Surendranath Tagore (1872–1940) was an Indian author, literary scholar, translator and entrepreneur. He is particularly noted for translating a number of works of Rabindranath Tagore to English.[1]
He was involved in supporting strike by railway workers in Bombay in 1899, and subsequently became involved in the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, in opposition to the 1905 partition of Bengal.[2] Surendranath is also believed to have been involved in the early phase of revolutionary movement for Indian independence, when he served as the treasurer of the Anushilan Samiti established under Pramatha Mitra.[3][4] Surendranath is credited with establishing a number of Indian-owned banks and insurance companies through which he sought to encourage indigenous industries.[2]
Surendranath's work in the initial stages of establishment of Visva-Bharati is considered crucial,[2] and he sat in the university's publishing board. He also served as the editor of The Visva-Bharati Quarterly from the July 1923 up to April 1929.
Surendranath was influenced by his uncle Rabindranath from an early age which saw him develop an interest in literature.[2] Surendranath's work include both his own creative work, as well as translations of Rabindranath's work from Bengali to English. Surendranath's own noted literary works included essays on various aspects of Science which were published in the magazines Sadhana and Bharati. He also contributed to Modern review, and Prabasi. Among the noted works in translations is his translations of Rabindranath's works The Home and the World (Ghare baire) in 1919, Glimpses of Bengal Selected from letters (Chinnapatra) in 1921, and Four chapters (Char adhyaye) in 1950 (published after his death).
Surendranath Tagore died in 1940.
^Guha 1971, p. 102: "The Anushilan Samiti—of which P. Mitra was the President, Chittaranjan Das the Vice-President and Surendranath Tagore the Treasurer—continued to be the main organisation of the young workers; but it concerned itself mainly with physical and intellectual culture."
Further reading
Lal, Mohan (1992), Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN8126012218
Pal, Bipin Chandra; Gupta, Atulchandra; Chakrabarti, Jagannath (1977), Studies in the Bengal renaissance, National Council of Education, OCLC568681052
Guha, Arun Chandra (1971), First spark of revolution: the early phase of India's struggle for independence, 1900–1920, Orient Longman, OCLC254043308