Rabindranath Tagore: Still Important

Next year, it will be the 150^th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the most important and famous poet of Bangla literature. Tagore is perhaps the only person in our literature who could get international fame. His works have been translated in many languages. When he was alive, his works were translated in different countries. The other day, I was reading about Tagore’s popularity in South America while he was alive.

What happened is that after his death, in Indian history it was was troubled time with fighting between Hindus and Muslims and then India became independent. That time, there was no serious effort to carry out his message of peace and brotherhood.

On the other hand, the majority of Bengali people now live in modern Bangladesh and during the time of Pakistan, Pakistani government sometimes tried to eradicate Tagore from the mind of Bengali people in East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh. There was a lot of protest and when Bangladesh became independent then it was decided that Tagore’s song will be the national anthem of the country.

In internet, I cannot find a lot of translation of Tagore’s works and this gives me a lot of pain. I wish that there were some scholars who would dedicate their lives in translating Tagore. Here, I like to say one thing that in both Dhaka and Kolkata there are many singers who have dedicated their lives for singing just Tagore’s song. May be, some professors should do the same thing for translating Tagore. Of course, the problem of money is always there because in Dhaka and Kolkata, translating Tagore is not a very profitable thing.