The Indian Embassy in Indonesia on Friday announced the commemoration of the 'Tagore-Dewantara Year of Cultural and Educational Diplomacy' from July 2026 to September 2027. "India, Indonesia Celebrating 100 Years of a Shared Cultural Journey! We are thrilled to announce the commemoration of the 'Tagore-Dewantara Year of Cultural and Educational Diplomacy' from July 2026 to September 2027!" the Embassy wrote on X.
"Naming this historic year after Asia’s first Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, and the Father of Indonesian National Education, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, India and Indonesia honour a deep civilizational dialogue of freedom, education, and art," it added. According to the Embassy, the Indian motifs will meet Indonesian Batik at Indonesia Fashion Week in August 2026; Tagore-Dewantara school quizzes and Sanskrit learning initiatives will also start from August. In September, the Tagore Film Festival will be held in Jakarta.
In January, the "Sarong to Saree" textile heritage exhibition will be held. "Stay tuned as we celebrate festivals, literature, films, and academic exchanges over the next 15 months!," said the embassy.
During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Indonesia, both countries announced the commemoration of the "Tagore-Dewantara Year of Cultural and Educational Diplomacy": fifteen months of festivals, films, fashion, textiles, literature, education and scholarship exchanges across two nations, from July 2026 to September 2027.
"In 1927, Rabindranath Tagore, poet, educator and Asia's first Nobel laureate, travelled through Java and Bali. He found a nation awakening to itself through art, learning and self-belief. A hundred years later, both countries decided to honour the legacy of the visit by commemorating 2026-27 as the Tagore Dewantara Year of Cultural and Educational Diplomacy," the Embassy stated.
According to the Embassy, the year takes its name from two teachers who built the same dream on two shores of a uniting ocean. Tagore founded his school at Shantiniketan in 1901, believing that education should nurture freedom, creativity and joy in children.
In 1922, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, the father of Indonesian national education, founded Taman Siswa in Yogyakarta on similar convictions, choosing guidance and freedom over the colonial model of command, punishment and order.