INTRODUCTION

Education is the touchstone of civilization and culture. It is an integral part and basis of

human life. Ever since the dawn of civilization man has been trying to `educate’ himself

in order to meet the changing demands of life. Education is a process, a kind of activity in

relation to human beings. Education is scattered to the whole life span and consists of the

systematic development and the cultivation of the normal powers of intellect, feeling, and

conduct, so as to render them efficient in some form of living or for life in general. In the

words of Tagore: “Education means enabling the mind to find out that ultimate truth

which emancipates us from the bondage of the dust and gives us the wealth , not of things

but of inner light , not of power but of love, making its own and giving expression to it”.

Plants are developed by cultivation and men by education. This world would have been

enveloped in intellectual darkness if it had not been illuminated by the light of education.

It is right to say that the story of civilization is the story of education. It is the basic

condition for a development of a whole man and vital instrument for accelerating the well

being and prosperity by the light of education. Tagore said: “The highest Education is

that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all

existence.”

Education is preparation for life through life experiences. Since children have to enter a

complicated society, when they grow adults, education develops in them thinking and

reasoning to be used when they are faced with the problems of home, community and

world. These two powers help them to live an orderly and moral life. Education trains the

eye and the mind so that the individual should make correct responses to the problems

and opportunities of life. In the words of Tagore:

“Education nourishes our reasoning faculties in order to allow our mind its freedom in

the world of truth, our imagination for the world which belongs to art and our sympathy

for the world of human relationship”

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The superstructure of an educational system is raised on the foundation of philosophical

thinking. All educational programme cannot be a success if its foundations are not laid on

a sound philosophy. Education provides to the children that wisdom which philosophy

has expanded for the welfare of man. Education in the wider sense has also been

emphasized by International commission on the development of Education (UNESCO).

In its report entitled Learning to Be, it has given the concept of lifelong education. The

report reiterates that human beings keep on learning and training themselves throughout

their life, above all through the influence of the surrounding environment and through

experiences which mould their behaviour, their conceptions of life and the content of

their knowledge.

Rabindranath Tagore popularly known as ‘Gurudeva’ was the greatest prophet of

Educational Renaissance in Modern India. The syndicate of the University of Calcutta

rightly placed on record of his services to India:

“Through him India has given her message to mankind and his unique achievements in

the fields of literature, philosophy, education, and art have won imperishable fame for

himself and have raised the status of India in the estimation of the world”.

The outstanding aspect of Tagore’s contribution to education was Freedom. Tagore had

championed the cause of freedom. It means the child’s own experience and activities. He

explained freedom in three senses namely: freedom of heart, freedom of intellect and

freedom of will. For Tagore education has only meaning and object in freedom.The

genesis of the ideal of freedom lies in his own experience as a child and his experience of

the prevailing system of education. He records his own expressions “we had to sit like

dead specimens of some museums, whilst lessons were pelted at us from without like hail-

storms on flowers”

Tagore’s Naturalism made him a universal man. Like a true naturalist, Tagore wants

that child’s education must be organized in natural surroundings. He strongly believed

that education divorced from nature will bring untold harm to young children. Tagore

finds a fundamental unity between man and nature. He believes that education given in

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natural surroundings helps to develop intimacy with the world. His essay entitled

“Tapovan” (Forest colony) may be considered a valuable supplement to ‘Shiksa

Samasya’. He says “children with the freshness of their senses come directly to the

intimacy of this world. This is the first gift they have. They must accept it simple and must

never again lose their power of immediate communication with it.”

Tagore envisaged that nature is the best teacher to the pupil. Nature will provide the

student with necessary situation to earn knowledge. No pressure should be exerted upon

the student to learn anything. It is nature which will be the guiding force to inculcate the

spirit of learning in the mind of a student to pursue the education he likes. It will shape

his behaviour and character. Man bears the diverse qualities and potentialities offered by

God. These qualities are inborn and innate. The relationship between man and God is

strong and permanent. However the dedication to spiritualism and sacredness will lead to

the harmonious relationship with man, nature and God. Tagore believes that education

given in the natural surroundings develops of his own accord the power of

communication with it He says “children with the freshness of their senses come directly

to the intimacy of this world. This is the first gift they have. They must accept it simple

and must never again lose their power of immediate communication with it.”

Nature to him is the focus where the interests and aspirations of human beings meet. It is,

therefore essential not only to know Nature, but also to live Nature. Man attains thereby

the greater and deeper freedom. He will find fulfilment in the struggle from the dim

dream lands of childhood towards maturity.

Tagore’s Humanism made him an outstanding figure much ahead of his times. Because

of his Humanism, he was a great lover of children and advises the teachers to be like the

children and not to think themselves superior. He believed that neither the education of

the senses nor, the education of the intellect but the education of the feeling should

receive the place of honour in schools. To Tagore, civilization should be evaluated in

terms of what value it attaches to man and not in terms of how many scientific inventions

it has produced.

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The country is indebted to him for leaving an immense heritage in the form of

educational experiment. As an educator he had a definite social aim to build up a Social

structure to achieve the ideal of society through education. His Internationalism knows

no bounds. Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood is his

significant contribution. The feeling of oneness can be developed through the concepts

like fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man all creatures are equal on this earth.

Tagore gave a new message to mankind. His faith in the essential unity of mankind was a

step towards internationalism. His theme of education as harmony with all existence is a

clear indication towards individuals and social adjustment and adjustment with

environment. Tagore, for the first time, visualised a great truth that the synthesis between

East and West would help in solving the problems of the world. Today all nations admit

this fact. The dilemma of contemporary civilization has been very poignantly voiced by

T.S Eliot in his path breaking work “The Wasteland” rightly considered to be the

spiritual testament of the modern times.

“what are the roots that clutch, what branches grow

Out of this stony rubbish Son of man, you can’t say or know

for you only know, a heap of broken images ”

The spiritualism of Indian philosophy and progressive outlook of the western people were

blended together to give rise to an educational philosophy which marked its distinction in

comparison to other educationists of India. One of his outstanding contributions emerges

out to be the splendid Vishwa Bharti at Shantiniketan. The conception of Vishwa Bharti ,

is in accordance with his notion of Greater India where humanity will strive to reach a

reconciliation of different races with different religions and civilizations. Tagore held that

the entire universe is one family. Education can teach people to realize oneness of the

globe.

Vishwa Bharti is a symbol of his passionate faith in the brotherhood of nations. It is the

greatest contribution of Tagore not only to the realm of education but also to the world.

It emerges out to be a symbol of world peace. Love, universalism, Idealism made the

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greatest appeal to him. He is an apostle of enlightened humanity. At the doorsteps of the

atom and hydrogen bomb, the world has much to learn from Tagore’s message of

freedom of mind and human loyalty so that a better world could be created out of the

ashes of the old. Tagore gave a new message to mankind. His faith in the essential unity

of mankind was a step towards internationalism. His theme of education as harmony with

all existence is a clear indication towards individuals and social adjustment and

adjustment with environment.

Tagore, for the first time, visualised a great truth that the synthesis between East and

West would help in solving the problems of the world. Today all nations admit this fact.

Tagore had three main purposes in establishing the Vishwa Bharati namely; To teach

different cultures of the East, especially those that originated in India or found shelter

within her shores; To establish “The Institute of Rural Reconstruction in order to lay the

foundation of a happy and contented human life in villages; To seek to establish a living

relationship between the east and the west.

Tagore wrote “willingly I harness myself in my advanced age to the arduous

responsibility of creating in our educational colony at Shantiniketan a spirit of

international collaboration based on a definite pursuit of Knowledge, a pursuit carried

on in atmosphere of friendly community life, harmonized with Nature and offering

freedom of individual self expression”

In terms of curriculum, he advocated a different emphasis in teaching. Rather than

studying national cultures for the wars won and cultural dominance imposed, he

advocated a teaching system that analysed history and culture for the progress that had

been made in breaking down social and religious barriers. Tagore’s realistic approach

was psychological. His “The Activity principle” and “Teaching while walking” are still

used in many educational institutions. He advocated the necessity of a broad based

curriculum. A simplified, balanced curriculum based on the policy of nation was

remarkable contribution to education.

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Tagore believed that our education must provide for creative self - expression which

should be creative in nature. This is the only reason why Tagore has given arts, crafts,

music, drawing, dramatics, and a prominent place in his scheme of education. Tagore was

aware about the rural poverty of our country. So, he wanted to eradicate it through

education. Education for rural reconstruction was a unique contribution of Tagore. The

practical training imparted in different crafts to the students will make them skilled

artisans in their field. They can remove the poverty of the rural bulk by applying their

education helping thereby in the process of rural reconstruction. Tagore advocated that

many other languages of lines and colors as well as sounds are essential for the

satisfaction of his aesthetic urge and creative self expression. Tagore has rightly said

“We are busy in decorating the cage till now, the bird of this cage is still hungry”

Child Centered Education is one of his greatest contributions. He emerges out to be a

pioneer who strived to create non- authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their

respective surroundings. Tagore puts more faith in an individual than in any institution.

Tagore’s Conception of an Ideal Teacher is fully relevant in the contemporary times.

He truly remarked “A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its

own flame”

Tagore stressed on Women Education. In 1908 he established a department of women

education in Shantiniketan. He was greatly shocked to see the deteriorating condition of

the women folk in Indian society. In order to improve this condition, he advocated

women education. He advocated that women should acquire pure knowledge for

becoming a mature human being, and utilitarian knowledge for becoming true women

and the result is that in recent years, women education has gained momentum both in

public and private sectors. “If education is a tool for human development and if education

is the birth right of a human being I do not understand how we can deprive the women

from education (Streesiksha, Women’s education, 1914)”.

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Tagore made a significant contribution by giving impetus to Education for rural

reconstruction He was aware about the rural poverty of our country. So, he wanted to

eradicate it through education. The practical training imparted in different crafts to the

students will make them skilled artisans in their field. They can remove the poverty of the

rural bulk by applying their education helping thereby in the process of rural

reconstruction. M.O’ Connell explores Rabindranath Tagore’s contribution and writes

that as one of the earliest educators to think in terms of the global village, Rabindranath

Tagore’s educational model has a unique sensitivity and aptness for education within

multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations, amidst conditions of

acknowledged economic discrepancy and political imbalance.

One of the significant contributions of Tagore to Education is his greater emphasis on the

complete harmonious development of individual personality. Tagore believed that

education should help an individual to attain complete manhood, so that all his powers

may be developed to the fullest extent for his own individual perfection as well as the

perfection of the human society in which he was born. He believed that education is not

merely a means for the growth and fullness of the individual but it was also concerned

with the whole physical and social milieu in which his life is lived. Education can

become dynamic and vital only when it is "in constant touch with any complete life." He

wanted the boys and girls to be fearless, free and open-minded, self-reliant, full of the

spirit of inquiry and self- criticism, with their roots deep in the soil of India but reaching

out to the whole world in understanding , cooperation and material and spiritual progress.

In the words of H.B.Mulherji –

“Tagore was the greatest prophet of educational renaissance in modern India. He waged

ceaseless battle to uphold the highest educational ideal before the country, and

conducted educational experiments at his own institutions, which made them living

symbols of what an ideal should be.”

Tagore’s Spiritualism and Idealism made him a cult figure among the educationists of

the times. He wants to achieve the essential unity of the universe through God. For

Tagore, ‘the object of education is to give man the unity of truth’. Tagore believes in a

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spiritual world which is the innermost truth of this world. Tagore wants to make ‘ the

purpose of education nothing short of the highest purpose of man, the fullest growth and

freedom of soul’ He strongly advocated that moral and spiritual education is more

important than bookish knowledge for an integral development of human personality.

Tagore fought against the dominance of materialistic outlook of life and he was an

idealist to the core. But he believes that education should be related to the life-currents of

the people for which it is meant. Tagore writes, "Joy flows through the universe, the sun

and moon drink of it, A full measure. The light of the joy of goodness, Stays ever

effulgent... Why are you all by yourself, confined to your own ego?"

Tagore's Contribution to education is highly relevant in the modern scenario and many of

his innovations have now become part of general educational practices. The visionary in

Rabindranath and the great educationist in him solved the problem of today a century

earlier. The problems of modern education are attendance, use of other unfair means and

indiscipline. It is more certificates oriented irrelevant of intelligence and correlation with

Nature. Tagore solved these problems in a grand way. Freedom in the class solved the

problem of attendance, absence of invigilator solved the copying or use of unfair means.

Thus Tagore's educational system is a great achievement. It is regretted that we did not

try to apply the formulas suggested by Tagore. That is why his Tagore's Santiniketan,

Vishwa Bharti and Sriniketan may said to constitute Tagore's educational trinity through

which he tried to developed his education theme.

The poet selected for its motto an ancient Sanskrit verse, “Yatra Vishwam bhavatieka

nidam, which means, where the whole world meets in a single nest.". Tagore rightly

observed:

“The world today is wild with the delirium of hatred,

The conflicts are cruel and unceasing in anguish,

crooked are its paths, tangled its bonds of greed.

All creatures are crying for a new birth of thine,

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O thou of boundless life,

save them, raise thine eternal voice of hope,

let Love’s lotus with its inexhaustible treasure of honey

open its petals in thy light.”

In this era of globalisation the world of education is facing the same crisis, same “dark

stains”. Tagore desperately wanted to use education as an instrument to “wipe away all

dark strains from the heart of this earth”. According to him a national system of education

should try to discover the characteristic truths of its civilization. Those truths for India are

not commercialisation, imperialism or “fundamentalist nationalism” but rather

“universalist nationalism”. He insisted that the learner should socialize with their partners

of other religions, other social groups and other countries and learn from them. That

would help understand not only the anthropology of the society but also the problems of

the country and how to help develop the country. The aim should be all round

development of the individual personality through harmonious interaction and union of

the learner with the environment.

