A fantastic three-day international conference that celebrated the work and life of Rabindranath Tagore took places in the confines of Beveridge Hall, Senate House, part of University of London.

Revisiting Rabindranath was part of the UK-wide 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of India's greatest artist.

There was a great focus on the impact that Tagore has had from the very first time he presented his works in the West, to his relevance and standing throughout the world today.

Friday saw the launch of A Timeless Mind, the centre's new publication which is an extensive collection of essays and comments from some of the leading academics (and fans) of Tagore throughout the world. The event was opened by Baroness Sreela Flather in the presence of HE High Commissioner for India, Mr Nalin Surie and HE High Commissioner for the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh Dr Sayeedur Rahman Khan.

A fantastic performance of My Life My Music closed the first day.
 
Few words from Dr Bashabi Fraser Chairing opened the seminar followed by the following speakers:

Dr Uma Dasgupta who spoke about Education, Community and Nation: The Contemporary Relevance of Tagore, and showed us pictures of Santiniketan.

Dr Michael Collins spoke about the true relationships that Tagore had with his colleagues in Britain, rather than what people perceived them to be. “Neither the Colourless Vagueness of Cosmopolitanism, nor the Fierce Self idolatry of Nation-worship”:  Rabindranath Redux.

Liesbeth Meyer spoke about Tagore’s Legacy in Netherlands and in the same vein, Dr Elzbieta Walter spoke of Rabindranath Tagore’s Post-Office in Poland, including two televised versions in the 50s and 70s.

Our very own Krishna Dutta spoke of her personal journey with Tagore through her life - Journey with Tagore: A Biographer’s Chronicle, was the title of her talk and it was amazing to hear about Tagore's forward thinking views.

Finally the day closed with Dr Imre Bangha's fascinating and intuitive take on the 
statistical analysis of Tagore’s books published in Western and Eastern Europe.

The final day began with Dr Joseph O'Connell talk on tracing Vaishnava Strains in Tagore, a truly fascinating insight.

Dr Ketaki Kushari Dyson's legacy of Tagore’s literary language came next, followed by Dr Martin Kämpchen on Tagore's relationship with his German publisher Kurt Wolff. 

Dr William Radice was the penultimate speaker, discussing the original translations of Gitanjali and Yeats' impact on them. And how the real translation is now available via a new publication of his where he gives a real and more accurate translation. These were presented by our last participants - a fantastic performance by father daughter act Debashish Raychaudhuri and Rohini Raychaudhuri who sang songs and recitations from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali, with William Radice giving notes.

Photos from Revisiting Rabindranath the three-day international conference celebrating the work and life of Rabindranath Tagore on 6 - 8 May 2011 @ Beveridge Hall, University of London are now on our Facebook group

Click here to read all the speaker biogs.