My Life in My Words

by Tagore, Rabindranath

• ISBN13: 9780670999163
• ISBN10: 0670999164
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-09
• Publisher: Penguin Global

Summary

The Renaissance man of modern India, Rabindranath Tagore put his country on the literary map of the world when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Though known primarily as a poet and writer, Tagore was also a painter, composer and philosopher, an educationist and rural reformer. My Life in My Words is, quite literally, Tagore on Tagore. Uma Das Gupta draws upon the vast repertoire of Tagore's writings - his autobiographical works, speeches, letters and poems - to create a vivid portrait of the life and times of one of India's most influential cultural icons. The result is a rare glimpse into the world of Rabindranath Tagore: his family of pioneering entrepreneurs, saints, poets and composers who shaped his world view; the personal tragedies that influenced some of his most eloquent verse; his ground-breaking work in education and social reform; his constant endeavour to bring about a synthesis of the East and the West and his humanitarian approach to politics; and his rise to the status of an international poet. Meticulously researched and sensitively edited, this unique autobiography provides an incomparable insight into the mind of a genius.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
My Life
My Family and the Changing Times	p. 3
My Boyhood Days	p. 15
My Father and Mother	p. 27
A New Chapter in My Life	p. 39
Leaving Home: Ahmedabad and England, 1878-79	p. 51
My Education	p. 63
Writing Poetry	p. 75
Restless Years, 1883-90	p. 87
On the Threshold of Thirty	p. 99
My Wife and Children	p. 111
Letters to My Children	p. 125
Starting My School at Santiniketan, 1901	p. 136
My Experience of the Swadeshi Movement	p. 148
Gitanjali and the Nobel Prize, 1913	p. 160
My Travels in Japan and the USA, 1916-17	p. 172
Renouncing the Knighthood, and My Arguments against Non-cooperation	p. 183
'A World in One Nest': Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan	p. 194
Visva-Bharati 'Sriniketan': A Scheme for Village Reconstruction	p. 204
In China, 1924	p. 215
An Unexpected Stop in Argentina	p. 227
Gandhiji and I	p. 239
In Europe Again, 1926	p. 253
An Uneasy though Versatile Period, 1927-31	p. 265
More Travel, More Poetry, More Drama	p. 279
Crisis and Hope: My Last Years, 1937-41	p. 293
My Thoughts
On Myself	p. 309
On Religion	p. 319
On Nature	p. 328
On My Country	p. 336
On British Rule in India	p. 348
To My Friends	p. 360
From My Poems and Songs	p. 369
Select Bibliography	p. 384
Index	p. 389
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