Tagore’s educational efforts were ground-breaking in many areas. He was one of the first

in India to argue for a humane educational system that was in touch with the environment

and aimed at overall development of the personality. Santiniketan became a model for

vernacular instruction and the development of Bengali textbooks; as well, it offered one

of the earliest coeducational programs in South Asia. The establishment of Vishwa-

Bharati and Sriniketan led to pioneering efforts in many directions, including models for

distinctively Indian higher education and mass education, as well as pan-Asian and global

cultural exchange. It should be noted that Rabindranath in his own person was a living

icon of the type of mutuality and creative exchange that he advocated. His vision of

culture was not a static one, but one that advocated new cultural fusions, and he fought

for a world where multiple voices were encouraged to interact with one another and to

reconcile differences within an overriding commitment to peace and mutual

interconnectedness.

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Rabindranath Tagore, by his efforts and achievements, is part of a global network of

pioneering educators, such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori and Dewey–and

in the contemporary context, Malcolm Knowles–who have striven to create non-

authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. His generous

personality and his striving to break down barriers of all sorts gives us a model for the

way multiculturalism can exist within a single human personality, and the type of

individual which the educational process should be aspiring towards. Tagore was a multi-

splendoured personality and has left his deep impression on several facets of artistic

cultural, educational, intellectual, political, and social life of India.

A country, which is associated with names like Rabindranath Tagore should have had

people with a higher moral standard, feels President Pranab Mukherjee . In the city to

launch a comprehensive website on Tagore's works, designed by the Jadavpur University,

the President reached out the academic community and asked them to "reset" their "moral

compass" and gain wisdom from the teachings of Tagore

To raise our heads high by breaking all narrow domestic walls.

1.1 Review of Related Literature

A careful review of the research journals, dissertations, theses and other sources of

information on the problem to be investigated forms a major part of the research design.

The pharse “Review of Related Literature” consists of two words: Review and Literature.

In research methodology, the term literature means the knowledge of a particular area of

investigation of any discipline which includes theoretical, practical and it’s research

studies. Review means to organize the knowledge of a specific of research to evolve an

edifice of the knowledge to show that the study would be an addition to this field. In the

words of W.R. Borg

“The literature in any field forms the foundation upon which the future work will be built.

If we fail to build the foundation of knowledge provided by the review of literature, our

work is likely to be shallow and naïve”

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The review of related literature enables the researcher to delimit and define his problem,

helps him to avoid untruthful and useless problem areas. He can select those areas in

which positive findings are likely to result and his endeavour would be likely to add to

the knowledge in a meaningful way

H.Chaturvedi (1934) made an attempt to study Rabindranath Tagore’s experiments at

Shantiniketan and admits that Tagore has given to India an experimental school based on

a synthesis of the ideals of ancient Indian education and of modern Western education. It

is an Indianized educational institution for the formation and growth of social solidarity,

on which alone the true progress of India depends. The institution spells freedom —

freedom of mind, freedom of will, and above all, freedom of sympathy. He is full of

praise for Tagore's unique contribution to the world and hopes that "just as Rabindranath '

s sympathetic response to the cry of the childhood suffering from a system of education

which is crushing its body and soul, has given to India the Shantiniketan school, so also

the cry of suffering humanity from the world-wide disaster brought about by the great

war and the mentality which led to it, has caused Tagore to bring to India his gift of

Vishwa-Bharati or the International University. Here man is to grow in the knowledge

that his own interests are bound up intimately with those of other human beings, and also

that wealth can never satisfy the innermost cravings of the human soul.

Subrahmanyam (1958) made an attempt to study the educational writings of two

thinkers with a view to analyze their relative importance in the need of modern education.

His studies revealed that Tagore emphasized the finer side of life. His experiments in

education had a definite social aim to build up a social structure with raw materials of

indigenous culture with western ideas and to achieve the ideal universal society through

education.

Prabodh Chandra Sen (1961) in his study on Tagore as an educator with a difference

highlights Tagore’s spiritualism and his views on religion. Tagore has given religion a

place of high importance in education, but for him it did not involve the formal teaching

of any religious dogma. True religiousness, he believed, is as natural as respiration; it is

as much a vital part of our being as breathing. Religious training for him is a spirit, an

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inspiration, pervading every aspect of human life, affirming its relationship with the

highest of values and giving man a sense of kinship with the Real. If education fails to

cultivate the quality of human understanding and strengthen the sense of human unity,

then that education is considered superficial and misguided. Similarly, Tagore

emphasized the importance of discipline in a moral life and he suggested that real

discipline means protection of raw, natural impulses from unhealthy excitement and

growth in undesirable directions. Tagore’s moral and spiritual aims of education were

varied in nature. He advocated the power of self-determination, the ideal of peace and

tranquility, liberation of self from all kinds of slavery, and his educational institutions

provided opportunity for it. He believed that the character of good education is that it

does not overpower man; it emancipates him

Chaube (1962) discussed the educational ideas of education in India as represented by

thinkers like Dayanand, Tagore, Aurobindo and Gandhi set against the general

background of Indian thinkers. Here too the materialistic school was not represented. His

conclusions were followed by a series of recommendations and conclusions.

Humayun Kabir (1962) evaluates Tagore as an educational thinker and says that in

Tagore's philosophy of education, the aesthetic development of the senses was as

important as the intellectual. Music, literature; art; dance and drama were given great

importance in the daily life of the school. Rabindranath believed in the theory of

subconscious learning, he never instructed his students, but occupied them with whatever

he was writing or composing. The students were appreciated to read out their own

composition. They were permitted to access his room where he read his new writings to

teachers and critics. Students at Santiniketan were encouraged to produce their own

publications and put out several illustrated magazines. The children were encouraged to

follow their ideas in painting and drawing and be motivated from the many visiting artists

and writers.

De (1972) conducted to investigate the contribution of Tagore to education for

international understanding in historical perspective. Harmonious and integrated

development of the individual personality on the one hand and formation of a cooperative

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society with fellow feeling, love, mutual understanding and appreciation as the

fundamental value on the other were a distinct contribution of Tagore to the field of

education. The country is indebted to him for leaving an immense heritage in the form of

educational experiment. As an educator he had a definite social aim to build up a Social

structure to achieve the ideal of society through education. His Internationalism knows no

bounds. Tagore’s universal humanitarianism is the corner-stone of collaboration between

East and West. He is the apostle of enlightened humanity and a strong champion of world

unity.

Singh (1972) made an attempt to study Rabindranath Tagore as an educator (Shiksha

Guru Rabindranath Tagore). His study depicted that Tagore had felt that the inclusion of

spiritual consciousness in education was indispensable. He also emphasized upon the

sense of fraternity and equality at the national levels and showed regard to different

cultures. Tagore has advocated a creative middle path between activism and asceticism,

between God intoxication and work-intoxication, between the outer and the inner,

between doing and arriving. This middle path is the path of self-realization or Sadhana

and this part has been emphasized most in Tagore's ideal institution.

Paul (1976) conducted a study on art as a medium of education in Tagore’s viewpoint.

Tagore as a natural educator introduced elements of human love, interpersonal

relationship, socio-cultural norms and international ideals through his theory of education

called Education for the whole man. Arts as a medium of education implied cultural

renaissance for Tagore and it assumed a sublime status in his philosophy of education.

Misra (1977) studied the impact of naturalistic philosophy of certain philosophers of

education – John Dewey, Tagore and Gandhi. In his study, he observed that a great

feature of Tagore’s educational philosophy was the naturalistic trend. He never

appreciated the artificial method of teaching and learning. The modern set up of

education arranged in crowded classrooms with no scope for further expansion of the

soul and mind for the children were great hindrance for the growth of the mind according

to Tagore

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Bhattacharya (1981) made an attempt to study the Rabindra Shiksha Darsaner

Samiksha. The main findings depicted that the educational thoughts of Tagore contain

fullness, totality, freedom, and joy and on the other hand emphasize social consciousness

and ethical consideration. His educational ideas are in tune with both western and eastern

educators. Above all the synthesis of the two is found in his international perspective of

education which he called the religion man.

Ray’s (1981) study is on the educational ideas of Tagore and their relevance to the

contemporary thoughts and practices in education. He examines Tagore’s ideas in the

light of significant thinkers like Martin Buber, White Head and also justifies the

celebration of festivals and functions in Tagore’s institutions as a contributing factor of

bringing closer the elite and the folk and thereby, promoting integrations.

Purandare (1982) studied critically the educational ideas of Tagore and stressed that

Tagore was the first thinker in recent times who tried to revive the ideals of Indian

culture. The Tapovan ideal or the Gurukul system that he advocated was a natural

reaction to the mechanical system of education that the British imposed on India. His

views on women’s Education, freedom, discipline and such other topics were also

noteworthy.

Dhal (1990) conducted a study on the educational contributions of Rabindranath Tagore

and Maharishi Aurobindo. The major findings of both the thinkers emphasized truth,

beauty, goodness as the ideals of education. Both advocated that the medium of

instruction must be the mother tongue. Both were supporters of women’s education.

K.R Salkar (1990) critically evaluates Tagore’s ideas on education and depicts that

Tagore’s concept of school was based on Gurukul system. He highly admired the Guru-

Sishya Ashram type of education. In this he echoes Sri Aurobindo's view that the most

important method of education is "soul-to-soul contact" between Guru and Sishya. He

placed great importance on children learning in a natural environment, and said that

nature herself was our greatest teacher. Tagore believed that the educational process

should be one of self-discovery, and free creation. Tagore emphasized on functional

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education and learning a craft and thus enable the child to realize his capacity for self-

preservation through the trained experience of his hands. For example, Cotton wick, scarf

weaving and belt making; straw-mat and mattress making, sewing; paper making; ink

making, making sun-dried mud bricks. Dyeing with simple vegetable dyes; printing with

wood blocks. Gurudeva believed that school should be integral to Society and intellectual

education should be linked with the arts and crafts, which deal with human emotions.

This is why his curriculum included music and literature.

R.S.Mani (1996) studies the aims of education according to Tagore and stresses that

Tagore believed in social aims of education too. Sociability and human fellow-feeling

was considered as an indispensable equipment of a truly educated person. He regretted

that people were living in an artificial world of books and not in the real world of living

men and women. Pursuit of knowledge should be supplemented by living and loving

contact. For the fundamental purpose of education is not merely to enrich ourselves

through the fullness of knowledge, but also to establish the bond of love and friendship

between man and man. So long as this social aim gets expression in Tagore’s message for

the education of the feeling or 'Bodher Sadhana ' as he puts it. He felt sorry that education

of sympathy was not only systematically ignored in schools, but was severely repressed,

because we may become powerful by knowledge, but we attain fullness by sympathy.

The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our

life in harmony with all existence.

Nattulala Gupta (2002) studies Tagore’s selected Writings on Education and highlights

that Siksar Herpher is Tagore’s very first writing which enunciates explicitly some of his

fundamental educational thoughts although in earlier articles and essays his political and

social consciousness could be observed in spite of the fact that at the time of its

publication he was only 31 years of age. It is likely that these early experiences were

forming the background for Tagore's educational career. The article Siksar Herpher

eloquently pleads for a system of education conducted in congenial surroundings and in a

manner surcharged with the spirit of joy. It argues that the ultimate aim of education

should be the all round development of an individual for harmonious adjustment to

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reality. It advocated the value and need of the mother tongue in providing all the

necessary educational nourishment of the child.

Gowramma (2007) made an attempt to study Rabindranath Tagore- the Poet and the

Philosopher. The main finding was Tagore as a philosopher. Tagore, the philosopher had

a particular philosophical vision of his own, which he depicted in his essays and

interwoven in his poems. Both his poetry and philosophy are mirrors of his life.

Sameer Chatterji (2008) depicts that Tagore's contribution in the field of aesthetic

education also has been remarkable. From the very beginning of his school he gave a

special place to music. With the foundation of Vishwa-Bharati, however, art and music

including dancing began to be most systematically, widely and enthusiastically cultivated

by the students and teachers of the institution, until the tradition of aesthetic culture of

Vishwa-Bharati acquired a unique reputation throughout the country and even abroad.

Tagore has contributed to the meaning and purpose of education content and significance

which appear to be richer and fuller than what it was previously.

Chakrabarti (2011) made an attempt to study the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore

in education and revealed that Tagore’s world of education is a re- discovery of

consciousness. His thoughts emphasize on the awakening of the sense of goodness,

harmony in mankind leading to aesthetic education.

Parmar (2011) studied the educational views of Rabindranath Tagore and his

contribution to Education. The study of Tagore’s personal education and his creative

writing and music even after coming back to India. Major findings were educational

philosophy of Tagore as poet, novelist and educator.

 H. B. Mukherjee (2012) critically evaluates the Contribution of Tagore in the field of

education and says that Tagore is perhaps the only literary genius in contemporary

history who devoted a major part of his life to thinking about education and creating an

educational institution of international significance. Also, the institution he created at

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Santiniketan proved to be the most global and sustainable among the progressive

educational institutions launched by individual thinkers such as Froebel and Russell.

Radha Vinod Jalan (2012) made an attempt to study Rabindranath Tagore as an

educator and finds that Tagore’s organization of curriculum was not narrowed down to

only textbook learning, but it provided a fullness of experience for children from multiple

sources. He interpreted the curriculum not in terms of certain subjects to be learned but in

terms of certain activities to be undertaken. Actually Tagore's success lies in the fact that

he did not try to control directly the ideas, feelings, and values of his children but

imaginatively designed an environment and program of activities and experiences which

evoked the desired responses. He also believed that the education of a country acquires

shape and substance only against the entire background and it is important that there is a

strong relationship between education and society.

