In the words of Haraid Hjäme, the Chairman of the Nobel Committee in 1913:
“Quite independently of any knowledge of his Bengali poetry, irrespective, too, of differences of religious faiths, literary schools, or party aims, Tagore has been hailed from various quarters as a new and admirable master of that poetic art which has been a never failing concomitant of the expansion of British civilization ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth.”