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Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore

Intellectual swadeshi

In our globalized age when higher education is on a dangerously slippery slope with government highhandedness creating distress among teachers and students alike, when academic and creative freedom is up against walls of indifference and hate, it is heartening to hear Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore delivering his first lecture in English in Madras on 9 February 1919.

Swamiji and Tagore 

The 1930s decade was a period in which Tagore perceived Swamiji and his Guru in a parlance that was altogether different from his perception about them before. In 1935, he gave a message in the form of a poem to Ramakrishna Mission, paying obeisance to Sri Ramakrishna on the occasion of his birth centenary celebration. On 3 March 1937 he famously participated in the concluding function of the celebration  

Tagore, Netaji and spirituality

As the Congress was divided between supporters of Gandhi and Bose, Tagore advocated the latter’s cause with his write up Deshanayak or The Leader of the Country in May 1939: “I am a Bengali poet; on behalf of Bengal I hail you as the leader of the nation”.