britain and Harvard came to join Tagore.
A Versatile Artist
Since his childhood, Tagore was very much influenced by the baul - the folk devotional songs of Bengal. The feeling behind these mystic songs had led him to compose his poems at the tender age of 13.
The 1886 Congress session in Kolkata, began with a song which Tagore had himself composed.
He also introduced a new note in Indian music. His songs gave expression to the moods of the flowing moments of life. He solemnised the union between the lyric and the melody. His music captured the hearts of millions in the form of Rabindra Sangeet. He composed more than two thousand poems.
In the last decade of his life, Tagore suddenly took to painting. About 3,000 pieces of his art are still preserved in his home and at Santi Niketan.
Tagore’s mind was ever alert and he kept his interests and his amazing talents alive till the very end. The end came on August 7, 1941 in the same old Jorasanko house where he had first opened his eyes eighty years and three months ago. His death marked the end of an era.
Tagore would always be remembered for his poems, short stories, plays, novels and music. In all these spheres, he occupies the highest place in Bengali literature. But, above all, he was a prince among patriots. India is proud to have its national anthem composed by the great poet of this century. n
Rabindranath Tagore was born in a renowned and highly respected family on May 7 in 1861 in the Jorasanko Mansion in Kolkata, India. He was his parents’ fourteenth and last child. Although his mother died when he was very young, the life of his nationalist father inspired him greatly. He expressed the sentiments of his countrymen through poems, songs, essays, speeches and plays since the tender age.
Born Litterateur
Only for a very little while did Tagore receive regular schooling outside his home. He attended the Oriental Seminary and later the Bengal Academy for a few days. But their uncongenial atmosphere wearied him; he turned his back on schools for ever.
In 1874, his thirteenth year, he studied at St Xavie’'s High School for a while; but he was never a regular pupil of any institution whatever.
Educating himself only under private tutors only, he became proficient in Bengali, Sanskrit, English, History, Mathematics and Science.
He began to write when he was just eight and his work appeared in print before he was 15. He was greatly inspired by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Bangadarshan.
Rabindranath Tagore was sent to England to become a barrister. Instead he found solace in studying French and German to read some of the poets of these languages in original. His compelling interest in literature developed him into a versatile artist.
Poet of the People
Calamities in his personal life made a permanent impact on his sensitive mind. He lost his beloved wife in 1902 and the same year he lost his second daughter and, very soon, one of his sons. But he overcame his sufferings quickly and let his feelings show the way through poetry to bring hope and solace to other people.
Tagore’s fertile poetry assumed many forms but he was the master of short poems which could be set to music and sung by villagers and the boatmen on the Ganga. In his verses he expressed his desire to amalgamate himself with the humanity at large by communicating with it in its own language. While helping to manage his family estate, young Rabindranath came into deep contact with the labourers. He understood the needs and difficulties of the peasants. This revelation gave a new turn to his thinking. He conceived that the problem of India was social rather than civil or political.
The earliest glimpses of his deep love for humanity in Kodi O Komol where he expresses his desire “not to leave the beautiful world” and preferred to live among the ordinary people.
Kotha O Kahani consists of a number of poems which bear eloquent testimony to the poet’s sympathy for the oppressed. Through Gitanjali, Tagore warns people not to look down upon any one as inferior. There are references to the plight of the struggling humanity in Patraput, Senjuti and Prantik.
The partition of Bengal in 1905 shook him to the roots. Tagore marched through the streets of Calcutta reciting his poem ‘Rakhi’ with Tilak and Aurobindo for a holy mass dip in the Ganga and tied Rakhi to the people as a symbol of the unbreakable unity of Bengal. The orator in the poet was roused. The partition found him in the vortex of political turmoil in the country.
By this time Tagore had attained popularity as a poet in Bengal. But it was Gitanjali, written between 1907 and 1910, that brought him world fame.
In 1913, the Nobel Prize came his way as the acknowledgement of his being a world poet when the English version of Gitanjali translated by the poet himself, reached all over. He was the first Asian to attain this distinction and it was the first time when a poet who wrote in an entirely ‘foreign’ language was awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy.
A Nationalist to the Core
The fundamental tenet of Tagore’s political philosophy was self-reliance. It is by taking his stand on this principle that he first made a place for the Bengali language in political discourses. He had to face much criticism to establish that the country's affairs must be discussed in its own languages only.
The revolutionary idea of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction was his brain child. Rabindranath was the intellectual leader of the Swadeshi Movement.
As early as 1904, the poet drew up a complete scheme for the reorganisation of villages with the revival of cottage industries to help remove poverty. His idea of national regeneration through a comprehensive scheme of rural reconstruction is his signal contribution to constructive politics. His well-known work Swadeshi Samaj was published in 1904.
To arouse patriotic feelings among the youth, he wrote and composed many songs. They had been tuned in the baul style. One of his most popular numbers “Ekla Cholo Re” was composed during this period. In 1920, Gandhiji started non-cooperation movement. It was Rabindranath who first conceived the idea of using only Indian goods and discard the foreign ones. Many of his other ideas concerning social uplift were translated into practice by Gandhiji.
Tagore was an ardent votary of internationalism. To put his idea of universal humanity into practice, he started a university, Vishva Bharati, on December 23, 1921 - a unique centre of learning where one could train oneself as a citizen of the world. A number of scholars from Britain and Harvard came to join Tagore.
A Versatile Artist
Since his childhood, Tagore was very much influenced by the baul - the folk devotional songs of Bengal. The feeling behind these mystic songs had led him to compose his poems at the tender age of 13.
The 1886 Congress session in Kolkata, began with a song which Tagore had himself composed.
He also introduced a new note in Indian music. His songs gave expression to the moods of the flowing moments of life. He solemnised the union between the lyric and the melody. His music captured the hearts of millions in the form of Rabindra Sangeet. He composed more than two thousand poems.
In the last decade of his life, Tagore suddenly took to painting. About 3,000 pieces of his art are still preserved in his home and at Santi Niketan.
Tagore’s mind was ever alert and he kept his interests and his amazing talents alive till the very end. The end came on August 7, 1941 in the same old Jorasanko house where he had first opened his eyes eighty years and three months ago. His death marked the end of an era.
Tagore would always be remembered for his poems, short stories, plays, novels and music. In all these spheres, he occupies the highest place in Bengali literature. But, above all, he was a prince among patriots. India is proud to have its national anthem composed by the great poet of this century. n
Source: new nation
Other News
28 Aug, 2013
20 Aug, 2013
13 Aug, 2013
05 Jul, 2013
25 May, 2013
24 May, 2013
01 May, 2013
22 Apr, 2013
17 Apr, 2013
01 Mar, 2013
21 Feb, 2013
03 Feb, 2013
02 Feb, 2013
21 Jan, 2013
09 Jan, 2013
11 Dec, 2012
08 Jun, 2012
19 Jul, 2014
18 Apr, 2014
13 Nov, 2013
30 Sep, 2013
10 Sep, 2013
03 Mar, 2013
28 Dec, 2012
27 Dec, 2012
13 Nov, 2012
08 Jun, 2012
08 Jun, 2012
08 Jun, 2012
29 Jun, 2015
