ABSTRACT
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who made significant contributions to a variety of fields in the humanities. Tagore identified race- and religion-based nationalism as the cause behind European colonialism and the two World Wars, and used his global prominence to advocate strongly against nationalism of various kinds, even as he played a crucial role in the Indian independence movement. Tagore's polymathic activities touched on so many spheres of Indian cultural and political life that museums devoted to his life and work face a challenge in balancing the various sides of his multifaceted personality. A major challenge in curating a history of sound in an Indian context hinges on differences in attitudes towards documentation. Santiniketan is a remarkable example of a township built entirely around a university, having its own museum dedicated to a poet and composer who lived a major part of his life in the area.
