Rabindranath Tagore death anniversary: Date, significance and lesser-known facts about him

August 7 marks Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's death anniversary. The Bard of Bengal, Rabindranath Tagore, was a world-renowned poet, composer, playwright, painter and social reformer among other things. Tagore was conferred with the Knighthood by King George V in 1915 but renounced it after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.

His collection of poems, Gitanjali, created a paradigm shift in Bengali literature, while his songs did the same to Bengali music. On the 82nd anniversary of his passing, we look at some lesser-known facts of his life.

Tagore was born on May 7, 1861, and passed away on August 7, 1941, at the age of 80. He was diagnosed with severe uraemia and a blocked urinary bladder.


Dr Jyotiprakash Sarkar and Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy insisted he undergoes surgery, against his wish, on July 30, 1941. Complications from the surgery led to his death a week later.

The national anthem of India ‘Jana Gana Mana,’ adopted on January 24, 1950, constitutes the first stanza of Tagore’s Bengali-language poem, ‘Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata’ (1911). Bangladesh’s national anthem, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla,’ was also written by him.