Tagore Indian Reception Pamphlet 8.5X11.5 Inches 1930 Nyc Hotel Biltmore India

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176284773334 TAGORE INDIAN RECEPTION PAMPHLET 8.5X11.5 INCHES 1930 NYC HOTEL BILTMORE INDIA . A VERY RARE PAHPHLET MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 8.5X11.5 INCHES IN FAIR SHAPE FOR A RECEPTION AND BANQUET GIVEN BY THE TAGORE RECEPTION COMMITTEE IN HONOR OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE POET LAUREATE OF ASIA; APOSTLE OF WORLD UNITY FOUNDER; VISVA-BHARATI-INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY NOBEL PRIZE WINNER FOR LITERATURE (1913) TUESDAY NOVEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH NINETEENTH HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN O'CLOCK HOTEL BILTMORE - THE CASCADES MADISON AVENUE & FORTY-THIRD STREET NEW YORK CITY AUSSPICES INDIA SOCETY OF AMERICA
COOLlDGE IN GROUP TO HONOR TAGORE: Committee Plans Dinner and *TO-HONORTAGORE Committee Plans Dinner and Reception Here on Tuesday for the lndi'an Poet. ONLY acetic ,' APPEARANCE of_ Women. to, ‘Greet Visitor on Return to City. From Philadelphia- Delegation Former Ambasador Henry Morgenthau, chairman of the reception committee for Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet, announced yesterday that \former .President Calvin Coolidge.had become a'member of the reception committee. A reception and dinner in honor of Mr. Tagore will be held at the Hotel Blitmore next Tuesday evening. Mr. Tagore, who recently suffered a heart attack at Yale University, is much improved and is resting in preparation for the reception, which will be his only public appearance in America, Mr. Morgenhau announced. After a tour. of Russia. and Germany, where he studied educattioonthale conditions, Mr. Tagore came xUnited States, where he had . bed to deliver a. series. of iec~ thtiirsesh. aOdwing tohis health. however, to be abandoned. ;» A statement recently , ublished twhiafte Mr- Tagore had an erican Was denied yesterday.byMr. Mdiaonrgenthau. who has knownthe In- poet forseveral years. Mr. Tagore' 8 wife, Mr. Morgenthau ex- plained, was a Hindu woman of the same high caste (is the poet. She Rdiaedthitnwdernatnya-sthix years ago. Ason, Tagore, received part of his education in this country, studyin at the Universityof Illinois. MUr.pon is return from Philadelphia. Tagore will be greeted by a. dele. gation of women at- the home of Mrs. L. K. Elmhirst, 1,172 Park Avenue. ,They include: . Ma's. “Frank. A. Van; Mug Robert '1'. £1514 Misesr J9ane Addams Mrs.8M0]: Ladenburg Mrs. Albert 8. Ash- Mrs. James L. Laid- forth Mrs. Alice Hunt Bartlett Mrs. .1. Warren Bur- den Mrs. Carrie Chapman, Catt Mrs. Lewis 8. Gimme:- Mrs. A. hoate Mrs. Everett Colby Mrs. John Corbin Mrs. W. M. Crane Miss Rachel Crothers Mrs. Maitland Dwight Miss Gertrude Emer~ Mrsn Minnie Maddern . Fiske Dean--Virsinis. Gilder~ sleeve MMras.nJio. hn B. Giifiiian Borden Barri~ man 1 K . . Mrs. Oliver rriman Mrs. T. Miche lHast- 1'15: Mrs. G. S. Hellman Miss Anne Sherman oyt Miss Annie B. “15% Miss Edith Jonas Jenlaw Mrs. Henry G. Leach Miss Eva Le Galiienne Mrs. -F. 'W. Longfel- low Mrs. E. C. T. Miller Miss Emma Mills Miss Anne Morgan Mrs. J. Theus Munds Nil-3.1km): Necarsui- mt: Mgs. Laurent OppenPreslimdent Marion E. Park Mrs. Alton B. Parker President Ellen Fitz Pendieton Mrs. Ruth Pratt Mrs. Robert F. Ray- nolds lifts. Douglas Robin- - son - - Miss Margaret Sanger Mrs. Henry Schnie- . wind Jr. Mrs. Holllster sturges Mrs. ‘ . . 1 a1- madge ' Miss Ida M. Tarb‘eii Mrs, Irita Van Doren Mrs. Marion Fleischer _ Wssserman Among members .of the reception committee, as given out by Mr. Margenthau yesterday are: - Julius Ochs Adler John G. Agar Jules S. Bache James G. Blaine George Blumenthsl Willis H. Booth George '1‘. Brokaw , Lewis L.‘ Clarke Calvin Coolidge . Paul D. Cravath John W. Davis - . . Robert W. de Forest Cleveland E. Dodge Abram l. Elkus Bruce M. Falconer Colonel Michael Fried— earn Milton W. Harrison Edwinc Jameson Ralph.Jonas Otto-nKah Darwin P. Kingsley Carl Laemmle Thomas W. Lamont Robert Law Adolph Lewisohn T. H Mclnner'ney Morgan .7. O'Brien Adolph S. Ochs . James H. Post G. S. Rentschler Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt ' Francis H. Sisson . Alfred P. Sloan Jr. James Speyer - Arthur H- Sulzberger Joseph R. Swan ,Walhrldge S. Tait PMayurlon C.- Taylor M. Warburg , Thomas T. Watson Albert “H. wxggm . Louis Wiely . - William H. Woodin Rabindranath Tagore FRAS (/rəˈbɪndrənɑːt tæˈɡɔːr/ (About this soundlisten); born Robindronath Thakur,[1] 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941),[a] also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita), and also known by his sobriquets Gurudev,[b] Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, artist and ayurveda-researcher[4] from the Indian subcontinent.[5][6] He reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author of the "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse" of Gitanjali,[7] he became in 1913 the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.[8] Tagore's poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal.[9] He is sometimes referred to as "the Bard of Bengal".[10] A Brahmo Hindu from Calcutta with ancestral gentry roots in Burdwan District[11] and Jessore, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old.[12] At the age of sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics.[13][14] By 1877 he graduated to his first short stories and dramas, published under his real name. As a humanist, universalist, internationalist, and ardent anti-nationalist,[15] he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy also endures in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.[16][17][18][19][20] Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms and resisting linguistic strictures. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced) and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla. The Sri Lankan national anthem was inspired by his work.[21][22][23] Contents 1 Family history 2 Early life: 1861–1878 3 Shelaidaha: 1878–1901 4 Santiniketan: 1901–1932 5 Twilight years: 1932–1941 6 Travels 7 Works 7.1 Drama 7.2 Short stories 7.3 Novels 7.4 Poetry 7.5 Songs (Rabindra Sangeet) 7.6 Art works 8 Politics 8.1 Repudiation of knighthood 9 Santiniketan and Visva-Bharati 9.1 Theft of Nobel Prize 10 Impact and legacy 11 Museums 12 List of universities; university buildings named after him 13 List of works 13.1 Original 13.2 Translated 14 Adaptations of novels and short stories in cinema 14.1 Bengali 14.2 Hindi 15 In popular culture 16 See also 17 References 18 Bibliography 18.1 Primary 18.2 Secondary 18.3 Texts 19 Further reading 20 External links Family history The original surname of the Tagores were Kushari. They were Rarhi Brahmins and originally belonged to a village named Kush in the district named Burdwan in West Bengal. Rabindra-biographer Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyaya wrote in the second page of the first volume of his book named "Rabindrajibani O Rabindra Sahitya Prabeshika" that, "The Kusharis were the descendants of Deen Kushari, the son of Bhatta Narayana; Deen was granted a village named Kush (in Burdwan zilla) by Maharaja Kshitisura, he became its chief and came to be known as Kushari."[11] Early life: 1861–1878 Main article: Early life of Rabindranath Tagore The youngest of thirteen surviving children, Tagore (nicknamed "Rabi") was born on 7 May 1861 in the Jorasanko mansion in Calcutta to Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Sarada Devi (1830–1875).[c] The last two days a storm has been raging, similar to the description in my song—Jhauro jhauro borishe baridhara  [... amidst it] a hapless, homeless man drenched from top to toe standing on the roof of his steamer [...] the last two days I have been singing this song over and over [...] as a result the pelting sound of the intense rain, the wail of the wind, the sound of the heaving Gorai [R]iver, have assumed a fresh life and found a new language and I have felt like a major actor in this new musical drama unfolding before me. — Letter to Indira Devi.[29] Black-and-white photograph of a finely dressed man and woman: the man, smiling, stands with the hand on the hip and elbow turned outward with a shawl draped over his shoulders and in Bengali formal wear. In front of him, the woman, seated, is in elaborate dress and shawl; she leans against a carved table supporting a vase and flowing leaves. Tagore and his wife Mrinalini Devi, 1883 Tagore was raised mostly by servants; his mother had died in his early childhood and his father travelled widely.[30] The Tagore family was at the forefront of the Bengal renaissance. They hosted the publication of literary magazines; theatre and recitals of Bengali and Western classical music featured there regularly. Tagore's father invited several professional Dhrupad musicians to stay in the house and teach Indian classical music to the children.[31] Tagore's oldest brother Dwijendranath was a philosopher and poet. Another brother, Satyendranath, was the first Indian appointed to the elite and formerly all-European Indian Civil Service. Yet another brother, Jyotirindranath, was a musician, composer, and playwright.[32] His sister Swarnakumari became a novelist.[33] Jyotirindranath's wife Kadambari Devi, slightly older than Tagore, was a dear friend and powerful influence. Her abrupt suicide in 1884, soon after he married, left him profoundly distraught for years.[34] Tagore largely avoided classroom schooling and preferred to roam the manor or nearby Bolpur and Panihati, which the family visited.[35][36] His brother Hemendranath tutored and physically conditioned him—by having him swim the Ganges or trek through hills, by gymnastics, and by practising judo and wrestling. He learned drawing, anatomy, geography and history, literature, mathematics, Sanskrit, and English—his least favourite subject.[37] Tagore loathed formal education—his scholarly travails at the local Presidency College spanned a single day. Years later he held that proper teaching does not explain things; proper teaching stokes curiosity:[38] After his upanayan (coming-of-age rite) at age eleven, Tagore and his father left Calcutta in February 1873 to tour India for several months, visiting his father's Santiniketan estate and Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan hill station of Dalhousie. There Tagore read biographies, studied history, astronomy, modern science, and Sanskrit, and examined the classical poetry of Kālidāsa.[39][40] During his 1-month stay at Amritsar in 1873 he was greatly influenced by melodious gurbani and nanak bani being sung at Golden Temple for which both father and son were regular visitors. He mentions about this in his My Reminiscences (1912) The golden temple of Amritsar comes back to me like a dream. Many a morning have I accompanied my father to this Gurudarbar of the Sikhs in the middle of the lake. There the sacred chanting resounds continually. My father, seated amidst the throng of worshippers, would sometimes add his voice to the hymn of praise, and finding a stranger joining in their devotions they would wax enthusiastically cordial, and we would return loaded with the sanctified offerings of sugar crystals and other sweets.[41] He wrote 6 poems relating to Sikhism and a number of articles in Bengali child magazine about Sikhism.[42] Tagore returned to Jorosanko and completed a set of major works by 1877, one of them a long poem in the Maithili style of Vidyapati. As a joke, he claimed that these were the lost works of newly discovered 17th-century Vaiṣṇava poet Bhānusiṃha.[43] Regional experts accepted them as the lost works of the fictitious poet.[44] He debuted in the short-story genre in Bengali with "Bhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman").[45][46] Published in the same year, Sandhya Sangit (1882) includes the poem "Nirjharer Swapnabhanga" ("The Rousing of the Waterfall"). Shelaidaha: 1878–1901 Tagore's house in Shelaidaha, Bangladesh Because Debendranath wanted his son to become a barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in 1878.[29] He stayed for several months at a house that the Tagore family owned near Brighton and Hove, in Medina Villas; in 1877 his nephew and niece—Suren and Indira Devi, the children of Tagore's brother Satyendranath—were sent together with their mother, Tagore's sister-in-law, to live with him.[47] He briefly read law at University College London, but again left school, opting instead for independent study of Shakespeare's plays Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra and the Religio Medici of Thomas Browne. Lively English, Irish, and Scottish folk tunes impressed Tagore, whose own tradition of Nidhubabu-authored kirtans and tappas and Brahmo hymnody was subdued.[29][48] In 1880 he returned to Bengal degree-less, resolving to reconcile European novelty with Brahmo traditions, taking the best from each.[49] After returning to Bengal, Tagore regularly published poems, stories, and novels. These had a profound impact within Bengal itself but received little national attention.[50] In 1883 he married 10-year-old[51] Mrinalini Devi, born Bhabatarini, 1873–1902 (this was a common practice at the time). They had five children, two of whom died in childhood.[52] Tagore family boat (bajra or budgerow), the "Padma". In 1890 Tagore began managing his vast ancestral estates in Shelaidaha (today a region of Bangladesh); he was joined there by his wife and children in 1898. Tagore released his Manasi poems (1890), among his best-known work.[53] As Zamindar Babu, Tagore criss-crossed the Padma River in command of the Padma, the luxurious family barge (also known as "budgerow"). He collected mostly token rents and blessed villagers who in turn honoured him with banquets—occasionally of dried rice and sour milk.[54] He met Gagan Harkara, through whom he became familiar with Baul Lalon Shah, whose folk songs greatly influenced Tagore.[55] Tagore worked to popularise Lalon's songs. The period 1891–1895, Tagore's Sadhana period, named after one of his magazines, was his most productive;[30] in these years he wrote more than half the stories of the three-volume, 84-story Galpaguchchha.[45] Its ironic and grave tales examined the voluptuous poverty of an idealised rural Bengal.[56] Santiniketan: 1901–1932 Main article: Middle years of Rabindranath Tagore Posed group black-and-white photograph of seven Chinese men, possibly academics, in formal wear: two wear European-style suits, the five others wear Chinese traditional dress; four of the seven sit on the floor in the foreground; another sits on a chair behind them at centre-left; two others stand in the background. They surround an eighth man who is robed, bearded, and sitting in a chair placed at centre-left. Four elegant windows are behind them in a line. Tsinghua University, 1924 In 1901 Tagore moved to Santiniketan to found an ashram with a marble-floored prayer hall—The Mandir—an experimental school, groves of trees, gardens, a library.[57] There his wife and two of his children died. His father died in 1905. He received monthly payments as part of his inheritance and income from the Maharaja of Tripura, sales of his family's jewellery, his seaside bungalow in Puri, and a derisory 2,000 rupees in book royalties.[58] He gained Bengali and foreign readers alike; he published Naivedya (1901) and Kheya (1906) and translated poems into free verse. In November 1913, Tagore learned he had won that year's Nobel Prize in Literature: the Swedish Academy appreciated the idealistic—and for Westerners—accessible nature of a small body of his translated material focused on the 1912 Gitanjali: Song Offerings.[59] He was awarded a knighthood by King George V in the 1915 Birthday Honours, but Tagore renounced it after the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.[60] Renouncing the knighthood, Tagore wrote in a letter addressed to Lord Chelmsford, the then British Viceroy of India, "The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilised governments...The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of my country men."[61][62] In 1919, he was invited by the president and chairman of Anjuman-e-Islamia, Syed Abdul Majid to visit Sylhet for the first time. The event attracted over 5000 people.[63] In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the "Institute for Rural Reconstruction", later renamed Shriniketan or "Abode of Welfare", in Surul, a village near the ashram. With it, Tagore sought to moderate Gandhi's Swaraj protests, which he occasionally blamed for British India's perceived mental – and thus ultimately colonial – decline.[64] He sought aid from donors, officials, and scholars worldwide to "free village[s] from the shackles of helplessness and ignorance" by "vitalis[ing] knowledge".