Red Oleanders

Written immediately after his visit to the US in 1923, Tagore's creative stimulation behind this play was his response to the increasingly materialistic society that he had experienced first-hand in the States. He thus created an imaginary land Yakshapuri, a city full of wealth and riches where human beings are reduced to machines as they toil though their lives to cater to the insatiable greed of their ruler, the King. It is against this backdrop that the protagonist Nandini appears who dares to point a finger at the dominating authority eventually bringing about a change in the King while leading the soulless citizens to the discovery of happiness in its truest form. However, this liberation comes at a cost.

With the degradation of humanistic values and the specter of another World War looming large before them, the Western society found much relevance in Tagore's vision of the revolutionary world portrayed in this piece of translated literature. However, despite this topical allusion, the greatness of this book remains unchanged and continues to be a source of inspiration for the free-spirited, independent-minded readers even today.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 1941), is to the Indian subcontinent what Shakespeare is to the English-speaking world. A poet, playwright, painter, and educator, Tagore was also a mystic of great complexity and depth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.