As Bengal prepares to celebrate Rabindranath Tagore’s birthday — which falls on May 8 this year as per the Bengali calendar but is on May 7 according to the English calendar — those who know their Tagore say that the poet is perhaps more relevant today, when one needs to respond to events “without fear”.
“While rejoicing in Tagore’s lyricism, romanticism and spirituality, we often tend to lose sight of the fact that he was an intensely political person; political in the best sense of the term — engaging with the important events of his time and responding to them with energy and without fear,” actor Dhritiman Chaterji told The Hindu.
“Our times are as turbulent as his were. The country is struggling to free itself from a yoke. The yoke may not be foreign but it is real nonetheless. One wonders how Tagore would have responded. Would his have been a voice of protest and of resistance? Perhaps it is that persona of Tagore that we should be celebrating today — of Tagore the activist,” Mr. Chaterji said.
