Wikipedia has put down the date of Rabindranath Tagore's birth anniversary as May 7 -- it is Baisakh 25 in the Bengali calender.
Highlights
- PM Modi had tweeted yesterday, hailing Tagore on his 'birth anniversary'
- So had Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and Shashi Taroor
- The real date is 25 Baisakh as per Bengali calender - which is today
What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow -- Bengalis love that adulatory line. But today, May 8, the bhadralok is confounded -- India has gone and done yesterday what Bengalis are doing today: Celebrating the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate son-of-the-soil Rabindranath Tagore.
They were led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted:
The Office of RG was no less flowery:
Given the political weather in Bengal, it was hardly surprising that Shashi Tharoor and Sitaram Yechuri thought alike. Both quoted the same Tagore line - "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high."
But why did they get the date wrong, which for any good Bengali, is a sacrilege?
Scholars say Tagore was born on the Pochishe Baisakh -- the 25th day of Baisakh, first month of the Bengali calendar. The corresponding date on the western calendar could be May 7 or 8 or sometimes even 9. In his lifetime, Tagore celebrated his birthday on 25th of Boishakh. And Bengal has stuck to that. But Wikipedia puts the date at May 7.
The solution to the conundrum? Why not declare Tagore's birth anniversary a national holiday and fix the date once and for all? After all he was India's first Nobel Laureate and so much more.
But Tagore aficionados say a fixed national holiday is not important. What is important is that it has to be celebrated on Pochishe Boishakh -- the Gregorian calendar can wait.