[65][66] In the early 1930s he targeted ambient "abnormal caste consciousness" and untouchability. He lectured against these, he penned Dalit heroes for his poems and his dramas, and he campaigned—successfully—to open Guruvayoor Temple to Dalits.[67][68] Twilight years: 1932–1941 Germany, 1931 Last picture of Rabindranath, 1941 Dutta and Robinson describe this phase of Tagore's life as being one of a "peripatetic litterateur". It affirmed his opinion that human divisions were shallow. During a May 1932 visit to a Bedouin encampment in the Iraqi desert, the tribal chief told him that "Our Prophet has said that a true Muslim is he by whose words and deeds not the least of his brother-men may ever come to any harm ..." Tagore confided in his diary: "I was startled into recognizing in his words the voice of essential humanity."[69] To the end Tagore scrutinised orthodoxy—and in 1934, he struck. That year, an earthquake hit Bihar and killed thousands. Gandhi hailed it as seismic karma, as divine retribution avenging the oppression of Dalits. Tagore rebuked him for his seemingly ignominious implications.[70] He mourned the perennial poverty of Calcutta and the socioeconomic decline of Bengal, and detailed these newly plebeian aesthetics in an unrhymed hundred-line poem whose technique of searing double-vision foreshadowed Satyajit Ray's film Apur Sansar.[71][72] Fifteen new volumes appeared, among them prose-poem works Punashcha (1932), Shes Saptak (1935), and Patraput (1936). Experimentation continued in his prose-songs and dance-dramas— Chitra (1914), Shyama (1939), and Chandalika (1938)— and in his novels— Dui Bon (1933), Malancha (1934), and Char Adhyay (1934).[73] Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.  —Verse 292, Stray Birds, 1916. Tagore's remit expanded to science in his last years, as hinted in Visva-Parichay, a 1937 collection of essays. His respect for scientific laws and his exploration of biology, physics, and astronomy informed his poetry, which exhibited extensive naturalism and verisimilitude.[74] He wove the process of science, the narratives of scientists, into stories in Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa (1941). His last five years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. These began when Tagore lost consciousness in late 1937; he remained comatose and near death for a time. This was followed in late 1940 by a similar spell, from which he never recovered. Poetry from these valetudinary years is among his finest.[75][76] A period of prolonged agony ended with Tagore's death on 7 August 1941, aged eighty; he was in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion he was raised in.[77][78] The date is still mourned.[79] A. K. Sen, brother of the first chief election commissioner, received dictation from Tagore on 30 July 1941, a day prior to a scheduled operation: his last poem.[80] I'm lost in the middle of my birthday. I want my friends, their touch, with the earth's last love. I will take life's final offering, I will take the human's last blessing. Today my sack is empty. I have given completely whatever I had to give. In return if I receive anything—some love, some forgiveness—then I will take it with me when I step on the boat that crosses to the festival of the wordless end. Travels Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole. Does something similar to this happen in the physical world? Are the elements rebellious, dynamic with individual impulse? And is there a principle in the physical world which dominates them and puts them into an orderly organization? — Interviewed by Einstein, 14 April 1930.[81] Rabindranath with Einstein in 1930 Group shot of dozens of people assembled at the entrance of an imposing building; two columns in view. All subjects face the camera. All but two are dressed in lounge suits: a woman at front-center wears light-coloured Persian garb; the man to her left, first row, wears a white beard and dark-coloured oriental cap and robes. At the Majlis (Iranian parliament) in Tehran, Iran, 1932[82] Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore set foot in more than thirty countries on five continents.[83] In 1912, he took a sheaf of his translated works to England, where they gained attention from missionary and Gandhi protégé Charles F. Andrews, Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and others.[84] Yeats wrote the preface to the English translation of Gitanjali; Andrews joined Tagore at Santiniketan. In November 1912 Tagore began touring the United States[85] and the United Kingdom, staying in Butterton, Staffordshire with Andrews's clergymen friends.[86] From May 1916 until April 1917, he lectured in Japan and the United States.[87] He denounced nationalism.[88] His essay "Nationalism in India" was scorned and praised; it was admired by Romain Rolland and other pacifists.[89] Shortly after returning home the 63-year-old Tagore accepted an invitation from the Peruvian government. He travelled to Mexico. Each government pledged US$100,000 to his school to commemorate the visits.[90] A week after his 6 November 1924 arrival in Buenos Aires,[91] an ill Tagore shifted to the Villa Miralrío at the behest of Victoria Ocampo. He left for home in January 1925. In May 1926 Tagore reached Naples; the next day he met Mussolini in Rome.[92] Their warm rapport ended when Tagore pronounced upon Il Duce's fascist finesse.[93] He had earlier enthused: "[w]ithout any doubt he is a great personality. There is such a massive vigour in that head that it reminds one of Michael Angelo's chisel." A "fire-bath" of fascism was to have educed "the immortal soul of Italy ... clothed in quenchless light".[94] On 1 November 1926 Tagore arrived to Hungary and spent some time on the shore of Lake Balaton in the city of Balatonfüred, recovering from heart problems at a sanitarium. He planted a tree and a bust statue was placed there in 1956 (a gift from the Indian government, the work of Rasithan Kashar, replaced by a newly gifted statue in 2005) and the lakeside promenade still bears his name since 1957.[citation needed] On 14 July 1927 Tagore and two companions began a four-month tour of Southeast Asia. They visited Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. The resultant travelogues compose Jatri (1929).[95] In early 1930 he left Bengal for a nearly year-long tour of Europe and the United States. Upon returning to Britain—and as his paintings were exhibited in Paris and London—he lodged at a Birmingham Quaker settlement. He wrote his Oxford Hibbert Lectures[d] and spoke at the annual London Quaker meet.[96] There, addressing relations between the British and the Indians – a topic he would tackle repeatedly over the next two years – Tagore spoke of a "dark chasm of aloofness".[97] He visited Aga Khan III, stayed at Dartington Hall, toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany from June to mid-September 1930, then went on into the Soviet Union.[98] In April 1932 Tagore, intrigued by the Persian mystic Hafez, was hosted by Reza Shah Pahlavi.[99][100] In his other travels, Tagore interacted with Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, and Romain Rolland.[101][102] Visits to Persia and Iraq (in 1932) and Sri Lanka (in 1933) composed Tagore's final foreign tour, and his dislike of communalism and nationalism only deepened.[69] Vice-President of India M. Hamid Ansari has said that Rabindranath Tagore heralded the cultural rapprochement between communities, societies and nations much before it became the liberal norm of conduct. Tagore was a man ahead of his time. He wrote in 1932, while on a visit to Iran, that "each country of Asia will solve its own historical problems according to its strength, nature and needs, but the lamp they will each carry on their path to progress will converge to illuminate the common ray of knowledge."[103] Works Main article: Works of Rabindranath Tagore Known mostly for his poetry, Tagore wrote novels, essays, short stories, travelogues, dramas, and thousands of songs. Of Tagore's prose, his short stories are perhaps most highly regarded; he is indeed credited with originating the Bengali-language version of the genre. His works are frequently noted for their rhythmic, optimistic, and lyrical nature. Such stories mostly borrow from the lives of common people. Tagore's non-fiction grappled with history, linguistics, and spirituality. He wrote autobiographies. His travelogues, essays, and lectures were compiled into several volumes, including Europe Jatrir Patro (Letters from Europe) and Manusher Dhormo (The Religion of Man). His brief chat with Einstein, "Note on the Nature of Reality", is included as an appendix to the latter. On the occasion of Tagore's 150th birthday, an anthology (titled Kalanukromik Rabindra Rachanabali) of the total body of his works is currently being published in Bengali in chronological order. This includes all versions of each work and fills about eighty volumes.[104] In 2011, Harvard University Press collaborated with Visva-Bharati University to publish The Essential Tagore, the largest anthology of Tagore's works available in English; it was edited by Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarthy and marks the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth.[105] Drama Tagore performing the title role inValmiki Pratibha (1881) with his niece Indira Devi as the goddess Lakshmi. Tagore's experiences with drama began when he was sixteen, with his brother Jyotirindranath. He wrote his first original dramatic piece when he was twenty — Valmiki Pratibha which was shown at the Tagore's mansion. Tagore stated that his works sought to articulate "the play of feeling and not of action". In 1890 he wrote Visarjan (an adaptation of his novella Rajarshi), which has been regarded as his finest drama. In the original Bengali language, such works included intricate subplots and extended monologues. Later, Tagore's dramas used more philosophical and allegorical themes. The play Dak Ghar (The Post Office'; 1912), describes the child Amal defying his stuffy and puerile confines by ultimately "fall[ing] asleep", hinting his physical death. A story with borderless appeal—gleaning rave reviews in Europe—Dak Ghar dealt with death as, in Tagore's words, "spiritual freedom" from "the world of hoarded wealth and certified creeds".[106][107] Another is Tagore's Chandalika (Untouchable Girl), which was modelled on an ancient Buddhist legend describing how Ananda, the Gautama Buddha's disciple, asks a tribal girl for water.[108] In Raktakarabi ("Red" or "Blood Oleanders") is an allegorical struggle against a kleptocrat king who rules over the residents of Yaksha puri.[109] Chitrangada, Chandalika, and Shyama are other key plays that have dance-drama adaptations, which together are known as Rabindra Nritya Natya. Short stories Cover of the Sabuj Patra magazine, edited by Pramatha Chaudhuri Tagore began his career in short stories in 1877—when he was only sixteen—with "Bhikharini" ("The Beggar Woman").[110] With this, Tagore effectively invented the Bengali-language short story genre.[111] The four years from 1891 to 1895 are known as Tagore's "Sadhana" period (named for one of Tagore's magazines). This period was among Tagore's most fecund, yielding more than half the stories contained in the three-volume Galpaguchchha, which itself is a collection of eighty-four stories.[110] Such stories usually showcase Tagore's reflections upon his surroundings, on modern and fashionable ideas, and on interesting mind puzzles (which Tagore was fond of testing his intellect with). Tagore typically associated his earliest stories (such as those of the "Sadhana" period) with an exuberance of vitality and spontaneity; these characteristics were intimately connected with Tagore's life in the common villages of, among others, Patisar, Shajadpur, and Shilaida while managing the Tagore family's vast landholdings.[110] There, he beheld the lives of India's poor and common people; Tagore thereby took to examining their lives with a penetrative depth and feeling that was singular in Indian literature up to that point.[112] In particular, such stories as "Kabuliwala" ("The Fruitseller from Kabul", published in 1892), "Kshudita Pashan" ("The Hungry Stones") (August 1895), and "Atithi" ("The Runaway", 1895) typified this analytic focus on the downtrodden.[113] Many of the other Galpaguchchha stories were written in Tagore's Sabuj Patra period from 1914 to 1917, also named after one of the magazines that Tagore edited and heavily contributed to.[110] Novels Tagore wrote eight novels and four novellas, among them Chaturanga, Shesher Kobita, Char Odhay, and Noukadubi. Ghare Baire (The Home and the World)—through the lens of the idealistic zamindar protagonist Nikhil—excoriates rising Indian nationalism, terrorism, and religious zeal in the Swadeshi movement; a frank expression of Tagore's conflicted sentiments, it emerged from a 1914 bout of depression. The novel ends in Hindu-Muslim violence and Nikhil's—likely mortal—wounding.[114] Gora raises controversial questions regarding the Indian identity. As with Ghare Baire, matters of self-identity (jāti), personal freedom, and religion are developed in the context of a family story and love triangle.[115] In it an Irish boy orphaned in the Sepoy Mutiny is raised by Hindus as the titular gora—"whitey". Ignorant of his foreign origins, he chastises Hindu religious backsliders out of love for the indigenous Indians and solidarity with them against his hegemon-compatriots. He falls for a Brahmo girl, compelling his worried foster father to reveal his lost past and cease his nativist zeal. As a "true dialectic" advancing "arguments for and against strict traditionalism", it tackles the colonial conundrum by "portray[ing] the value of all positions within a particular frame [...] not only syncretism, not only liberal orthodoxy, but the extremest reactionary traditionalism he defends by an appeal to what humans share." Among these Tagore highlights "identity [...] conceived of as dharma."[116] In Jogajog (Relationships), the heroine Kumudini—bound by the ideals of Śiva-Sati, exemplified by Dākshāyani—is torn between her pity for the sinking fortunes of her progressive and compassionate elder brother and his foil: her roue of a husband. Tagore flaunts his feminist leanings; pathos depicts the plight and ultimate demise of women trapped by pregnancy, duty, and family honour; he simultaneously trucks with Bengal's putrescent landed gentry.[117] The story revolves around the underlying rivalry between two families—the Chatterjees, aristocrats now on the decline (Biprodas) and the Ghosals (Madhusudan), representing new money and new arrogance. Kumudini, Biprodas' sister, is caught between the two as she is married off to Madhusudan. She had risen in an observant and sheltered traditional home, as had all her female relations. Others were uplifting: Shesher Kobita—translated twice as Last Poem and Farewell Song—is his most lyrical novel, with poems and rhythmic passages written by a poet protagonist. It contains elements of satire and postmodernism and has stock characters who gleefully attack the reputation of an old, outmoded, oppressively renowned poet who, incidentally, goes by a familiar name: "Rabindranath Tagore". Though his novels remain among the least-appreciated of his works, they have been given renewed attention via film adaptations by Ray and others: Chokher Bali and Ghare Baire are exemplary. In the first, Tagore inscribes Bengali society via its heroine: a rebellious widow who would live for herself alone. He pillories the custom of perpetual mourning on the part of widows, who were not allowed to remarry, who were consigned to seclusion and loneliness. Tagore wrote of it: "I have always regretted the ending".[citation needed] Poetry Title page of the 1913 Macmillan edition of Tagore's Gitanjali. Three-verse handwritten composition; each verse has original Bengali with English-language translation below: "My fancies are fireflies: specks of living light twinkling in the dark. The same voice murmurs in these desultory lines, which is born in wayside pansies letting hasty glances pass by. The butterfly does not count years but moments, and therefore has enough time." Part of a poem written by Tagore in Hungary, 1926. Internationally, Gitanjali (Bengali: গীতাঞ্জলি) is Tagore's best-known collection of poetry, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore was the first non-European to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature and second non-European to receive a Nobel Prize after Theodore Roosevelt.