1.2 Summary of the Review of Related Literature

The Review of related literature enables the researcher to delimit and define his problem,

helps him to avoid untruthful and useless problem areas. He can select those areas in

which positive findings are likely to result and his endeavour would be likely to add to

the knowledge in a meaningful way. H.Chaturvedi’s studies on Tagore’s experiments at

Shantiniketan proved to be very helpful for the investigator to have a realistic glimpse of

Tagore’s innovative experiments in the field of education. Prabodh Chandra Sen

highlighted Tagore as an educator with a difference with special emphasis to Tagore’s

spiritualism. Humayun Kabir evaluates Tagore as an educational thinker and says that

in Tagore's philosophy of education, the aesthetic development of the senses was as

important as the intellectual. Music, literature, art, dance and drama were given great

importance in the daily life of the school. K.R Salkar (1990) critically evaluated

Tagore’s ideas on education and depicted that Tagore's concept of school was based on

Gurukul system. He highly admired the Guru-Sishya Ashram type of education.

17

De conducted to investigate the contribution of Tagore to education for international

understanding in historical perspective. Harmonious and integrated development of the

individual personality on the one hand and formation of a cooperative society with fellow

feeling, love, mutual understanding and appreciation as the fundamental value on the

other were a distinct contribution of Tagore to the field of education. Bhattacharya made

an attempt to study the Rabindra Shiksha Darsaner Samiksha. The main findings depicted

that the educational thoughts of Tagore contain fullness, totality, freedom, and joy and on

the other hand emphasize social consciousness and ethical consideration. H. B.

Mukherjee critically evaluated the Contribution of Tagore in the field of education and

said that Tagore was perhaps the only literary genius in contemporary history who

devoted a major part of his life to thinking about education and creating an educational

institution of international significance. Nattulala Gupta (2002) studies Tagore’s

selected Writings on Education and highlights that Siksar Herpher is Tagore's very first

writing which enunciates explicitly some of his fundamental educational thoughts. . The

article Siksar Herpher eloquently pleads for a system of education conducted in congenial

surroundings and in a manner surcharged with the spirit of joy.

1.3 Emergence of the Problem

The problem solving process continues to be like unending spiral. Every year new

innovations, new concepts and new ways of doing things in all areas of human endeavour

emerge, the wider the horizon of our mental outlook, the more and more problems occurs

to us. The most important and difficult phase in the research project is the choice of the

suitable problem. Those who are more experienced know that research is often tedious,

painful, needs patience, expertise, and is slow and rarely spectacular. Researcher realizes

that the research for truth and the solution of the most important problem take a great deal

of time and energy and the intensive application of logical thinking. Research makes its

contribution to the human welfare by countless small addition to knowledge. The

acquisition and expansion of knowledge is not automatic and self perpetuating process.

New facts, new concepts, new ways of doing things has its quantam with passage of time.

18

This knowledge enables us to understand, comprehend, explain, control, predict or cope

with a given situation.

The present level of knowledge is an outcome of various methods adopted by man over a

period of several centuries. The researcher has to fetch even a drop of water of

knowledge and make it a great ocean of knowledge. Research originates from a need that

arises.  A clear distinction between the problem and the purpose should be made.  The

problem is the aspect the researchers worries about, think about, and wants to find a

solution for.  The purpose is to solve the problem, i.e. find answers to the questions.  If

there is no clear problem formulation, the purpose and methods are meaningless.

In the words of George J. Mauly ,

“Research starts with the identification of the problem. This is the first step in the

sequence. It is also of the importance for probably no aspect of study has a greater

bearing on the success of overall venture then the wise choice of problems.”

It is first necessary for a researcher to choose a broad field within which he will conduct

the study. The researcher should have a deep interest in the field. His enthusiasm and real

curiosity enhance his motivation for the successful completion of the study. The field

selected should be one in which the researcher is capable of demonstrating necessary

initiative, originality and good judgement. One of the most fruitful sources of problems

for the researcher is his own experience as a professional educator. Contacts and

discussions with research oriented people, listening to learned speakers are helpful in

identifying research problems, inferences that can be drawn from various educational and

psychological theories can be very helpful. Technological and social changes demand

development of new changes in the fabric of society. All these developments constantly

bring forth new problems for research.

The goal of education has been recognized as national, social and individual

development. Hence the need and importance of research has been realized increasingly

in the field of education. The process in the field of education depends on the solution of

19

all significant problems, but now to select a worthwhile problem out of so many is a

difficult question , selecting a problem needs certain abilities and insight. The

investigator has taken the initiative of probing into an important aspect of contribution of

Rabindranath Tagore in the field of Education and its relevance in the modern world. A

survey of the related studies has led to the emergence of the specific research problem.

1.4 Justification of the Problem

Tagore was not only a theorist but also a practitioner.  His ideas about education brought

a revolution in the field of education. Tagore, by his efforts and achievements, is one of

the global networks of pioneer educators, who have striven to create non- authoritarian

learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. His philosophy and ideas

are significant even in the contemporary times. His concepts of international education,

creative self expression are totally relevant in the present scenario. He insisted that it is

essential to educate the women for national development. In recent years women

education has gained momentum both in private and public sectors. His ideals of human

love, interpersonal relationship, socio-cultural norms, realization of cooperative society

are as much relevant today as in his times.

A study of educational ideas of Tagore will prove helpful in Educational reconstruction.

The relevance of such a study in regard to modern India will become significant in the

historical study of the education system. Tagore was alive to the testimony of history, the

defective education has ever been the cause of decay and decline and that a sound

education system alone can serve as the pivot of social regeneration. He found education

to be out of tune with life which does not take into accounting the needs and problems of

the masses. Such system fails to train students for the demands of an active, social and

practical life. So Tagore’s ideas brought about a revolution. Tagore’s educational

institution which he founded at Bholpur represents a reaction against the narrow, prosaic

and soulless education which the state provided for children in the schools.

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It was Tagore’s ambition that the ideal which India possessed in the past should come in

its entire essence. Education should make for the culture, of the soul and not merely of

the intellect or memory. The greatness of Tagore as an educationist, among other factors,

due to his perfect understanding of the child’s mind. He emphasized on producing

balanced individuals who may be able to carve out not only their own destiny but also the

destiny of the society.

Among the Educational and social reformers of modern India, Tagore was at the

forefront. Many scholars have studied Tagore’s Contribution in the field of education but

still there are certain gaps that need more comprehensive and wider attention. In order to

fill those gaps in the existing knowledge and to have an in depth analysis of the myriad

personality of Tagore and his contribution in the field of education with its relevance in

the modern world, the investigator thought of probing further on this topic.

1.5 Layout of Chapters

1. Introduction.

2. The Problem.

3. Method and Procedure.

4.  Biography of Rabindranath Tagore.

5.  Contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of Education.

6. Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore’s educational ideas in the modern world.

Bibliography

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The Problem

2.1 Delimitation of the Problem

Tagore as an educator, thinker, theorist, philosopher, poet, and political leader has won an

imperishable fame for himself and has raised the status of India in the estimation of the

world. The sphere of Tagore’s contribution in the field of education is tremendous and its

contents are rich in providing substantial and social knowledge. Tagore's Contribution to

education is highly relevant in the modern scenario and many of his innovations have

now become part of general educational practices.

As the area of study is very wide and due to shortage of time, the investigator has

delimited his study to the` Contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of Education

and its relevance in the modern world’ which serves as a backbone of the education

system. The visionary in Rabindranath and the great educationist in him solved the

problem of today a century earlier.

The investigator has worked deeply on the topic and has opened the gates for the future

researches of education to conduct a research on this topic more deeply to find out new

ideas and trends. The problems of modern education are attendance, use of other unfair

means and indiscipline. It is more certificates oriented irrelevant of intelligence and

correlation with Nature. Tagore solved these problems in a grand way. Freedom in the

class solved the problem of attendance, absence of invigilator solved the copying or use

of unfair means. Thus Tagore's educational system is a great achievement. It is regretted

that we did not try to apply the formulas suggested by Tagore. That is why his Tagore's

Santiniketan, Vishwa Bharti and Sriniketan may said to constitute Tagore's educational

trinity through which he tried to developed his education theme.

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2.2 Statement of the Problem

CONTRIBUTION OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE IN THE FIELD OF

EDUCATION AND ITS RELEVANCE IN THE MODERN WORLD.

2.3 Objectives

1. To study the Biography of Rabindranath Tagore.

2. To understand the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of

education.

3. To study the Educational ideas of Rabindranath Tagore.

4. To analyze the relevance of Tagore’s educational ideas in the modern world.  

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Method and Procedure

Research methods are of utmost importance in a research process. They describe the

various steps of the plan of attack to be adopted in solving a research problem such as the

manner in which the problems are formulated, the definition of terms, the choice of

subjects for investigation, the validation of data gathering tools, the collection, analysis

and interpretation of data, and the processes of inferences and generalizations. The

selection of a method and the specific design within that method appropriate in

investigating a research problem will depend upon the nature of the problem and research

questions, and kind of data that the problem may entail. According to Hillway

“To describe in detail the specific method being used, incidentally, constitutes a very

good way of determining whether the method chosen has been worked out properly and is

likely to prove effective. If the scholar cannot describe his method, the chances are that it

is too vague and general to yield him satisfactory results.”

The present study is philosophical and historical in nature. So for this, the researcher has

adopted Historical method of research. Historical material in such areas of education as

principles of philosophy of education has made contribution in understanding the present

day problems. It demands standard of careful methodology and spirit comparable to these

which characterize other types of research. It implies an effort to recount some aspects of

education problem. Principles of philosophy of education etc have valuable contribution

in understanding the present day problems.

The main processes which are involved in the historical method of researchers can be

classified as under:

Collection of data (from primary and secondary sources)

Critical analysis of data collected.

Presentation of facts.

24

Following this pattern, the investigator has collected the data and analyzed the data

collected and then presented the facts. While collecting and then presented the facts.

While collecting the data, the investigator consulted two types of sources.

Primary sources

Secondary sources.

Primary sources are eye witness accounts and are the only solid bases of historical

enquiry. Good, Barr, Scates have called them as the “first witnesses to a fact”. Primary

sources include personal records, official records, oral testimony of traditions and events,

pictorial records, remains or relics. Such records include diaries, autobiographies, original

drafts of speeches, articles, books, myths, family stories, photographs.

  In Primary sources, the investigator took the help of writings of Tagore, records

memories, biographies and books on the contribution of this great scholar. These proved

to be of immense help to the investigator to carry her research forward and make others

aware of the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of education and its

relevance in the modern world.

Secondary sources are the accounts of an event provided by a person who did not

directly observe the event. The person may have directly contacted an actual observer and

talked with him or read an account by an observer. Secondary sources, if used carefully,

serve many useful purposes. They may acquaint a research a researcher to major

theoretical issues in his field and to the work that has been done in the area under study.

In the secondary sources , the investigator consulted a no. of books , journals, articles,

reviews, abstracts, net library database related to  Tagore’s contribution to education to

make the research complete in all aspects.

The investigator collected the data from various sources and analyzed the data collected

and selected the data to be discussed from various sources to be discussed in her research

25

report. Having established the authenticity and validity of the facts, the researcher then,

addressed herself to the next task of interpreting these facts in the light of her problem.

She has tried her level best to interpret the ideas of Rabindranath Tagore as an educator

and his immense contribution to the field of education, its relevance to the modern world.

Library work, though time consuming is a fruitful phase of the research programme. So

for preparation, constructive analysis of relevant views on Rabindranath Tagore was

done.

The investigator tried to present the facts accurately and objectively in her dissertation.

The researcher has also honestly tried to interpret the contribution of Tagore in the field

of Education and its relevance in the modern world. The investigator endeavored to

analyze the educational doctrines by Tagore and its relevance in the modern perspective

in his books.

26

Biography of Rabindranath Tagore

4.1 Early life

Rabindranath Tagore popularly known as ‘Gurudeva’ was born on 6 may 1861, in

a highly cultured family in Calcutta which was famous for its progressive and

enlightened views. Rabindranath was the fourteenth and the youngest son of Maharishi

Devendranath and grandson of Dwarkanath Tagore.  His father Devendranath was a great

Brahmo Samaj leader. He taught him Indian philosophy, Upanishads, astronomy, and

Sanskrit. Tagore received his early education at home from private tutors. By nature, he

loved beauty, music and poetry. When he had grown a little older he was sent to

St.Xavier’s school, Calcutta. Tagore was unable to adjust himself to the `dead routine and

lifeless’ teaching of the educational institutions. Tagore considered himself fortunate to

escape from these `book-learning factories’. He recorded his own impressions regarding

his early education

      “The masters and pundits who were charged with my education soon abandoned the

thankless task and realized that this boy could never be driven along the beaten track of

learning”.

At the age of 16 Tagore was sent to England to study law but this subject did not appeal

to him and he returned to India after a while. Seeking to become a barrister, Tagore

enrolled at a public school in Brighton, England in 1878; later, he studied at university

college London, but returned to India in 1880 without a degree. On 9 December 1883 he

married Mrinalini Devi. They had five children, two of whom later died before reaching

adulthood. In 1890, Tagore began managing his family’s estates. During these years,

Tagore’s Sadhana Period (1891-1895) was among his most fecund, with more than half

stories of the three-volume and eighty-four story Galpaguchchha was written. With irony

and emotional weight, they depicted a wide range of Indian lifestyles, particularly village

life.

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4.2 Shantiniketan (1901-1932)

In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to shantiniketan to found an ashram, which

would grow to include a marble-floored prayer hall (“The Mandir”), an experimental

school, groves of trees, gardens and a library. It developed into an important educational

institution on unconventional lines. Vishwa Bharti is a symbol of his passionate faith in

the brotherhood of nations. On 14 November 1913, Tagore for his magnum opus

`Gitanjali’, was awarded the Noble prize for Literature. The Gitanjali or Song

Offerings is a collection of poems. It became very famous in the West, and was widely

translated. The word gitanjali is composed from "git", song, and "anjali", offering, and

thus means – "An offering of songs"; but the word for offering, anjali, has a strong

devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as "prayer offering of song”.

