THE POET WRITES TO THE SAINT

By revisiting the correspondence of Gandhi and Tagore, historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee helps reveal aspects of their personalities we don’t usually see

- Ashok V. Desai

TAGORE & GANDHI Walking Alone, Walking Together

by Rudrangshu Mukherjee ALEPH

This book emerged from lectures in Ashoka University, whose vice-chancellor, till four years ago, was Rudrangshu Mukherjee. One of his students wrote: “Thank you, Prof.Mukherjee, for this wonderful session, mind-boggling one as if listening to Aesop’s fables.” He meant, of course, that it was as engaging, not that it was fiction. There would be no historiography if the past could be accurately reproduced; it is only because all that happens becomes irretrievable past instantly and can no longer be verified that the discipline of history emerges as recall. But there is a limit to the minds that can be applied to history, the eyes that read it, and the means of recording it. Hence there is more historical writing on those who distinguish themselves in some way or other. Amongst Indians, Rabindranath Tagore is the most distinguished litterateur and Gandhi the most distinguished politician in recent times. The connection between them is peripheral: each had his own background, training and mission. Mukherjee, who has returned to history after a distinguished journalistic career, delves into it.