Rabindranath Tagore Distinguished Lecture Series presents:

"Myth and Politics in the Poetry of Rabindranath Tagore"

Presented by Brian A. Hatcher, 
Packard Professor of Theology at Tufts University

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 | 7:00 p.m. EDT

Main Street campus, Haupert Union Building (HUB)

Taggore

RABINDRANATH TAGORE was a Bengali poet, philosopher, novelist, social reformer, and painter best known for being the first non European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Tagore was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of modern India. Rabindranath Tagore lived through the agonies and destruction of the First World War and witnessed the unfolding of the second one. Tagore wrote, spoke, and preached relentlessly against the perils of nationalism and the utmost need to honor human dignity even for the weakest and destitute. His messages for a well-connected global human society are immensely relevant today.

This lecture will consider the breadth of Rabindranath's work, which embodies his vision of freedom that can lead to true liberation for all.
 

"Thou hast brought the distance near and made a brother of the stranger" Gitanjali: Verse 63

Brian A. Hatcher first travelled to India in 1986 to study the Bengali language at Rabindranath Tagore’s ashram university in Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He subsequently went on to complete his PhD from Harvard University in the study of religion, where he studied Sanskrit and the religions of South Asia. Over his career he has established himself as a leading figure in Hindu Studies, with special expertise in socio-religious change in colonial Bengal. He is the author of two acclaimed books on the renowned Sanskrit scholar and social reformer, Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar, and has translated two of Vidyasagar’s most controversial works, Hindu Widow Marriage and Against High-Caste Polygamy. Central themes from his other published work, such as “bourgeois Hinduism” and the “empire of reform,” have helped inform current discussions of modern Hinduism. Throughout his career he has retained an active interest in Tagore, and is currently translating a selection of Tagore's political writings.

 

Event Parking

Parking is available in Lots A, F, M, N, and O, all near 's Haupert Union Building. This web page can be used for reference: -Parking & Directions.

 

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