When one reads the works of Tagore, one detects a clear stream of spirituality and an

intense love for Nature that flows through most of his books. It is no exaggeration that

the more works of Tagore one reads, the more one falls in love with this simple and

beautiful poet.

He shone forth brightly his lamp of timeless wisdom of the East – that this Universe has

been created out of pure love, and it is only our love for each other together with peace,

justice and freedom that will sustain it. It is no wonder that in India, Rabindranath Tagore

is revered as “Gurudev” – “a teacher embodying God-like knowledge”, a title conferred

upon him by Mahatma Gandhi.

In 1921, Tagore and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the Institute for

Rural Reconstruction (which Tagore later renamed Shriniketan- “Abode of peace”) in

Surul, a village near the ashram at shantiniketan. He recruited scholars, donors, and

officials, from many countries to help the institute use Schooling to “free Villages from

the shackles of helplessness and ignorance by vitalizing knowledge”. In the early 1930s,

he also grew more concerned about India’s “abnormal caste consciousness” and

Untouchability, lecturing on its evils writing poems and dramas with untouchable

protagonists, and appealing to authorities at Kerala’s Guruvayoor Temple to admit Dalits

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owing to his notable wanderlust, between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited more than thirty

countries on five continents.

For example, in 1912 he took a sheaf of his translated works to England, where he

impressed persons like Charles F. Andrews, Anglo-Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Ezra

Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore. Indeed, Yeats wrote the

preface to the English translation of Gitanjali, while Andrews joined Tagore at

Shantiniketan.

4.3 Twilight Years (1932-1941)

Tagore took an interest in science in his last years, writing Vishwa-Parichay (a collection

of essays) in 1937. He explored biology, physics, and astronomy, meanwhile his poetry

containing extensive naturalism underscored his respect for scientific laws. He also wove

the process of science into many stories contained in such volumes as Se (1937), Tin

Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa (1941).

Tagore’s last four years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. The

poetry Tagore wrote in these years is among his finest, and is distinctive for its

preoccupation with death. After extended suffering, Tagore died on 7 august 1941 in an

upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised; his death anniversary is

still mourned in public functions held across the world.

4.4 His Works

Tagore he had written over twenty five volumes of poetry, fifteen plays, ninety short

stories, eleven novels, thirteen volumes of essays. His famous novellas include

Chaturranga, Shesher Kobita, Char Odhay, and Noukadubi. Aside from autobiographical

works, his travelogues, essays, and lectures were compiled into several volumes

including Iurop Jatrir Patro (letters from Europe) and Manusher Dhormo (The Religion of

Man). Tagore was an accomplished musician and painter, and wrote about 2,230 songs.

29

He composed Rabindra Sangeet, now an integral part of Bengali culture. In turn,

Rabindra Sangeet influenced the styles of such musicians as sitar maestro Vilayat Khan

and the sarodiyas Buddhadev Dasgupta and Amjad Ali Khan. Some of his books include:

1. Gitanjali (1913)

2. The Nation (1913)

3. The Crescent (1913)

4. The Religion of Man

5. Creative Unity

6. The Home and the World

7. Gora

8. Saddhana – The Realisation Of Life (1916)

9. Fruit- Gathering (1916)

10. Thought Relics (1921)

11. The Message Of India’s History.

4.5 Tagore’s Selected Writings on Education

1. Shiksar Herpher (Our Education and Its Incongruities)

2. Shiksha Samasya (The Problem of Education)

3. Abaran (Culture or Covering)

4. Tapovam (Forest Colony)

5. Dharamashiksha (Religious Education)

30

6. Hindu Vishwavidyalaya (Hindu University)

7. Strishiksha (Women Education)

8. Shiksar Bahan (The Vehicle Of Education)

9. My School

10. Shiksar Milan (The Meeting of Cultures)

11. A Poet’s School

12. Shihsar Vikiran (Diffusion of Education)

13. Ashramer Shiksha (Education in Ashram)

14. Bodher Sadhana (Education of the Feeling)

15. Several Convocation Addresses.

Tagore occupied a prominent place in the galaxy of brilliant men, who laid the

foundation of the new nation in the wake of Indian Renaissance. He was the apostle of

enlightened humanity and a strong champion of world unity. Tagore is perhaps the only

literary genius in contemporary history that devoted a major part of his life to thinking

about education and creating an educational institution of international significance.

“These days, when the world is celebrating Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, his

paintings fetching millions reminds us of the greatness of the man. It tells us that his

stress on universalism is clearly being vindicated. Tagore was a social phenomenon of

his time. His universal aspirations took him around the globe. He found India and its soul

almost in every part of the globe he trotted. That is why he used to say he felt comfortable

within the concentric circles of Bengali patriotism, Indian nationalism and Asian

Universalism. Tagore’s universal appeal has its gripping hold even today. His book of

poems, Gitanjali, which got him the Nobel Prize, has the soul and spirit of India, and yet

it bears a universal appeal.” (Hindustan Times, 25 may 2010)

31

32

Contribution of Tagore in the Field Of Education

Tagore was a seer of humanity and brought a sage –like vision as an educator. He played

a significant role in the field of education. Tagore occupied a prominent place in the

galaxy of brilliant men, who laid the foundation of the new nation in the wake of Indian

Renaissance. From the middle of nineteenth century, say after the national awakening of

1857, a sort of darkness prevailed over the spiritual horizon of India and for several

decades, our own civilization and culture remained at the lowest ebb. India was the ruled

by the British. Due to English Education which brought the Indian youth in contact with

Western ideas, the Indian students reading in the schools and colleges run on foreign

lines, were dazzled by a world of new idea. As a result of this new knowledge, many of

the Indian ideas and customs and educational methods and practices which were formerly

regarded as the most appropriate and most useful, began to lose their importance and

suitability. Tagore brought into light the treasures of Indian Wisdom and civilization, to

the educated people of both India and Europe. His works filled the Indian mind with

pride about their past. The feeling that Indian culture, religion and education which had a

very powerful civilization influence throughout the ages, grew stronger in the minds of

the Indians.

It is as a result of the efforts of Tagore that our culture today is as fresh as it has ever

been in the history of this country. He wanted that the new education system should

enable the Indian youth to imbibe their own cultural heritage not of the modern

materialistic civilization which is prone to create spiritual bankruptcy. For the fulfillment

of this purpose, he decided to base education in the cultural roots of the country. Modern

Education system prevalent in India is the result of gradual evolution, in our cultural

heritage due to the innovative ideas of Tagore. In the different fields of knowledge –

philosophy, art, literature, Tagore had been a source of inspiration not only for India but

also for other countries of the world. He has given the concept of true education. Tagore

wanted a communion between man and nature for true education.

Tagore’s educational ideas are based on three cardinal principles namely:

33

Freedom

Creative self- expression

Active communication with man and nature.

He believed in the harmonious development of the child. Tagore’s contribution in the

field of education in the form of Shantiniketan and Vishwa Bharati are remarkable. In the

21st century, compulsory and universal education is the basic need for the progress of the

country. Tagore stressed that only that education is true education which cherishes and

unfolds the seeds of immortality already sown within us.

5.1 Tagore’s Experiments

The Bholpur School (Shantiniketan)

Rabindranath Tagore had definite and clear ideas about education. He wanted to put them

into practice. He was in search of some ideal solution of his problem. At last, he turned to

‘Shantiniketan Ashrama’ (Abode of Peace) of his father as a place suitable for his

purpose and with the blessing of his father, he started his experimental school towards the

beginning of this new century in 1901. In a letter written to his friend, Rabindranath

Tagore explained the ideals of this school thus:

“To give spiritual culture to our boys was my principal object in starting my school at

Bholpur. Fortunately in India, we have the model before us in the tradition of our ancient

forest schools, where teachers whose aim was to realize their lives in God, had their

home. Having in my mind this ideal of a school which should be a home and a temple in

one, away from all distractions of town; hallowed by the memory of a pious life whose

days were passed there in communion with God.”

34

So a school for boys was established in Bholpur on December 22, 1901, one hundred

miles north of Calcutta. Tagore’s immediate object in founding Shantiniketan was to

have a place in which children would live a happy life and enjoy as much freedom as

possible. Shantiniketan was planned as an educational experiment which by relating the

educational problems and programmes of a small and intimate community of pupils and

teachers to the forces working behind the renaissance and the new birth of a nation and

ultimately to the evolutionary need and urge of mankind all over the world, could evolve

a plan for the education of man.

In his school, the gulf between the teachers and pupils was bridged by a true spirit of

friendship and brotherliness. There was no distinction between the teacher and the pupils.

Life was lived in harmony with nature by realizing the unity of mankind from all spheres

of life. Following were the main objectives of the school:

To help the children for the cultivation of love of nature and sympathy with all

living creatures.

To give spiritual training to the students.

To impart knowledge by providing an atmosphere of freedom.

To educate children by providing an environment of living aspiration based upon

living contact between the teacher and the taught.

To provide an environment after the fashion of “Tapovans”- forest schools about

which he had read so much in the uapnishads.

To provide oppurtunities for manual labour and teaching of crafts like sewing,

book –binding, weaving, carpentary etc.

To establish a community school where there is no distinction of caste or creed.

35

5.2 Vishwa Bharati

Rabindranath Tagore was not a dreamer. He was a great educational practitioner who

himself was closely associated with the entire educational practices at Vishwa Bharati.

The word Vishwa Bharati is composed of two words. In Sanskrit the word Vishwa means

‘world’ and Bharati means ‘culture’. Thus Vishwabharati would mean ‘world culture’.

The motto of this university is “Yatra Vishwam Bhavati Ekamidam” i.e. where the world

meets in one place. Through Vishwabharati as a whole, the poet and the seer sought, “ to

seek to establish a living relationship between the East and the West, to promote

interracial amity and inter-cultural understanding and fulfill the highest mission of the

present age—the unification of mankind”.

Today this Vishwabharati is known not only all over the world, but also attracts scholars

from different parts of the world. Tagore has observed,

“I have formed the nucleus of an international university, as one of the best means of

promoting mutual understanding between the east and the west.”

It was intended to be, “Treasure of Light” not only for India but also of the world.

Vishwa Bharti is a symbol of his passionate faith in the brotherhood of nations. It is the

greatest contribution of Tagore not only to the realm of education but also to the world.

It emerges out to be a symbol of world peace. Love, universalism, Idealism made the

greatest appeal to him. He is an apostle of enlightened humanity.

Tagore has three main purposes in establishing the Vishwabharati as under:

To teach the different culture of east, especially of the east that originated in India

or found shelter within her shores.

To establish ‘the Institution of Rural Reconstruction’ in order to lay the

foundation of a happy, contended, and humane life in the villages.

36

‘To seek to establish a living relationship between East and West to promote

interracial amity and inter-cultural understanding and fulfill the highest mission of

the present age—the unification of mankind.

Tagore’s scheme of education at Vishwabharati was to be distinctively national, patriotic,

absolutely Indian , where individuals from all over the world could come and think

clearly, feel nobly and act rightly, thus becoming the channels of moral truth. In his

Vishwa Bharati, he tried to develop initiative and originality of mind in the students by

giving them freedom. Students from Persia, Ceylon, Burma, Tibet, China, Japan and had

been enrolled in one or other department of Vishwabharati. There are no barriers of caste

or creed and no test of religious belief imposed on the students. The Vishwa-Bharati

maintained the following co- educational academic institutions or bhavanas:

Path- Bhavana (school section)

This is the nucleus around which Vishwa-Bharati has grown. The school places emphasis

riot so much on mere acquisition of knowledge as on a full and harmonic development of

the child. Close personal contact with the teacher, the influence of nature and

environment, the atmosphere of freedom and joy, the practical training given in

cooperation and self-government, the effort made to develop the self-expressive side of

the child-mind through social, literary, and artistic activities, supervision of physical

activities and organization of excursions—are some of the special features of the school.

Patha-Bhavana which used to train students up to the matriculation' standard of Calcutta

University along with the Adyta Certificate Examination of the Vishwa-Bharati now the

institute.

Tagore tried to present a wider choice of subject matter and activities to his students and

by doing so he intended to present an integrated education—education as an expression

of intellectual abilities, aesthetic abilities and most of all an education which was related

to life also.

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Shiksha- Bhavana (Higher Secondary)

This section provided higher secondary education to the students. Tagore tried to present

a wider choice of subject matter and activities to his students and by doing so he intended

to present an integrated education—education as an expression of intellectual abilities,

aesthetic abilities and most of all an education which was related to life also.

Vidya- Bhavana (college of under- Graduates and Post Graduation

Studies)

This particular division of Vishwa-Bharati has gone through several changes over the

years. Before the incorporation of the Vishwa-Bharati as a University, it used to provide

collegiate education up to the graduation level. It also provided for a Vishwa-Bharati

diploma, Madhya and Antya diplomas, which were equivalent to the intermediate and

graduate degrees of chartered universities. According to "Vishwa-Bharati and Its

Institutions" (Vishwa-Bharati, it was a college of undergraduate and graduate studies.

Rabindra-Bhavana (College of Tagore Studies and Research)

It provides facilities for the study of and research into the life and works of Rabindranath

Tagore and his manifold contributions to the diverse fields of human endeavor. It

provides facilities for research studies leading to the Ph.D. degree in accordance with the

Ordinance of the University governing the same.

Vinaya Bhavana (College of Education)

The Vinaya-Bhavana started functioning in September training schools under the basic

training scheme, and teachers for primary and secondary schools. Now it provides

instruction for the degrees of B.Ed, and M.Ed.—both courses being of one year's

duration. A special feature of the B.Ed, course is training in crafts and other practical and

creative activities. In addition to the usual subjects, marked emphasis is placed on the

practical aspects of the course.

