Mukherjee to open Tagore's study centre at IIAS

President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate a study centre-cum-museum dedicated to the life and works of Rabindranath Tagore at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) here, an official said Thursday, the poet's 152nd birth anniversary.

The president would May 24 open the Tagore Centre for the Study of Culture and Civilisation, which will not only promote research on the works and philosophy of the Nobel laureate but also throw light on his life, IIAS media officer Ashok Sharma told IANS.

He said the centre, being set up by the central government, would also encourage translations of his works into other Indian languages.

Mukherjee is also scheduled to deliver the first Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Lecture at the IIAS on May 24.

Apart from seminars and lectures, the Tagore centre would offer four fellowships to scholars working on the poet's ideas and philosophy.

"An eight-foot high portrait of Tagore, provided by the union ministry of human resource development, apart from two other pictures, one with Mahatma Gandhi and the other with Albert Einstein will be showcased," Sharma said.

"We have a collection of photos, ranging from his childhood to the conferring of the Nobel prize on him. The literary section has a collection of works of Tagore's contemporaries like Subramania Bharati, Munshi Prem Chand and Sri Aurobindo," he added.

There will be separate sections on Tagore's music and art, Sharma said.

The IIAS is a premier advanced research institution in the field of humanities and social sciences and is housed in the erstwhile Viceregal Lodge, built during the viceroyship of Lord Dufferin before Indian independence.