Direction: Rabindranath Tagore, popularly known and called Gurudev, was born in Kolkata on May 8, 1861, in an illustrious family of thinkers, reformers, social and cultural leaders, and intellectuals. His father was Maharishi Devendranath and his mother Sharda Devi. It was a time of gloom and cheerlessness when India’s soul almost lay prostrate at the feet of the foreign rulers. The first war of Indian independence fought in 1857 was crushed and there prevailed an uneasy peace and silence of the graveyard. Politically, India was deep in slavery and culturally in the wilderness. People were foolishly aping the ways of the West and there was hardly any ray of hope of lights.

Tagore was a great humanist, painter, patriot, poet, playwright, novelist, storyteller, philosopher, and educationist. As a cultural ambassador of India, he gave voice to the country and became an instrument in spreading the knowledge of Indian culture around the world. Tagore, as a child, did not like to go to school and so was taught at home. He began to write from his early age. Tagore began to write poems, songs, and stories about different aspects of Indian culture and society. He was very talented, energetic, and wise and whatever he touched was exceptionally enriched. His genius like the rising Sun began to create wonders. He shed light and warmth and 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 had killed hundreds of innocent civilians and wounded thousands of others on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar.

This massacre agitated and worked up Tagore so much that he could not sleep the whole night when he heard about it. He once decided to renounce and relinquish his knighthood as a protest and immediately penned a letter to Viceroy. And he wrote, “The time has come when pledges of honor make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation and I, for my part, wish to stand shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of my countrymen, who for their so-called insignificance are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings.” Tagore did not have a roadmap for India’s freedom but his 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.  

Tagore was against divisions, boundaries, and discrimination on the basis of territory, geography, race, etc. He believed in the oneness of life and its expression. He tried his best to bring the people of the world close to one another through his message of love, brotherhood, peace, and poetry. Tagore radiated universal love and harmony through his works and life. He knew patriotism is essential, it is good and healthy but to a certain limit only and after that limit neither it was enough nor desirable. He had declared, “My country that is forever India, the country of my forefathers, the country of my children, my country has given me life and strength.” And again, “I shall be born in India again. With all her poverty, misery, and wretchedness, I love India best.” But he did not stop there and embraced the whole of humanity. He believed and firmly that patriotism is never enough and it should expand into universal love, brotherhood, and in a concept of one world dispensation.