What was music and literature in earlier decades and to some people(for it's meaning) has become some sort of middle class ritual nowadays. As growing up, they were aware that there was always more to literature than him, 'they' were drawn to Tagore because they were drawn to literature and music, not as something they created a fuss about and lacked the basic knowledge of what it was all about.
The fact that one is drawn to a poet or a composer because one is interested in music or poetry seems secondary to the way people approach Tagore now.. understanding with what Tagore's doing with music doesn't really matter. His position in relation to world literature doesn't really matter. What matters is Tagore. Yet, Tagore's not intrinsically interesting because he's Tagore but because music and poetry are interesting and he did remarkable things with both, which conveniently, we tend to forget these days. What we think is that there's something intrinsically interesting about him and his music, and so that, writing can be sidelined.
There's a reason why this has happened and is awkward. This relates to some form of nationalism and the way we are living in India right now. We rarely talk about music or literature(of course unless you are a music or art student and you want to discuss passionately and genuinely about it, some do it on Facebook or chats too) unless some way connected to the celebration of being Indian. Those who embody 'Indian Pride' become worthy of veneration - without what they do being of any interest at all. No one's really interested in literature or music - there's very little intelligent criticism. People aren't interested outside of certain talismanic identities these give us.
Bengal has lapsed from what it used to be - a very private but also very cosmopolitan culture. Tagore himself is an amazing kind of bricolage. For example, he's collecting music from everywhere, relocating this in all kinds of songs., ah, for a second I assumed he's still alive.. but isn't he? Probably.
What's presented is a very static version of bengaliness, where Tagore has now become a muzzak. It has been a very long journey from where it started, an unprecedented sort of experiment, converted to amusement. Also it says something that no one talks about.. let's say Beethovan was only available as muzzak, I'm sure a few people would be complaining, but here this passes without a comment.
He's perceived that way because of the romanticism in bengali aspect, which translated poorly, makes even his joyful songs sound sad. So many of his songs are affirming yet sung as if funeral's being announced. Not only is life being welcomed but the fact that one is alive is celebrated in a radical way.. There's saying there are physical reasons that make it worth it. Otherwise it's not. People around him are dying, his own children are dying, but instead of writing adolescent poems about death and the hereafter, he celebrates being here now.
That's a philosophical move, rejecting a certain way of thinking, radically taking on another - I call it polemical; fascinates you about Tagore. But this whole business of remembering him as being an extremely sad poem is partly the way Bengalis have constructed him, despite him turning the here and now into a paradise.
