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Tagore’s status in India

On the other side of the Himalayas, the country called India, is always shrouded in magic, beauty, and even undetectable veil. India used to be our “Western Heaven”, a place for Chinese people to make pilgrimages to learn Buddhist scriptures, and a paradise for Buddhist believers and fantasists to detach their souls.

However, the Chinese people are most familiar with only two people: one is Gandhi and the other is Tagore. Of these two great men, Tagore seems to be closer to us, more specific, and more uniquely charismatic.

“Tagore is a great poet, philosopher, patriot, and artist, and is deeply respected by the Chinese people.” This is an inscription written at the International University founded by Tagore when Premier Zhou Enlai visited India in 1957. This is also the portrayal of Tagore’s life.

Tagore was born in Calcutta, India, in 1861 into a landlord-class family. His father was a somewhat famous philosopher and religious reformer in India. He has 6 older brothers, some dedicated to the Renaissance in India, and others for social reform. Thanks to his father, he joined a center of activity in the intellectual community of Calcutta at the time. Growing up in such an environment had a profound impact on Tagore’s thought and made him influenced by literature since he was a child.

Tagore began to write poetry at the age of 8, and at the age of 17 published the epic poem “The Poet’s Story”. He studied law at the University of London, but during this time he spent most of his time studying English literature and Western music.

After returning to China, Tagore advocated combining the ancient Indian culture with the Western European culture to create a higher culture. During this process, he wrote many works, including “Song of Twilight” and “Song of Morning”, etc. The content is mostly to express his inner feelings and describe the gorgeous nature.

In 1886, he published the collection of poems “Crescent Moon”. Tagore’s early poems are simple and natural, from content to form, they have created a new generation of poetry.

In 1890, Tagore took over his father’s estate and moved to the countryside. He often sailed on the river, enjoying the beautiful lakes and mountains, and had extensive contact with the rural society. He saw with his own eyes the tyranny and tyranny of the British colonists and landlords, and deeply sympathized with the suffering of the peasants. He wrote many poems and short stories, which sincerely reflected the miserable life of the Indian people, created the image of poor and simple laborers, and accused and exposed the cruel and inhumane colonial system.

In 1901, Tagore left the manor to start a school in Sandnikdan. With the purpose of transforming society, he taught in person, and he enthusiastically hoped that the younger generation could inherit the national culture of India and devote themselves to the transformation of the countryside. In 1921, the school was named the International University.

Tagore actively participated in the national independence movement in India . In 1905, he participated in anti-British demonstrations in Calcutta singing his own patriotic songs and gave speeches denouncing the crimes of British colonial rule.

In 1919, in protest at the massacre of the unarmed Indian people by the British colonialists, he wrote to the British Governor, announcing that he would renounce the title of Baron granted him by the British.

Tagore tirelessly sought the road to Indian national independence. He traveled all over the world and inspected the conditions of various countries in order to learn some useful experiences for national independence. He has been to England, France, the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union, and in 1924, China. He expressed deep sympathy for the suffering Chinese, saying: “In Asia, we must unite.”

He was deeply fascinated by Chinese culture, and he said affectionately: “I believe that I must have been a Chinese in my previous life.”

The main activity of Tagore’s life was literary and artistic creation. His poems are handed down from household to household in India, and he is known as India’s “poetry saint” .

In 1913, he published a collection of poems “Gitanjali”, expressing the poet’s ardent feelings for his love for his motherland and people when he communicated with God. He later won the Nobel Prize in Literature for this collection of poems, the first Eastern writer to receive this award.

Tagore’s other works, such as “Flying Birds”, “Gardeners” and so on are also deeply loved by people. Tagore’s poems are fresh in style, profound in artistic conception, and fluent in language, expressing the poet’s love for life, concern for the fate of the motherland, and full of philosophy. In addition to poems, Tagore also wrote novels, and his representative works of novels are “Gola”, “Wrecking Ship” and so on.

Tagore’s creative career spanned more than 60 years. He is versatile, and wrote more than 50 poetry collections, 12 novellas, more than 30 prose works, more than 20 scripts, and more than 100 short stories in his lifetime. He can also paint and compose music. He painted more than 1,500 paintings and composed more than 2,000 songs in his lifetime. His song “The Will of the People” was adopted as the national anthem of India in 1950.

The great poet Pound exclaimed while listening to another great poet, Yeats, reciting Tagore’s poems: This is the moment of “excitement for the appearance of a great poet, a man greater than any of us”. Almost all critics and poets call him a master.

On August 7, 1941, Tagore died of illness in his hometown. Before that, he published the article “Crisis of Civilization”, which strongly accused the British rule of the people, and expressed his firm belief in the independence and freedom of the Indian nation.

All of Tagore’s works constitute an important aspect of the Indian Renaissance movement, and have a profound impact on the development of later Indian literature.