Question

BIOSKETCH ON RABINDRA NATH TAGORE

Answer 1

Born: 7 May 1861, Kolkata

Died: 7 August 1941, Kolkata

Artworks: Dancing Woman, Head Study (Geometric), Dancing Girl, Kopf, Landscape

On view: National Gallery of Modern Art

Parents: Debendranath Tagore, Sarada Devi

QUOTES

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

Answer 2

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads. He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.