Beyond art, literature and running his estates, Rabindranath Tagore travelled the world with ideas for the development of ordinary people. He took in new ideas and everywhere left the mark of his many-sided philosophy of development, which still shines before the world.

In East Bengal, alongside managing his three estates at Shilaidaha in Kushtia, Shahzadpur in Sirajganj and Patisar in Naogaon, Tagore carried out many experiments in rural development and cooperatives. The place where these succeeded was Sriniketan, built on 60 acres next to Santiniketan in West Bengal.

His close assistant there was the American agricultural economist Elmhirst, who married Dorothy, a wealthy young British woman. With her money, another Sriniketan, Dartington Hall, grew up on 1,250 acres in Devon in the United Kingdom, shaped by Tagore's development thinking.

Indian philosopher Satish Kumar said the Dartington Trust hall was built with Tagore's encouragement. Its founder was Leonard Elmhirst, Tagore's personal assistant, who spent three years in India overseeing some of Tagore's projects. During that time he worked on the Sriniketan farm and travelled with Tagore to many places. When he was leaving, Tagore urged him to build something like Sriniketan on English soil, with an education centre, an arts centre, a handicrafts centre and an agricultural centre.

Buildings several hundred years old and green grounds full of trees stand as witnesses to time, still showing the world the paths of Tagore's philosophy of rural development.

Peter Box, founder and principal of Dartington College of Arts, said that although Elmhirst was American, the dream of founding a school in British society came to him through Tagore. He wanted to think the way Tagore did. "In that sense I would say Tagore still plays an important role," he said.

A school of humane education has been running at Dartington Hall for a long time. People who seek self-improvement on the path of humanity come here and discover another Tagore. One visitor said, "I know they teach humanity here. This school draws me more." But local people question how much of Tagore is surviving at Dartington Hall.

Abu M Abdullah, an engineer living in Devon, complained that Tagore came here many times and painted many pictures while he was here. "But sadly, most of Tagore's paintings have been auctioned off," he said.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.