Book Excerpt: ‘A History of Santiniketan’ by Uma Das Gupta: How Tagore’s ideals found expression in Santiniketan

‘Let us have at least one little spot in India,’ Rabindranath Tagore wrote in a letter in 1920, ‘which will break down false geographical barriers, a place where the whole world will find its home. Let that place be Santiniketan. For us, there will be only one country and that will comprise the whole world. We shall know of only one nation and that will comprise the whole human race. Throw open the doors of Santiniketan, the doors of your hearts as well, so that whoever comes will have a feeling of homecoming.’

Though Rabindranath is scarcely remembered for his lifelong experiment with education, this experiment that began at the turn of the twentieth century in a remote corner of rural Bengal was the cornerstone of his ideals of non-parochial nationalism and an instinctive cosmopolitanis