Indo-Bangla joint venture book on Tagore to be launched in May

The first ever India-Bangladesh joint venture book on Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore will be launched at a function here on May 8 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the poet.
The 500-odd-page book "Contemporising Tagore", a collaborative effort by India and Bangladesh which jointly celebrated Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, a year-long event from May 7, 2011, contains articles by eminent scholars from different countries on several facets of the Nobel Laureate.
The book, jointly edited by Prof Muchkund Dubey, former Foreign Secretary, Prof Veena Sikri, former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh. And Prof Imtiaz Ahmed of Dhaka University's International Relations Department, throws light on humanism, nationalism, internationalism of Tagore, his alternative strategies on development, crisis of civilisation.

The scholars, who have written on different facets of Tagore's works, are drawn from India, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Japan, China, Russia, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.
Indian Council of Cultural Relations Chairman Dr Karan Singh and eminent Bangladeshi literary critic Prof Anisuzzaman have penned the Foreword and Preface of the book which is set to be a valuable addition to the existing compendium of works on Tagore.
The book, divided in eight sections, is the outcome of a conference held in Dhaka in April 2011 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Tagore.
President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to release the book.