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Timeline

1858 India officially becomes part of the British Empire.
1861 Tagore is born on May 7, the fourteenth child of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi.
1878–80 Tagore attends the University College of London and lives in England.
1883 Tagore marries Mrinalini Devi.
1885 Tagore publishes his first collection of serious essays, Alochana.

First session of the Indian National Congress is held in Bombay.
1887 Tagore’s father, Debendranath Tagore, who had acquired land in West Bengal in 1863, begins plans to develop the property. The village will later be renamed “Santiniketan” (the abode of peace) after the Tagore family home.
1895–98 Tagore starts a swadeshi store in Calcutta to promote business for indigenous goods and undermine British economic dominance.
1901 Moves with his family to Santiniketan, where he founds the Santiniketan School. It opens with five students and five teachers.
1902 Tagore’s wife, Mrinalini Devi, dies after a serious illness. He writes the Samaran poems in her memory. Three of their five children would also pass away in the following years.
1903–1904 Tagore takes an increasing interest in the political problems of the country and writes his seminal essay Swadeshi Samaj (Our State and Society).
1905 Bengal, Tagore’s home province, is partitioned by the British government against the wishes of residents. The Indian National Congress gains momentum as a popular movement for independence.
1911 The partition of Bengal is annulled and India’s capital is shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.
1912 Tagore moves to Illinois and lectures widely across the United States.
1913 Tagore is awarded the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali (Song Offerings). He is the first non-European to be named a Nobel Laureate.
1914 Tagore is knighted.
1915–19 Martial law is declared in Punjab. Civilians in Amritsar, Punjab, are killed by the British Indian Army, an event that became known as the Jalianwalla Bagh Massacre.

Tagore renounces his knighthood in protest.
1921 Seeking to establish “a center of Indian culture,” Tagore founds Visva Bharati University at Santiniketan.
1924 Tagore begins to experiment with painting and visual art.
1930–35 Tagore’s paintings are exhibited for the first time in Paris and then in Calcutta, Bombay, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Thailand, Madras, and the United States.
1937–40 Tagore’s paintings are exhibited at Calmann Gallery, London.Nationalist leaders Subhas Chandra Bose and Rajendra Prasad visit Tagore in Santiniketan.

World War II begins.

Falling seriously ill, Tagore asks his friend Mahatma Gandhi to take charge of Visva Bharati.

Tagore is awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University.
1941 Tagore dies on August 7, 1941.
1947 India gains independence and is partitioned into India and Pakistan.
  Adapted from The Oxford India Tagore:
Selected Writings on Education and Nationalism