This anthology presents in a chronological sequence memorable essays and speeches of Rabindranath Tagore which chart the complicated growth and development of his missionary vision and its products—an alternative approach which is by no means an essentialist or revivalist enterprise but indeed an alternative paradigm—often problematic and multi-layered, superbly inclusive as well as liberating in scope and far-reaching in its singular insights that oftener than not anticipate issues and problems with which the country finds itself grappling even today.

Also it offers a fascinating lowdown on how this philosophy translated into practice on the applied side in the day-to-day life of the students and teachers at Visva-Bharati who—Rabindranath believed—should seize every opportunity to acquire lands-on experience in doing everything that shaped their life in Santiniketan.