Rabindranath Tagore
Context:
- Recently, the country celebrated the birthday of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. According to Prime Minister Modi, “He has left an indelible mark across several areas, from art to music, and from education to literature.”
Life of Rabindranath Tagore:
- In addition to being the first non-European and Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature [for his collection of poems, “Gitanjali,”] in 1913, Tagore was also a playwright, composer, philosopher, painter, and reformer. His timeless writings provided the liberation struggle with the philosophical foundations it needed, and his views on justice and equality had an impact on India’s worldview. Still today, Tagore is revered as a prophetic poet and a beacon. He was a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. “The Bard of Bengal” is well-known.
- Tagore, a Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta with gentry ancestry in Jessore and the Burdwan area, began writing poems when he was eight years old.
- He advocated for independence from Britain as a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and internationalist. He also vehemently opposed nationalism.
- In 1905, he promoted a comprehensive canon that encompassed artwork, doodles, hundreds of essays, and approximately 2,000 songs as a representative of the Bengal Renaissance;
- Tagore renounced his knighthood and criticised British brutality following the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh tragedy.
- He founded Visva-Bharati University, which still upholds his legacy.
- He has spoken in the World Parliament for Religions in 1929 and 1937.
- His compositions “Amar Shonar Bangla” and “Jana Gana Mana” are the national anthems of Bangladesh and India, respectively. His work served as the basis for the national song of Sri Lanka.
- His best-known works include Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World), and Nationalism. Lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural introspection were praised—or derided—in his verse, short stories, and novels.
Rabindranath Tagore’s main concepts are:
- Recent developments in India’s limited nationalism make it necessary to review his principles:
- True freedom requires the capacity to be true and honest with oneself; otherwise, autonomy loses all of its value. “Freedom” does not only refer to political freedom from the British.
- In reality, anti-colonialism should entail fusing the best of Indian culture with all the best of western civilization, rather than opposing everything that is British.
- Tagore supported the idea of a universal religion. A person needs to follow their dharma. Love, harmony, and simplicity define true religion. He also wrote against idolatry, superstition, and religious fanaticism: “While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones.” We must look beyond all limitations and towards the unification of Buddha, Christ, and Muhammad.
- Internationalism: Tagore was a zealous advocate of international peace. He thought everyone should get along. The spiritual foundations served as the foundation for Tagore’s internationalism. Universalism was the result of Tagore’s humanism. He forewarned that nationalism, which is characterised by imperialistic want for wealth, lust for power, egotistical materialism, insane competition, and savage cruelty perpetrated on the world’s weak, exploited, and defeated nations, is the root cause of conflict.
- Freedom of speech and conscience: He agreed to differ with Gandhiji on a number of subjects, yet he nevertheless referred to him as “Mahatma” despite following Voltaire.
- Humanism: Tagore was a proponent of love, empathy, compassion, and communal understanding. His humanism was based on transcendental spiritual principles; he held that man is the image of God. He held that all members of human society should be treated equally, regardless of their race, colour, caste, nationality, or religion.
- Communal Harmony: He asserted that Muslims and Muslims should be perfect equals in terms of position, dignity, and education. This will benefit Hindus.
- Social philosophy: Tagore fought against social ills like untouchability, superstition, and poverty, but he did not believe that the West was the root of all evil. He embraced Western science and its commitment to democracy, freedom, and the value of the individual.
- His educational beliefs encouraged the growth of the physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, social, and global awareness in addition to adaptability. In Santiniketan, where he built Viswa Bharti University, he promoted a global culture of harmony in variety by fusing the east and the west.
- Sustainable Development: He wholeheartedly supports lumenarchy and cosmocracy, a socio-cultural framework that emphasises the virtues of light and works to create a new, joyful, vibrant world in which all living things will coexist in perfect harmony, peace, and happiness.
Tagore’s Educational Principles:
- The freedom a youngster has to choose their own experiences and activities.
- The creative self-expression principle.
- interaction between man and nature.
- Enlightenment as education.
- Education as a Process of Development.
- According to Tagore, education is the holistic development of human capabilities for the pursuit of a full life.
- Harmony in education.
- Mother language is the teaching method.
- The internationalism principle.
Tagore’s educational goals were as follows:
- to foster a desire to help people.
- to promote and advance the peaceful coexistence of people in our planet.
- to uphold and abide by the universal principles that foster peace and a sense of brotherhood among all people.
- To pursue excellence in all areas of one’s life so that the nation might reach new heights of ambition and success.
- to improve language abilities while using 21st century talents like imagination, creativity, and critical thinking.
- to elucidate the idea of world peace & understanding, global relations, and universal brotherhood.
