Born in Calcutta just seventy-four years ago-May 6 is his birthday— Tagore comes of a Bengali family famous for its achievements in the fields of literature, art and religion. Sir Rabindranath was educated in India and Europe and writes in Bengali and English with equal distinction. He has produced numerous poems, dramas, novels and religious works in both languages, yet he considers as his real life-work the.' reform school ' at Santiriketan, which he founded in 1901, and which has long been internationally famous.
Tagore's literary work is valued quite as highly abroad as in! England or India. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 and knighted two years later, though such worldly honours have always meant little to Tagore the mystic.
That word ' mystic' is a little frightening. But, unlike so many mystics, Tagore has never tried to separate himself from the mass of humanity. Quite the contrary. He if profoundly human.
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