Published

April 2022

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The Poet as a Public Intellectual: Rabindranath Tagore and the Dark Times

On 17 February, 1940, Rabindranath Tagore was at Shantiniketan, “the Abode of Peace” some distance away from Kolkata, where he had built an institute of universal learning (Visva-Bharati) which shunned the British model of a University. This was his permanent shelter in his old days, when he couldn’t move around as much as he used to in his globe-trotting years, but could be active with his writing and teaching and directing affairs.

On 17 February, 1940, Rabindranath Tagore was at Shantiniketan, “the Abode of Peace” some distance away from Kolkata, where he had built an institute of universal learning (Visva-Bharati) which shunned the British model of a University. This was his permanent shelter in his old days, when he couldn’t move around as much as he used to in his globe-trotting years, but could be active with his writing and teaching and directing affairs. On 17 February, 1940, however, the poet was nearly seventy-nine and in poor health, a tired old man who knew that he was slowly reaching the end...

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Published In

220414033404

Issue 220414033404 • 2021

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