The Poet of Hope and Faith

Let me begin my speech in this birthday webinar organized by the High Commission of India in Dhaka to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 159th birthday by referring to his last public address, Sabhyater Sankat or Crisis in Civilization. Read out on behalf of the unwell poet four months before his death on 14 April, 1941, it is an address made pessimistic initially, not only by