8 May, 2012

Curtain Falls On Year-long Indo-Bangladesh Tribute to Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore

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New Delhi, 07-May, 2012 (Press Information Bureau) – The year-long joint Indo-Bangladesh celebrations to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore concluded here today with the closing ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan.

The ceremony was attended by the Vice-President of India Mr. M. Hamid Ansari, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr. Dipu Moni, Finance Minister and Chairman, National Implementation Committee Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja. Several Ambassadors and High Commissioners of foreign countries in New Delhi were also present.

The year-long joint celebrations witnessed elaborate programmes on the multi faceted genius Tagore, a poet, writer, painter, musician and philosopher. Exhibitions of Rabindranath’s paintings, musical soirees, seminars, workshops, release of commemorative publications and coins and joint productions and performances of dances and dramas, based on the stories and songs written by Tagore, were organized both in India and Bangladesh as part of the celebrations.

Addressing the gathering, Dr. Hamid Ansari has said that Rabindranath Tagore was a multifaceted genius whose creativity spanned every form of artistic expression. His concerns ranged from global and universalist ones to practical and mundane issues. He established institutions to reflect his vision and through his travels, writings and actions demonstrated that the international brotherhood of man was not merely a theoretical construct.

See the full text of Dr Ansari’s speech below.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni in her address said that Rabindranath Tagore belonged to the world and the joint commemoration of his 150th Birth Anniversary by Bangladesh and India is a joint tribute by both the countries to the great poet and philosopher. She said her country will celebrate the 100th year of Tagore getting the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali next year.

The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee announced that a jury under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has selected Pandit Ravi Shankar to be the first recipient of the Tagore award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values. He said, the award shall carry an amount of Rs. 1 Crore, a Citation in a Scroll, a Plaque as well as an exquisite traditional handicraft/handloom item.

Mr. Mukherjee said, the Government of India has further decided to grant Rs. 150 Crores to Viswa Bharati University to revive and restore the glory of this great institution founded by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Earlier the Culture Minister Kumari Selja in her welcome speech said guided and advised by both the National Committee and the National Implementation Committee, the Ministry of Culture organized and lent its support to a rich tapestry of projects related to Rabindranath Tagore. She said, her Ministry supported multi-dimensional activities through Government and Non-Governmental forums. She said, among other things, there have been publications, exhibitions of his paintings, enactment of his plays and a glorious resurgence of Rabindra Sangeet. Seminars and lectures were organized, films were commissioned, a web-portal of about 8000 books on and by Tagore was launched.

Artistes from India and Bangladesh enthralled the audience with Rabindra Sangeet as a tribute to Gurudev in the hour-long closing ceremony.

Following is the text of Vice President Dr Hamid Ansari’s address :

“This is a rare privilege. On the 6th of May last year I had visited Dhaka to participate in the inaugural function of the joint commemorations to mark the sesqui-centenary of the versatile and multifaceted genius whose pen wrote our respective national anthems. Today, I have the good fortune to participate in the closing ceremony of the joint commemoration.

The preceding twelve months have been witness to the vibrant expression of Tagore’s legacy in our two countries and have reminded our two people of the continuing relevance for our times of his ideas and ideals.

It is indeed of enduring significance that the governments and peoples of Bangladesh and India have chosen such an occasion to renew their bonds of friendship and reaffirm their commitment to our shared cultural heritage and intellectual ethos.

While browsing through the facsimile of the original manuscript of Tagore’s “Gitanjali” that I received from the Ministry of Culture, my attention was drawn to the following verse:

“I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed forever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared.”

I believe something similar could be said of the enduring friendship, fraternity and affection of the peoples of India and Bangladesh for each other.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has undertaken three historic visits to India: to New Delhi in January 2010, to Tin Bigha Area in October 2011 and in January this year to Agartala. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Bangladesh in September 2011 and was accompanied by the Chief Ministers of some of our states bordering Bangladesh.

Each of these visits reinforced the firm resolve of our leaderships to further strengthen people-to-people links, settle outstanding issues and enhance trade and economic relations between India and Bangladesh.

Rabindranath Tagore was a multifaceted genius whose creativity spanned every form of artistic expression. His concerns ranged from global and universalist ones to practical and mundane issues. He established institutions to reflect his vision and through his travels, writings and actions demonstrated that the international brotherhood of man was not merely a theoretical construct.

He believed that national and human identities inherent in us need not be contradictory and that promoting one’s culture should not preclude acceptance and respect for the culture of others.

He heralded the cultural rapprochement between communities, societies and nations much before it became the liberal norm of conduct.

Tagore was a man ahead of his time. He was one of the most creative exponents of an Asian sense in the early twentieth century. He wrote in 1932, while on a visit to Iran, that “each country of Asia will solve its own historical problems according to its strength, nature and needs, but the lamp they will each carry on their path to progress will converge to illuminate the common ray of knowledge.”

His ideas on culture, gender, poverty, education, freedom, and a resurgent Asia remain relevant today.

Tagore worked for one supreme cause, the union of all sections of humanity in sympathy and understanding, in truth and love. He expressed himself in an invocation penned in April 1919. It bears recalling in the troubled world that we live in:

Give me the supreme courage of love, this is my prayer, the courage to speak, to do, to suffer at thy will, to leave all things or be left alone.

Give me the supreme faith of love, this is my prayer, the faith of life in death, of the victory in defeat, of the power hidden in the frailness of beauty, of the dignity of pain that accepts hurt, but disdains to return it.

I take this opportunity to compliment the National Committee for Commemoration headed by the Prime Minister and the National Implementation Committee headed by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, as also the Ministry of Culture, for the activities and projects undertaken during the past year.

We are also fully appreciative of the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh for its initiatives to honour and perpetuate the memory and legacy of Rabindranath Tagore.”

Pandit Ravi Shankar to get the First ‘Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony’

The national Committee set up under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister to oversee the celebrations of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in its first meeting considered a proposal to establish a prestigious International Award in the memory of the late poet.

The Government of India subsequently established the Tagore Award for promoting values of Universal Brotherhood. The award shall carry an amount of Rs. One Crore, a Citation in a Scroll, a Plaque as well as an exquisite traditional handicraft/handloom item. The award is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, cast, creed or sex.

A jury under the chairmanship of Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh after detailed deliberations decided unanimously to select Pandit Ravi Shankar to be the first recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values. On the recommendation of the jury the award has been renamed as the ‘Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony’. The award would be presented by the President of India in a special ceremony.

Announcing this in New Delhi today, the Finance Minister and Chairman of the National Implementation Committee Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has said, the Government of India has further decided to grant Rs. 150 Crores to Viswa Bharati University to revive and restore the glory of this great institution founded by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.