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Kala Bhavana (College of Fine Arts & Crafts)

Education in the academic sense of mere acquisition of knowledge or information never

appealed to the comprehensive genius of the poet. Education to be real must be of the

whole man, of the emotions and senses as much as of the intellect. He said, "in order to

lay before our educational authorities the petition that they should try and make it natural

for our educated people to reverence art. Anything else that it may be necessary for me to

do I have already started in my own institution, in spite of many handicaps"

Sangeet Bhavana (College of Music and Dance)

Tagore always gave music and dancing a priority place in his scheme of education. A

large part of man, he believed, cannot wholly be expressed by the mere language of

words. "Man has not only discovered scientific truths, he has realized the ineffable. From

ancient times the gifts of such expressions have been rich and profuse, Wherever man has

seen the manifestation of perfection, —in words, music, lines, colours, and rhythm, in the

sweetness of Subjects taught for this degree are: Rabindra Sangeet, classical music

(vocal) , Manipuri dance, Kathakali dance, sitar and sera.

Lok Siksha Samsad (People's Education Council)

The Lok Siksha-Samsad is an examining body formed with a view of encouraging home

study among those who cannot afford to continue their study in schools or colleges.

At the education conference during the Bengal Education Week celebrated in February

1936, Tagore made some proposals and among other observations made therein, he

stated,

"if examination centers are started in towns and cities of different states for those men

and women in the country who are for various reasons deprived of the benefit of school

education, then many will feel encouraged to educate themselves at home in their leisure

39

hours. Their education can be properly directed if their syllabus and textbooks are

clearly prescribed from the lowest to the highest stages”

5.3 The Institution of Rural Reconstruction – Sriniketan

On February 6th, 1922, Tagore opened a new centre at Surul with the name of Sriniketan.

While opening this institute, he thought that the uppermost in mind should arouse the

feeling of self-confidence in the villages and imbibe them with a spirit of self help. The

word "Sri" contains the idea of prosperity and thus the name Sriniketan reveals

Rabindranath’s hope to make this place a center of village prosperity and welfare.

Prabhat Kumar, biographer of Tagore, wrote about the opening day of Sriniketan,

"This day is memorable in the annals of Vishwa-Bharati. The long cherished dream of

Tagore about rural reconstruction was, on that day, on its way to fulfillment through the

initiative of an Englishman and the financial assistance of an American"

In fact, the movement started under very promising circumstances. "What more could be

wanted, when these three great personalities were brought together in the cause of

humanity—Tagore with his visions and dreams penetrating into the very souls of the

peasantry. Around him; Elmhirst with his leadership, sympathy and love for the poor

villagers of this part of Bengal; and Mrs. Straight with her gift of money, without which

neither of the other two could proceed with any work of this kind"

The institution started with two objectives in mind, first to survey the economic, social

and scientific needs of the cultivators in their home, village and fields, and second, to try

out laboratory experiments in health, education, craft, cultivation and animal husbandry.

Accordingly, the activities of Sriniketan were organized under four departments:

(1) Agriculture, including Animal Husbandry,

(2) Industries,

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(3) Village Welfare

(4) Education,

The unified program was given the name of Institute of Rural Reconstruction. The ideal

of the institute, in the words of Tagore, is "The object of Sriniketan is to bring back life in

its completeness into the villages making them self-reliant and self-respectful, acquainted

with the cultural tradition of their own country and competent to make an efficient use of

the modern resources for the improvement of their physical, intellectual and economic

condition".

5.4 Shiksha Satra – An Experiment in Rural Education at Sriniketan

Tagore founded Shiksha Satra in 1924. One of the inspiring factors for starting the

Shiksha Satra was to give a practical bias to education. By giving full opportunity to the

students to enter into intimate relationship with the natural and social environment.

Besides the educational activities of the Village Welfare Department, Sriniketan

maintains a high school, Siksha-Satra, mainly for rural children. The school is organized

as a miniature community and students do everything that a village householder is

expected to do, on a small scale but with greater efficiency and understanding. The

literary education is not ignored but more attention is given to the building up of the

whole man. The extra-curricular activities of the Siksha-Satra include:

Industry (weaving, carpentry, book-binding and leather works),

Gardening,

Health and sanitation,

Housecraft and general management,

Sports, games and Brati-Balaka activities,

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Educational trips to places of interest,

Literary society,

A monthly manuscript magazine—Chesta (Effort).

5.5 Education for International Understanding

Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood is his significant

contributions of Tagore. His Internationalism knows no bounds. Tagore’s universal

humanitarianism is the corner-stone of collaboration between Easts. At the doorsteps of

the atom and hydrogen bomb, the world has much to learn from Tagore’s message of

freedom of mind and human loyalty so that a better world could be created out of the

ashes of the old and West. He is the apostle of enlightened humanity and a strong

champion of world unity. His emphasis on developing international understanding

through well planed education was really a marvelous Attempt to capitalize education as

an instrument of goodwill and human understanding of others.

Through him India has given her message to mankind and his unique achievements in the

fields of literature, philosophy, education, and art have won imperishable fame for

himself and have raised the status of India in the estimation of the world. The conception

of Vishwa Bharti, is in accordance with his notion of Greater India where humanity will

strive to reach a reconciliation of different races with different religions and civilizations.

Tagore held that the entire universe is one family. Education can teach people to realize

oneness of the globe.

5.6 Tagore’s Naturalism

Tagore believed that education divorced from the main streams of life and confined

within the four walls of the classroom becomes artificial and loses its value. He believes

that education given in natural surroundings helps to develop intimacy with the world.

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His essay entitled “Tapovan” (Forest colony) may be considered a valuable supplement

to ‘Shiksa Samasya’. According to Tagore an Ideal school must be

“An ashram where man gathered for the highest end of life, in the peace of nature,

where life is not merely meditative but also fully awake in its activities”.

Tagore envisaged that nature is the best teacher to the pupil. Nature will provide the

student with necessary situation to earn knowledge. No pressure should be exerted upon

the student to learn anything. It is nature which will be the guiding force to inculcate the

spirit of learning in the mind of a student to pursue the education he likes. Tagore writes

in ‘The Jasmine’

“I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth;

I have heard the liquid murmur of the river

through the darkness of midnight;

Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of the road the lonely waste, like a bride

raising her veil to accept her lover.

Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines that I held in my hands when I

was a child”.

It will shape his behaviour and character School, according to Tagore, should be a place

where sunrise and sunset and the silent glory of stars are not daily ignored. Tagore wants

equilibrium of the ‘Natural’ and ‘Civilized’ forces in man. The art of education according

to him should consist in training the child to inhibit all those impulses that are anti-

social. For our perfection we have to be mentally civilised, we should have the gift to be

natural with nature and human with human society.

5.7 Child-Centred Education

Tagore emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create non- authoritarian learning

systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. Child centered education is one of

his greatest contributions. Tagore puts more faith in an individual than in any institution.

43

The individual child is more important than the books, curriculum and method. Tagore

laid stress on the multisided concept of education (physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and

religious) to develop an all round human personality. Tagore emphasized that Freedom

was granted to the child to discover things than getting second hand information through

books. Emphasis should be given on the freedom of children to learn and create. He laid

great stress on self development of the child and child's activity should stem from his

own interests. So plays, games and songs and other such activities should be designed in

the curriculum especially to stimulate the child's self-activity.

The Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) suggested the establishment of a National Child

Museum, a modern Art Gallery, a child centre and central library. The N.P.E (1986) also

favoured Tagore’s views and stated that the children should be free to set their own pace

and remedial instructions. Child centred education today exists in various forms in

schools all over the world.

5.8 Development of Harmonious Personality

One of the significant contributions of Tagore to Education is his greater emphasis on the

complete harmonious development of individual personality. Tagore believed that

education should help an individual to attain complete manhood, so that all his powers

may be developed to the fullest extent for his own individual perfection as well as the

perfection of the human society in which he was born. He believed that education is not

merely a means for the growth and fullness of the individual but it was also concerned

with the whole physical and social milieu in which his life is lived. Education can

become dynamic and vital only when it is "in constant touch with any complete life." For

the harmonious development of the child, Tagore stressed upon the Gurukul System of

Education. He wanted to train the hand, heart and head of the child.

The Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) also stressed that the function of

secondary education should release the sources of creative energies in the students, to

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make them able to appreciate their cultural heritage, to cultivate rich interest for the

development of the heritage.

The National Policy of Education (1986) advocated Tagore’s ideas and focused on

education for physical, intellectual and aesthetic development of personality. Education

develops man power for different levels of economy.

5.9 Vocational Education

Tagore believed in vocational education and introduced crafts like Carpentary, Weaving,

book binding and sewing in his educational institutions. Tagore’s Institute of Rural

Reconstruction Sriniketan maintains a high school, Siksha-Satra, mainly for rural

children. The school is organized as a miniature community and students do everything

that a village householder is expected to do, on a small scale but with greater efficiency

and understanding. In the words of Tagore, is:

"The object of Sriniketan is to bring back life in its completeness into the villages making

them self-reliant and self-respectful, acquainted with the cultural tradition of their own

country and competent to make an efficient use of the modern resources for the

improvement of their physical, intellectual and economic condition”.

The Indian Education Commission (1964-66) recommended vocational education

along with general education for the productivity. The Working Group on Organisation

of Vocational Education (1977) is in view with Tagore’s ideas and laid stress on the

establishment of Vocational Education Board for different vocations. The N.P.E (1986)

recommended vocational subjects in modern India. The Acharya Rma Murti Review

Committee (1990) recommended that the vocational training for women should be

included.

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5.10 Humanism

Tagore’s Humanism made him an outstanding figure much ahead of his times. Because

of his Humanism, he was a great lover of children and advises the teachers to be like the

children and not to think themselves superior. He believed that neither the education of

the senses nor, the education of the intellect but the education of the feeling should

receive the place of honour in schools. One of his significant contributions to the field of

education is that he advised teachers to cultivate the eternal spirit of child and thereby

shunned away all violence and force in the process of education. Tagore thinks of a

universal mind of humanity. To Tagore, civilization should be evaluated in terms of what

value it attaches to man and not in terms of how many scientific inventions it has

produced.

Tagore held that the entire universe is one family. Education can teach people to realize

oneness of the globe. The soul of Rabindranath could become one with the cosmos.

Overwhelmed by the unified voice of the waves and the forests, the ocean and the land,

the sky and the earth, the poet wrote in his later years:

"I have tied you with my two joints,

Your creations are with you and me,.

My surprised eyes are touched by a wand of gold,

It has revived the sense of beauty

"I have bought my freedom from bonds

Crossing the far away sky of soul, the Milky Way,

In the pilgrimage of light, on the fine coast of extinction."

In the same vein”

Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood is Tagore’s Ideal of

true education The feeling of oneness can be developed through the concepts like

fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man all creatures are equal on this earth.

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5.11 Value Education

Tagore rightly said “We are busy in decorating the cage till now. The bird of the cage is

still hungry.”

Tagore laid stress upon Value education should be inculcated in the hearts of younger

generation and this must be the major objective of education. Tagore’s Shantiniketan

tried to modernise India by fusing old values with new values and thereby, transmitting

the old ones. Tagore wants to make ‘ the purpose of Education nothing short of the

highest purpose of man, the fullest growth and freedom of soul’ He strongly advocated

that moral and spiritual education is more important than bookish knowledge for an

integral development of human personality. There must be an adequate provision for the

development of selfless activities, co-operation and love fellow feeling and sharing

among the students in educational institutions.

The N.P.E (1986) recommended that the educational institutions should try to foster

values in the minds of the students through value education. The Janardhan Reddy

Committee (1992) included that value education has a profound positive content, based

on our cultural heritage, national and universal goals and perceptions.

5.12 Equalisation of Educational Opportunities

Tagore believed in the equalisation of educational opportunities to all including SC, ST,

BC and handicapped in their education. Tagore desperately wanted to use education as an

instrument to “wipe away all dark strains from the heart of this earth. Rabindranath

Tagore’s contribution and writes that as one of the earliest educators to think in terms of

the global village, Rabindranath Tagore’s educational model has a unique sensitivity and

aptness for education within multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-cultural situations,

amidst conditions of acknowledged economic discrepancy and political imbalance. .

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The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009,

incorporates Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of

elementary education in a neighbourhood school balance. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth

Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution of India to provide free

and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a

Fundamental Right.

The New Education Policy (1986) laid stress on interalia, the girl students of SC/ST/BC

and handicapped as well as minority group children will be provided all kinds of

opportunities. The Navodaya Vidyalayas have been started throughout India for this

purpose.

5.13 Discipline, Freedom and Punishment

In modern educational theory, Freedom occupies central place. Tagore had great

sympathy for children. Tagore had championed the cause of freedom. It means the child’s

own experience and activities. He explained freedom in three sense namely: freedom of

heart, freedom of intellect and freedom of will. For Tagore education has only meaning

and object in freedom.

“Freedom from ignorance about the laws of universe and freedom from passion and

prejudice in our communication with the human world.”

Freedom is considered as an integral aspect of human development. Education is a man-

making process, it explores the innate power exists within the man. It is not an imposition

rather a liberal process their provides utmost freedom to the individual for his all round

development. He says, Education has leaning only when it is imparted through the path of

freedom.

Tagore was strictly against the corporal punishment and regarded the school as a serious

Fault which does not give freedom to the child for the exercise of his imagination. In his

Vishwa bharati causes of difficult children were generally sent to Gurudeva. He would

49

speak to the child as a Father or a Grandfather would do to his own child in his home.

Ideas and practice about the school discipline were most modern. It was not imposed

without but it grew from within. It was very rarely that punishment was given; it was

done in family spirit.

