Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali poet, novelist, composer, painter, and educator, and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913). Born in Calcutta into a prominent family, he wrote prolifically in Bengali, and his English translation of his poems in Gitanjali (Song Offerings) brought him international fame. He founded Santiniketan, a school later developed into Visva-Bharati University, which emphasized creativity, nature, and cross-cultural exchange. He also wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh, and he returned his knighthood in 1919 in protest against the Amritsar massacre.