The first in-depth study of the deep bond between Mahatma Gandhi and Gurudev Tagore by one of our greatest historians. Tagore and Gandhi were both born in the 1860s and, through their very different spheres of activity, became figures of global renown and shapers of modern India. They also shared a deep personal friendship which was robust enough to bear the strain of differences on many public issues through the 1920s and ’30s. Gandhi always addressed Tagore as Gurudev which, for Gandhi, was not an empty epithet. Gandhi sought Tagore’s blessings at every critical juncture of his Indian public career. Tagore openly acknowledged Gandhi as the greatest Indian of his time.
In Tagore and Gandhi: Walking Alone, Walking Together, Rudrangshu Mukherjee explores their relationship through their differences expressed in their writings and letters to each other and also tries to understand the beliefs that acted as the bond between the two of them. They differed with each other without a hint of acrimony, and they looked towards building an India that was inclusive and free from hatred and bigotry.
RUDRANGSHU MUKHERJEE is Chancellor and Professor of History at Ashoka University of which he was the founding Vice Chancellor. He was educated at Calcutta Boys’ School, Presidency College, Calcutta, JNU and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was awarded a DPhil in Modern History by the University of Oxford. He taught in the department of history, Calcutta University, and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, Manchester University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. From 1993 to 2014 he was the Editor, Editorial Pages, The Telegraph. He is the author of many books—these include Nehru & Bose: Parallel Lives; Awadh in Revolt 1857–58: A Study of Popular Resistance; Spectre of Violence: The Massacres in Kanpur in 1857; The Year of Blood: Essays on 1857, Dateline 1857: Revolt against the Raj. He is the editor of Great Speeches of Modern India and The Penguin Gandhi Reader and the co-author of New Delhi: The Making of a Capital and India: Then and Now.
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