Installation of Tagore’s Bronze Head in Edinburgh

The Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs) was established at Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) with a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in November 2011. It is an academic and cultural centre for taking forward the ideas, work and philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore and his circle, which was global. ScoTs is now an autonomous Charitable Trust registered with OSCR (Charity no: SC05085) run by a Board of Trustees. (see https://scotstagore.org ) For the past few years, ScoTs has been lobbying for a statue of Tagore to be installed in Edinburgh, which the Indian Consulate General has now been successful in bringing to fruition through the generous donation of the Tagore Head, commissioned by the ICCR. It is sculpted in bronze by the leading Indian sculptor, Ram V Satur and is now with the Indian Consulate, waiting to be installed in Edinburgh. The landlady of Sandeman House and garden has very kindly given her permission for the installation of the Tagore Sculpture in the garden where the bust of the Scottish conservation architect, town planner, educationist and environmentalist Patrick Geddes stands. Sandeman House is where the Scottish Book Trust is housed. It is behind the Scottish Storytelling Centre, which is on the Royal Mile. Tagore and Geddes were friends. Geddes, on Tagore's invitation, provided the plans for Tagore's international university, Visva-Bharati. Tagore was the Principal of the Indian College set up by Geddes, alongside the Scots College at Montpellier. The vision of ScoTs is to have the two friends in this beautiful garden, 'talking to each other' beyond life, continuing a conversation they began in their lifetime. We are trying to raise funds to cover the cost of the installation of the Tagore Head in Edinburgh. We wish to install the Tagore Head in the garden, alongside the bust of his friend, Geddes, bringing the two friends together in a shared space where national and international visitors can pay these two transnational thinkers their respects, celebrate a shared legacy and feel inspired by their ideas and work.