The man behind Jana-Gana-Mana
Perhaps the two reasons India still remembers Rabindranath Tagore is his nobel prize and the national anthem. Outside Bengal, his home, he is known very little for what he did to this country and even less for who he was. So here is a small article on the man on his birthday. 1) In his younger years, Rabindranath Tagore attempted to blend spiritual and romantic notions in the human soul and the mystic divine in his poems, before he moved on to write about oppression and imperialism. 2) He was a fierce critic of nationalism. Power, according to him, is a scientific product made in the political laboratory of the nation, through the dissolution of personal humanity. He often compared the world with a hydraulic press which can unleash an impersonal but effective pressure. 3) He was a humanitarian and the voice of the voiceless India. He spoke for the poor and the slaved and firmly believed that rural reconstruction through basic education and application of scientific methods to agric...