Lahore: A leading college in Lahore has organised a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore to mark the centenary of his winning the Nobel Prize for literature, with participants offering renditions of his poetry in song and recitation. The tribute was organised by the Department of History at Forman Christian College and the Ewing Literary Society on Monday.
Tagore was the first non-European and first South Asian to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. The event included renditions of Tagore's poetry in song and recitation, clips from a documentary by director Satyajit Ray and the narration of a short story by the writer.
The programme concluded with a recitation of "Amar Sonar Bangla", the national anthem of Bangladesh, being read in Bengali, English and Urdu as a celebration of the great poet who was once banned in erstwhile East Pakistan. Department of History chairperson Yaqoob Bangash said Tagore was a strong patriot though he was not a big supporter of nationalism, according to a report in the Daily Times.
Tagore supported the freedom struggle and even returned his knighthood to protest the killings at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. Tagore wrote matchless poetry, novels, plays, operas and philosophical tracts and even made fine paintings, Bangash added.
His collection of poems, 'Gitanjali', made him world famous and was the main body of work that secured him the Nobel Prize. Waseem Anwar, Dean of Humanities Department at Forman Christian College was of the view that Tagore was not a supporter of the prevalent system of education as he never finished a degree, and the only degrees he received were honorary ones, including one from Oxford.
"In order to promote his ideas on education, Tagore set up an experimental school of learning, with a focus on what the students want to learn, at Shantiniketan, which later developed into the Visva Bharti University," he said.
Tagore inspired generations of people, including Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was inspired by the poem, "Ekla Chalo Re" (go your own way alone), Anwar said. Similarly, people across the world have been mesmerised by his immortal words in poetry, song and novels, he said.
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