Authors

Indian · 1861–1941

Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913), recognised for his Gitanjali (Song Offerings). A Bengali poet, playwright, novelist, composer, and educator, he reshaped Bengali literature and music and wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh. He renounced his British knighthood in 1919 in protest at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He founded Visva-Bharati University at Shantiniketan. His vast output — over 2,000 songs, dozens of plays, novels, and short stories — makes him the most prolific major literary figure of the twentieth century.