[118] Besides Gitanjali, other notable works include Manasi, Sonar Tori ("Golden Boat"), Balaka ("Wild Geese" — the title being a metaphor for migrating souls)[119] Tagore's poetic style, which proceeds from a lineage established by 15th- and 16th-century Vaishnava poets, ranges from classical formalism to the comic, visionary, and ecstatic. He was influenced by the atavistic mysticism of Vyasa and other rishi-authors of the Upanishads, the Bhakti-Sufi mystic Kabir, and Ramprasad Sen.[120] Tagore's most innovative and mature poetry embodies his exposure to Bengali rural folk music, which included mystic Baul ballads such as those of the bard Lalon.[121][122] These, rediscovered and repopularised by Tagore, resemble 19th-century Kartābhajā hymns that emphasise inward divinity and rebellion against bourgeois bhadralok religious and social orthodoxy.[123][124] During his Shelaidaha years, his poems took on a lyrical voice of the moner manush, the Bāuls' "man within the heart" and Tagore's "life force of his deep recesses", or meditating upon the jeevan devata—the demiurge or the "living God within".[29] This figure connected with divinity through appeal to nature and the emotional interplay of human drama. Such tools saw use in his Bhānusiṃha poems chronicling the Radha-Krishna romance, which were repeatedly revised over the course of seventy years.[125][126] Later, with the development of new poetic ideas in Bengal – many originating from younger poets seeking to break with Tagore's style – Tagore absorbed new poetic concepts, which allowed him to further develop a unique identity. Examples of this include Africa and Camalia, which are among the better known of his latter poems. Songs (Rabindra Sangeet) Tagore was a prolific composer with around 2,230 songs to his credit.[127] His songs are known as rabindrasangit ("Tagore Song"), which merges fluidly into his literature, most of which—poems or parts of novels, stories, or plays alike—were lyricised. Influenced by the thumri style of Hindustani music, they ran the entire gamut of human emotion, ranging from his early dirge-like Brahmo devotional hymns to quasi-erotic compositions.[128] They emulated the tonal colour of classical ragas to varying extents. Some songs mimicked a given raga's melody and rhythm faithfully; others newly blended elements of different ragas.[129] Yet about nine-tenths of his work was not bhanga gaan, the body of tunes revamped with "fresh value" from select Western, Hindustani, Bengali folk and other regional flavours "external" to Tagore's own ancestral culture.[29] In 1971, Amar Shonar Bangla became the national anthem of Bangladesh. It was written – ironically – to protest the 1905 Partition of Bengal along communal lines: cutting off the Muslim-majority East Bengal from Hindu-dominated West Bengal was to avert a regional bloodbath. Tagore saw the partition as a cunning plan to stop the independence movement, and he aimed to rekindle Bengali unity and tar communalism. Jana Gana Mana was written in shadhu-bhasha, a Sanskritised form of Bengali, and is the first of five stanzas of the Brahmo hymn Bharot Bhagyo Bidhata that Tagore composed. It was first sung in 1911 at a Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress[130] and was adopted in 1950 by the Constituent Assembly of the Republic of India as its national anthem. The Sri Lanka's National Anthem was inspired by his work.[21][22][23] For Bengalis, the songs' appeal, stemming from the combination of emotive strength and beauty described as surpassing even Tagore's poetry, was such that the Modern Review observed that "[t]here is in Bengal no cultured home where Rabindranath's songs are not sung or at least attempted to be sung... Even illiterate villagers sing his songs".[131] Tagore influenced sitar maestro Vilayat Khan and sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan.[129] Art works Black-and-white photograph of a stylised sketch depicting a tribal funerary mask. Primitivism: a pastel-coloured rendition of a Malagan mask from northern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Black-and-white close-up photograph of a piece of wood boldly painted in unmixed solid strokes of black and white in a stylised semblance to "ro" and "tho" from the Bengali syllabary. Tagore's Bengali-language initials are worked into this "Ro-Tho" (of RAbindranath THAkur) wooden seal, stylistically similar to designs used in traditional Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Tagore often embellished his manuscripts with such art.[132] At sixty, Tagore took up drawing and painting; successful exhibitions of his many works—which made a debut appearance in Paris upon encouragement by artists he met in the south of France[133]—were held throughout Europe. He was likely red-green colour blind, resulting in works that exhibited strange colour schemes and off-beat aesthetics. Tagore was influenced numerous styles, including scrimshaw by the Malanggan people of northern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Haida carvings from the Pacific Northwest region of North America, and woodcuts by the German Max Pechstein.[132] His artist's eye for his handwriting were revealed in the simple artistic and rhythmic leitmotifs embellishing the scribbles, cross-outs, and word layouts of his manuscripts. Some of Tagore's lyrics corresponded in a synesthetic sense with particular paintings.[29] Surrounded by several painters Rabindranath had always wanted to paint. Writing and music, playwriting and acting came to him naturally and almost without training, as it did to several others in his family, and in even greater measure. But painting eluded him. Yet he tried repeatedly to master the art and there are several references to this in his early letters and reminiscence. In 1900 for instance, when he was nearing forty and already a celebrated writer, he wrote to Jagadishchandra Bose, "You will be surprised to hear that I am sitting with a sketchbook drawing. Needless to say, the pictures are not intended for any salon in Paris, they cause me not the least suspicion that the national gallery of any country will suddenly decide to raise taxes to acquire them. But, just as a mother lavishes most affection on her ugliest son, so I feel secretly drawn to the very skill that comes to me least easily." He also realized that he was using the eraser more than the pencil, and dissatisfied with the results he finally withdrew, deciding it was not for him to become a painter.[134] Tagore also had an artist's eye for his own handwriting, embellishing the cross-outs and word layouts in his manuscripts with simple artistic leitmotifs. India's National Gallery of Modern Art lists 102 works by Tagore in its collections.[135][136] Politics Main article: Political views of Rabindranath Tagore Photo of a formal function, an aged bald man and old woman in simple white robes are seated side-by-side with legs folded on a rug-strewn dais; the man looks at a bearded and garlanded old man seated on another dais at left. In the foreground, various ceremonial objects are arrayed; in the background, dozens of other people observe. Tagore hosts Gandhi and wife Kasturba at Santiniketan in 1940 Tagore opposed imperialism and supported Indian nationalists,[137][138][139] and these views were first revealed in Manast, which was mostly composed in his twenties.[53] Evidence produced during the Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial and latter accounts affirm his awareness of the Ghadarites, and stated that he sought the support of Japanese Prime Minister Terauchi Masatake and former Premier Ōkuma Shigenobu.[140] Yet he lampooned the Swadeshi movement; he rebuked it in The Cult of the Charkha, an acrid 1925 essay.[141] He urged the masses to avoid victimology and instead seek self-help and education, and he saw the presence of British administration as a "political symptom of our social disease". He maintained that, even for those at the extremes of poverty, "there can be no question of blind revolution"; preferable to it was a "steady and purposeful education".[142][143] So I repeat we never can have a true view of man unless we have a love for him. Civilisation must be judged and prized, not by the amount of power it has developed, but by how much it has evolved and given expression to, by its laws and institutions, the love of humanity. — Sādhanā: The Realisation of Life, 1916.[144] Such views enraged many. He escaped assassination—and only narrowly—by Indian expatriates during his stay in a San Francisco hotel in late 1916; the plot failed when his would-be assassins fell into argument.[145] Tagore wrote songs lionising the Indian independence movement.[146] Two of Tagore's more politically charged compositions, "Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo" ("Where the Mind is Without Fear") and "Ekla Chalo Re" ("If They Answer Not to Thy Call, Walk Alone"), gained mass appeal, with the latter favoured by Gandhi.[147] Though somewhat critical of Gandhian activism,[148] Tagore was key in resolving a Gandhi–Ambedkar dispute involving separate electorates for untouchables, thereby mooting at least one of Gandhi's fasts "unto death".[149][150] Repudiation of knighthood See also: List of people who have declined a British honour § Renouncing an honour Tagore renounced his knighthood in response to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. In the repudiation letter to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, he wrote[151] The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part, wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings. Santiniketan and Visva-Bharati Kala Bhavan (Institute of Fine Arts), Santiniketan, India Tagore despised rote classroom schooling: in "The Parrot's Training", a bird is caged and force-fed textbook pages—to death.[152][153] Tagore, visiting Santa Barbara in 1917, conceived a new type of university: he sought to "make Santiniketan the connecting thread between India and the world [and] a world center for the study of humanity somewhere beyond the limits of nation and geography."[145] The school, which he named Visva-Bharati,[e] had its foundation stone laid on 24 December 1918 and was inaugurated precisely three years later.[154] Tagore employed a brahmacharya system: gurus gave pupils personal guidance—emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Teaching was often done under trees. He staffed the school, he contributed his Nobel Prize monies,[155] and his duties as steward-mentor at Santiniketan kept him busy: mornings he taught classes; afternoons and evenings he wrote the students' textbooks.[156] He fundraised widely for the school in Europe and the United States between 1919 and 1921.[157] Theft of Nobel Prize On 25 March 2004, Tagore's Nobel Prize was stolen from the safety vault of the Visva-Bharati University, along with several other of his belongings.[158] On 7 December 2004, the Swedish Academy decided to present two replicas of Tagore's Nobel Prize, one made of gold and the other made of bronze, to the Visva-Bharati University.[159] It inspired the fictional film Nobel Chor. In 2016, a baul singer named Pradip Bauri accused of sheltering the thieves was arrested and the prize was returned.[160][161] Impact and legacy Bust of Tagore in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London Rabindranath Tagore's bust at St Stephen Green Park, Dublin, Ireland Rabindranath Tagore Memorial, Nimtala crematorium, Kolkata Every year, many events pay tribute to Tagore: Kabipranam, his birth anniversary, is celebrated by groups scattered across the globe; the annual Tagore Festival held in Urbana, Illinois (USA); Rabindra Path Parikrama walking pilgrimages from Kolkata to Santiniketan; and recitals of his poetry, which are held on important anniversaries.[85][162][163] Bengali culture is fraught with this legacy: from language and arts to history and politics. Amartya Sen deemed Tagore a "towering figure", a "deeply relevant and many-sided contemporary thinker".[163] Tagore's Bengali originals—the 1939 Rabīndra Rachanāvalī—is canonised as one of his nation's greatest cultural treasures, and he was roped into a reasonably humble role: "the greatest poet India has produced".[164] Who are you, reader, reading my poems a hundred years hence? I cannot send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and look abroad. From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished flowers of an hundred years before. In the joy of your heart may you feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad voice across an hundred years. — The Gardener, 1915.[165] Tagore was renowned throughout much of Europe, North America, and East Asia. He co-founded Dartington Hall School, a progressive coeducational institution;[166] in Japan, he influenced such figures as Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata.[167] In colonial Vietnam Tagore was a guide for the restless spirit of the radical writer and publicist Nguyen An Ninh[168] Tagore's works were widely translated into English, Dutch, German, Spanish, and other European languages by Czech Indologist Vincenc Lesný,[169] French Nobel laureate André Gide, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova,[170] former Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit,[171] and others. In the United States, Tagore's lecturing circuits, particularly those of 1916–1917, were widely attended and wildly acclaimed. Some controversies[f] involving Tagore, possibly fictive, trashed his popularity and sales in Japan and North America after the late 1920s, concluding with his "near total eclipse" outside Bengal.[9] Yet a latent reverence of Tagore was discovered by an astonished Salman Rushdie during a trip to Nicaragua.[177] By way of translations, Tagore influenced Chileans Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral; Mexican writer Octavio Paz; and Spaniards José Ortega y Gasset, Zenobia Camprubí, and Juan Ramón Jiménez. In the period 1914–1922, the Jiménez-Camprubí pair produced twenty-two Spanish translations of Tagore's English corpus; they heavily revised The Crescent Moon and other key titles. In these years, Jiménez developed "naked poetry".[178] Ortega y Gasset wrote that "Tagore's wide appeal [owes to how] he speaks of longings for perfection that we all have [...] Tagore awakens a dormant sense of childish wonder, and he saturates the air with all kinds of enchanting promises for the reader, who [...] pays little attention to the deeper import of Oriental mysticism". Tagore's works circulated in free editions around 1920—alongside those of Plato, Dante, Cervantes, Goethe, and Tolstoy. Tagore was deemed over-rated by some. Graham Greene doubted that "anyone but Mr. Yeats can still take his poems very seriously." Several prominent Western admirers—including Pound and, to a lesser extent, even Yeats—criticised Tagore's work. Yeats, unimpressed with his English translations, railed against that "Damn Tagore [...] We got out three good books, Sturge Moore and I, and then, because he thought it more important to know English than to be a great poet, he brought out sentimental rubbish and wrecked his reputation. Tagore does not know English, no Indian knows English."[9][179] William Radice, who "English[ed]" his poems, asked: "What is their place in world literature?"[180] He saw him as "kind of counter-cultur[al]", bearing "a new kind of classicism" that would heal the "collapsed romantic confusion and chaos of the 20th [c]entury."[179][181] The translated Tagore was "almost nonsensical",[182] and subpar English offerings reduced his trans-national appeal: Anyone who knows Tagore's poems in their original Bengali cannot feel satisfied with any of the translations (made with or without Yeats's help). Even the translations of his prose works suffer, to some extent, from distortion. E.M. Forster noted [of] The Home and the World [that] '[t]he theme is so beautiful,' but the charms have 'vanished in translation,' or perhaps 'in an experiment that has not quite come off.' — Amartya Sen, "Tagore and His India".[9] Museums Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata; the room in which Tagore died in 1941. Shahjadpur Kachharibari Patisar Kachharibari There are eight Tagore museums. Three in India and five in Bangladesh: Rabindra Bharati Museum, at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata, India Tagore Memorial Museum, at Shilaidaha Kuthibadi, Shilaidaha, Bangladesh Rabindra Memorial Museum at Shahzadpur Kachharibari, Shahzadpur, Bangladesh Rabindra Bhavan Museum, in Santiniketan, India Rabindra Museum, in Mungpoo, near Kalimpong, India Patisar Rabindra Kacharibari, Patisar, Atrai, Naogaon, Bangladesh Pithavoge Rabindra Memorial Complex, Pithavoge, Rupsha, Khulna, Bangladesh Rabindra Complex, Dakkhindihi village, Phultala Upazila, Khulna, Bangladesh Rabindra Complex, Dakkhindihi, Phultala, Khulna, Bangladesh Jorasanko Thakur Bari (Bengali: House of the Thakurs; anglicised to Tagore) in Jorasanko, north of Kolkata, is the ancestral home of the Tagore family. It is currently located on the Rabindra Bharati University campus at 6/4 Dwarakanath Tagore Lane[183] Jorasanko, Kolkata 700007.