Tagore-the Nobel Laureate: A Critical Overview

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) was an Indian Bengali writer who was a towering figure of 20th century world literature. Apart from being a prolific writer, he was also an influential artist and a musician. Tagore’s best known work in poetry, Gitanjali, led to him receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 making him the first Asian Nobel Laureate. Among the numerous contributions of Tagore is introducing the short story genre to Bengali literature; moving Indian poetry towards Modernism; and founding the prestigious Visva Bharati University. Moreover, Tagore composed the national anthem of India as well as Bangladesh while contributed to the national anthem of Sri Lanka. Due to this, he remains the only person in the world to have penned the national anthem of more than one nation.