T Tagore, Rabindranath Namita Nimbalkar Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India Introduction Rabindranath Tagore (6 May 1861 to 7 August 1941) known as Gurudev was the fourteenth child of Debendranath Tagore Sarada Devi. Tagore was a towering cultural figure who influenced Bengali literature and music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century India. Tagore is generally viewed as a symbol of integration of East and West. Tagore, the poet, philosopher, educational- ist, intellectual leader, religious thinker, artist, playwright, composer, and novelist, became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. Tagore knighted in 1915 renounced his knighthood in protest for Jallianwala Bagh mas- sacre at Amritsar in 1919. Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited Europe and America several times, Japan, China, and Singapore to name a few, a total of more than 30 countries on five continents. Tagore was not a systematic philosopher, but his literary works convey the truths directly revealed to him through poetic images. Tagore wrote around 2,230 songs which express rever- ence for nature, nature which needs to be nurtured and not exploited. Nature, for him, was divine – as is the human soul. His poems, especially Gitanjali, with its spiritual message and reverence for the natural world struck a chord with its vast audience. The songs comprise Rabindra-sangit, a new style of vocal music developed by him and named after him. Two songs from Rabindra-sangit are the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. Tagore, the modernist, championed the liberat- ing role of modern technology in reducing human drudgery as well as poverty. He urged that India should not turn its back on Western technology, but adapt it to India’ s own ethos. Santiniketan – Visva Bharati University Tagore travelled to different countries and inter- action with different cultures inspired him to cre- ate a new world civilization. Internationally known as a humanist who sought to reconcile such apparent opposites as humankind and nature, materialism and spiritualism, and nationalism and internationalism, Tagore expressed a philosophy of education that was uniquely his own – his life work Santiniketan. The curriculum drew on teachings from Bud- dhism, Jainism, Chinese religion, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. He believed in an underly- ing unity and focused on aesthetic development along with academic pursuit. He always wanted to build bridges ...“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free....”. © Springer Nature B.V. 2021 P. Jain et al. (eds.), Hinduism and Tribal Religions, Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_34-1