[184] It is the house in which Tagore was born. It is also the place where he spent most of his childhood and where he died on 7 August 1941. Rabindra Complex is located in Dakkhindihi village, near Phultala Upazila, 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Khulna city, Bangladesh. It was the residence of tagores father-in-law, Beni Madhab Roy Chowdhury. Tagore family had close connection with Dakkhindihi village. The maternal ancestral home of the great poet was also situated at Dakkhindihi village, poets mother Sarada Sundari Devi and his paternal aunt by marriage Tripura Sundari Devi; was born in this village.Young tagore used to visit Dakkhindihi village with his mother to visit his maternal uncles in her mothers ancestral home. Tagore visited this place several times in his life. It has been declared as a protected archaeological site by Department of Archaeology of Bangladesh and converted into a museum. On in 1995, the local administration took charge of the house and on 14 Novembar of that year, the Rabindra Complex project was decided.Bangladesh Governments Department of Archeology has carried out the renovation work to make the house a museum titled ‘Rabindra Complex’ in 2011–12 fiscal year. The two-storey museum building has four rooms on the first floor and two rooms on the ground floor at present. The building has eight windows on the ground floor and 21 windows on the first floor. The height of the roof from the floor on the ground floor is 13 feet. There are seven doors, six windows and wall almirahs on the first floor. Over 500 books were kept in the library and all the rooms have been decorated with rare pictures of Rabindranath. Over 10,000 visitors come here every year to see the museum from different parts of the country and also from abroad, said Saifur Rahman, assistant director of the Department of Archeology in Khulna. A bust of Rabindranath Tagore is also there. Every year on 25–27 Baishakh (after the Bengali New Year Celebration), cultural programs are held here which lasts for three days. List of universities; university buildings named after him Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India. Rabindra University, Sahjadpur, Shirajganj, Bangladesh.[1] Rabindranath Tagore University, Hojai, Assam, India Rabindra Maitree University, Courtpara, Kustia,Bangladesh.[2] Bishwakabi Rabindranath Tagore Hall, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh Rabindra Nazrul Art Building, Arts Faculty, Islamic University, Bangladesh Rabindra Library (Central), Assam University, India Rabindra Srijonkala University, Keraniganj, Dhaka, Bangladesh List of works Main article: List of works by Rabindranath Tagore The SNLTR hosts the 1415 BE edition of Tagore's complete Bengali works. Tagore Web also hosts an edition of Tagore's works, including annotated songs. Translations are found at Project Gutenberg and Wikisource. More sources are below. Original Bengali Poetry * ভানুসিংহ ঠাকুরের পদাবলী Bhānusiṃha Ṭhākurer Paḍāvalī (Songs of Bhānusiṃha Ṭhākur) 1884 * মানসী Manasi (The Ideal One) 1890 * সোনার তরী Sonar Tari (The Golden Boat) 1894 * গীতাঞ্জলি Gitanjali (Song Offerings) 1910 * গীতিমাল্য Gitimalya (Wreath of Songs) 1914 * বলাকা Balaka (The Flight of Cranes) 1916 Dramas * বাল্মিকী প্রতিভা Valmiki-Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki) 1881 * কালমৃগয়া Kal-Mrigaya (The Fatal Hunt) 1882 * মায়ার খেলা Mayar Khela (The Play of Illusions) 1888 * বিসর্জন Visarjan (The Sacrifice) 1890 * চিত্রাঙ্গদা Chitrangada (Chitrangada) 1892 * রাজা Raja (The King of the Dark Chamber) 1910 * ডাকঘর Dak Ghar (The Post Office) 1912 * অচলায়তন Achalayatan (The Immovable) 1912 * মুক্তধারা Muktadhara (The Waterfall) 1922 * রক্তকরবী Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders) 1926 * চণ্ডালিকা Chandalika (The Untouchable Girl) 1933 Fiction * নষ্টনীড় Nastanirh (The Broken Nest) 1901 * গোরা Gora (Fair-Faced) 1910 * ঘরে বাইরে Ghare Baire (The Home and the World) 1916 * যোগাযোগ Yogayog (Crosscurrents) 1929 Memoirs * জীবনস্মৃতি Jivansmriti (My Reminiscences) 1912 * ছেলেবেলা Chhelebela (My Boyhood Days) 1940 English * Thought Relics 1921[original 1] Translated Thákurova ulice, Prague, Czech Republic A bronze bust of a middle-aged and forward-gazing bearded man supported on a tall rectangular wooden pedestal above a larger plinth set amidst a small ornate octagonal museum room with pink walls and wooden panelling; flanking the bust on the wall behind are two paintings of Tagore: to the left, a costumed youth acting a drama scene; to the right, a portrait showing an aged man with a large white beard clad in black and red robes. Tagore Room, Sardar Patel Memorial, Ahmedabad, India English Year Work 1914 Chitra[text 1] 1922 Creative Unity[text 2] 1913 The Crescent Moon[text 3] 1917 The Cycle of Spring[text 4] 1928 Fireflies 1916 Fruit-Gathering[text 5] 1916 The Fugitive[text 6] 1913 The Gardener[text 7] 1912 Gitanjali: Song Offerings[text 8] 1920 Glimpses of Bengal[text 9] 1921 The Home and the World[text 10] 1916 The Hungry Stones[text 11] 1991 I Won't Let you Go: Selected Poems 1914 The King of the Dark Chamber[text 12] 2012 Letters from an Expatriate in Europe 2003 The Lover of God 1918 Mashi[text 13] 1943 My Boyhood Days 1917 My Reminiscences[text 14] 1917 Nationalism 1914 The Post Office[text 15] 1913 Sadhana: The Realisation of Life[text 16] 1997 Selected Letters 1994 Selected Poems 1991 Selected Short Stories 1915 Songs of Kabir[text 17] 1916 The Spirit of Japan[text 18] 1918 Stories from Tagore[text 19] 1916 Stray Birds[text 20] 1913 Vocation[185] 1921 The Wreck Esperanto Primico, 1977 Adaptations of novels and short stories in cinema Main article: Adaptations of works of Rabindranath Tagore in film and television Bengali Natir Puja – 1932 – The only film directed by Rabindranath Tagore Gora — 1938 Gora (novel) — Naresh Mitra Noukadubi– Nitin Bose Bou Thakuranir Haat – 1953 (Bou Thakuranir Haat) – Naresh Mitra Kabuliwala – 1957 (Kabuliwala) – Tapan Sinha Kshudhita Pashan – 1960 (Kshudhita Pashan) – Tapan Sinha Teen Kanya – 1961 (Teen Kanya) – Satyajit Ray Charulata - 1964 (Nastanirh) – Satyajit Ray Megh o Roudra – 1969 (Megh o Roudra) – Arundhati Devi Ghare Baire – 1985 (Ghare Baire) – Satyajit Ray Chokher Bali – 2003 (Chokher Bali) – Rituparno Ghosh Shasti – 2004 (Shasti) – Chashi Nazrul Islam Shuva – 2006 (Shuvashini) – Chashi Nazrul Islam Chaturanga – 2008 (Chaturanga) – Suman Mukhopadhyay Noukadubi – 2011 (Noukadubi) – Rituparno Ghosh Elar Char Adhyay – 2012 (Char Adhyay) – Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay Hindi Sacrifice – 1927 (Balidan) – Nanand Bhojai and Naval Gandhi Milan – 1946 (Nauka Dubi) – Nitin Bose Dak Ghar – 1965 (Dak Ghar) – Zul Vellani Kabuliwala – 1961 (Kabuliwala) – Bimal Roy Uphaar – 1971 (Samapti) – Sudhendu Roy Lekin... – 1991 (Kshudhit Pashaan) – Gulzar Char Adhyay – 1997 (Char Adhyay) – Kumar Shahani Kashmakash – 2011 (Nauka Dubi) – Rituparno Ghosh Bioscopewala – 2017 (Kabuliwala) – Deb Medhekar Bhikharin Stories by Rabindranath Tagore (Anthology TV Series) – 2015 – Anurag Basu In popular culture In Sukanta Roy's Bengali film Chhelebela (2002) Jisshu Sengupta portrayed Tagore.[186] In Bandana Mukhopadhyay's Bengali film Chirosakha He (2007) Sayandip Bhattacharya played Tagore.[187] In Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali documentary film Jeevan Smriti (2011) Samadarshi Dutta played Tagore.[188] In Suman Ghosh's Bengali film Kadambari (2015) Parambrata Chatterjee portraying Tagore.[189] See also flag India portal Literature portal Kazi Nazrul Islam Rabindra Jayanti Tagore family Taptapadi Timeline of Rabindranath Tagore কবি-রাজ রবীন্দ্রনাথ: পাঁচন দাওয়াই কি এখন করোনায় কাজ করবে? সেই জ্বর এসে পড়েছে। তখনকার ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জা ‘যুদ্ধজ্বর’ নামে পরিচিত হয়েছিল। বহু জায়গায় মহামারি ছড়িয়ে পড়েছিল।শান্তিনিকেতনও রেহাই পায়নি। রবীন্দ্রনাথ রাণুকে চিঠি লিখলেন, ‘আমাদের ইস্কুলেও সেই জ্বর এসে পড়েচে। কিন্তু অন্য জায়গার মতো তেমন প্রবল নয়। অনেক ছেলেই এখন হাঁসপাতালে গেছে।’ কিন্তু রামানন্দ চট্টোপাধ্যায়ের মেয়ে সীতা দেবীর ‘পুণ‍্য স্মৃতি’ থেকে জানা যায়, দেশে জ্বরের মহামারির ছোঁয়া আশ্রমের বহু ছাত্রছাত্রীর উপর এসে পড়ে। তারা অসুস্থ হয়ে যায়। সীতা দেবীর লেখা থেকেই জানা যায়, রবীন্দ্রনাথ নিজে রোজ ঘুরে ঘুরে প্রত্যেক অসুস্থ ছাত্রছাত্রীকে দেখতে যেতেন। তাদের শারীরিক অবস্থার খোঁজখবর নিতেন। এমনকি চিকিৎসাও করতেন। সীতা দেবী লিখছেন, ‘সে বার তিনি একটি ভেষজ প্রতিষেধক তৈরি করলেন। সেই প্রতিষেধকটির নাম ‘পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন’।’  কী এই পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন? তেউরি, নিম, গুলঞ্চ, নিশিন্দা এবং থানকুনি বেটে একসঙ্গে সবটা মিলিয়ে তৈরি হয়েছিল এই পাঁচন। রবীন্দ্রনাথ এই পাঁচন তৈরি করে প্রত্যেক আশ্রমবাসীকে নিয়ম করে খাওয়াতেন এবং সে সময়ে ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জার মতো মহামারি আটকেছিলেন। সীতা দেবী ছাড়াও অজিতকুমার চক্রবর্তীর মরণাপন্ন পীড়ার কথা শুনে রবীন্দ্রনাথ চিকিৎসক দ্বিজেন্দ্রনাথ মৈত্রকে ১৯১৮-র ২৯ ডিসেম্বর চিঠিতে লিখছেন, ‘ছাত্র সৌভাগ্যক্রমে সকলেই ভাল আছে— তাদের সকলকেই রোজ পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন খাওয়াই— আমার বিশ্বাস সেই জন্য তাদের মধ্যে একটি case-ও হয়নি, অথচ তারা অধিকাংশই সংক্রামকের কেন্দ্র থেকে এবং রোগগ্রস্ত পরিবার থেকে  এসেচে।’ আরও পড়ুন: সহমর্মী সংহতি​ জগদীশচন্দ্র বসুকে লেখা রবীন্দ্রনাথের চিঠি। গ্রাফিক: শৌভিক দেবনাথ।  কিশোরবেলা থেকে চিকিৎসাশাস্ত্র নিয়ে রবির ছিল গভীর অনুসন্ধিৎসা। যৌবনে শান্তিনিকেতনে স্কুল প্রতিষ্ঠার পর কালীমোহন ঘোষকে আশ্রমে আসার আমন্ত্রণ জানান কবি। চিঠিতে লিখেছেন, ‘আমার এখানে চিকিৎসক বলিতে আমি ও ক্ষিতিমোহনবাবু’। একান্ত বাধ্য হয়ে বাড়তে থাকা আশ্রমবাসীদের চিকিৎসার ভার নিজের হাতে নেন রবীন্দ্রনাথ। কবিকে এ কাজে সাহায্য করতেন অমর্ত্য সেনের দাদামশায়, আয়ুর্বেদজ্ঞ ক্ষিতিমোহন সেন। আশ্রম দিনে দিনে বড় হচ্ছে, বাড়ছে আশ্রমিকদের ব্যধি। অগত্যা রোগীদের চিকিৎসার প্রাথমিক দায়িত্ব হাতে তুলে নিতে হয়েছিল রবীন্দ্রনাথকে। করোনা যুদ্ধে জর্জরিত ২০২০-র বিশ্ব। এই অতিমারির উৎসও জ্বর। তা হলে কি রবীন্দ্রনাথের এই পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন আজকের জ্বরে সুরাহা করবে? লড়তে পারবে করোনার সঙ্গে?এ কালের আয়ুর্বেদ চিকিৎসক সন্দীপন চক্রবর্তী রবীন্দ্রনাথের পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচনকে পঞ্চঘৃত পাঁচন হিসেবে চিকিৎসার কাজে লাগান। "আমরা ঘিয়ের মধ্যে এই পাঁচন তৈরি করি, আবার ট্যাবলেট হিসেবেও পাওয়া যায়। রবীন্দ্রনাথ যে গুলঞ্চ ব্যবহার করেছিলেন তা শুধু করোনা নয়, যে কোনও রোগ প্রতিরোধে খুব উপকারী। এই পাঁচন দেহে অ্যান্টি ভাইরাল জোন তৈরি করে যা করোনার সঙ্গে লড়াইয়ে অত্যন্ত জরুরি। তবে এই পাঁচন খেলেই যে করোনা সেরে যাবে এটা বলা যাচ্ছে  না।" বলছেন সন্দীপন। আরও পড়ুন: অনলাইনে পয়লা বৈশাখ বাঙালি চালু করলেই পারে!​ ১৯১৯-এর ১ জানুয়ারি বন্ধু জগদীশচন্দ্র বসুকে সে সময়ের ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জার কথা উল্লেখ করে চিঠি লিখছেন রবীন্দ্রনাথ। তিনি লিখছেন, ‘আমার এখানে প্রায় দুশো লোক, অথচ হাঁসপাতাল প্রায়ই শূন্য প’ড়ে আছে— এমন কখনও হয় না— তাই মনে ভাবচি এটা নিশ্চয়ই পাঁচনের গুণে হয়েচে।’  ছাত্রদের নিয়ে খানিক নিশ্চিত হলেও তিনি পরিবারের মানুষদের নিয়ে চিন্তিত ছিলেন। চিঠিতে যেমন লিখছেন,'বউমার খুব কঠিন রকম ন্যুমোনিয়া হয়েছিল। অনেক দিন লড়াই করে কাল থেকে ভাল বোধ হচ্ছে। সম্পূর্ণ সুস্থ হতে বোধ হয় অনেক দিন লাগবে। হেমলতা এবং সুকেশী এখনো ভুগচেন। তার মধ্যে হেমলতা প্রায় সেরে উঠেচেন— কিন্তু সুকেশীর জন্য ভাবনার কারণ আছে। কিন্তু ছেলেদের মধ্যে একটিরও ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জা হয়নি। আমার বিশ্বাস, তার কারণ, আমি ওদের বরাবর পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন খাইয়ে আস্চি।" বোস ইনস্টিটিউটের প্রাক্তন অধ্যাপক, বিজ্ঞানী রাজাগোপাল চট্টোপাধ্যায় চর্চা করেছেন মলিকিউলার বায়োলজি নিয়ে। এই চর্চার হাত ধরে প্রাচীন ভেষজ নিয়ে নিরন্তর গবেষণা করে চলেছেন তিনি। “এই পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন ভাইরাসের সঙ্গে মানুষকে লড়াই করতে সাহায্য করবে। এতে গুলঞ্চ আছে যা সুগার রোগীদের জন্য ভাল। নিম তো স্কিন থেকে শরীরের ভেতরের রোগের সঙ্গে লড়াইয়ের ক্ষমতা বাড়ায়। আর যে ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জার কথা রবীন্দ্রনাথ বলছেন তা-ও তো ভাইরাস। এই পথ্য করোনার সঙ্গে লড়াইয়ে কাজে লাগতে পারে।” আরও পড়ুন: ‘বলছিলুম কি, সাল পয়লার দিনে এট্টুখানি কাঁচা আমের চাটনি হবে তো?’​ প্রশান্তচন্দ্র মহলানবিশের স্ত্রী রানি। ডাক্তার নীলরতন সরকার প্রশান্তচন্দ্রের মেজ মামা, ডাক্তার সত্যসখা মৈত্র রানির জ্যাঠতুতো দাদা। দুজনেই রানিকে পরীক্ষা করে জানালেন রোগের মূলে এক ধরনের কৃমি। দুই চিকিৎসকের চিকিৎসা ছাড়িয়ে কাজ হল শেষে রবীন্দ্রনাথের চিকিৎসায়। রানিকে লিখলেন তিনি, ‘কৃমির উপদ্রব পুরো ধ্বংস হলে আরাম পাবে। কৃমি ধংসের ভালো ওষুধ কাঁচা পেঁপের আঠা, অল্প একটু দুধের সঙ্গে মিশিয়ে বারবার খেলে উপকার পাবে বলে মনে করি।’ এ ভাবেই সহজ উপায়ে চিকিৎসা করতেন রবীন্দ্রনাথ। মেডিসিন বিষয়ক চিকিৎসক অরিজিৎ রায়চৌধুরীও আয়ুর্বেদকে এই মুহূর্তে দূরে সরিয়ে রাখতে পারছেন না। রবিজীবনী, সপ্তম খণ্ড, প্রশান্তকুমার পাল। গ্রাফিক: শৌভিক দেবনাথ। ​ “কোভিড-১৯ করোনাভাইরাসের সরাসরি কোনও মেডিসিন নেই, কোনও অ্যান্টিডোট নেই, তাই চিকিৎসার মাধ্যমে আমরা শরীরে এমন একটা পরিবেশ তৈরি করার চেষ্টা করছি যাতে এই ভাইরাস বেশি ক্ষণ টিকে থাকতে পারবে না। এ ক্ষেত্রে অ্যালোপ্যাথি  মেডিসিন যে ভাবে কাজ করছে ঠিক সেই রকম ভাবে এজ ওল্ড আয়ুর্বেদের ভূমিকাকেও অস্বীকার করা যায় না। রবীন্দ্রনাথের যে পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন তার অনেক গুণ আছে। নিম যেমন অ্যান্টি ইনফেক্টিভ। নিম খাই, লাগাই। এগুলো সরাসরি অ্যান্টি ভাইরাল না হলেও ভাইরাস যে পরিবেশ পছন্দ করে সেগুলো নষ্ট করে দেওয়ার জন্য এগুলোর অবদান অনস্বীকার্য।’’  রবীন্দ্রনাথের সৃষ্ট পাঁচনকে এ ভাবেই মান্যতা দিলেন এ কালের অ্যালোপ্যাথ চিকিৎসক। রবীন্দ্র বিশেষজ্ঞ পবিত্র সরকারের কথায়: ‘‘রবীন্দ্রনাথ নিয়মিত নিমপাতার রস খেতেন। ঠাকুরবাড়িতেও ত্বক থেকে শরীরের যত্নে নানা পথ্য ব্যবহার করা হত। ঠাকুরবাড়ির মেয়ে মহলে বরাবর রূপের কদর ছিল।’’ সেই সূত্র ধরে সত্যেন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের নাতি সুবীরেন্দ্রনাথের মেয়ে সুপূর্ণা চৌধুরী বললেন, “নিয়মিত নিমপাতা আর কাঁচা হলুদ খেতাম। আর স্নানের সময় হলুদ ও মঞ্জিষ্ঠা দিয়ে স্নান করতাম। বলা হত, সব রোগ দূরে থাকবে, চামড়া সুন্দর হবে।” বায়োকেমিস্ট্রি নিয়ে গবেষণা করতে গিয়ে বায়োকেমিক বিষয় নিয়ে গবেষণা করতে শুরু করেন রাজাগোপাল চট্টোপাধ্যায়। রবীন্দ্রনাথের পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচনের উপাদানগুলি বিশ্লেষণ করতে গিয়ে বলেন, "তেউরি, নিম, নিসিন্দা— এই তিন উপাদান সবচেয়ে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ, কারণ তা শ্বাসজনিত রোগ আর ম্যালেরিয়ার সঙ্গে লড়াই করতে পারে।’’ রবীন্দ্রনাথের এই পাঁচন যে ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জার মতো ভাইরাসের সঙ্গে লড়েছিল তার প্রমাণ দিতে তিনি চিঠিতে লিখছেন, "ছেলেদের অনেকেই ছুটীর মধ্যে বাড়ীতে নিজেরা ভুগেছে এবং সংক্রামকের আড্ডা থেকে এবং কেউ কেউ মৃত্যুশয্যা থেকে এসেচে। ভয় ছিল, তারা এখানে এসে রোগ ছড়াবে— কিন্তু একটুও সে লক্ষণ ঘটেনি, এবং সাধারণ জ্বরও এ বছর অনেক কম।" ছাত্ররা কোনওভাবে ফাঁকি না  দেয় সে দিকে কড়া নজর ছিল রবীন্দ্রনাথের। নিজের ডাক্তারি নিয়ে নিজেই মজা করতেন রবীন্দ্রনাথ। ১৯১৭ সালের মার্চ মাসে প্রশান্ত মহলানবিশের স্ত্রী রানিকে এক চিঠিতে লিখছেন, ‘মাঝে মাঝে মনে হয় কোনও ভালো কবিরাজি টনিক ব্যবহার করলে তোমার ঘুসঘুসে জ্বরের ক্ষেত্রে কিরকম হয়। কবিরাজ বলতে আমাকে বুঝে নিও না, তাতে আমাকে খাটো করা হবে … আমি কবি-রাজ নই, কবিসম্রাট।’ কেমন করে বানাবেন পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন?  উপকরণ নিমপাতা— ২-৩টি ডাল গুলঞ্চ— ডাল থেকে কেটে এক ইঞ্চি তেউরি (কলাগাছের শেকড়)— এক ইঞ্চি নিসিন্দা— এক চামচ থানকুনি পাতা— ১০টা পদ্ধতি সব একসঙ্গে ভাল করে ধুয়ে নিন। এ বার জলে ফোটান। এক কাপের উপকরণ ফুটিয়ে আধ কাপ করুন। ঠান্ডা হলে দু’বেলা খান। বিংশ শতাব্দীতে রবীন্দ্রনাথ ইনফ্লুয়েঞ্জার মতো মহামারি সারিয়েছিলেন পঞ্চতিক্ত পাঁচন দিয়ে। একবিংশ শতাব্দীর অতিমারি প্রতিরোধে কি তবে রবীন্দ্রনাথের এই কবিরাজি ফর্মুলা পরখ করে দেখা যেতে পারে? Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive. Rabindranath Tagore The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913 Born: 7 May 1861, Calcutta, India Died: 7 August 1941, Calcutta, India Residence at the time of the award: India Prize motivation: "because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West." Language: Bengali and English Prize share: 1/1 Work Rabindranath Tagore's writing is deeply rooted in both Indian and Western learning traditions. Apart from fiction in the form of poetry, songs, stories, and dramas, it also includes portrayals of common people's lives, literary criticism, philosophy, and social issues. Rabindranath Tagore originally wrote in Bengali, but later reached a broad audience in the West after recasting his poetry in English. In contrast to the frenzied life in the West, his poetry was felt to convey the peace of the soul in harmony with nature. There’s been a great deal of excitement over Bob Dylan winning the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature. It’s rare for artists who have achieved widespread, mainstream popularity to win the coveted prize. And although Nobels often go to Americans, the last literature prize to go to one was Toni Morrison in 1993. Furthermore, according to The New York Times, “It is the first time the honor has gone to a musician.” But as Bob Dylan might croon, “The Times, they are mistaken.” A Bengali literary giant, who probably wrote more songs than him, preceded Dylan’s win by over a century. Rabindranath Tagore, a wildly talented Indian poet, painter, and musician, took the prize in 1913. The first musician (and first non-European) to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Tagore possessed an artistry—and lasting influence—that mirrored Dylan’s. Bengal’s own renaissance man Tagore was born in 1861 into a wealthy family and was a lifelong resident of Bengal, the eastern Indian province whose capital was Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Born before the invention of film, Tagore was a keen observer of India’s emergence into the modern age; much of his work was influenced by new media and other cultures. Like Dylan, Tagore was largely self-taught. And both were associated with non-violent social change. Tagore was a supporter of Indian independence and a friend of Mahatma Gandhi‘s, while Dylan penned much of the soundtrack for the 1960s protest movement. Each was a multitalented artist: writer, musician, visual artist and film composer. (Dylan is also a filmmaker.) The Nobel website states that Tagore, though he wrote in many genres, was principally a poet who published more than 50 volumes of verse, as well as plays, short stories, and novels. Tagore’s music isn’t mentioned until the last sentence, which says that the artist “also left… songs for which he wrote the music himself,” as if this much-loved body of work was no more than an afterthought. But with over 2,000 songs to his name, Tagore’s output of music alone is extremely impressive. Many continue to be used in films, while three of his songs were chosen as national anthems by India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, an unparalleled achievement. Today, Tagore’s significance as a songwriter is undisputed. A YouTube search for Tagore’s songs, using the search term “Rabindra Sangeet” (Bengali for “Tagore songs”), yields about 234,000 hits. Although Tagore was—and remains—a musical icon in India, this aspect of his work hasn’t been recognised in the West. Perhaps for this reason, music seems not to have had much or any influence on the 1913 Nobel committee, as judged by the presentation speech by committee chair Harald Hjärne. In fact, the word “music” is never used in the prize announcement. It is notable, however, that Hjärne says the work of Tagore’s that “especially arrested the attention of the selecting critics is the 1912 poetry collection ‘Gitanjali: Song Offerings.’” Dylan: All about the songs It may be that the Nobel organization’s downplaying of Tagore’s significance as a musician is part of the same thinking that has long delayed Dylan’s receiving the prize: uneasiness over subsuming song into the category of literature. It’s rumoured that Dylan was first nominated in 1996. If true, it means Nobel committees have been wrestling with the idea of honouring this extraordinary lyricist for two decades. Rolling Stone called Dylan’s win “easily the most controversial award since they gave it to the guy who wrote ‘Lord of the Flies,’ which was controversial only because it came next after the immensely popular 1982 prize for Gabriel García Márquez.” Unlike Tagore’s Nobel announcement, in which his songs were an afterthought, the presentation announcing Dylan’s award made it clear that aside from a handful of other literary contributions this prize is all about his music. And therein lies the controversy, with some saying he shouldn’t have won—that being a pop culture icon who wrote songs disqualifies him. But like many great literary figures, Dylan is a man of letters; his songs abound with the names of those who came before him, whether it’s Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot in “Desolation Row” or James Joyce in “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.” Why not celebrate Bob by being like Bob and reading something unfamiliar, great and historically important? Tagore’s “Gitanjali,” his most famous collection of poems, is available in the poet’s own English translation, with an introduction by William Butler Yeats (who won his own Nobel in literature in 1923). And YouTube is a great repository for some of Tagore’s most celebrated songs (search for “Rabindra Sangeet”). Many music lovers have long hoped that the parameters of literature might be writ a bit larger to include song. While Dylan’s win is certainly an affirmation, remembering that he’s not the first can only pave the way for more musicians to win in years to come.
India, officially the Republic of India (ISO: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[25] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country as of June 1, 2023;[26][27] and from the time of its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy.[28][29][30] Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[j] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago.[31][32][33] Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.[34] Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.[35] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest.[36][37] Its evidence today is found in the hymns of the Rigveda. Preserved by an oral tradition that was resolutely vigilant, the Rigveda records the dawning of Hinduism in India.[38] The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern and western regions.[39] By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism,[40] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity.[41] Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin.[42] Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity,[43] but also marked by the declining status of women,[44] and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief.[k][45] In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.[46] In the early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts.[47] Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains,[48] eventually founding the Delhi Sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam.[49] In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture in south India.[50] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion.[51] The Mughal Empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,[52] leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.[l][53] Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating its sovereignty.[54] British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,[55][56] but technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root.[57] A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and became the major factor in ending British rule.[58][59] In 1947 the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent dominions,[60][61][62][63] a Hindu-majority Dominion of India and a Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan, amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration.[64] India has been a federal republic since 1950, governed through a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to almost 1.4 billion in 2022.[65] During the same time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually to US$2,601, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951,[66] India has become a fast-growing major economy and a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class.[67] It has a space programme. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[68] India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.[69] India is a nuclear-weapon state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century.[70] Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition,[71] and rising levels of air pollution.[72] India's land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots.[73] Its forest cover comprises 21.7% of its area.[74] India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India's culture,[75] is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats. Etymology According to the Oxford English Dictionary (third edition 2009), the name "India" is derived from the Classical Latin India, a reference to South Asia and an uncertain region to its east; and in turn derived successively from: Hellenistic Greek India ( Ἰνδία); ancient Greek Indos ( Ἰνδός); Old Persian Hindush, an eastern province of the Achaemenid Empire; and ultimately its cognate, the Sanskrit Sindhu, or "river," specifically the Indus River and, by implication, its well-settled southern basin.[76][77] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as "The people of the Indus".[78] The term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] (listen)), mentioned in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India,[79][80] is used in its variations by many Indian languages. A modern rendering of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which applied originally to North India,[81][82] Bharat gained increased currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India.[79][83] Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] (listen)) is a Middle Persian name for India that became popular by the 13th century,[84] and was used widely since the era of Mughal Empire. The meaning of Hindustan has varied, referring to a region encompassing present-day northern India and Pakistan or to India in its near entirety.[79][83][85] History Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India Ancient India Manuscript illustration, c. 1650, of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, composed in story-telling fashion c. 400 BCE – c. 300 CE[86] By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, had arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, where they had earlier evolved.[31][32][33] The earliest known modern human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago.[31] After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, and storage of agricultural surplus appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in Balochistan, Pakistan.[87] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[88][87] the first urban culture in South Asia,[89] which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[90] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.[89] During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones.[91] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism,[92] were composed during this period,[93] and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.[91] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.[92] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labelling their occupations impure, arose during this period.[94] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.[91] In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,[95] as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.[95] Cave 26 of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas.[96][97] The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.[98] Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India.[99][100][101] In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,[102] and both established long-lasting monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.[103] The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.[104][105] The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[106][107] The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and Southeast Asia.[108][109] In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women.[110][103] By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain; this system became a model for later Indian kingdoms.[111][112] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather than the management of ritual, began to assert itself.[113] This renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.[112] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.[112] Medieval India Brihadeshwara temple, Thanjavur, completed in 1010 CE The Qutub Minar, 73 m (240 ft) tall, completed by the Sultan of Delhi, Iltutmish The Indian early medieval age, from 600 to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.[114] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.[115] When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.[115] When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south.[115] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond their core region.[114] During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.[116] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.[116] In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.[117] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[117] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.[118] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.[118] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.[119] Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.[119] After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.[120] The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs.[121][122] By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north.[123][124] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[125] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[126] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[125] Early modern India In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers,[127] fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.[128] The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule. Instead, it balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices[129][130] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[131] leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[132] Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status.[131] The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture[133] and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[134] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[132] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion,[132] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.[135] Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.[136] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[136] As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.[137] A distant view of the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort A two mohur Company gold coin, issued in 1835, the obverse inscribed "William IV, King" By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts.[138][139] The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly assert its military strength and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies.[140][138][141][142] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s.[143] India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period.[138] By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the East India Company began more consciously to enter non-economic arenas, including education, social reform, and culture.[144] Modern India Main article: History of the Republic of India Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe.[145][146][147][148] However, disaffection with the company also grew during this time and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule.[149][150] Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest.[151][152] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[153][154][155][156] The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks and many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets.[157] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[158] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.[159] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.[160] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[161] notably reduced the cost of moving goods,[161] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.[160] 1909 map of the British Indian Empire Jawaharlal Nehru sharing a light moment with Mahatma Gandhi, Mumbai, 6 July 1946 After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served,[162] a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mahatma Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.[163] During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[164] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.[165] Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic.[166] Per the London Declaration, India retained its membership of the Commonwealth, becoming the first republic within it.[167] Economic liberalisation, which began in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies,[168] and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian films, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[169] Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban;[169] by religious and caste-related violence;[170] by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[171] and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India.[172] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China[173] and with Pakistan.