Republic Day 2012
On the occasion of the 150th
birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the Ministry of Culture, is paying
homage to the multifaceted genius’ vision with a grand Commemoration, that
involves central ministries, state governments, universities, civil society
groups and Tagore experts and enthusiasts, from India and countries across the
globe. To set policy guidelines for the union of efforts envisaged for such a
commemoration, a National Committee, under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh
was constituted on 27 April 2010.
In the first meeting of the National
Committee, held on 20 May 2010, the Prime Minister made note of the need to not
only highlight various facets of Tagore’s own personality, but also key aspects
of his contribution to the arts, education, rural development, sensitivity to
the environment and gender issues, and bringing India closer to the rest of the
world. In order to provide a framework for programmes and schemes that would
highlight these, and facilitate the decisions of the National Committee, a
National Implementation Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of the
Union Minister of Finance, Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Comprising senior Cabinet
ministers and eminent academicians, the NIC held three decisive meetings, that
culminated with the Inaugural function of the Commemoration on 7 May 2011, at New Delhi.
The Commemoration was
initiated with a series of exceptional launches. The National Advisory Council
Chairperson, Smt Sonia Gandhi, released Rabindra Chitravali, which compiles 2,065 images of Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings,
drawings and doodles from the rich collection of Visva-Bharati, Rabindra Bharati University
and the National Gallery of Modern Art, in four elegantly produced volumes.
These volumes include commentaries, notes and technical details about the works
reproduced as well as some of Tagore’s own writings on art, aesthetics and his
paintings. The compendium makes Tagore’s
paintings accessible to art historians and scholars and provides a
comprehensive reference on his visual art. This is for the first time that the
entire work of an artist has been digitally unified.
Memorable Publications
The programme also saw the
release of other memorable publications on Tagore, including special issues of India Perspectives and
India Horizons, besides commemorative stamps and coins, and a commemorative
audio-visual archival album, Tagore Stories on Film. The last comprises
five films based on Tagore’s stories and a 34-minute film, Natir Puja, which is
the surviving portion of a silent film that Tagore himself made in 1932. All
the films and documentaries are subtitled and have undergone picture and sound
restoration. The 6-pack DVD set, produced by the National Film Development
Corporation (NFDC) in collaboration with the Ministries of Culture and
Information and Broadcasting, also includes a 54-minute documentary by Satyajit
Ray on Tagore’s life.
Tagore Award For Promotion Of Universal Brotherhood
One of the key highlights
of the function was the Prime Minister’s announcement of the Tagore Award for Promotion of Universal
Brotherhood, instituted by the Government of India to be
given once a year, from 2012, with
a prize money of Rs 1 crore. The Award, based on nominations of
luminaries including Nobel laureates and Bharat Ratna/Jnanpith awardees, and
the decision of a jury to be chaired by the Prime Minister, would be made
irrespective of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or sex. The Closing
ceremony on 7 May 2012 will see the announcement of the first the Award for
2012.
Tagore
National Fellowship For Cultural Research
To commemorate the event,
the Ministry of Culture announced the Tagore
National Fellowship for Cultural Research with the objective of
rejuvenating various cultural institutions in the country which have
vast collections of manuscripts, paintings and artifacts, by making these
available for research. Open to both Indian nationals and foreign citizens, the
scheme incorporates two categories of awards. The first category, ‘Tagore
National Fellows’, carries an honorarium of Rs 80,000/per month with up
to 15 awards given in a year. The second category is for ‘Tagore Research Scholars’
to be paid a monthly honorarium of Rs 50,000/. The scheme is expected to cover
29 MoC institutions, including all three National Akademies and seven Zonal
Cultural Centres, besides eight non-MoC institutions. Scholars and projects are
to be selected by a National Selection Committee (NSC), comprising of eminent
scholars from different fields of study.
Joint India-Bangladesh Commemoration
One of the most significant aspects
of this commemoration is the Joint
India-Bangladesh Commemoration that resulted from the Cultural Exchange
Programme for 2010-12 between India
and Bangladesh,
signed on 11 January 2010 in New Delhi,
in the presence of the Prime Ministers of the two countries. A
twelve-member Indian delegation led by Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Shri
Jawhar Sircar, visited Dhaka and held discussions while the Culture Secretary,
Government of Bangladesh reciprocated with a visit to India on 7
April 2011.
Marked by various cultural
programmes in different cities of both countries, including seminars, lectures
and workshops by artists and experts of both countries, the Joint Commemoration
includes Rabindra Natyan, a unique project for collaborative playwriting, the
establishment of Tagore Chairs and Tagore Centres for research in select
universities besides several seminal publications, the joint production of
documentary films on the life and works of Tagore and a Joint Tagore Play
festival with participants from both countries.
UNESCO For Hosting Cultural
Events
The Ministry has extended support to UNESCO for hosting cultural events
such as ‘Remembering Tagore’, organised in the Maison de l’UNESCO, Paris. Several international exhibitions of Tagore’s
paintings are also underway. Around 250 original paintings of Tagore have been
chosen for display in Berlin(Germany), London(UK), Paris(France), Rome(Italy),
New York & Chicago(USA) and Seoul(South Korea). This is for the first time
that the original works of Tagore have been exhibited anywhere in the world.