5.14 Creative Self Expression

Tagore believed that our education must provide for creative self - expression which

should be creative in nature. This is the only reason why Tagore has given arts, crafts,

music, drawing, dramatics, and a prominent place in his scheme of education. Regarding

the creativity of the child, Tagore writes in his poem ‘The victory banner’

“The tighter the binding, the looser it grows,

Our liberty escapes it, as light as a breath.

The trickier the knot, the rougher the rope,

Our freedom evades it, as subtle as scent.

So softly we gaze, as open as children.

Inwardly we win, though outwardly submit,

The more vividly we dream, the more real is it”.

Tagore was aware about the rural poverty of our country. So, he wanted to eradicate it

through education. Education for rural reconstruction was a unique contribution of

Tagore. The practical training imparted in different crafts to the students will make them

skilled artisans in their field. They can remove the poverty of the rural bulk by applying

their education helping thereby in the process of rural reconstruction. Tagore advocated

that many other languages of lines and colors as well as sounds are essential for the

satisfaction of his aesthetic urge and creative self expression.

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5.15 Role of Teacher and Teaching Methods

Tagore gave higher status to the teacher in his educational institutions .Tagore in fact,

sketched the character of the school teacher in his play “Mukta Dhara”. Tagore’s

conception of an Ideal teacher is fully relevant in the contemporary times. He truly

remarked “A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own

flame”. The teacher must have sympathy for the child. He has to be considerate and must

understand the child thoroughly. Tagore recognized the importance of education among

the masses. Education according to Tagore can be in two forms namely elementary

education and social or adult education. The Teacher must have a receptive mind and

learning attitude. Special arrangements for the higher education of teachers, to improve

their teaching methods according to the needs of students and teaching should be made.

Following his footsteps, National Commission on Teachers I, II (1983-85)

recommended measures to enhance the role of teachers in facilitating, motivating and

inspiring students in the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values and promoting through

them the spread of the scientific temper, environmental consciousness and civic

responsibility. Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97) recommended that the statutory status

will be accorded to the National Council Of Teacher Education (NCTE) to laid down

and maintain standards in institutions and courses.

5.16 Women Education

Tagore stressed on women education. In 1908 he established a department of women

education in Shantiniketan. He was greatly shocked to see the deteriorating condition of

the women folk in Indian society. In order to improve this condition, he advocated

women education. In his Shantiniketan and Vishwabharati boys and girls go round the

groves chanting ‘Thou Art Our Father’. Girls reside in the premises, study, eat sleep

51

without the distinction of caste or creed. Regarding the power and individuality of

women Tagore says

“O woman, you are not merely the

handiwork of God, but also of men;

these are ever endowing you with

beauty from their hearts.

Poets are weaving for you a web

with threads of golden imagery;

painters are giving your form ever

new immortality.

The sea gives its pearls, the mines

their gold, the summer gardens their

flowers to deck you, to cover you, to

make you more precious.

You are one half woman and one

half dream.”

He advocated that women should acquire pure knowledge for becoming a mature human

being, and utilitarian knowledge for becoming true women and the result is that in recent

years, women education has gained momentum both in public and private sectors.

“If education is a tool for human development and if education is the birth right of a

human being I do not understand how we can deprive the women from education.

Following his footsteps Kothari Education Commission (1964-66) has rightly asserted

that there cannot be educated people, without educating women. UNESCO declared in

1975 “the Year of Grace as “Women’s International Year.

5.17 Youth Participation

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Tagore provided many opportunities to the young students to solve their own problems

and the problems of others. His views are totally relevant in the modern times. In the

Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), youth participation in National and International

activities are encouraged. The N.P.E (1986) stressed Tagore’s views and provided

opportunities for youth to participate in various activities.

5.18 Delinking Degrees from Jobs

Tagore was of the view that the educational system should not be based upon issuing

degrees and diplomas. The National policy on education (1986) agrees with Tagore’s

viewpoint and proposed as one of the cardinal principles of the educational policy of the

country to delink degrees from the jobs in selected areas.

5.19 Mother tongue

Tagore advocated that the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction. He

showed great respect and courage for the mother tongue because it is an effective way of

learning. Janardhan Reddy committee (1992) also supported the idea that the

instructions should be provided in mother tongue.

5.20 Tagore’s Spiritualism and Idealism

Tagore’s Spiritualism and Idealism made him a cult figure among the educationists of

the times. He strongly advocated that moral and spiritual education is more important

than bookish knowledge for an integral development of human personality. There must

be an adequate provision for the development of selfless activities, co-operation and love

fellow feeling and sharing among the students in educational institutions. Tagore fought

against the dominance of materialistic outlook of life and he was an idealist to the core.

But he believes that education should be related to the life-currents of the people for

which it is meant.

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54

5.21 Physical and Yoga Education

Tagore was in favour of introducing physical education. Tagore was of the view that

Yoga is important for the physical, mental and spiritual development of the human being.

A Committee on National College of Physical Education and Recreation (1952)

recommended that there should be usual activities in a physical institute, indigenous

exercises including Yogic exercises, could be encouraged.

5.22 Realistic Approach to Education

Another significant aspect of his ideas was a realistic approach to education. Just as the

curriculum envisaged by him was to reflect the customs , traditions, social ideals,

conditions and problems of everyday life of the pupil, so also the method was to be based

on real life situations and social life. Tagore’s realistic approach was psychological. His

“The Activity principle” and “Teaching while walking” are still used in many educational

institutions. He advocated the necessity of a broad based curriculum. A simplified,

balanced curriculum based on the policy of nation was remarkable contribution to

education.

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Relevance of Tagore’s ideas in the Modern World

Education is worthwhile which enables a human being to have ‘Mukti’ or freedom from

all vices. India had visualized a socialistic democratic pattern of society in its

constitution. The modern philosophy of Education builds up with development of critical

thinking and reasoning. The Twentieth century thinkers of India developed the

philosophy of Humanism, equality, brotherhood, world economy, and world government.

Among leading Educators of India, Tagore has done much to shape the future course of

educational practice at home and abroad.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) who was a leading spokesman for compassionate

humanism, nationalism, internationalism and culture in India. Tagore’s song ‘jana gana

mana adhinayaka’ (1911) invoking the same goal of a larger humanity was chosen as

our national anthem remains a symbol of modern India’s legacy of universal humanity.

He was one of the first in India to argue for a humane educational system that was in

touch with the environment and aimed at overall development of the personality. Tagore

is known as the benefactor of humanity and expressed his faith in God and advocated

spiritual, humanistic and character development.

On his death, the syndicate of the University of Calcutta placed on record of his services

to India:

“Through him India has given her message to mankind and his unique achievements in

the fields of literature, philosophy, education, and art have won imperishable fame for

himself and have raised the status of India in the estimation of the world”.

Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a man of vision and viewpoint. Tagore

was the Renaissance man of modern India - the bridge from an Indian culture

traditional education system. Tagore's educational ideals have been agreed by other

educationists and many of his innovations have now become part of general educational

practices, but his special role lay in the emphasis on harmony balance between

56

materialism and spiritualism in total development of personality. Talking about the crisis

of education, Tagore said that a boy should be permitted to read books of his own choice

including to the prescribed textbooks he must read for his school work. Our education

system is without delight. Small children are burdened with bundle of books .Tagore

wrote: From childhood to adolescence and again from adolescence to manhood, we are

coolies of the goddess of learning, carrying loads of words on our folded backs.

Gurudeva was always concerned regarding socialization. His educational institution

represented a way of thinking, feeling, and living, both in society and in education. Some

of his students, indeed, became teachers, national leaders and Nobel prizewinners.

The core of Tagore's contribution was learning from nature, music and life. This is the

reason why his education is easily acceptable by human mind. The visionary in

Rabindranath and the great educationist in him solved the problem of today a century

earlier. The problems of modern education are attendance, use of other unfair means and

indiscipline. It is more certificates oriented irrelevant of intelligence and correlation with

Nature. Tagore solved these problems in a grand way. Freedom in the class solved the

problem of attendance, absence of invigilator solved the copying or use of unfair means.

Thus Tagore's educational system is a great achievement. It is regretted that we did not

try to apply the formulas suggested by Tagore. That is why his Tagore's Santiniketan,

Vishwa Bharti and Sriniketan may said to constitute Tagore's educational trinity through

which he tried to developed his education theme. The poet selected for its motto an

ancient Sanskrit verse, Yatra Vishwam Bhavatieka Nidam, which means, where the

whole world meets in a single nest."

National Core Curriculum

Curriculum should be the key stone of our future plans. The subjects provided should

touch all aspects of the child’s life. Tagore’s conception of an ideal curriculum is highly

relevant in the present scenario. According to Tagore, our modern educational curriculum

should be based on to the policy of the nation. It should be simplified, purified and should

57

consist balanced activities of the society. Rather than studying national cultures for the

wars won and cultural dominance imposed, he advocated a teaching system that analyzed

history and culture for the progress that had been made in breaking down social and

religious barriers. Such an approach emphasized the innovations that had been made in

integrating individuals of diverse backgrounds into a larger framework, and in devising

the economic policies which emphasized social justice and narrowed the gap between

rich and poor. Art would be studied for its role in furthering the aesthetic imagination and

expressing universal themes.

Physical Education and Games

Tagore was of the view that Yoga is important for the physical, mental and spiritual

development of a human being. So that is why in our modern schools also, yoga classes

are started. Tagore laid stress on physical education as an integral part of the learning

process and it should receive special education.

Multisided Education for Harmonious Development

Rabindranath Tagore laid emphasis on physical, mental, moral, religious and spiritual

aspects of education. His educational plan has been based on activity-oriented aspect and

aims to develop on all round human personality. He believed that education is not merely

a means for the growth and fullness of the individual but it was also concerned with the

whole physical and social milieu in which his life is lived. Education can become

dynamic and vital only when it is in constant touch with any complete life.

Child Centered Approach

Child centered Education today exists in various forms in schools all over the world. In

such approach, an activity based and child centered process of learning should be adopted

at primary stage. Tagore legacy in the form of child centered education has given vent to

the creative self expression of child. He emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create

58

non- authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. Tagore

puts more faith in an individual than in any institution. The individual child is more

important than the books, curriculum and method.

Moral and Spiritual Development:

Tagore emphasized moral and spiritual training in his educational thought. Moral and

spiritual education is more important than bookish knowledge for an integral

development of human personality. In one of his poems “who follows me”, he listens to

the voice of his inner self or conscious and considers it a symbol of his moral

development.

“WHO FOLLOWS ME?”

“I came out alone on my way to my tryst. But who is this

that follows me in the silent dark?

I move aside to avoid his presence, but I escape him not.

He makes the dust rise from the earth with his swagger

He adds his loud voice to every word that I utter.

He is my own little self, my lord”

So he advocated that there must be an adequate provision for the development of selfless

activities, co-operation and love fellow feeling and sharing among the students in

educational institutions.

Value Education

The dawn of the new Millennium was in a state of shock on account of the dismissal

picture of values in man’s world. Materialism has engulfed human soul. William

Wordsworth has rightly lamented:

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“The world is too much with us late or soon,

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers,

Little we see in Nature that is ours”

The problem of value crisis can be solved by following Tagore’s ideas about Value

Education. Tagore laid stress upon Value education and these should be inculcated in the

hearts of younger generation must be the major objective of education. Tagore’s

Shantiniketan tried to modernize. He strongly advocated that moral and spiritual

education is more important than bookish knowledge for an integral development of

human personality. There must be an adequate provision for the development of selfless

activities, co-operation and love fellow feeling and sharing among the students in

educational institutions.

Concept of an Ideal Teacher

A Teacher is a nation builder and a social engineer. He is the true yardstick that

measures the glories and success of a nation and has the privilege of moulding the

attitudes and habits of the pupils. There is no exaggeration to say:

“The mistake of a doctor is buried with the patient,

The mistake of an engineer is cemented with the bricks,

But the mistake of a Teacher is reflected on the nation”

Tagore’s conception of an Ideal teacher is fully relevant in the contemporary times. The

teacher must have sympathy for the child. He has to be considerate and must understand

the child thoroughly. Still today, a student depends upon his teacher for the academic

success even as he depends upon his parents for this.

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Women Education

Tagore stressed on Women Education. He advocated that women should acquire pure

knowledge for becoming a mature human being, and utilitarian knowledge for becoming

true women and the result is that in recent years, women education has gained

momentum both in public and private sectors. We are greatly indebted to him who paved

way for the success of women of our modern times like Indira Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu,

Vijaylaxmi Pandit, Kiran Bedi,Kalpana Chawla, Aishwarya Rai, Shabana Azmi, Saina

Mirza, Saina Nehwal.

Rural Upliftment

Tagore favoured the ideal of rural upliftment. India is a country of villages. In fact, in one

of his poems ‘Sabyatar Prati’, he pays a glowing tribute to the rural life and laments of

his soul at the loss of the idyllic life of simplicity as exemplified by the rustic folk.

“Give me back the Forest, take away this city -

Take away its steel and concrete, trusses and boulders

O new Civilization!

Heartless usurper! Return to me the peaceful hermitage –

The immaculate, untrammeled days in its blessed shades

The holy ablutions at sunset, the quest herding of cattle

The gentle, uplifting Sama tunes

Nourished by simple grains, drasped in bark,

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Engrossed in the deepest meditation,

Seeking within the self,

Tireless, the Truths profound,

Locked in your stony cages, I do not wish to be reassured

By your imperial new treasures.”

Tagore founded Shiksha Satra in 1924. One of the inspiring factors for starting the

Shiksha Satra was to give a practical bias to education. By giving full opportunity to the

students to enter into intimate relationship with the natural and social environment.

Besides the educational activities of the Village Welfare Department, Sriniketan

maintains a high school, Siksha-Satra, mainly for rural children. The school is organized

as a miniature community and students do everything that a village householder is

expected to do, on a small scale but with greater efficiency and understanding. The

literary education is not ignored but more attention is given to the building up of the

whole man.

