Tributes paid to Tagore on his 70th death anniversary

Kolkata, Aug 8 (ANI): Scores of students led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid floral tributes to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore on his 70th death anniversary here on Monday.

A rally led by Banerjee and the students was taken out from Harish Park in south Kolkata to Esplanade.

She also joined in the chorus singing of the compositions by Tagore known as Rabindra Sangeet, while the students presented traditional dances as a mark of tribute to the renowned thinker and literary genius of Bengal.

"Rabindranath's presence can be felt every where in our song, our culture, everywhere. So today on his death anniversary to pay tribute to him we are performing a dance," said Tithi Debnath, school student.

Apart from Mamata Banerjee, several state ministers too took part in the rally and walked with the students.

"Today it is his (Tagore's) death anniversary and it has a lot of importance so today on the behalf of the West Bengal state government we have gathered to pay tribute to him," said Firhad Hakim, Urban Development Minister of West Bengal.

Tagore was the first non-European English writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his masterpiece of verses composition titled Gitanjali in 1913.

Writing both in his native Bengali and in English, he achieved global fame as a poet, novelist, playwright, composer and an artist.

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and contemplation.

Tagore penned two national anthems: India's Jana Gana Mana and Bangladesh's Amar Shonar Bangla.

Tagore campaigned for the Indian nationalist movement and was a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi.

Tagore was born on May 7, 1861 the Jorasanko mansion in Kolkata, and served the world with his great ideologies till August 8, 1941, when he died due to complicated ailments. (ANI)