[173] India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.[174] Geography Main article: Geography of India India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, a part of the Indo-Australian Plate.[175] India's defining geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian Plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east.[175] Simultaneously, the vast Tethyan oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian Plate.[175] These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas.[175] Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast crescent-shaped trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[176] and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[177] The original Indian plate makes its first appearance above the sediment in the ancient Aravalli range, which extends from the Delhi Ridge in a southwesterly direction. To the west lies the Thar Desert, the eastern spread of which is checked by the Aravallis.[178][179][180] The Tungabhadra, with rocky outcrops, flows into the peninsular Krishna river.[181] Fishing boats lashed together in a tidal creek in Anjarle village, Maharashtra The remaining Indian Plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[182] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats;[183] the plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude[m] and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude.[184] India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains.[185] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.[185] Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[186] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient, caused by long-term silt deposition, leads to severe floods and course changes.[187][188] Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[189] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[190] Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh.[191] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[192] Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons.[193] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.[194][195] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.[193] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[196] Temperatures in India have risen by 0.7 °C (1.3 °F) between 1901 and 2018.[197] Climate change in India is often thought to be the cause. The retreat of Himalayan glaciers has adversely affected the flow rate of the major Himalayan rivers, including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.[198] According to some current projections, the number and severity of droughts in India will have markedly increased by the end of the present century.[199] Biodiversity Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, approximately 3,170 in 2022.[200] A Chital (Axis axis) stag in the Nagarhole National Park in a region covered by a moderately dense[n] forest. India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for 17 countries which display high biological diversity and contain many species exclusively indigenous, or endemic, to them.[201] India is a habitat for 8.6% of all mammal species, 13.7% of bird species, 7.9% of reptile species, 6% of amphibian species, 12.2% of fish species, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[202][203] Fully a third of Indian plant species are endemic.[204] India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots,[73] or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism.[o][205] According to official statistics, India's forest cover is 713,789 km2 (275,595 sq mi), which is 21.71% of the country's total land area.[74] It can be subdivided further into broad categories of canopy density, or the proportion of the area of a forest covered by its tree canopy.[206] Very dense forest, whose canopy density is greater than 70%, occupies 3.02% of India's land area.[206][207] It predominates in the tropical moist forest of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India. Moderately dense forest, whose canopy density is between 40% and 70%, occupies 9.39% of India's land area.[206][207] It predominates in the temperate coniferous forest of the Himalayas, the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India, and the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India.[208] Open forest, whose canopy density is between 10% and 40%, occupies 9.26% of India's land area.[206][207] India has two natural zones of thorn forest, one in the Deccan Plateau, immediately east of the Western Ghats, and the other in the western part of the Indo-Gangetic plain, now turned into rich agricultural land by irrigation, its features no longer visible.[209] Among the Indian subcontinent's notable indigenous trees are the astringent Azadirachta indica, or neem, which is widely used in rural Indian herbal medicine,[210] and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa, or peepul,[211] which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro,[212] and under which the Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment.[213] Many Indian species have descended from those of Gondwana, the southern supercontinent from which India separated more than 100 million years ago.[214] India's subsequent collision with Eurasia set off a mass exchange of species. However, volcanism and climatic changes later caused the extinction of many endemic Indian forms.[215] Still later, mammals entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the Himalayas.[216] This had the effect of lowering endemism among India's mammals, which stands at 12.6%, contrasting with 45.8% among reptiles and 55.8% among amphibians.[203] Among endemics are the vulnerable[217] hooded leaf monkey[218] and the threatened[219] Beddome's toad[219][220] of the Western Ghats. The last three Asiatic cheetahs (on record) in India were shot dead in 1948 in Surguja district, Madhya Pradesh, Central India by Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo. The young males, all from the same litter, were sitting together when they were shot at night. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered forms.[221] These include the endangered Bengal tiger and the Ganges river dolphin. Critically endangered species include: the gharial, a crocodilian; the great Indian bustard; and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which has become nearly extinct by having ingested the carrion of diclofenac-treated cattle.[222] Before they were extensively utilized for agriculture and cleared for human settlement, the thorn forests of Punjab were mingled at intervals with open grasslands that were grazed by large herds of blackbuck preyed on by the Asiatic cheetah; the blackbuck, no longer extant in Punjab, is now severely endangered in India, and the cheetah is extinct.[223] The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was expanded substantially. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act[224] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988.[225] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and eighteen biosphere reserves,[226] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; seventy-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.[227] Politics and government Politics Main article: Politics of India As part of Janadesh 2007, 25,000 pro-land reform landless people in Madhya Pradesh listen to Rajagopal P. V.[228] A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system,[229] it has six recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 50 regional parties.[230] The Congress is considered centre-left in Indian political culture,[231] and the BJP right-wing.[232][233][234] For most of the period between 1950—when India first became a republic—and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the Parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP,[235] as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalition governments at the centre.[236] In the Republic of India's first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over two years. There were two prime ministers during this period; Morarji Desai and Charan Singh. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived, lasting just under two years. There were two prime ministers during this period; V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar.[237] Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. The Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.[238] US president Barack Obama addresses the members of the Parliament of India in New Delhi in November 2010. A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. There were two prime ministers during this period; H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress, coalition government to complete a five-year term.[239] Again in the 2004 Indian general elections, no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India's communist parties.[240] That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term.[241] In the 2014 general election, the BJP became the first political party since 1984 to win a majority and govern without the support of other parties.[242] In the 2019 general election, the BJP was victorious again. The incumbent prime minister is Narendra Modi, a former chief minister of Gujarat. On 22 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu was elected India's 15th president and took the oath of office on 25 July 2022.[243] Government Main articles: Government of India and Constitution of India Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India, was designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker for the Viceroy of India, and constructed between 1911 and 1931 during the British Raj.[244] India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India—the country's supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic. Its democratic functioning has come into question in recent years, with some stating that it has become a mixed regime or electoral autocracy.[245] Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the union and the states. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950,[246] originally stated India to be a "sovereign, democratic republic;" this characterisation was amended in 1971 to "a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic".[247] India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states,[248] has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.[249][250] National symbols[1] Flag of India Emblem Sarnath Lion Capital Anthem Jana Gana Mana Song "Vande Mataram" Language None[9][10][11] Currency ₹ (Indian rupee) Calendar Saka Bird Indian peafowl Flower Lotus Fruit Mango Mammal Bengal tiger River dolphin Tree Banyan River Ganges The Government of India comprises three branches:[251] Executive: The President of India is the ceremonial head of state,[252] who is elected indirectly for a five-year term by an electoral college comprising members of national and state legislatures.[253][254] The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power.[255] Appointed by the president,[256] the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance having a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.[255] The executive of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice president, and the Union Council of Ministers—with the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament.[252] In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and their council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. Civil servants act as permanent executives and all decisions of the executive are implemented by them.[257] Legislature: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. Operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system, it comprises an upper house called the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and a lower house called the Lok Sabha (House of the People).[258] The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body of 245 members who serve staggered six-year terms.[259] Most are elected indirectly by the state and union territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population.[256] All but two of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are elected directly by popular vote; they represent single-member constituencies for five-year terms.[260] Two seats of parliament, reserved for Anglo-Indians in the article 331, have been scrapped.[261][262] Judiciary: India has a three-tier unitary independent judiciary[263] comprising the supreme court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 25 high courts, and a large number of trial courts.[263] The supreme court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre and has appellate jurisdiction over the high courts.[264] It has the power to both strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution[265] and invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.[266] Administrative divisions Main article: Administrative divisions of India See also: Political integration of India India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories.[16] All states, as well as the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments following the Westminster system of governance. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the central government through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis.[267] There are over a quarter of a million local government bodies at city, town, block, district and village levels.[268] A clickable map of the 28 states and 8 union territories of India States Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Telangana Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal Union territories Andaman and Nicobar Islands Chandigarh Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Jammu and Kashmir Ladakh Lakshadweep National Capital Territory of Delhi Puducherry Foreign, economic and strategic relations Main articles: Foreign relations of India and Indian Armed Forces During the 1950s and 60s, India played a pivotal role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[269] From left to right: Gamal Abdel Nasser of United Arab Republic (now Egypt), Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Jawaharlal Nehru in Belgrade, September 1961. In the 1950s, India strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[270] After initially cordial relations with neighbouring China, India went to war with China in 1962 and was widely thought to have been humiliated.[271] This was followed by another military conflict in 1967 in which India successfully repelled Chinese attack.[272] India has had tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the third, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh.[273] In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of the host country: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a 1988 coup d'état attempt in the Maldives. After the 1965 war with Pakistan, India began to pursue close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.[274] Aside from ongoing its special relationship with Russia,[275] India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums.[276] India has close economic ties with countries in South America,[277] Asia, and Africa; it pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.[278][279] The Indian Air Force contingent marching at the 221st Bastille Day military parade in Paris, on 14 July 2009. The parade at which India was the foreign guest was led by India's oldest regiment, the Maratha Light Infantry, founded in 1768.[280] China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons.[281] India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out additional underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.[282] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "Minimum Credible Deterrence" doctrine.[283][284] It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, a fifth-generation fighter jet.[285][286] Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.[287] Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military co-operation with the United States and the European Union.[288] In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state.[289] India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia,[290] France,[291] the United Kingdom,[292] and Canada.[293] Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India (left, background) in talks with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico during a visit to Mexico, 2016 The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 1.45 million active troops, they compose the world's second-largest military. It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Coast Guard.[294] The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP.