What are the achievements of Rabindranath Tagore that can be commemorated on his 77th death anniversary?

You must be familiar with these soul soothing lines from your school. Yes, our very first memory of “Gurudev” Rabindranath Tagore is of his beautiful poems that we all read in our school time. But Rabindranath Tagore was not just a literary icon. Actually, there is not any one word or phrase in which Rabindranath Tagore’s enigmatic personality can be described. He himself was as inspirational as are his life and his writings, even today, after 77 years of his death. Indians should be proud that they had as a fellow countryman, a persona who was famous worldwide for his achievements. Some of these achievements of Rabindranath Tagore are listed below:

• Rabindranath Tagore was India’s first Nobel Laureate. He won the Nobel Prize for literature for his most iconic poetry collection Gitanjali.

• It was Rabindranath Tagore who endowed Mahatma Gandhi with the title of ‘Mahatma’.

• Rabindranath Tagore is the author of the National Anthems of two nations: Jana Gana Mana of India, and Amar Shonar Bangla of Bangladesh. Also, the National Anthem of Sri Lanka was inspired by one of Gurudev’s compositions.

• Tagore was an expert in music and a great song-writer. After meeting Albert Einstein, he found out that both of them share similar music interests.

• He was one of the silent rebels during the colonial period and started his famous school “Santiniketan”, as opposed to the British modern learning.

• He is among the earliest Indian writers to talk about woman emancipation and empowerment through his literary characters like Binodini (Choker Bali), Mrinal (Mrinal ki Chitthi), Charulata (Nashtanir), and so on.