Ravindra Nath Tagore
Ravindra Nath Tagore was born on 6th May, 1861 in a well-to-do family of Thakurs of Bengal. His mother died when he was quite young, so his father Devendra Nath, had to look after him.
Ravindra Nath was averse to studying at conventional schools from the very beginning. He disliked the set rules and the monotonous life that schools of those days provided. He was up to freedom of the body and the soul. He was, therefore, allowed to receive education at home. Yet progress was very slow.
Ravindra Nath loved to be carefree, dreamy and thoughtful. His love for Nature grew with years. At the age of 16 he was sent to England but he returned home after some time, without doing anything. He started writing poetry at the early age of 15. Very soon his poetry brought him name and fame. It reflected his thoughts and feelings. His early poems were given the title of “Morning Songs”.
Tagore was a great patriot of the world. He was friend of all humanity. He abhorred narrow nationalistic ideas. He was great friend of English for their statesmanship qualities and discipline, but at the same time he fought against their rule in, India. He had a great praise for the great culture and civilization of India. He showed to the western world the greatness of our culture and past. He was a great genius, a great artist, who with equal force wrote poetry, dramas, and stories, painted pictures and performed music shows. The life of Tagore was so dynamic that he left a deep impression on everything around him. His philosophic ways of life won him a great fame throughout India and the world. He was an authority on ethics and delivered lectures extempore on any topic or occasion. His book in Bengali Poetry “Geetanjali” won him a Nobel Prize for literature, the rust of its kind given to any Indian for literature.
Tagore initiated a new system of Education. His school at Shantiniketan won him international fame. The emphasis here was to work in dose association with nature, do work manually and seek benevolence of nature directly. He wanted to make the school a model of old Indian tradition of “Gurukur way of learning.
He was also awarded knighthood for his service to literature and An but he resigned it to protest against British rule in India. He died in 1941.