In 1936, he established Lok-Siksha for propagation of non-formal education among

those who had no access to formal education opportunities. For training village school

teachers he established Siksha-Charcha in 1937. Besides these, he also established other

organization such as Silpa Sadana, Palli Siksha Bhavana and Santosh pathshala.

“All the great utterances of man have to be judged not by the letter but by the spirit—the

spirit which unfolds itself with the growth of life in history.”- Rabindranath’s Sadhana:

the Realisation of Life (1916).

He was much aware of the needs of the country. He laid stress upon the importance of

dignity of labour and manual skills. At present the establishments of village panchayat

have given more powers in villages. Ninth Five Year plan (1997-2002) suggested for

62

promotion and development of participatory institutions like Panchayati Raj Institutions,

co-operatives and self help groups. In rural areas employment oppurtunities are provided.

Place of fine Arts

Tagore attached great importance to the fine arts in his educational curriculum. To him,

game, dance, music, drama, painting etc. should form a part of educational process.

Students should take active part in these finer aspects of human life for these are very

essential to enrich soul.

In his words "Speaking is for mankind and music for nature speaking is clear and

limited by its needs; whereas music is mystic and expressive for a romantic eagerness.

That is why; speaking creates nearness between man and man, while music helps us to

identify ourselves with nature. When the harmonies of sounds are released with our

expression then speaking loses much of its limited significance, but on the contrary

getting together of the two muses had an all pervading character".

The aesthetic development of the senses is as important as the intellectual as in the case

of Music, Literature, Art, Dance and Drama are given great prominence in the daily life

of the school. Rabindranath tried to create a healthy atmosphere in which the Arts would

become instinctive. One of the first areas to be emphasized is Music. Rabindranath writes

that in his adolescence, a 'cascade of musical emotion' gushed forth day after day at

Jorasanko. 'We felt we would try to test everything,' he writes, 'and no achievement

seemed impossible...We wrote, we sang, we acted, we poured ourselves out on every

side'

As Rabindranath began conceiving of Vishwa-Bharati as a national centre for the arts, he

encouraged artists such as Nandalal Bose to take up residence at Santiniketan and to

devote themselves full-time to promoting a national form of art. Without music and the

fine arts, he wrote, a nation lacks its highest means of national self-expression and the

people remain inarticulate. Tagore was one of the first to support and bring together

different forms of Indian dance. He helped revive folk dances and introduced dance

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forms from other parts of India, such as Manipuri, Kathak and Kathakali. He also

supported modern dance and was one of the first to recognize the talents of Uday

Shankar, who was invited to perform at Santiniketan. In the modern scenario, expression

of thoughts, emotions through any art form is considered sublime and subtle and is given

due relevance in our curriculum.

Education for International Understanding

Tagore was an internationalist who critiqued the narrowly defined concepts of

nationalism and patriotism. He wanted all human beings to be treated equally regardless

of the country or nation to which they belonged. He also did not want barriers between

people even within the same nation—the barriers of caste, race, and religion. Vishwa

Bharti is a symbol of his passionate faith in the brotherhood of nations. It is the greatest

contribution of Tagore not only to the realm of education but also to the world. It

emerges out to be a symbol of world peace. Love, universalism, Idealism made the

greatest appeal to him. He is an apostle of enlightened humanity. At the doorsteps of the

atom and hydrogen bomb, the world has much to learn from Tagore’s message of

freedom of mind and human loyalty so that a better world could be created out of the

ashes of the old. Rabindranath Tagore was in favour of one world creation of unit amidst

cultural, colour and religious diversities is the need of the time for peaceful co-existence

in the globe. Forgetting selfishness one we should work to establish world culture based

on love, affection fellow feeling and mutual understanding. Cosmopolitan feelings are

explicit in his writings and paintings. Tagore's internationalist thought and attempt for

making united world is appreciated all over the world.

Discipline, Freedom and Punishment

In modern educational theory, Freedom occupies central place. Freedom is considered as

an integral aspect of human development. Education is a man-making process, it explores

the innate power exists within the man. It is not an imposition rather a liberal process

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their provides utmost freedom to the individual for his all round development. To Quote

Tagore

“I was brought up in an atmosphere of aspiration, aspiration for the expansion of the

human spirit. We in our home sought freedom of power in our language, freedom of

imagination in our literature, freedom of soul in our religious creeds and that of mind in

our social environment. Such an opportunity has given me confidence in the power of

education which is one with life and only which can give us real freedom, the highest that

is claimed for man, his freedom of moral communion in the human world. In my

institution I have attempted to create an atmosphere of naturalness in our relationship

with strangers and the spirit of hospitality which is the first virtue in men that made

civilization possible”

Tagore emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create non- authoritarian learning

systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. He was strictly against the corporal

punishment. He never wanted that the child should be suppressed by an authority. He

says, Education has leaning only when it is imparted through the path of freedom".

Realistic Approach to Education

Tagore’s ideas about Realistic Approach to Education are highly relevant in the modern

scenario. Just as the curriculum envisaged by him was to reflect the customs , traditions,

social ideals, conditions and problems of everyday life of the pupil, so also the method

was to be based on real life situations and social life. Tagore’s realistic approach was

psychological. His “The Activity principle” and “Teaching while walking” are still used

in many educational institutions. He advocated the necessity of a broad based curriculum.

A simplified, balanced curriculum based on the policy of nation was remarkable

contribution to education.

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Goodbye to Book-Centered Education

For the first time in the arena of education, Tagore established a new mile-stone. With

boldness and firmness, he rejected a book-centered education for students. To him it is

not just to confine the mind of boys and girls to text-books only. It will kill the natural

instincts of a student and make him bookish. It will kill his creative skill. So, students

should be freed from the-book-centered education and should be given a broader avenue

for learning.

Return to Nature

Tagore believed that education divorced from the main streams of life and confined

within the four walls of the classroom becomes artificial and loses its value. He believes

that education given in natural surroundings helps to develop intimacy with the world.

His essay entitled “Tapovan” (Forest colony) may be considered a valuable supplement

to ‘Shiksa Samasya’

“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!

Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?

Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is

breaking stones.

He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust.

Put of thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found?

Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with

us all forever”

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Suggestions and Conclusions

Tagore's Contribution to education is highly relevant in the modern scenario and many of

his innovations have now become part of general educational practices. The visionary in

Rabindranath and the great educationist in him solved the problem of today a century

earlier. The country is indebted to him for leaving an immense heritage in the form of

educational experiment. As an educator he had a definite social aim to build up a Social

structure to achieve the ideal of society through education. Tagore’s educational ideas are

based on three cardinal principles namely: Freedom, creative self expression, active

communication with man and nature. Tagore Said

“To accept the truth of our own age it will be necessary to establish a new education

on the basis, not of nationalism, but of a wider relationship of humanity.

His generous personality and his striving to break down barriers of all sorts gives us a

model for the way multiculturalism can exist within a single human personality, and the

type of individual which the educational process should be aspiring towards. Tagore

occupied a prominent place in the galaxy of brilliant men, who laid the foundation of the

new nation in the wake of Indian Renaissance. The establishment of Vishwa-Bharati and

Sriniketan led to pioneering efforts in many directions, including models for distinctively

Indian higher education and mass education, as well as pan-Asian and global cultural

exchange.

Tagore considered teachers to be very important in any scheme of education. He wanted

teachers to help young children to grow on their own as a gardener helps the young plants

to grow. In other words, he wanted teachers to stimulate constructive doubt, the love of

mental adventure, the courage and longing to conquer the world by enterprise and

boldness in thought and in action. He wanted to use education as an instrument of change

to make Indian young men and women more rational and less subject to meaningless

social and individual rituals. Tagore wanted his students to acquire a scientific temper

and discipline to come from within, from the pursuit of noble and high ambitions in life.

Discipline would follow naturally when minor impulses and desires were willingly

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forgone to pursue grand and creative desires. He wanted his students to think in terms of

the whole of mankind. He wanted them to become universal men and women like himself

and to overcome feelings of narrow nationalism in order that the world could live and

grow in peace and international harmony Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) who was a

leading spokesman for compassionate humanism, nationalism, internationalism and

culture in India.

Tagore’s song ‘jana gana mana adhinayaka’ (1911) invoking the same goal of a larger

humanity was chosen as our national anthem remains a symbol of modern India’s legacy

of universal humanity. He was one of the first in India to argue for a humane educational

system that was in touch with the environment and aimed at overall development of the

personality. Tagore is known as the benefactor of humanity and expressed his faith in

God and advocated spiritual, humanistic and character development. We can conclude

in the words of Dr. R.S. Mans

“The Country is indebted to Rabindranath Tagore for leaving an immense heritage in the

form of an educational experiment and other activities that the national education of

tomorrow can adopt. Tagore emphasised the finer sides of life in the form of music, song

and dance which meant fullness of life. The poet did not forget the problems of life’s

practical necessities. His experiment in education had definite social aims to build up a

social structure, to achieve the ideal society through education.”

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Summary of the Study

Education is the touchstone of civilization and culture. It is an integral part and basis of

human life. Ever since the dawn of civilization man has been trying to `educate’ himself

in order to meet the changing demands of life. In the words of Tagore:

“Education means enabling the mind to find out that ultimate truth which emancipates us

from the bondage of the dust and gives us the wealth , not of things but of inner light , not

of power but of love, making its own and giving expression to it”.

Plants are developed by cultivation and men by education. This world would have been

enveloped in intellectual darkness if it had not been illuminated by the light of education.

It is right to say that the story of civilization is the story of education. It is the basic

condition for a development of a whole man and vital instrument for accelerating the well

being and prosperity by the light of education. Tagore said: “The highest Education is

that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all

existence.”

Rabindranath Tagore, by his efforts and achievements, is part of a global network of

pioneering educators, such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Montessori and Dewey–and

in the contemporary context, Malcolm Knowles–who have striven to create non-

authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. The

outstanding aspect of Tagore’s contribution to education was Freedom. Tagore had

championed the cause of freedom. Tagore’s Naturalism made him a universal man. Like

a true naturalist, Tagore wants that child’s education must be organized in natural

surroundings. Because of his Humanism, he was a great lover of children and advises the

teachers to be like the children and not to think themselves superior.

The conception of Vishwa Bharti, is in accordance with his notion of Greater India where

humanity will strive to reach a reconciliation of different races with different religions

and civilizations. Tagore believed that our education must provide for creative self-

expression which should be creative in nature. Child centered education is one of his

69

greatest contributions. He emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create non-

authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings.

Review of Related Literature

A careful review of the research journals, dissertations, theses and other sources of

information on the problem to be investigated forms a major part of the research design.

For these surveys of educational research edited by M.B. Buch journals, newspapers,

books have been thoroughly studied by the researcher to define his problem significantly.

The investigator has taken the initiative of probing into important aspects related to the

research problem which depicts contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of

Education and its Relevance in the modern world.

Justification of the Problem

Tagore was not only a theorist but also a practitioner.  His ideas about education brought

a revolution in the field of education. Tagore, by his efforts and achievements, is one of

the global networks of pioneer educators, who have striven to create non- authoritarian

learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. His philosophy and ideas

are significant even in the contemporary times. His concept of international education,

creative self expression is totally relevant in the present scenario. He insisted that it is

essential to educate the women for national development. In recent years women

education has gained momentum both in private and public sectors. His ideals of human

love, interpersonal relationship, socio-cultural norms, and realization of cooperative

society are as much relevant today as in his times.

Many scholars have studied Tagore’s Contribution in the field of education but still there

are certain gaps that need more comprehensive and wider attention. In order to fill those

gaps in the existing knowledge and to have an in depth analysis of the myriad personality

of Tagore and his contribution in the field of education with its relevance in the modern

world, the investigator thought of probing further on this topic.

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Statement of the Problem

CONTRIBUTION OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE IN THE FIELD

OF EDUCATION AND ITS RELEVANCE IN THE MODERN

WORLD.

Objectives of the Study

1. To study the Biography of Rabindranath Tagore.

2. To understand the contribution of Rabindranath Tagore in the field of education.

3. To study the Educational ideas of Rabindranath Tagore.

4. To analyze the relevance of Tagore’s educational ideas in the modern world.

Method and Procedure

The present study is philosophical and historical in nature. So for this, the researcher has

adopted Historical method of research. Historical material in such areas of education as

principles of philosophy of education has made contribution in understanding the present

day problems. It demands standard of careful methodology and spirit comparable to these

which characterize other types of research. The main processes which are involved in the

historical method of researchers can be classified as under:

Collection of data (from primary and secondary sources)

Critical analysis of data collected.

Presentation of facts.

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Following this pattern, the investigator has collected the data and analyzed the data

collected and then presented the facts. While collecting and then presented the facts.

While collecting the data, the investigator consulted two types of sources: Primary

Sources and Secondary Source.

In Primary sources, the investigator took the help of writings of Tagore, records,

memories, biographies and books on the contribution of this great scholar. In the

secondary sources , the investigator consulted a no. of books , journals, articles , reviews,

abstracts, net library database related to  Tagore’s contribution to education to make the

research complete in all aspects.

Biography of Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore popularly known as ‘Gurudeva’ was born on 6 may 1861, in

a highly cultured family in Calcutta which was famous for its progressive and

enlightened views. Rabindranath was the fourteenth and the youngest son of Maharishi

Devendranath and grandson of Dwarkanath Tagore.  His father Devendranath was a great

Brahmo Samaj leader. He taught him Indian philosophy, Upanishads, astronomy and

Sanskrit. Tagore received his early education at home from private tutors. By nature, he

loved beauty, music and poetry. When he had grown a little older he was sent to St.

Xavier’s school, Calcutta. At the age of 16 Tagore was sent to England to study law but

this subject did not appeal to him and he returned to India after a while.

