INVC,,
Delhi,,
The Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee today chaired the meeting of the National Implementation Committee (NIC) in order to review the progress of the programmes and activities already undertaken and those to be taken-up in the year ahead for the commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of GurudevRabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekanand. The meetings was also attended by the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Shri Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Swami Prabhananda& Swami Suvivananda from Ramakishan Mission, CEO Prasar Bharti Shri JawharSircar, Secretary (Expenditure) Shri Sumit Bose, the Culture Secretary Ms SangitaGairola, West Bengal Resident Commissioner Shri Bhaskar Kulbe and ShriT.S.Randhava among others.
The National Committee (NC) under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister was constituted on 27th April, 2010 to consider policies and lay down guidelines for the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Thereafter, a National Implementation Committee (NIC) was constituted under the Chairmanship of the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee for chalking-out the programmes and activities for implementing the decisions of the National Committee. The NIC has held three meetings till date and the fourth meeting of the NIC was held today.
After the meeting of the NIC, the Union Finance Minister Shri PranabMukherjee released the following publications:
1. Rabindranath Tagore 150th Birth Anniversary : Documentation of National Commemoration – By Eicher Goodearth Publications
In view of its vast experience of working in the field of culture and heritage, EicherGoodearth Publications was engaged by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India for doing a complete documentation of the Tagore commemoration related activities undertaken by the Ministry since 2010. The documentation was envisaged to be a rich archival resource and was meant for a wide interested readership. Its conceptualization, scale and implementation could serve as a model for other commemorations organized by the Government.
The publication contains details like the composition of various Committees, minutes of important meetings, mentions about various projects/proposals, Schemes etc. with textual and visual records and is interspersed aesthetically with photographs, paintings, doodles and write-ups on Tagore, also extracts of Tagore’s works for enhancing the content’s quality. The publication will be distributed on complimentary basis to the Indian Missions abroad, the state governments, universities, cultural institutions, libraries,Tagore experts etc.
2. Translations of Tagore Songs And Audio CD Set – By Random House India
Random House India has published a book of Prof. Sugata Bose’s translations of 100 Tagore songs along with the accompanying 5 audio CD set containing readings of translations and performances in the Bengali original of 50 of the songs. The poetic translations of the songs have been done by Prof. Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard University, USA who is an eminent Tagore expert, and the singer is Ms. Pramita Mallick .
The uniqueness of the publication lies in the fact that poetic translations are the best way to convey the beauty of Tagore’s lyrics to non-Bengali readers and audiences and will contribute to a new appreciation of Tagore’s music worldwide. This publication is a beautiful souvenir to mark Tagore’s birth sesqui-centenary. Additionally, it is an appropriate gift item for dissemination of “Tagoreana” to different parts of the country and overseas, in a contemporary and interesting format. Copies of the book and the accompanying 5 audio CD set will be distributed to all Indian Missions abroad, through the Publicity Division, MEA.
3. RABINDRA CHITRAVALI
The paintings of Rabindranath Tagore are in the possession of various organizations – the largest collection is with Visva Bharati, the National Gallery of Modern Art (Delhi and Bangalore), Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, Indian Museum, Kolkata and the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. The Rabindra Chitravali project of Ministry ofCulture,Government of India envisaged that all these organizations would share the high quality images of the paintings in their possession to enable creation of a multi-volume publication named “Rabindra Chitravali”, with over 2,000 high resolution images ofRabindranath Tagore’s paintings published on the best quality paper. The project would be the first digital reunification of all the works of an artist, anywhere in the world.
This project was approved on 14th July, 2010 by the NIC for the Tagorecommemoration. For bringing out the four volume “Rabindra Chitravali”, Visva Bharatientered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the publisher – Pratikshan, Kolkata. Bulk of the financial assistance for this project was provided by the Ministry of Culture.Rabindra Chitravali has been published and it was released by Chairperson, UPA during the inaugural function of the Tagore commemoration at New Delhi on 7th May, 2011. A limited quantity has been released for sale in the market. Shri Priyabrata Deb ofPratikshan presented all the volumes of the publication to the Union Finance Minister Shri Mukherjee on the occasion. In addition, Shri Deb also presented the following two books published by Pratikshan – “Rabindranather Lekhar Chhobi” and “Bichitrita”.
4. Facsimile Edition of the Original Manuscript of Gitanjali
In pursuance of the recommendation of the National Implementation Committee, Ministry of Culture, Government of India decided to publish a Special Edition of the original draft manuscript of “Gitanjali” (for which Tagore was awarded Noble Prize in 1913), as close to the original as technically feasible, as a collector’s item. It is a notebook in English and Bengali, bound in blue roan and is part of the RothensteinCollection, preserved in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, USA. It is inscribed by Sir William Rothenstein thus – “Original Mss, which the poet brought me from India on his initial visit to us at Oak Hill Park”. Houghton Library, Harvard University had given its consent to Ministry of Culture to partner in the project, for which it will be given due credit in the publication. 5,000 copies are being printed in the first phase for distribution as complimentary copies in India and overseas. Raja RamMohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata had been entrusted the responsibility of coordination for this project.
The book was released on 4th February 2012 by the Union Finance Minister, ShriPranab Mukherjee in the presence of several Tagore scholars and academics at the Asiatic Society, Kolkata.
