Gitanjali-by-Rabindranath-Tagore

   

Gitanjali-by-Rabindranath-Tagore 

Between 1878 and 1932, Tagore visited more than 30 countries on five continents; many of these trips were crucial in familiarising non-Indian audiences with his works and spreading his political ideas. In 1912, he took a sheaf of his translated works to England, where they impressed missionary and Gandhi protégé Charles F. Andrews,Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Robert Bridges, Ernest Rhys, Thomas Sturge Moore, and others Indeed, Yeats wrote the preface to the English translation of Gitanjali, while Andrews joined Tagore at Santiniketan. On 10 November 1912, Tagore began touring the United States and the United Kingdom, staying in Butterton, Staffordshire with Andrews's clergymen friends. From 3 May 1916 until April 1917, Tagore went on lecturing circuits in Japan and the United States and denounced nationalism. His essay "Nationalism in India" was scorned and praised, this latter by pacifists, including Romain Rolland.

With Albert Einstein, 1930

Tagore had visited Karwar when he was 21 years old, while his elder brother worked as a district judge in Karwar . Tagore was attracted by the beauty of Karwar beach and the nature of the area during his visit.Karwar so enraptured Tagore that he dedicated chapter 36 of his memoirs "My Reminiscences" to it, making special mention of the beach, Kalanadi (Kali River) and the Sadashivgadh.There are references in his books that he was visiting Sadashivagad near Karwar by boat and also by walk and lunched with fishermen during the visit to their houses. In his book `Nature's Revenge,' he referred to Karwar and the natural beauty of the place.

Shortly after returning to India, the 63-year-old Tagore accepted the Peruvian government's invitation to visit. He then travelled to Mexico. Each government pledged US$100,000 to the school at Shantiniketan (Visva-Bharati) in commemoration of his visits.  A week after his 6 November 1924 arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an ill Tagore moved into the Villa Miralrío at the behest of Victoria Ocampo. He left for India in January 1925. On 30 May 1926, Tagore reached Naples, Italy; he met Benito Mussolini in Rome the next day. A warm rapport ended when Tagore criticised Mussolini on 20 July 1926. 

At the Majlis, Tehran, 1932

On 14 July 1927, Tagore and two companions began a four-month tour of Southeast Asia, visiting Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam, and Singapore. Tagore's travelogues from the tour were collected into the work "Jatri". In early 1930 he left Bengal for nearly a year-long tour of Europe and the United States. Once he returned to the UK, while his paintings were being exhibited in Paris and London, he stayed at a Friends settlement in Birmingham. There he wrote his Oxford Hibbert Lectures and spoke at London's annual Quaker gathering. There (addressing relations between the British and Indians, a topic he would grapple with over the next two years), Tagore spoke of a "dark chasm of aloofness". He visited Aga Khan III, stayed at Dartington Hall, and toured Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany from June to mid-September 1930, then the Soviet Union Lastly, in April 1932, Tagore—who was acquainted with the legends and works of the Persian mystic Hafez—was hosted by Reza Shah Pahlavi of Iran. Such extensive travels allowed Tagore to interact with many notable contemporaries, including Henri Bergson, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Romain Rolland. His visits and intensive contact with Albert Einstein also laid the foundation for the Tagore Einstein Council, the Einstein Baghwan, and many acivities maintained in Berlin and Shantinitekan. http://tagore-einstein-council.de Tagore's last travels abroad, including visits to Persia and Iraq (in 1932) and Sri Lanka (in 1933), only sharpened his opinions regarding human divisions and nationalism