Summary
Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. He has been called one of the outstanding thinkers of the 20th century and the greatest poet India has ever produced. His Nobel followed publication of Gitanjali, his English version of some of his Bengali poems. WB Yeats and Ezra Pound were great supporters. Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861 and educated partly in Britain; King George V knighted him, but Tagore renounced this in 1919 following the Amritsar Massacre. A key figure in Indian nationalism, Tagore became a friend of Gandhi, offering criticism as well as support. A polymath and progressive, Tagore painted, wrote plays, novels, short stories and many songs. The national anthems of India and Bangladesh are based on his poems.
With
Chandrika Kaul Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews
Bashabi Fraser Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at Edinburgh Napier University
And
John Stevens Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Transcript
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| 0:44.0 | Hello it's claimed that Rabindranath Tagol was at one time one of the most famous |
| 0:49.1 | person in the world born in Calcutta in 1861 he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature, |
| 0:57.0 | W.B. Yates and Ezra Pound were great supporters. |
| 1:00.0 | A commanding figure in the Indian Renaissance of the 19th century, Tagore also played a major part in India's independence movement. |
| 1:07.0 | The first Prime Minister of India Nairu said he had two gurus. Gandhi was one, the other was Tagore. He wrote novels and plays, he painted, |
| 1:15.1 | composed thousands of songs and two of his many poems became the national |
| 1:18.4 | anthems for India and Bangladesh. With me to discuss Tagore are Chandriga Cole, lecturer in modern history at the |
| 1:26.0 | University of St Andrews. John Stevens, Leverheum Postdoctoral Fellow at |
| 1:30.1 | Sowas, University of London, and Bacheby Fraser, professor of English |
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