The Gurudev of the Globe Lovingly referred to as Gurudev, Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 to a Pirali Brahmin family at Kolkata. Tagore showed his mastery in literature as an eight year old boy by writing poetry. Tagore becomes a novelist, poet, musician, artist, social reformer and central figure in the Indian modernist movement. From time to time, he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and visionary way. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India. In 1901 Tagore founded an experimental school in rural West Bengal at Shantiniketan (“Abode of Peace”), where he sought to blend the best in the Indian and Western traditions. This school later rose in prominence as Visva-Bharati University in 1921.Tagore took up painting and produced works that won him a place among India’s foremost contemporary artists. Apart from being the author of internationally celebrated verses in Gitanjali, he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 prize in Literature. At home, he composed national anthem of the Republic of India’s Jana Gana Mana….However, he passed away before the independence of India on 7th August 1941.