Shri. Rabindranath Tagore

Shri. Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Bengali poet and Nobel laureate, was elected the first president of the All-Bengal Library Association (later renamed the Bengal Library Association) in 1925. A pioneer in both education and the Indian Library Movement, Tagore’s influential writings such as Library and Functions of Library inspired library workers and organizers nationwide. In 1925, Tagore launched Chalantika at Sriniketan, a revolutionary mobile library service aimed at reaching rural Bengal. This initiative sought to improve rural life and spread education to even the most remote villages. Chalantika became a cornerstone of mobile library services in India, exemplifying Tagore’s vision to extend education to the grassroots level. His experiment gained momentum with the expansion of library services to nearby villages, initially through five branch centers, which later grew to 15.

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