RABINDRANATH TAGORE : the NOBEL LAUREATE
who shaped India’s destiny
We remember our great philosophers, sages and all the great
personalities whose sacrifice for nation , teachings and good deeds inspired us
and showed mankind the pathway. They were the people who brought light to the
world and energized human minds as well as revitalized our nation. Rabindranath
Tagore was one such philosopher, poet, novelist , socio-cultural analyst, patriot,
educationist and above all a spiritual humanist who rejuvenated India’s great cultural heritage and made it a gem for the
whole world. Born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861, the son of a well-known
philosopher and religious reformer Devendranath Tagore, he brought a cultural
and spritual renaissance in India.
Tagore was a great stalwart in the field of
Bengali literature. Some prominent examples of his Bengali masterpieces are the
Manasi, the Gitanjali (song offerings), the Gora(Fair-Faced), the Ghare-Baire (The Home and the world), the Galpagauchchha,
Sonar tari, Chitra, Kalpana, Naivedya , Chitrangada and the Malini. Tagore was
Knighted in 1915 but he returned the title in 1919 in protest of the Jallianwala
Bagh Massacre. He founded ‘Vishwa- Bharati University’ . He became Asia’s first
Nobel Laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel prize in Literature. In the Gitanjali
Tagore wrote: “
Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth
of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches
its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has
not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by
Thee into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my
Father, let my country awake.”
We are in 21st century where technological and
material advancement overtake moral and spiritual advancement at some extent.
The declining social values have led to a variety of social evils and moral
degeneration as well as social disintegration . Tagore’s philosophy is full of depth which lays
emphasis on maintaining social values, morality and cultural ethos of our country
.Today also we have a large amount of literature but there is stark contrast in
the quality of books, cinema ,music, the quality of advertisement. It is a
complete aberration from the past. All such immoral elements should be properly
analysed through censorship board because bad literature and bad means of
entertainment always pollute the society. We still have a lot to learn from
Tagore.
Tagore in his book ‘Religion of Man’ aptly remarked :The
consciousness of our unity is spiritual, and our effort to be true to it, is
our religion. It ever waits to be revealed in our history in a more and perfect
illumination. He championed the moral law of historical progress. He lamented
the growth of scepticism about moral values in the western nations. He called,
hence, the First World War as a ‘war of retribution’. Tagore was a true humanist.
His humanism, was nurtured on spiritual
foundation.He was prophet of universal man. He accepted the immense worth of
the spritual heritage of India. He was opposed to the denationalizing
tendencies implicit in the imitation of western countries. India had held aloft
the torch of the True, the Good and the eternal spirit and it would be
ridiculous to forsake this.The destiny of India lay in the consummation of a
social and racial synthesis-samanvaya. He said the essence of civilization is the
love of humanity and not the accumulation of material power and desires.
Rabindranath believed in a functional conception of society.
He was opposed to meaningless social stratifications which perpetuate social
tyranny. He was witnessing the growing confusion in social morals in those
days. Due to the impact of western civilization the old values and morals were
losing ground. At such an hour of desperation and perturbation, Tagore taught
that only by participation in the life of the group, the association and the community
could the individual attain his purpose in life. Thus, the social organism
would provide the context for the efflorescence of individual life. In place of
the atomistic and individualistic approach to society, Tagore taught that the
social structure is organic. But the social organism can be a living totality
only if the members are bound by the ties of mutual performance of duties and
treat all sections equally. Thus he wanted to view individual personality in
the background of the cultural configuration and meaningful social reciprocity
and functional interdependence of group and associational existence. Thus in
man there are two sects of desires. He wrote: “ We have a greater body which is
the social body. Society is an organism, of which we as parts have our
individual wishes. We want our own pleasure and licence. We want to pay less
and gain more than anybody else. This causes scrambling and fights. But there
is that other wish in us which does its work in the depths of the social being.
It is the wish for the welfare of the society. It transcends the limits of the
present and the personal. It is on the side of the infinite.”
Tagore wrote: “India
stands before the civilized world as an embodiment of the ideal of unity
through diversity. To see the one in the world and within oneself, to instal
the one in the midst of the many, to discover It by knowledge, to establish It
by action, to realize It in love and to proclaim it in life –this is what India
has been doing through the centuries in the face of danger and difficulty, and
in times good or bad.When we shall discover in her history that central and
eternal and in times good or bad. When we discover in her history that central
and eternal note, the gulf separating our past from present will disappear.”
Thus he said: The spirit of India has always proclaimed the idea of unity. This
idea of unity never rejects anything , any race, or culture. It comprehends
all, and it has been the highest aim of our spiritual exertion to be able to
penetrate all things with one soul, to comprehends all things as they are, not
keep out anything in the whole universe-to comprehend all things with sympathy
and love. This is the spirit of India.
The composer of
our National Anthem as well as Bangaladesh’s, Tagore preached the doctrine of simplicity
in outer world and richness of beauty in inner world.
By stressing on social co-operation and harmony
peace, social integration and above all spiritual humanism he provided
us a much needed tonic to stimulate our society which is currently in shambles.
His philosophy is the key to understand and resolve all the problems and social
conflicts in its varied forms.