On 9 December 1883 he married Mrinalini Devi. They had five children, two of whom

later died before reaching adulthood. In 1890, Tagore began managing his family’s

estates. During these years, Tagore’s Sadhana Period (1891-1895) was among his most

fecund, with more than half stories of the three-volume and eighty-four story

Galpaguchchha was written. In 1901, Tagore left Shilaidaha and moved to shantiniketan

to found an ashram, an experimental school. . On 14 November 1913, Tagore for his

magnum opus `Gitanjali’, was awarded the Noble prize for Literature. In 1921, Tagore

and agricultural economist Leonard Elmhirst set up the Institute for Rural Reconstruction

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(which Tagore later renamed Shriniketan- “Abode of peace”) in Surul. Tagore took an

interest in science in his last years, writing Vishwa-Parichay (a collection of essays) in

1937. He also wove the process of science into many stories contained in such volumes

as Se (1937), Tin Sangi (1940), and Galpasalpa (1941). Tagore’s last four years were

marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. Tagore died on 7 august 1941 in

an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised; his death anniversary

is still mourned in public functions held across the world.

Contribution of Tagore in the field of education

Tagore’s experiments

The Bholpur School (shantiniketan)

Rabindranath Tagore had definite and clear ideas about education. He wanted to put them

into practice. He was in search of some ideal solution of his problem. At last, he turned to

‘shantiniketan Ashrama’ (Abode of Peace) of his father as a place suitable for his purpose

and with the blessing of his father, he started his experimental school towards the

beginning of this new century in 1901.Tagore’s immediate object in founding

Shantiniketan was to have a place in which children would live a happy life and enjoy as

much freedom as possible. Shantiniketan was planned as an educational experiment

which by relating the educational problems and programmes of a small and intimate

community of pupils and teachers to the forces working behind the renaissance and the

new birth of a nation

Vishwa Bharati

Rabindranath Tagore was not a dreamer. He was a great educational practitioner who

himself was closely associated with the entire educational practices at Vishwa Bharati.

The word Vishwa Bharati is composed of two words. In Sanskrit the word Vishwa means

‘world’ and Bharati means ‘culture’. Thus Vishwa bharati would mean ‘world culture’.

The motto of this university is “Yatra Vishwam bhavati ekamidam” i.e. where the world

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meets in one place. Through Vishwa bharati as a whole, the poet and the seer sought, “to

seek to establish a living relationship between the East and the West, to promote

interracial amity and inter-cultural understanding and fulfill the highest mission of the

present age—the unification of mankind”. Tagore has three main purposes in establishing

the Vishwa bharati as under : To teach the different culture of east, especially of the east

that originated in India or found shelter within her shores, to establish ‘the Institution of

Rural Reconstruction’ in order to lay the foundation of a happy, contended, and humane

life in the villages ; To seek to establish a living relationship between East and West to

promote interracial amity and inter-cultural understanding and fulfill the highest mission

of the present age—the unification of mankind. Its various sections are:

Path- Bhavana, Shiksha-Bhavana, Vidya-Bhavana, Rabindra-Bhavana, Vinaya Bhavana

Kala Bhavana , Sangeet Bhavana, Lok Siksha Samsad .

The Institution of Rural Reconstruction – Sriniketan

On February 6th, 1922, Tagore opened a new centre at Surul with the name of Sriniketan.

While opening this institute, he thought that the uppermost in mind should arouse the

feeling of self-confidence in the villages and imbibe them with a spirit of self help. The

word "Sri" contains the idea of prosperity and thus the name Sriniketan reveals

Rabindranath’s hope to make this place a center of village prosperity and welfare. The

institution started with two objectives in mind, first to survey the economic, social and

scientific needs of the cultivators in their home, village and fields, and second, to try out

laboratory experiments in health, education, craft, cultivation and animal husbandry.

Shiksha Satra – An Experiment in Rural Education at Sriniketan

Tagore founded Shiksha Satra in 1924. One of the inspiring factors for starting the

Shiksha Satra was to give a practical bias to education. By giving full oppurtunities to the

students to enter into intimate relationship with the natural and social environment.

Besides the educational activities of the Village Welfare Department, Sriniketan

74

maintains a high school, Siksha-Satra, mainly for rural children. The school is organized

as a miniature community and students do everything that a village householder is

expected to do.

Education for International Understanding

Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood is his significant

contributions of Tagore. His Internationalism knows no bounds. Tagore’s universal

humanitarianism is the corner-stone of collaboration between Easts. The conception of

Vishwa Bharti, is in accordance with his notion of Greater India where humanity will

strive to reach a reconciliation of different races with different religions and civilizations.

Tagore’s Naturalism

Tagore believed that education divorced from the main streams of life and confined

within the four walls of the classroom becomes artificial and loses its value. His essay

entitled “Tapovan” (Forest colony) may be considered a valuable supplement to ‘Shiksa

Samasya’. According to Tagore an Ideal school must be “An ashram where man gathered

for the highest end of life, in the peace of nature, where life is not merely meditative but

also fully awake in its activities”.

Child- Centred Education

Tagore emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create non- authoritarian learning

systems appropriate to their respective surroundings. Child centered education is one of

his greatest contributions. Tagore puts more faith in an individual than in any institution.

The individual child is more important than the books, curriculum and method. Tagore

laid stress on the multisided concept of education (physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and

religious) to develop an all round human personality.

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Development of Harmonious Personality

One of the significant contributions of Tagore to Education is his greater emphasis on the

complete harmonious development of individual personality.

Tagore believed that education should help an individual to attain complete manhood.

For the harmonious development of the child, Tagore stressed upon the Gurukul System

of Education.

Vocational Education

Tagore believed in vocational education and introduced crafts like Carpentary, Weaving,

book binding and sewing in his educational institutions. Tagore’s Institute of Rural

Reconstruction Sriniketan maintains a high school, Siksha-Satra, mainly for rural

children. "The object of Sriniketan is to bring back life in its completeness into the

villages making them self-reliant.

Humanism

Tagore’s Humanism made him an outstanding figure much ahead of his times. Because

of his Humanism, he was a great lover of children and advises the teachers to be like the

children and not to think themselves superior. He believed that neither the education of

the senses nor, the education of the intellect but the education of the feeling should

receive the place of honour in schools.

Value Education

Tagore laid stress upon Value education and strongly advocated that moral and spiritual

education is more important than bookish knowledge for an integral development of

human personality.

76

77

Equalisation of Educational Opportunities

Tagore believed in the equalisation of educational opportunities to all including SC, ST,

BC and handicapped in their education. Tagore desperately wanted to use education as an

instrument to “wipe away all dark strains from the heart of this earth. Rabindranath

Tagore’s contribution in education lies that he is one of the earliest educators to think in

terms of the global village.

Discipline, Freedom and Punishment

In modern educational theory, Freedom occupies central place. Tagore had great

sympathy for children. Tagore had championed the cause of freedom. It means the child’s

own experience and activities. He explained freedom in three senses namely: freedom of

heart, freedom of intellect and freedom of will.Tagore was strictly against the corporal

punishment and regarded the school as a serious Fault which does not give freedom to the

child for the exercise of his imagination

Creative Self Expression

Tagore believed that our education must provide for creative self - expression which

should be creative in nature. This is the only reason why Tagore has given arts, crafts,

music, drawing, dramatics, and a prominent place in his scheme of education. The

practical training imparted in different crafts to the students will make them skilled

artisans in their field.

Role of Teacher and Teaching Methods

Tagore gave higher status to the teacher in his educational institutions .Tagore in fact,

sketched the character of the school teacher in his play “Mukta Dhara”. Tagore’s

conception of an Ideal teacher is fully relevant in the contemporary times. The teacher

must have sympathy for the child. Special arrangements for the higher education of

78

teachers, to improve their teaching methods according to the needs of students and

teaching should be made.

Women Education

Tagore stressed on Women Education. He advocated that women should acquire pure

knowledge for becoming a mature human being, and utilitarian knowledge for becoming

true women and the result is that in recent years, women education has gained

momentum both in public and private sectors.

Youth Participation

Tagore provided many opportunities to the young students to solve their own problems

and the problems of others. His views are totally relevant in the modern times. In the

Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), youth participation in National and International

activities are encouraged. The N.P.E (1986) stressed Tagore’s views and provided

opportunities for youth to participate in various activities.

Delinking Degrees from Jobs

Tagore was of the view that the educational system should not be based upon issuing

degrees and diplomas. The National policy on education (1986) agrees with Tagore’s

viewpoint and proposed as one of the cardinal principles of the educational policy of the

country to delink degrees from the jobs in selected areas.

Mother tongue

Tagore advocated that the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction. He

showed great respect and courage for the mother tongue because it is an effective way of

learning. Janardhan Reddy committee (1992) also supported the idea that the instructions

should be provided in mother tongue.

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Tagore’s Spiritualism and Idealism

Tagore’s Spiritualism and Idealism made him a cult figure among the educationists of the

times. He strongly advocated that moral and spiritual education is more important than

bookish knowledge for an integral development of human personality

Physical and yoga education

Tagore was in favour of introducing physical education. Tagore was of the view that

Yoga is important for the physical, mental and spiritual development of the human being.

A Committee on National College of Physical Education and Recreation (1952)

recommended that there should be usual activities in a physical institute, indigenous

exercises including Yogic exercises, could be encouraged.

Tagore was of the view that Yoga is important for the physical, mental and spiritual

development of a human being. So that is why in our modern schools also, yoga classes

are started. Tagore laid stress on physical education as an integral part of the learning

process and it should receive special education.

Relevance of Tagore’s ideas in the modern world

Education is worthwhile which enables a human being to have ‘Mukti’ or frredom from

all vices. India had visualized a socialistic democratic pattern of society in its

constitution. The modern philosophy of Education builds up with development of critical

thinking and reasoning. The Twentieth century thinkers of India developed the

philosophy of Humanism, equality, brotherhood, world economy, and world government.

Among leading Educators of India, Tagore has done much to shape the future course of

educational practice at home and abroad. Tagore is known as the benefactor of humanity

and expressed his faith in God and advocated spiritual, humanistic and character

development.

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National Core Curriculum

According to Tagore, our modern educational curriculum should be based on to the

policy of the nation. It should be simplified, purified and should consist balanced

activities of the society. Such an approach emphasized the innovations that had been

made in integrating individuals of diverse backgrounds into a larger framework, and in

devising the economic policies which emphasized social justice and narrowed the gap

between rich and poor.

Multisided Education for Harmonious Development

Rabindranath Tagore laid emphasis on physical, mental, moral, religious and spiritual

aspects of education. His educational plan has been based on activity-oriented aspect and

aims to develop on all round human personality.

Child Centered Approach

Child centered Education today exists in various forms in schools all over the world. In

such approach, an activity based and child centered process of learning should be adopted

at primary stage. Tagore legacy in the form of child centered education has given vent to

the creative self expression of child. He emerges out to be a pioneer who strived to create

non- authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their respective surroundings.

Value Education

The dawn of the new Millennium was in a state of shock on account of the dismissal

picture of values in man’s world. Materialism has engulfed human soul. The problem of

value crisis can be solved by following Tagore’s ideas about Value Education. Tagore

laid stress upon Value education and these should be inculcated in the hearts of younger

generation must be the major objective of education.

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Concept of an Ideal Teacher

A Teacher is a nation builder and a social engineer. Tagore’s conception of an Ideal

teacher is fully relevant in the contemporary times. The teacher must have sympathy for

the child. He has to be considerate and must understand the child thoroughly. Still today,

a student depends upon his teacher for the academic success even as he depends upon his

parents for this.

Women Education

Tagore stressed on Women Education. He advocated that women should acquire pure

knowledge for becoming a mature human being, and utilitarian knowledge for becoming

true women and the result is that in recent years, women education has gained

momentum both in public and private sectors.

Rural Upliftment

Tagore favoured the ideal of rural upliftment. India is a country of villages. He laid stress

upon the importance of dignity of labour and manual skills. At present the establishments

of village panchayat have given more powers in villages. Ninth Five Year plan (1997-

2002) suggested for promotion and development of participatory institutions like

Panchayati Raj Institutions, co-operatives and self help groups. In rural areas

employment oppurtunities are provided.

Education for International Understanding

Tagore was an internationalist who critiqued the narrowly defined concepts of

nationalism and patriotism. He wanted all human beings to be treated equally regardless

of the country or nation to which they belonged. He also did not want barriers between

people even within the same nation—the barriers of caste, race, and religion

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Discipline, Freedom and Punishment

In modern educational theory, Freedom occupies central place. Tagore emerges out to be

a pioneer who strived to create non- authoritarian learning systems appropriate to their

respective surroundings. He was strictly against the corporal punishment. He never

wanted that the child should be suppressed by an authority.

Realistic Approach to Education

Another significant aspect of his ideas was a realistic approach to education. Just as the

curriculum envisaged by him was to reflect the customs , traditions, social ideals,

conditions and problems of everyday life of the pupil, so also the method was to be based

on real life situations and social life. Tagore’s realistic approach was psychological. His

“The Activity principle” and “Teaching while walking” are still used in many educational

institutions. He advocated the necessity of a broad based curriculum. A simplified,

balanced curriculum based on the policy of nation was remarkable contribution to

education.

Rabindranath Tagore was a leading spokesman for compassionate humanism,

nationalism, internationalism and culture in India. Tagore's Contribution to education is

highly relevant in the modern scenario and many of his innovations have now become

part of general educational practices. The country is indebted to him for leaving an

immense heritage in the form of educational experiment.

Suggestions for Further Research

The following studies can be taken up by the other research workers:

A study of Vishwa Bharati – An Educational Experimentation in the modern

education system.

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Concept of Child Centered Education in the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore

and its relevance in the modern Education system.

Importance of Naturalism in the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore and its

relevance in the present scenario.

Concept of Humanism in the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore and its

relevance in the modern world.

A study of new innovations in the field of education by Rabindranath Tagore.

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