Rosinka Chaudhuri

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He started writing at an early age and by the turn of the century had become a household name at Bengal as a poet, a songwriter,a playwright, an essayist, a short – story writer and a novelist. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and his verse collection Gitanjali came to be known internationally . At about the same time he founded Visva – Bharti, a university located in SAntiniketan, near Kolkata. Called the ‘Great Sentinel” of modern India by Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore steered clear of active politics but is famous for returning his knighthood as agesture of protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. Tagore was a pioneering literary figure, renowned for his ceaseless innovations in poetry, prose, drama, music abd painting – which he took up late in life. His works include some sixty collections of verse, nearly a hundred short stories, several novels, plays, dance dramas, eassys on religious , social, and literary topics, over 2500 songs, including the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.