A prominent figure in the nineteenth century Indian literature, Rabindranath Tagore, devoted his work to reform the colonial South Asia. Being a Bengali poet, novelist and educator he fought for the Independence of India under British rule. For his intellectual contributions he was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born on May 7, 1861, in Calcutta, India, Tagore belonged to a wealthy and aristocratic family. His father was a prominent religious reformer and scholar. The Tagore family gained recognition and prestige during the Bengal Renaissance. His grandfather possessed enormous wealth and power which he used to fund several public projects. His family was the proponent of bringing the traditional Indian culture and Western ideas together and they contributed profusely in this innovative genre. Tagore was raised by the home servants as his mother died in his childhood and father was perpetually away due to his travelling arrangements.
At the young age of eight, he began to write poetry, although it was not published until he was seventeen. Tagore was home-schooled at first but later he was enrolled at Bengal Academy where he studied history and culture. Subsequently, he went to England for higher studies. He attended the University College, London, pursuing a law degree and also took lectures in English Literature. However, a year later he left England because the weather did not suit him. Before leaving, he had composed a poem named ‘Bhagna Hridaj’ (A Broken Heart).
In 1883, Tagore married Mrinalini Devi Raichaudhuri and a few years later moved to Bangladesh. Being a literary and history buff, he began to collect folklores and local legends. Eventually, he composed seven volumes of poetry. The collections include Sonar Tari (The Golden Boat) and Kanika (Short Poems). Despite having magnificent command over language, Tagore preferred to write in the everyday language used by people. Although his language became a subject of debate among critics, it earned him the epitaph ‘The Bengali Shelley’. The period between 1893 and 1900 is marked as the height of his literary genius.
Besides poetry, he also proved his mettle in the novel writing genre. Critics deem Tagore the first Indian to introduce the element of psychological realism in Indian literature. His early chief works first published in the serialized form include Chokher Bali (Eyesore) and Nastanirh (The Broken Nest). Moreover, he penned a host of short stories during his time in East Bengal. His short stories were published in the monthly journal Sadhana and in a Bengali periodical. It was his short stories that fundamentally altered the landscape of Indian Literature for its rich, sensitive and highly reformist content. His short story ‘Punishment’ brings out the issues of oppression of women in the patriarch societies. The story manifests the duplicity of a man who willingly had his wife convicted for the murder of his sister-in-law so as to save his brother’s skin, who actually committed the heinous crime.
Additionally, Tagore actively worked for the common good of humanity especially for the ones deprived of basic needs. He founded an experimental school at Shantiniketan, Visva-Bharati which later upgraded to a university. He applied Upanishadic ideals of education at the school by introducing Western and Indian philosophy. The poetry collection about divine and human love, Gitanjali (Song Offerings), established his position as a literary giant at an international level. He was regarded highly by the English author and poets and eventually his work led him to his reception of the Nobel Prize for Literature and he was knighted by British Government. Rabindranath Tagore, a great living institution, died in 1941.