[295] Defence expenditure was pegged at US$70.12 billion for fiscal year 2022–23 and, increased 9.8% than previous fiscal year.[296][297] India is the world's second largest arms importer; between 2016 and 2020, it accounted for 9.5% of the total global arms imports.[298] Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.[299] In May 2017, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the South Asia Satellite, a gift from India to its neighbouring SAARC countries.[300] In October 2018, India signed a US$5.43 billion (over ₹400 billion) agreement with Russia to procure four S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defence systems, Russia's most advanced long-range missile defence system.[301] Economy Main article: Economy of India A farmer in northwestern Karnataka ploughs his field with a tractor even as another in a field beyond does the same with a pair of oxen. In 2019, 43% of India's total workforce was employed in agriculture.[302] India is the world's largest producer of milk, with the largest population of cattle. In 2018, nearly 80% of India's milk was sourced from small farms with herd size between one and two, the milk harvested by hand milking.[304] Women tend to a recently planted rice field in Junagadh district in Gujarat. 55% of India's female workforce was employed in agriculture in 2019.[303] According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2022 was nominally worth $3.46 trillion; it was the fifth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is around $11.6 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).[305] With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–2012,[306] India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.[307] However, the country ranks 139th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 118th in GDP per capita at PPP.[308] Until 1991, all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy;[309] since then, it has moved increasingly towards a free-market system[310][311] by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.[312] India has been a member of World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995.[313] The 522-million-worker Indian labour force is the world's second-largest, as of 2017.[294] The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. India's foreign exchange remittances of US$100 billion in 2022,[314] highest in the world, were contributed to its economy by 32 million Indians working in foreign countries.[315] Major agricultural products include: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes.[16] Major industries include: textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software.[16] In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985.[310] In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.68%;[316] In 2021, India was the world's ninth-largest importer and the sixteenth-largest exporter.[317] Major exports include: petroleum products, textile goods, jewellery, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and manufactured leather goods.[16] Major imports include: crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals.[16] Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.[318] India was the world's second largest textile exporter after China in the 2013 calendar year.[319] Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years prior to 2007,[310] India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century.[320] Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030.[321] Though ranking 68th in global competitiveness,[322] as of 2010, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies.[323] With seven of the world's top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, as of 2009, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States.[324] India is ranked 40th in the Global Innovation Index in 2022.[325] India's consumer market, the world's eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030.[321] Driven by growth, India's nominal GDP per capita increased steadily from US$308 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,380 in 2010, to an estimated US$1,730 in 2016. It is expected to grow to US$2,466 by 2022.[20] However, it has remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future. A panorama of Bangalore, the centre of India's software development economy. In the 1980s, when the first multinational corporations began to set up centres in India, they chose Bangalore because of the large pool of skilled graduates in the area, in turn due to the many science and engineering colleges in the surrounding region.[326] According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, India's GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045.[327] During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world's fastest-growing major economy until 2050.[327] The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector because of rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle-class.[327] The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.[328] According to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017 released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was created by comparing more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, four of the cheapest cities were in India: Bangalore (3rd), Mumbai (5th), Chennai (5th) and New Delhi (8th).[329] Industries A tea garden in Sikkim. India, the world's second largest-producer of tea, is a nation of one billion tea drinkers, who consume 70% of India's tea output. India's telecommunication industry is the second-largest in the world with over 1.2 billion subscribers. It contributes 6.5% to India's GDP.[330] After the third quarter of 2017, India surpassed the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.[331] The Indian automotive industry, the world's second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–2010,[332] and exports by 36% during 2008–2009.[333] In 2022, India became the world's third-largest vehicle market after China and the United States, surpassing Japan.[334] At the end of 2011, the Indian IT industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100 billion equalling 7.5% of Indian GDP, and contributed 26% of India's merchandise exports.[335] The pharmaceutical industry in India emerged as a global player. As of 2021, with 3000 pharmaceutical companies and 10,500 manufacturing units India is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical producer, largest producer of generic medicines and supply up to 50—60% of global vaccines demand, these all contribute up to US$24.44 billions in exports and India's local pharmaceutical market is estimated up to US$42 billion.[336][337] India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world.[338][339] The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–2013, increasing its revenues from ₹204.4 billion (Indian rupees) to ₹235.24 billion (US$3.94 billion at June 2013 exchange rates).[340] Energy Main articles: Energy in India and Energy policy of India India's capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable.[341] The country's usage of coal is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions by India but its renewable energy is competing strongly.[342] India emits about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This equates to about 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, which is half the world average.[343][344] Increasing access to electricity and clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas have been priorities for energy in India.[345] Socio-economic challenges Health workers about to begin another day of immunisation against infectious diseases in 2006. Eight years later, and three years after India's last case of polio, the World Health Organization declared India to be polio-free.[346] Despite economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day.[347] The proportion decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005.[348] Under the World Bank's later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011.[p][350] 30.7% of India's children under the age of five are underweight.[351] According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished.[352][353] The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.[354] A 2018 Walk Free Foundation report estimated that nearly 8 million people in India were living in different forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, and forced begging, among others.[355] According to the 2011 census, there were 10.1 million child labourers in the country, a decline of 2.6 million from 12.6 million in 2001.[356] Since 1991, economic inequality between India's states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest.[357] Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, India ranked 78th out of 180 countries in 2018 with a score of 41 out of 100, an improvement from 85th in 2014.[358][359] Epidemic and pandemic diseases have long been a major factor, including COVID-19 recently.[360] Demographics, languages, and religion Main articles: Demographics of India, Languages of India, and Religion in India See also: South Asian ethnic groups India by language The language families of South Asia With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census report,[361] India was the world's second-most populous country.[q] Its population grew by 17.64% from 2001 to 2011,[363] compared to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001).[363] The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.[361] The median age was 28.7 as of 2020.[294] The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361 million people.[364] Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have caused India's population to grow rapidly.[365] The life expectancy in India is at 70 years—71.5 years for women, 68.7 years for men.[294] There are around 93 physicians per 100,000 people.[366] Migration from rural to urban areas has been an important dynamic in India's recent history. The number of people living in urban areas grew by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.[367] Yet, in 2001, over 70% still lived in rural areas.[368][369] The level of urbanisation increased further from 27.81% in the 2001 Census to 31.16% in the 2011 Census. The slowing down of the overall population growth rate was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991.[370] According to the 2011 census, there are 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India; among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population.[371] The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males.[372] The rural-urban literacy gap, which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in the rural literacy rate is twice that of urban areas.[370] Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.[372] The interior of San Thome Basilica, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking Christians. Among speakers of the Indian languages, 74% speak Indo-Aryan languages, the easternmost branch of the Indo-European languages; 24% speak Dravidian languages, indigenous to South Asia and spoken widely before the spread of Indo-Aryan languages and 2% speak Austroasiatic languages or the Sino-Tibetan languages. India has no national language.[373] Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government.[374][375] English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language";[6] it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 22 "scheduled languages". The 2011 census reported the religion in India with the largest number of followers was Hinduism (79.80% of the population), followed by Islam (14.23%); the remaining were Christianity (2.30%), Sikhism (1.72%), Buddhism (0.70%), Jainism (0.36%) and others[r] (0.9%).[15] India has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for a non-Muslim majority country.[376][377] Culture Main article: Culture of India A Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years.[378] During the Vedic period (c. 1700 BCE – c. 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established.[78] India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions.[379] The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads,[380] the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement,[379] and by Buddhist philosophy.[381] Visual art Main article: Indian art India has a very ancient tradition of art, which has exchanged many influences with the rest of Eurasia, especially in the first millennium, when Buddhist art spread with Indian religions to Central, East and South-East Asia, the last also greatly influenced by Hindu art.[382] Thousands of seals from the Indus Valley Civilization of the third millennium BCE have been found, usually carved with animals, but a few with human figures. The "Pashupati" seal, excavated in Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, in 1928–29, is the best known.[383][384] After this there is a long period with virtually nothing surviving.[384][385] Almost all surviving ancient Indian art thereafter is in various forms of religious sculpture in durable materials, or coins. There was probably originally far more in wood, which is lost. In north India Mauryan art is the first imperial movement.[386][387][388] In the first millennium CE, Buddhist art spread with Indian religions to Central, East and South-East Asia, the last also greatly influenced by Hindu art.[389] Over the following centuries a distinctly Indian style of sculpting the human figure developed, with less interest in articulating precise anatomy than ancient Greek sculpture but showing smoothly-flowing forms expressing prana ("breath" or life-force).[390][391] This is often complicated by the need to give figures multiple arms or heads, or represent different genders on the left and right of figures, as with the Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva and Parvati.[392][393] Most of the earliest large sculpture is Buddhist, either excavated from Buddhist stupas such as Sanchi, Sarnath and Amaravati,[394] or is rock cut reliefs at sites such as Ajanta, Karla and Ellora. Hindu and Jain sites appear rather later.[395][396] In spite of this complex mixture of religious traditions, generally, the prevailing artistic style at any time and place has been shared by the major religious groups, and sculptors probably usually served all communities.[397] Gupta art, at its peak c. 300 CE – c. 500 CE, is often regarded as a classical period whose influence lingered for many centuries after; it saw a new dominance of Hindu sculpture, as at the Elephanta Caves.[398][399] Across the north, this became rather stiff and formulaic after c. 800 CE, though rich with finely carved detail in the surrounds of statues.[400] But in the South, under the Pallava and Chola dynasties, sculpture in both stone and bronze had a sustained period of great achievement; the large bronzes with Shiva as Nataraja have become an iconic symbol of India.[401][402] Ancient painting has only survived at a few sites, of which the crowded scenes of court life in the Ajanta Caves are by far the most important, but it was evidently highly developed, and is mentioned as a courtly accomplishment in Gupta times.[403][404] Painted manuscripts of religious texts survive from Eastern India about the 10th century onwards, most of the earliest being Buddhist and later Jain. No doubt the style of these was used in larger paintings.[405] The Persian-derived Deccan painting, starting just before the Mughal miniature, between them give the first large body of secular painting, with an emphasis on portraits, and the recording of princely pleasures and wars.[406][407] The style spread to Hindu courts, especially among the Rajputs, and developed a variety of styles, with the smaller courts often the most innovative, with figures such as Nihâl Chand and Nainsukh.[408][409] As a market developed among European residents, it was supplied by Company painting by Indian artists with considerable Western influence.[410][411] In the 19th century, cheap Kalighat paintings of gods and everyday life, done on paper, were urban folk art from Calcutta, which later saw the Bengal School of Art, reflecting the art colleges founded by the British, the first movement in modern Indian painting.