தாகூர் - who's was the nobel prize.

Tagore, who lived near Calcutta, visited Great Britain in 1912 and socialized with the day’s men of letters. He met H.G. Wells, Ezra Pound and George Bernard Shaw, among others, but his interactions with Yeats are the cause of literary controversy.
Yeats, the rumor alleges, substantially rewrote Tagore’s poetry collection Gitanjali in the guise of translating it, and the Nobel prize committee based its award entirely on that English translation. When the prize was announced, the misattribution accusation was made by British newspaper commentators — whose disparagement can be dismissed (accurately or not) as the product of an imperial mindset appalled to see a colonial treated as an equal of Kipling and other Europeans.
More problematically, one of the accusers was Yeats himself. “No Indian can write or speak in animated English,” Yeats wrote in another context, repeating the contemporary stereotype that Indians were a languid race. For the rest of his life, Yeats would insist that he was the light behind the English version of Gitanjali.
While Collins’ article “History and the Postcolonial” does not contain a detailed comparison of the Bengali and English texts of Gitanjali – perhaps that will be in his forthcoming book about Tagore – Collins’ detective work at the Nobel Academy’s library has uncovered a hole in the story.
Contrary to the popular belief, the Nobel Academy’s literary committee based its recommendation on more than the Yeats-assisted translation of Gitanjali, Collins argues. One member of the five-person committee, a novelist named Esais Tegnér, possessed some ability to read Bengali, and he borrowed three native-language texts of Tagore’s works from the Nobel Library, according to the institution’s accessions register. Library documents also state that committee members borrowed other works by Tagore, namely Glimpses of Bengal Life and The Gardner. A third work, Lyrics of Love and Life, is referenced in the Academy’s presentation speech.
Consequently, the argument that Tagore’s Nobel Prize was premised upon the English translation of a single work is seriously challenged by Prof. Collins’ research. While questions remain – e.g., Was Yeats a credit hog? – we can probably lay to rest the accusation that the Nobel committee cut corners in making its decision.


WHAT FOLLOWED WAS EVEN WORSE . . .


Police in the Indian state of West Bengal say the priceless Nobel prize medal of renowned poet and author Rabindranath Tagore has gone missing.
Visitors to the museum dedicated to him in Shantiniketan first noticed the disappearance at daybreak.
The Nobel medal for literature and certificate as well as some personal possessions were taken from a locked showcase in the museum.
Tagore became the first non-Westerner to win the literature prize in 1913.
West Bengal's Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya - a fan of the poet who is said to mean the same to Bengalis as Shakespeare to the English - described the theft as a "horrible incident".
"We will arrest the culprits and recover the Nobel Prize at any cost," he said.
Police have been sent from Calcutta to aid the investigation into the break-in.
A wristwatch, several rare paintings and gold medals were among the items taken, though no manuscripts by the poet who lived from 1861 to 1941 are missing.
The museum, part of the Visva Bharati university which was founded by Tagore in 1921, was closed on Wednesday and it is unclear exactly when the items were stolen.
Tagore is one of modern India's greatest poets and composer of both the Indian and Bangladeshi national anthems.
There are elements - particularly among Islamists in Bangladesh - who are opposed to Tagore's largely secular legacy.
But poets, scholars, filmmakers, politicians and literature buffs all expressed profound shock and dismay at the incident on Thursday.
"What do I say? This is a very serious incident," said acclaimed filmmaker Mrinal Sen.
He hoped that the authorities would take swift steps to find the stolen articles. "A thing like this shouldn't have happened."
Is it coincidence or was it taken to its rightful owner.
India wake up, wake up guys.

this post was something i read at two different sites. the image was a design i made when tagore's prize was stolen, it was our 57th year of independence. we indians know one thing - the art of forgetting important things.