Dr. Banarsi Lal and Dr. Pawan Sharma
Rabindranath Tagore is considered as the greatest modern writer of India. He is recognized as one of the greatest poets and writers of all countries and all ages in the world. Popularly known as Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore was born in Kolkata on 7th of May, 1861 in a family of intellectuals, thinkers, reformers, social and cultural leaders. He was the youngest sibling of the family. His father was Maharishi Devendranath and mother Sharda Devi. His father was a great leader, social and religious reformer, who encouraged a multi-cultural exchange. His grandfather Dwarkanath was involved in supporting medical facilities, educational institutions and the arts and he fought for religious and social reform and the establishment of a free press. Rabindranath’s thirteen brothers and sisters were mathematicians, journalists, novelists, musicians, artists etc. Tagore was a great patriot, humanist, poet, painter, playwright, novelist, story-teller, philosopher, and educationist. He was the cultural ambassador of India and he gave voice to the country and became an instrument in disseminating the knowledge of Indian culture around the world. As a child, Tagore did not like to go to school and so was taught at home. He began to write from his early age and started to create the wonders. After he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, his reputation was based primarily on his mystical poetry. But that is only one small part of Tagore’s work. Tagore wrote novels of social realism, treating such issues as nationalism, religious intolerance and violence. He wrote analytic works on social reform, education and science. He also had a brief dialogue with Albert Einstein, the great scientist. His important works are “Geetanjali”, “Rabindra Sangeet”, “Amar Shonar Bangla”, “Ghare-Baire”, the Nation Anthem of India, “Jana Gana Mana” etc.
The motivation and cultural richness of his extended family allowed Rabindranath to absorb and learn subconsciously at his own pace, giving him a dynamic open model of education, which he later tried to recreate at his school at Santiniketan. He thought his formal schooling to be inferior and boring and after a brief exposure to many schools and he denied to attend the school. The only degrees he ever received were honorary ones awarded late in his life.He revived the mental and moral spirit of the people. His writing proved path-breaking and revolutionary. He was full of anguish, pain and sorrow at the Jalianwala Bagh tragedy in which General Dyer and his soldiers killed hundreds of innocent civilians and wounded thousands of others on 13 April, 1999 in Amritsar. This massacre agitated Tagore so much that he didn’t sleep the whole night when he heard about this incident. He decided to renounce and relinquish his knighthood as a protest and immediately penned a letter to Viceroy. Tagore rejected “Knighthood” in protest against Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Tagore national sentiments and patriotism were of the highest order. He was a great poet, philosopher and visionary and voice of the country. He was a great nationalist but his patriotism ultimately merged suitably into internationalism.
Rabindranath Tagore was against the divisions and discriminations on the basis of territory, geography, caste etc. He believed in the oneness and always tried to bring together the people across the globe. He radiated universal love and harmony through his endeavors. He embraced the whole humanity. He founded Vishwabharati University at Santiniketan (abode of peace) in 1902. In 1913, Rabindranath was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for English version of “Geetanjali.” Rabindranath became the first Indian and the first Asian to get this great award. He had endless love for his country and countrymen. He travelled extensively in different countries of Europe, America and Asia and delivered various lectures in universities and public meeting on education. He worked with Gandhiji and thought for the welfare of the people of India. His nationalism and patriotism made him great and noble. He never sought God in a cave, ashram or temple but in the people and humanity at large. He was deeply religious and spiritual and stood in good stead even during the crisis.
He realized the importance of the arts for developing empathy and sensitivity and the necessity for an intimate relationship with one’s cultural and natural environment. He always rejected the narrowness of mind that separates human beings from each other. He thought education as the vehicle for appreciating the richest aspects of other cultures, while maintaining one’s own cultural specificity. He was brought up in an atmosphere of aspirations for the expansion of the human spirit and mind. According to him education meaning freedom from ignorance about the laws of the universe. He always attempted to create an atmosphere of naturalness in our relationship with strangers and the spirit of hospitality which is the first virtue in men that made civilization possible.He was grown up in a family that was the meeting place for the great artists and intellectuals from India and abroad. In the 1890s, he was assigned the inchargeship of the family’s rural properties in East Bengal. His initial experiments on adult education were carried out there as he gradually became aware of the acute material and cultural poverty that permeated the villages and also the difference between the uneducated rural areas and the city elites. He determined to make efforts for the rural upliftment and later at Santiniketan, students and teachers were involved for the literacy, training and social work and for the promotion of cooperative schemes. He started a small school at Santiniketan in 1901 that developed into a renowned university and rural reconstruction centre, where he tried to develop an alternative model of education that stemmed from his own learning experiences.
Rabindranath composed his first poem at the age of eight and overall he wrote over twenty-five volumes of poetry, eleven novels, fifteen plays, ninety short stories, thirteen volumes of essays, initiated and edited various journals, prepared Bengali textbooks, kept up a correspondence involving thousands of letters and composed over two thousand songs. After the age of seventy he created more than two thousand pictures and sketches. He dedicated forty years of his life to his educational institution at Santiniketan. Rabindranath started a children’s school, a university known as Visva-Bharati and also a rural education Centre known as Sriniketan.
According to him a curriculum should revolve organically around the nature and classes be held in the open atmosphere under the trees to provide a spontaneous appreciation of the fluidity of the plant and animal kingdoms and seasonal changes. Children should be allowed to climb the trees and run beneath between classes. Nature walks and excursions should be a part of the curriculum and students be encouraged to follow the life cycles of insects, birds and plants. According to him special attention should be given to the natural phenomena and seasonal festivals. The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. In Tagore’s philosophy of education, the aesthetic development of the senses was as important as the intellectual. Rabindranath used to invite artists and scholars from other parts of India and the abroad to live together at Santiniketan on a daily basis to share their cultures with Visva-Bharati.
Rabindranath Tagore is part of a global network of pioneering educators, such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori and Dewey. Rabindranath can be compared with Rabindranath only. He is considered as the greatest figure in modern Indian. We look upon him as the source of knowledge and as the inspiration of all noble thought and great ideas. The great son of India, the voice of humanity, a great lover of nature died in Kolkata on 7th of August, 1941, a few years before the Indian independence. Rabindranath is no more with us. But his ideas and ideals will continue to inspire and encourage the whole humanity.
(The writers are: Dr. Banarsi Lal, Scientist and Head of KVK, Reasi and Dr. Pawan Sharma, Scientist at KVK, Kathua (Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology-Jammu) (SKUAST-J).
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