RABINDRANATH TAGORE: A HUMANIST AND SOCIAL REFORMER (Pages 46-51) by Mr. Shaik Iliyas Ali and Dr. P. Padma in THE ENGLISH INDIA / ISSN: 2321-1172 (Online); 2347-2634 (Print)

Rabindranath Tagore, addressed popularly as “Gurudev” was basically a humanist who tried to awake the Indians from the dark to face the light of the future. When the scientific revolution dominated the 19th century, the need for humanist arouses and carved permanently a name among the great writers of the world when especially for his Gitanjali which has won him the Nobel Prize in 1918. As a Poet-Prophet, he looked ahead with optimism and confidence in human beings that they can live with better vision of truth and reality. He, like Gandhi was a social reformer through politically he was unlike Gandhi and believed in the course of the down-trodden, women and upliftment if not only the Indians but also openly and with uprightness the Europeans. He believes that man’s vision is blurred by self-interest and prejudice. When only we cross that remoteness, the emancipation of our consciousness occurs treading our path to reality. It is a desert which receives rain but never offers a fruit. Man should do something to the world when he is born. God gives us the life and the only way we repay is through humanity.Rabindranath Tagore, addressed popularly as “Gurudev” was basically a humanist who tried to awake the Indians from the dark to face the light of the future. When the scientific revolution dominated the 19th century, the need for humanist arouses and carved permanently a name among the great writers of the world when especially for his Gitanjali which has won him the Nobel Prize in 1918. As a Poet-Prophet, he looked ahead with optimism and confidence in human beings that they can live with better vision of truth and reality. He, like Gandhi was a social reformer through politically he was unlike Gandhi and believed in the course of the down-trodden, women and upliftment if not only the Indians but also openly and with uprightness the Europeans. He believes that man’s vision is blurred by self-interest and prejudice. When only we cross that remoteness, the emancipation of our consciousness occurs treading our path to reality. It is a desert which receives rain but never offers a fruit. Man should do something to the world when he is born. God gives us the life and the only way we repay is through humanity.Keywords: Humanism, Optimism, idealism, Social consciousness, nationalism, truth