Rabindranath Tagore came from a wealthy family (the “Calcutta Medici.” His grandfather, Prince Dwarkanath, was the first independent merchant of British India) and over the course of his lifetime, in spite of dwindling fortunes, he built five different houses near Santiniketan. His son was apparently the architect or designer. The houses struck me as very reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright and his prairie style. While Purba Banerjee, a Tagore scholar and translator, and our guide through the newly restored houses, had not heard of a connection or influence there, she did know that Tagore’s son, Rathindranath Tagore, did study in Illinois. Wright, of course is from Chicago and some of his most famous work, including his home, can be found there. Rathindranath Tagore lived from 1888-1961 while Wright lived from 1867-1959. Who knows…? If there’s anything there, it’d be a great dissertation topic for an architectural history student.

Purba:

The grounds are breathtakingly beautiful, and the houses are lovely.

Progressively smaller, each has an east-facing room where Tagore slept and worked, so that he could get up each morning before dawn and watch the sun rise from his window.

The view from his window:

On the wall:

He was the first Nobel laureate from the East; was well-travelled, and well-connected. (He was friends with Gandhi and Einstein; Yeats edited his work and wrote an introduction to one of his books…. How do these guys manage to find one another?) So many luminaries had passed through his doorways, including, of course, Gandhi, with whom he famously disagreed on some subjects. (What kind of a friendship would it be if you couldn’t disagree on a few things?) At any rate, Gandhi visited him in one of the houses. Shubha has a story about Tagore being very excited at the prospect of Gandhi’s reception of his “mud house.” But Gandhi, according to Subha, was apparently more interested in simplicity than in aesthetics. Tagore was clearly interested in aesthetics, as borne out in the lovely houses and grounds that we toured:

The university is the most cosmopolitan place I’ve seen in India yet. (Of course, I’ve only been to Kolkata and Santiniketan). The fine arts department, in particular, is bustling with activity and one sees students of all races, creeds and cultures.

our tour guide, a sculpture student from Delhi:

There is a lot of traffic on campus; but very little of it comes in the form of an automobile:

One thing that has surprised me is that Kolkata, while diverse in terms of the many groups that make their homes here, is much less diverse than any city I’ve seen in North America or Europe (because, you know, I’m so widely travelled). There are not very many westerners—or at least fewer than I expected, and our group member from New York City, Keturah, has blogged about how uncomfortable it is to be a black woman in Kolkata, especially one with an afro. We have all witnessed the stares she gets walking down the street. And the kids here are very aware of racial tensions in the U.S. (On my first day here, one of the girls asked me if I liked black people.)

His vision of the university was of a cross-cultural meeting place where East could meet West, to the benefit of both. Still a good project; still incomplete.

From “Tagore’s Vision for the Future,” by Uma Dasgupta:
[Tagore] insisted that the psychology of the world had to change in order to meet the new environment of the new age. Europe was at the time conceiving a League of Nations. Tagore wrote enthusiastically that this was a momentous period for India and Asia to restore their spirit of cooperation in culture and heal the suffering of peoples of the modern age from the divisive politics and materialistic greed which were vitiating even the citadels of education. He called for the study of history and cultures as a rational way of fighting the forces of war and aggression. He spoke out for the need of higher ideas in politics to save humanity. He wrote, ‘even though from my childhood I have been taught that idolatry of the nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teachers them that a country is greater than the ideals of humanity.’”