Tagore as Text: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore, who lived from 1861 to 1941, is well remembered around the globe for becoming the first poet from Asia to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He was a British subject throughout his life and passed away in colonial India. However, any engagement with studies of Tagore would reveal that, despite his outstanding achievements in creative writing and music, he deserves to be remembered as the only poet of international standing who not only founded a self-funded university but also designed a curriculum that radicalised traditional institutionalised education in colonial India. This is something that should be remembered because Tagore deserves to be remembered as the only poet of international standing who deserves to be remembered. The purpose of this article is to investigate Tagore's re-imagining of the process of institutionalised instruction as well as the goals of education. Undoubtedly, the ideas and models of the teaching-learning process that Tagore outlined bear the stamp of a poet-philosopher who tried to distance himself from the public educational sector. In colonial times, the public educational sector was exemplified by the formidable University of Calcutta, which was under the administration of the British. Tagore's Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan is obviously a private sector operation; nonetheless, it is historically considered as a one-of-a-kind experiment in inclusive education that debunks rote learning and fragmented knowledge. Its viability in the 21st century, however, is up for question.