[412][413] Bhutesvara Yakshis, Buddhist reliefs from Mathura, 2nd century CE Bhutesvara Yakshis, Buddhist reliefs from Mathura, 2nd century CE   Gupta terracotta relief, Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi, 5th century Gupta terracotta relief, Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi, 5th century   Elephanta Caves, triple-bust (trimurti) of Shiva, 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, c. 550 Elephanta Caves, triple-bust (trimurti) of Shiva, 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, c. 550   Chola bronze of Shiva as Nataraja ("Lord of Dance"), Tamil Nadu, 10th or 11th century Chola bronze of Shiva as Nataraja ("Lord of Dance"), Tamil Nadu, 10th or 11th century   Jahangir Receives Prince Khurram at Ajmer on His Return from the Mewar Campaign, Balchand, c. 1635 Jahangir Receives Prince Khurram at Ajmer on His Return from the Mewar Campaign, Balchand, c. 1635   Krishna Fluting to the Milkmaids, Kangra painting, 1775–1785 Krishna Fluting to the Milkmaids, Kangra painting, 1775–1785 Architecture Main article: Architecture of India The Taj Mahal from across the Yamuna river showing two outlying red sandstone buildings, a mosque on the right (west) and a jawab (response) thought to have been built for architectural balance Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Indo-Islamic Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles.[414] Vernacular architecture is also regional in its flavours. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan,[415] explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings;[416] it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs.[417] As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the "absolute".[418] The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".[419] Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.[420] Literature Main article: Indian literature The earliest literature in India, composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 CE, was in the Sanskrit language.[421] Major works of Sanskrit literature include the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE – c. 1200 BCE), the epics: Mahābhārata (c. 400 BCE – c. 400 CE) and the Ramayana (c. 300 BCE and later); Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā, and other dramas of Kālidāsa (c. 5th century CE) and Mahākāvya poetry.[422][423][424] In Tamil literature, the Sangam literature (c. 600 BCE – c. 300 BCE) consisting of 2,381 poems, composed by 473 poets, is the earliest work.[425][426][427][428] From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India's literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets like Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions.[429] In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of the Bengali poet, author and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore,[430] who was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Performing arts and media Main articles: Music of India, Dance in India, Cinema of India, and Television in India India's National Academy of Performance Arts has recognised eight Indian dance styles to be classical. One such is Kuchipudi shown here. Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and the southern Carnatic schools.[431] Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are: bhangra of Punjab, bihu of Assam, Jhumair and chhau of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, garba and dandiya of Gujarat, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Odisha, and the sattriya of Assam.[432] Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue.[433] Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes: the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka.[434] India has a theatre training institute the National School of Drama (NSD) that is situated at New Delhi It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of culture, Government of India.[435] The Indian film industry produces the world's most-watched cinema.[436] Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages.[437] The Hindi language film industry (Bollywood) is the largest sector representing 43% of box office revenue, followed by the South Indian Telugu and Tamil film industries which represent 36% combined.[438] Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication and expanded slowly for more than two decades.[439][440] The state monopoly on television broadcast ended in the 1990s. Since then, satellite channels have increasingly shaped the popular culture of Indian society.[441] Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012 there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite or cable connections compared to other forms of mass media such as the press (350 million), radio (156 million) or internet (37 million).[442] Society Muslims offer namaz at a mosque in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. Traditional Indian society is sometimes defined by social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found on the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or "castes".[443] India abolished untouchability in 1950 with the adoption of the constitution and has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives. Family values are important in the Indian tradition, and multi-generational patrilineal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas.[444] An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other family elders.[445] Marriage is thought to be for life,[445] and the divorce rate is extremely low,[446] with less than one in a thousand marriages ending in divorce.[447] Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas; many women wed before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age.[448] Female infanticide in India, and lately female foeticide, have created skewed gender ratios; the number of missing women in the country quadrupled from 15 million to 63 million in the 50-year period ending in 2014, faster than the population growth during the same period, and constituting 20 percent of India's female electorate.[449] According to an Indian government study, an additional 21 million girls are unwanted and do not receive adequate care.[450] Despite a government ban on sex-selective foeticide, the practice remains commonplace in India, the result of a preference for boys in a patriarchal society.[451] The payment of dowry, although illegal, remains widespread across class lines.[452] Deaths resulting from dowry, mostly from bride burning, are on the rise, despite stringent anti-dowry laws.[453] Many Indian festivals are religious in origin. The best known include: Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi.[454][455] Education Main articles: Education in India, Literacy in India, and History of education in the Indian subcontinent Children awaiting school lunch in Rayka (also Raika), a village in rural Gujarat. The salutation Jai Bhim written on the blackboard honours the jurist, social reformer, and Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar. In the 2011 census, about 73% of the population was literate, with 81% for men and 65% for women. This compares to 1981 when the respective rates were 41%, 53% and 29%. In 1951 the rates were 18%, 27% and 9%. In 1921 the rates 7%, 12% and 2%. In 1891 they were 5%, 9% and 1%,[456][457] According to Latika Chaudhary, in 1911 there were under three primary schools for every ten villages. Statistically, more caste and religious diversity reduced private spending. Primary schools taught literacy, so local diversity limited its growth.[458] The education system of India is the world's second-largest.[459] India has over 900 universities, 40,000 colleges[460] and 1.5 million schools.[461] In India's higher education system, a significant number of seats are reserved under affirmative action policies for the historically disadvantaged. In recent decades India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its economic development.[462][463] Clothing Main article: Clothing in India Women in sari at an adult literacy class in Tamil Nadu A man in dhoti and wearing a woollen shawl, in Varanasi From ancient times until the advent of the modern, the most widely worn traditional dress in India was draped.[464] For women it took the form of a sari, a single piece of cloth many yards long.[464] The sari was traditionally wrapped around the lower body and the shoulder.[464] In its modern form, it is combined with an underskirt, or Indian petticoat, and tucked in the waist band for more secure fastening. It is also commonly worn with an Indian blouse, or choli, which serves as the primary upper-body garment, the sari's end—passing over the shoulder—serving to cover the midriff and obscure the upper body's contours.[464] For men, a similar but shorter length of cloth, the dhoti, has served as a lower-body garment.[465] Women (from left to right) in churidars and kameez (with back to the camera), jeans and sweater, and pink Shalwar kameez The use of stitched clothes became widespread after Muslim rule was established at first by the Delhi sultanate (c. 1300 CE) and then continued by the Mughal Empire (c. 1525 CE).[466] Among the garments introduced during this time and still commonly worn are: the shalwars and pyjamas, both styles of trousers, and the tunics kurta and kameez.[466] In southern India, the traditional draped garments were to see much longer continuous use.[466] Shalwars are atypically wide at the waist but narrow to a cuffed bottom. They are held up by a drawstring, which causes them to become pleated around the waist.[467] The pants can be wide and baggy, or they can be cut quite narrow, on the bias, in which case they are called churidars. When they are ordinarily wide at the waist and their bottoms are hemmed but not cuffed, they are called pyjamas. The kameez is a long shirt or tunic,[468] its side seams left open below the waist-line.[469] The kurta is traditionally collarless and made of cotton or silk; it is worn plain or with embroidered decoration, such as chikan; and typically falls to either just above or just below the wearer's knees.[470] In the last 50 years, fashions have changed a great deal in India. Increasingly, in urban northern India, the sari is no longer the apparel of everyday wear, though they remain popular on formal occasions.[471] The traditional shalwar kameez is rarely worn by younger urban women, who favour churidars or jeans.[471] In white-collar office settings, ubiquitous air conditioning allows men to wear sports jackets year-round.[471] For weddings and formal occasions, men in the middle- and upper classes often wear bandgala, or short Nehru jackets, with pants, with the groom and his groomsmen sporting sherwanis and churidars.[471] The dhoti, once the universal garment of Hindu males, the wearing of which in the homespun and handwoven khadi allowed Gandhi to bring Indian nationalism to the millions,[472] is seldom seen in the cities.[471] Cuisine Main article: Indian cuisine South Indian vegetarian thali, or platter Railway mutton curry from Odisha The foundation of a typical Indian meal is a cereal cooked in a plain fashion and complemented with flavourful savoury dishes.[473] The cooked cereal could be steamed rice; chapati, a thin unleavened bread made from wheat flour, or occasionally cornmeal, and griddle-cooked dry;[474] the idli, a steamed breakfast cake, or dosa, a griddled pancake, both leavened and made from a batter of rice- and gram meal.[475] The savoury dishes might include lentils, pulses and vegetables commonly spiced with ginger and garlic, but also with a combination of spices that may include coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamon and others as informed by culinary conventions.[473] They might also include poultry, fish, or meat dishes. In some instances, the ingredients might be mixed during the process of cooking.[476] A platter, or thali, used for eating usually has a central place reserved for the cooked cereal, and peripheral ones for the flavourful accompaniments, which are often served in small bowls. The cereal and its accompaniments are eaten simultaneously rather than a piecemeal manner. This is accomplished by mixing—for example of rice and lentils—or folding, wrapping, scooping or dipping—such as chapati and cooked vegetables or lentils.[473] 0:14 A tandoor chef in the Turkman Gate, Old Delhi, makes Khameeri roti (a Muslim-influenced style of leavened bread).[477] India has distinctive vegetarian cuisines, each a feature of the geographical and cultural histories of its adherents.[478] The appearance of ahimsa, or the avoidance of violence toward all forms of life in many religious orders early in Indian history, especially Upanishadic Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, is thought to have contributed to the predominance of vegetarianism among a large segment of India's Hindu population, especially in southern India, Gujarat, the Hindi-speaking belt of north-central India, as well as among Jains.[478] Although meat is eaten widely in India, the proportional consumption of meat in the overall diet is low.[479] Unlike China, which has increased its per capita meat consumption substantially in its years of increased economic growth, in India the strong dietary traditions have contributed to dairy, rather than meat, becoming the preferred form of animal protein consumption.[480] The most significant import of cooking techniques into India during the last millennium occurred during the Mughal Empire. Dishes such as the pilaf,[481] developed in the Abbasid caliphate,[482] and cooking techniques such as the marinating of meat in yogurt, spread into northern India from regions to its northwest.[483] To the simple yogurt marinade of Persia, onions, garlic, almonds, and spices began to be added in India.[483] Rice was partially cooked and layered alternately with the sauteed meat, the pot sealed tightly, and slow cooked according to another Persian cooking technique, to produce what has today become the Indian biryani,[483] a feature of festive dining in many parts of India.[484] In the food served in Indian restaurants worldwide the diversity of Indian food has been partially concealed by the dominance of Punjabi cuisine. The popularity of tandoori chicken—cooked in the tandoor oven, which had traditionally been used for baking bread in the rural Punjab and the Delhi region, especially among Muslims, but which is originally from Central Asia—dates to the 1950s, and was caused in large part by an entrepreneurial response among people from the Punjab who had been displaced by the 1947 partition of India.[478] Sports and recreation Main article: Sport in India Girls play hopscotch in Jaora, Madhya Pradesh. Hopscotch has been commonly played by girls in rural India.[485] Several traditional indigenous sports such as kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani and gilli-danda, and also martial arts such as Kalarippayattu and marma adi, remain popular. Chess is commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga;[486] in recent years, there has been a rise in the number of Indian grandmasters.[487] Viswanathan Anand became the Chess World Champion in 2007 and held the status until 2013.[488] Parcheesi is derived from Pachisi, another traditional Indian pastime, which in early modern times was played on a giant marble court by Mughal emperor Akbar the Great.[489] Cricket is the most popular sport in India.[490] Major domestic competitions include the Indian Premier League, which is the most-watched cricket league in the world and ranks sixth among all sports leagues.[491] Other professional leagues include the Indian Super League (football) and the Pro Kabaddi league.[492][493][494] Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar about to score a record 14,000 runs in Test cricket while playing against Australia in Bangalore, 2010 India has won two ODI Cricket world cups, the 1983 edition and the 2011 edition, as well as becoming the inaugural Twenty20 International Cricket Champions in 2007. India also has eight field hockey gold medals in the summer olympics[495] The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country.[496] India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games.[497][498] Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton[499] (Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu are two of the top-ranked female badminton players in the world), boxing,[500] and wrestling.[501] Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states.[502] India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cup tournaments; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2009 World Badminton Championships; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; the 2010 Commonwealth Games; and the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Maharashtra Open, the Mumbai Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011 but has been discontinued from the F1 season calendar since 2014.[503] India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. An example of this dominance is the basketball competition where the Indian team won four out of five tournaments to date.[504] See also flag India portal icon Asia portal Administrative divisions of India Outline of India
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