On April 7, 2026, Moravian hosted its annual Rabindranath Tagore lecture as part of the Rabindranath Tagore Distinguished Lecture Series. This lecture discussed the myth and politics of Tagore, a Bengali poet and philosopher who won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1913. Through conversation and the generative powers of myth, Tagore introduced Indian culture to the Western world. President Bryon Grigsby, who gave the opening remarks at the lecture, noted that Tagore believed “the whole world could be a classroom of conversation.”
This lecture was steered by Tufts University theology professor and scholar Brian A. Hatcher, who is also a leading figure in Indian studies. Hatcher positioned the lecture in accordance with the humanities under siege in our current age, with the rapid use of AI tools. He asserted that Tagore, who was well-known during his time, should be brought into our midst when discussing the humanities.
Hatcher separated his lecture into three sections: poetry, politics and myth. Tagore was born in 1861 in Calcutta, India, during the era of British colonial rule. Much of his politics revolved around universal rights against colonialism and his poetry similarly supported self-governance and freedom.
His “Gitanjali” poetry collection contained poems on spiritual freedom and the necessity of conversation to transform the world. In poem 35, he writes, “Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.” According to Hatcher, this poem emphasizes human connectivity and embracing the vision of being human. In poem 11, Tagore writes on Hinduism and the idea of a God being close to earth, urging religious-minded individuals to embrace the closeness to deities.
Tagore was also a political thinker and urged the people of India to get involved in “higher politics” by expressing thoughts through communication rather than in isolation. He believed in universal humanism, starting with the awareness of the self, designating self-awareness as part of universal human integrity. He was against narrow nationalism and the division of Hindus and Muslims, with human connection as a priority.
In 1915, Tagor was granted knighthood by King George V, but by 1919, he renounced it due to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This massacre occurred when British soldiers opened fire on Indian protesters and citizens, an event that caused Tagore and contemporaries such as the famous Mahatma Gandhi to pivot more towards anti-colonialism.
In his letter to Lord Chelmsford, who was also the Governor General of India, he gives up his knighthood and criticizes the massacre as “the disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people.” He stood with his countrymen against the British Raj and was adamant on protecting “Mother India.”
Finally, Hatcher discusses the generative powers of myth in Tagore’s works, utilizing the definition of myth as a “narrative orienting us to the sacred.” What we can learn from Tagore, as stated by Hatcher, is that we can reorient our modern understanding of our world through intellectual activity and, most importantly, conversation. Tagore believed in solidarity without exclusion and connection being at the heart of everything. The politics and history of his time contextualize how he interacted with the world around him. Even though he died before India gained independence, his works convey a sense of hope for freedom and for humanity.
Hatcher ended his lecture by declaring how poets like Tagore “demand us to stop, to look, to think anew about our lives, and they do this by conjuring new worlds from images and vocabularies that make present a world that’s all of a sudden strange to us.”
