Biography of Rabindranath Tagore ( Nobel Prize owner in1913)

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath was a born poet began composing when he was barely seven years old. But he wrote great poetry after the ‘Great Illumination’ which gave him a new insight into the universe. It happened when he was just eighteen. He describes this experience akin to lifting of an ancient mist from his sight, “That which was memorable in this experience was human message” Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta on 7th May, 1861. He was lucky in the moment of his birth. The second half of the 19th century was the period of full flowering of the Indian Renaissance. It was an age when, in contact with the English, India was struggling to come out of hibernation, isolation and backwardness.

In fact, the Muslim rule had come to an end. The medieval slumber was over.  What happened to England in the 16th century during the great renaissance happened to India after about three hundred years. The Muslim culture was barren in the field of creation, education, social development and humanism.

The English arrived and bought along with them the revival of learning. Those were stirring times when men of genius like Tagore could make their presence felt. A humanist to the core, he was a nationalist who dreamed of India as a nation free from superstitions. He strove to develop scientific spirit among Indians. He was lucky in his birth in more than one way. His grandfather Dwarakanath was so called the prince. His father Debendranath was called Maha Rishi. His brother Satyenranath was the first Indian to enter the civil service. At the age of sevevteen he was sent to England for higher study.

On his return from England he was married to Mrinalini Devi in 1883. He became the Secretary of Adi Brahma samaj, of which his father was a great leader. He  was a tireless critic of the caste system and upheld the dignity of every caste. He was a true humanist. He came into touch with the life of the people and wrote from experiencing actual life. He established himself as a great lyricist. Even his prose had the ring of lyricism.

In 1901 Tagore made a great contribution in the field of education. At Bolpur his father established an Ashram called Shantinicatan. Here Rabindranath founded his open-air school which later on developed into a famous university, Viswa Bharati 1911, partition of Bengal was revoked. But the England had succeeded in creating a permanent cummunal divide. Tagore composed “Jan Gana Mana, the national anthem , on the eve of reunification of Bengal.

Guru Dev, as Tagore was affectionately called, won the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his Gitanjali and was knighted in1915. However, Tagore renounced the knighthood in 1919 in protest against the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. At the age of 80, the end of his fruitful life came in 1941. As a humanist, poet and true nationalist, he will always be remembered.