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Rabindranath Tagore
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 Tagore, Rabindranath
(1861-1941), Indian poet, philosopher, and Nobel laureate, was
born in Calcutta, into a wealthy family. He began to write poetry as a child;
his first
book appeared when he was 17 years old. After a
brief stay in England (1878) to study law, he returned to India, where he rapidly became the
most important and popular author of the colonial era, writing
poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. He composed several hundred popular songs and in 1929 also began painting.
Tagore wrote primarily in Bengali, but translated
many of his works into English himself. He was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in literature,
and in 1915 he was knighted by the British king George V. Tagore renounced his knighthood in 1919 following
the
Amritsar massacre of 400 Indian demonstrators by British troops. His famous
works were “Balaka”, “Sonar Tari”, “Chitali”, and “Gitanjuli”
etc. His selected
poems “Sanchaita”, and selected short stories “Galpagucha” were
published in India 1966. Two of his songs are national anthem of India and
Bangladesh.
Where The
Mind is Without Fear
written by
Rabindranath Tagore
Where
the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
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