Rabindra Nath Tagore and Germany

This Commemorative Volume is being published by the Federation of Indo-German Societies in India (FIGS), New Delhi, in association with Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung, Munich, to celebrate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Tagore received unprecedented welcome in Germany during his visits to that country in 1921, 1926 and 1930. The book is in three parts. The first part of this book entitled Rabindranath Tagore in Germany : A Cross Section of Contemporary Reports, edited and translated by Prof. Dietmar Rothermund, was first published in 1961 to celebrate Tagore's centenary by the Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi. The contributions by contemporary scholars and writers who came in contact with him at that time are not only interesting because of what they tell us about Tagore, but also illustrate contemporary German thought in its quest for new values and ideals. It ends with Tagore's poem in English, The Child, which he wrote in 1930 in Germany, that Prof. Rothermund describes as "a testimony of a sudden inspiration and a surprising vision".

The second part carries an article entitled "Tagore and Germany" by Satinder Kumar Lambah, former Ambassador of India in Germany, first published by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in the journal `Indien in der Gegenwart' in 1996. The author reviews Tagore's three visits to Germany, emphasizing the vitality of the cultural interaction that was set off by this "spiritual ambassador of India ... interpreting through his works and lectures the timeless message of an ancient country to a world that, in the wake of the First World War, was restless, confused and uncertain".

The third part contains three essays on Rabindranath Tagore based on lectures delivered by Dr. Martin Kampchen in India and Bangladesh. Through his translations of Tagore's poetry, his biography of the poet in German and several studies on Tagore's relationship with Germany, the author has contributed substantially to introducing Tagore to a wider public.