Somen Sengupta In all of his eight major visits to England between 1883 to 1930 Rabindranath Tagore’s life was blessed with endless memories and enriching wisdom of  an universal world that shaped his mind and influenced his world of creativity.  Tagore was born and died as British Indian and his passport carried this citizenship of him till the end. Thus knowing England and mingling more with British world of intellectuality was normal to Tagore who like many of his family landed on the shore of England in 1883 as a 17 years old lad seeking admission to an academic institute to earn a degree.  Destiny did not give Tagore a degree from any British University but it gave him a beautiful world beyond the normal human can hardly think of. Those  two year that he spent in England were not fruitless – His exposure to English and Scottish music, poetry, opera and theatre  reshaped him into an universal man of letters – Returning back to Bengal Tagore  blended these lessons to his own power of creative skills that finally earned him the ambrosia of immortality as the tallest Indian literary titan of modern times. In his 1912-13 visit to England Tagore won hearts of British readers and social thinkers with his translated collection of poems in English and once his book Gitanjali published by Macmillan hit the stand there was no looking back for Tagore as the first modern literary man emerging from Asia. In 1913 this book earned Tagore the coveted Nobel prize in literature. Tagore with this became the first  modern Indian with a global recognition and fame – The era of Gandhi in South Africa was just started unfolding by the same time. Thanks to the outbreak of 1st world war from 1914 to 1918 Tagore could not travel to west and his direct scope of interaction with his contemporary global thinkers got scrapped – In India Tagore was watching the global affairs with extra ordinary interest and ventilating his views in articles and letters. At the last phase of 1st world war the history of mankind was practically re-written when in 1917 revolution was broken in Soviet Russia unsettling the rulers of   Romanov Dynasty the richest royal family of Europe. Before that Russia’s defeat in the hand of Japan and brutal retaliation of Great Britain over Germany also noticed by the world. When the recovery and solace of 1st world war not in sight the ruthless aggression of British Government in India was  too deplorable. Forgetting thousands of Indian soldiers who had fallen on the foreign battle fields to protect Great Britain , India’s colonial rulers were executing atrocities specially in Punjab. Such was the degree of brutality executed by British in Punjab that on 13th April 1919 at the city of Amritsar  bullets were rained on a peaceful gathering of men, women and children without any warning – It resulted a death toll of 300 plus people in 15 minutes. This massacre in cold blood is known as one of the darkest spot of 200 years of British rule in India.  Tagore reacted this by disowning coveted Knighthood which was bestowed upon him by the King of England a couple of years back to honor his extra ordinary literary talent.  Tagore’s returning of Knighthood was accompanied with a very strong worded protest letter directly addressed to the Viceroy of India. Tagore released the letter in newspaper and it created mayhem across the world – Tough his move was hailed by many people across the border it deeply disturbed most of his friends in England itself – This letter of Tagore was directly underlined as his lack of loyality to British crown under which he was not more than a subject living in a colonized land.      There was another reason that badly dented his popularity in England and it was nothing to do with political gambit. After Gitanjali Tagore translated two more books of him in English. One was Gardener and other one was The Crescent Moon. Sadly both did very bad commercially and Tagore as an author was not highly demanded among readers. On 15th  May 1920 Tagore boarded ship named Merca from Bombay to England with a plan to visit France, Netherland, Belgium and finally USA. He was accompanied by his son Rathindranath, daughter – in – law Pratima and a few more.  Tagore reached Plymouth port of England on 5th June and from there on 6th June 1920 Tagore and his family members arrived at Paddington station of London. He was welcomed at station by his old friend painter William Rothenstein and his family. Tagore and his team checked in Kensington Palace Mansion hotel. Soon Tagore’s news of arrival was started spreading and a plethora of people started meeting him with invitation of lunch, discussion, literary session, poetry reading , musical events and formal speeches. Such was his initial engrossment in London that he in a letter to Dinabandhu Andrews wrote “…Do not expect long letters from me, or indeed anything else.The fury of social engagement is on to me.” From London Tagore visited places like Oxford, Bristol, Cambridge, Petersfield, Mayfair and  many other locations. People in England received him well but he found the previous warmness and cordiality are pathetically missing this time. England hailed Tagore in 1912 with open arms but this time there is a thick wall of discomfort between him and common British people.  Soon Tagore realized that his stand against British Government back in India has culminated a deep patch of apprehension about him to the British subject.  Tagore was really heartbroken when he failed to convince his friend Rothenstein regarding the influence on the liberal mind of artists and painters working under the patronage of Government. While Tagore opined that this is not good for the freedom of expression of the artist Rothenstein then Principal of Royal College of Art and also a close friend of British Prime Minister begged to differ. Tagore realized his