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Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore
Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Unit 1: The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
1.1 Traditional Arts and Methods of India

1.2 The Post Office
1.3 Analysis
1.4 Central Metaphors of the Play
1.5 Symbolism in Tagore’s Play, The Post Office

1.6 Characters
1.7 Summary
1.8 Keywords

1.9 Review Questions
1.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about Rabindranath Tagore;
• Discuss the story The Post Office;
• Explain the symbolism of the play The Post Office;
• Make analysis of the play The Post Office.

Introduction

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the youngest son of Debendranath Tagore, a leader of
the Brahmo Samaj, which was a new religious sect in nineteenth-century Bengal and which
attempted a revival of the ultimate monistic basis of Hinduism as laid down in the Upanishads.
He was educated at home; and although at seventeen he was sent to England for formal
schooling, he did not finish his studies there. In his mature years, in addition to his many-sided
literary activities, he managed the family estates, a project which brought him into close touch
with common humanity and increased his interest in social reforms. He also started an experimental
school at Shantiniketan where he tried his Upanishadic ideals of education. From time to time
he participated in the Indian nationalist movement, though in his own non-sentimental and
visionary way; and Gandhi, the political father of modern India, was his devoted friend.
Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he
resigned the honour as a protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his
poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height,
taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became

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