Tagore honoured by UK Parliament

At a landmark event on Thursday evening, India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom joined hands to honour Rabindranath Tagore, one of the greatest poets of the Commonwealth, at the mother of parliaments - the House of Commons.

Speaking at a packed committee room of the Palace of Westminster - as the houses of parliament in Britain are referred to - the former Indian foreign secretary and now India's high commissioner to the UK, Ranjan Mathai said: "Tagore was one of the most celebrated sons of India, a towering figure, who wrote our national anthem. The range of his achievements are extraordinary - literature, music, art."

Bangladesh's high commissioner to Britain, Mohamed Mijarul Quayes declared: "Tagore imparted greater glory to the Nobel Prize than the Nobel did to him."

The event was hosted by Virendra Sharma, Labour party MP for the west London constituency of Ealing Southall.

He remarked: "There are strong links between Tagore and the UK. British (Irish) poets such as WB Yeats played a major role in Tagore becoming the first non-European, non-American, non-white to win the Nobel Prize."

Nrityakala Dance Heritage, a London-based cultural body, collaborated with Sharma to organise the momentous occasion.

Its patron, Lord Dholakia of the Liberal Democrat party, stated: "We should celebrate the fact that a major figure like Tagore is welcomed in the Palace of Westminster, reflecting a multi-cultural Britain."