In addition, fifteen busts of Rabindranath Tagore,
commissioned by the Ministry, are to be sent for installation in different
countries, in association with the Indian High Commisions in these countries.
The first of these was unveiled by the President of India, Smt Pratibha Patil
in the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, in October 2011. The
busts are also in the process of getting installed in Sri Lanka, Tel Aviv (Israel)
and Columbia.
Conservation Of Heritage Buildings In
Santiniketan
In collaboration with the
Ministry of Culture, the Archaeological Survey of India’s Kolkata Circle is
implementing the conservation of twenty-seven heritage buildings in Santiniketan, including seven in which
Tagore himself lived at different stages of his life. Besides structural
conservation, ASI is undertaking scientific conservation of mural paintings in
the 27 heritage buildings which include works by Abanindranath Tagore,
Binodebehari Mukherjee, Somnath Hore and other luminaries of Indian art. An
exhibition of photographs entitled ‘The Idea of Space and Rabindranath Tagore’,
held at Lalit Kala Akademi, New
Delhi, in August 2011, also explored Tagore’s world-view through his
residential spaces and in the educational buildings created at Santiniketan
between 1910 and 1940.
Kalaanukramik Rabindra
Rachanavali Project
Among the projects funded
by Culture Ministry, to be implemented by Visva-Bharati, is the launch of the Kalaanukramik Rabindra Rachanavali Project,
presenting all of Tagore’s writings in Bangla and English including his
published correspondences, in a chronological order in about 80 volumes. A
special committee has been set up by the Ministry of Culture to assess and make
periodic reviews of this mammoth project.
Online Archive Of All Rabindranath Tagore’s Works
Bichitra -
A Complete Electronic Variorum of Tagore’s Text, is another monumental venture
undertaken by the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University,
in collaboration with Rabindra-Bhavana, Santiniketan and with financial support
from the Ministry of Culture. Targeting completion by March 2013, Bichitra will
provide an online archive of all Rabindranath Tagore’s works in manuscript and
print, with significant versions and revisions of each work, enabling
comparisons of all authentic versions of each text. It aims to contribute to Tagore’s
own idea of universal dissemination and extension of knowledge, through a
humane application of technology.
Exploring Tagore’s diverse facets are
two publications supported by
the Ministry, Something Old, Something New: Rabindranath Tagore, by Marg publications,
Mumbai, and Prof Sugata Bose’s English translations of a hundred songs of
Tagore, accompanied by a 5-pack audio CD set.
A screening committee,
under the Chairmanship of acclaimed film director, Shri Shyam Benegal,
constituted by the Government, selected films
and documentaries on Tagore and his works, for financial assistance from
the Government. Two of these, Rituparno Ghosh’s documentary, Home and the
World, and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s 13 short films based on 13 poems of Tagore, are
under production.
Renovating and Creating Tagore
Cultural Complexes
Another area which has been brought
into focus in the course of the Commemoration is that of Tagore cultural complexes and auditoria.
In his opening remarks to the First Meeting of the National Committee for the
Commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, the Prime
Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, drew attention to the Centenary Celebrations held
in 1961 when a programme of building auditoria and cultural complexes named
after Tagore, was initiated. The National Committee, along with the National
Implementation Committee under the Union Minister of Finance, Shri Pranab
Mukherjee, recognised the need for renovation, upgradation and expansion of
these buildings and complexes, while simultaneously creating new Tagore
cultural complexes in state capitals and other cities where no such structures
exist, within the framework of a revised MPCC (state-sponsored Multi-Purpose
Cultural Complex) scheme. Besides setting up new complexes, it is expected to
significantly rejuvenate existing Rabindra Auditoria by modernising them into
state-of-the-art cultural complexes with facilities and infrastructure for
stage performances, exhibitions, seminars, literary activities, film shows,
etc. launched by the Ministry of Culture to provide financial assistance to
nonprofit organisations for hosting commemorative cultural programmes, the Tagore Commemoration Grant Scheme (TCGS),
was introduced on 21st September 2010. The scheme would also support universities,
including university centres and institutions. Zonal Tagore Cultural Committees
are to scrutinise proposals and sanction grants. This scheme generated a lot of
interest amongst the cultural organizations and a large number of cultural
events were organized to commemorate Tagore’s anniversary.
The Commemoration, though ongoing,
has already elicited a buoyant wave of enthusiasm from a cross-section of
society and age-groups, and augur a positive trend for participating
institutions as well as receptivity to the ideas embodied by Tagore. A large
number of organizations in India and abroad have also been holding events to
commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore on
their own without any assistance from the Government as the initiatives taken
by Ministry of Culture generated so much of interest and enthusiasm that many
private organizations have come forward to commemorate
this event in a befitting manner. As a
result of all these efforts, the Government succeeded in disseminating the
ideas of Tagore to the world at large very effectively. (PIB Feature).
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*Inputs from the Ministry of Culture.
SS-18/SF-18/20-01-2012
RTS/HSN