Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore, commonly referred to as Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo religionist , visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer who has been a pioneer for modern Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate [1] when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Most of the money from that prize went to creating a school/university at Santiniketan, West Bengal. The university was called Viswabharati. Rabindranath modeled the school as an alternative to the existing education system at the time. Radical ideas, like open air classrooms, and learning through debate was encouraged instead of the commonplace parochial techniques.
He was born on May 07, 1861 and died on August 07, 1941. His birthday is widely celebrated as Rabindra Jayanti by all Bangla speaking people on the Bengali date of 25th of Boisakh.