Yeats and Tagore

This work is a comparative study of Rabindranath Tagore and William Butler Yeats. It explores their relationship and also seeks to clarify how and why these two poets shared certain ideas and ideals while there were also divergences. The author has also studied the role of James Henry Cousins, who in his early career was associated with the Irish Revival, but later on settled in India where he got involved with the cultural renaissance and nationalist movement. Cousins was related to both Tagore and Yeats; to Yeats by creative partnership (the Abbey Theatre and the Irish Literary Revival) and Tagore via close contact and mutual beliefs. Professor Majumdar's research is based on fresh interpretation of the primary works of these writers. He has used published works in standard critical editions but most importantly he has discovered unpublished and translated them. The author reads Bengali, and has utilised a large number of Rabindranath Tagore's letters and works not available in English translation. He has also consulted Tagore's private papers and collections available only in the Rabindra Bhavana Archives and Library at Santiniketan. In addition Majumdar has also researched and translated primary works of other writers both in Bengal, Europe and Ireland, many of these primary sources are rare and not easily accessible to scholarship. Dr .Majumdar is one of India's finest scholars in Irish poetry and literature and this work is an important contribution to the study of Yeats as well as Tagore.