By IANS,
New Delh: A web-based bibliography of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s works was launched by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the capital Monday to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the poet.
Apart from works by Tagore, literary criticism and other works on Tagore published in India or abroad have been included in the bibliography, the culture ministry said in a statement.
Speaking on the occasion, Mukherjee said: “The National Implementation Committee and the ministry of culture have undertaken several projects to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.”
Mukherjee heads the committee set up to implement the programmes on the poet’s 150th birth anniversary.
“The projects focus on the multi-faceted genius of Tagore, through cultural programmes, films, publications, workshops, research works, digitization programmes and seminars,” Mukherjee said.
The compilation of the bibliography, a continuous process, has been taken up by the Raja Rammohun Roy Library in Kolkata.
“The work is a result of the compilation work supervised by Tagore experts and scholars, involving as many as 20 libraries across the country for titles. The result is that more than 9,000 books in 42 languages, both Indian and foreign, have been located so far. This is, indeed, the most comprehensive attempt undertaken for compiling the works by, and on Tagore, or, for that matter, any literary figure. The bibliography is an endeavour to bring a ready reckoner to scholars and readers of Rabindranath Tagore,” he said.
Mukherjee said accessing a book on this web-bibliography has been made easy.
“A book can be located by its ‘Title’, ‘Author’, ‘Editor’ or ‘Genre’. A unique feature of the web-portal is its interactive character. Scholars and readers can interact with the site and provide supplementary information about respective publications. More titles will be added in the coming months and the portal is expected to become the most comprehensive web-portal on Tagore, attracting viewers from both India and abroad,” the finance minister said.
The Minister of Culture Kumari Selja was present on the occasion.