promoting better understanding between India and the
West and readily accepted my suggestion for the publica-
tion in India, Britain and U.S.A. on 7th May, 1961, of a
volume containing the best of Tagore's thought on society,
education, politics, economics and religion. A generous
donation of $13,000 by the Foundation enabled us to set
up a registered Society with composition as shown in
Appendix I to carry out this project.

On behalf of the Tagore Commemorative Volume
Society, we approached about a hundred well-known
students of Tagore who had read his work in the original
and asked them to select thirty essays which in their
opinion represented the best in Tagore's thought. About
forty of them responded to our invitation and it was per-
haps not surprising that a large number of suggestions were
common. The Society selected thirty essays on the basis of
their suggestions and arranged for their translation afresh
into English. The list of these essays will be found in
Appendix II. The Society also appointed Dr. Bhabani
Bhattacharya, one of the best-known Indian writers in
English, as the Editor-cum-Chief Translator of the Volume.
The names of those who helped us in making this first
selection as well as of the translators will be found in
Appendices III and IV.

We then approached a number of leading scholars in
Europe and America to make a selection of about fifteen to
twenty essays out of these thirty as the ones which are
likely to make the deepest and most permanent impact on
Western readers. I am happy to say that in spite of their
heavy preoccupations, almost everyone I approached under-
took the onerous task of reading some six hundred pages of
typescript and sent me their suggestions well within the
time limit I had imposed. They also did me the courtesy of

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