The Mahatma & the Poet: Letters between Tagore and Gandhi

Tagore and Gandhi were quite different in the ways in which they they philosophised ideas of truth and protest. However, even as adversaries, this powerful exchange of ideas between the leaders is a poignant example of the self-critical and contemplative nature of the Indian freedom movement.

Some excerpts from this exchange:

Dear Mahatmaji,

Power in all its forms is irrational; it is like the horse that drags the carriage blindfolded. The moral element in it is only represented in the man who drives the horse. Passive resistance is a force which is not necessarily moral in itself; it can be used against truth as well as for it. The danger inherent in all force grows stronger when it is likely to gain success, for then it becomes temptation.

I know your teaching is to fight against evil by the help of good. But such a fight is for heroes and not for men led by impulses of the moment. Evil on one side naturally begets evil on the other, injustice leading to violence and insult to vengefulness.

***

3 January 1932

Dear Gurudev, I am just stretching my tired limbs on the mattress and as I try to steal a wink of sleep, I think of you. I want you to give your best to the sacrificial fire that is being lighted.

With love
M.K.Gandhi

***

Dear Mahatmaji,

What I fear is that following so close upon the tremendous impact made on our consciousness by the recent fast a repetition of it may psychologically be too much for us properly to evaluate and effectively to utilise for the uplift of humanity. The mighty liberating forces set in motion by your fast still continue to operate and spread from village to village, removing age-long iniquities, transforming the harshness of the callously superstitious to a new feeling of sympathy for the distressed.

Were I convinced that the movement has suffered any abatement or in any way shows signs of lacunae, I would welcome even the highest sacrifice which humanity today is capable of making, the sacrifice of your life in penance for our sins. But all my experiences, of the activities of the villages around us here, as well as of other localities, convince me that the movement generated by your fast continue to gain in strength and conquer formidable obstacles. The testimony of my friends from all parts of India confirm this truth. It may be that there are reactionary elements but it seems to me that we should allow them time— the pressure of a growing public opinion is sure to win them over.

***

9 October 1932

Dear Gurudev,

I have your beautiful letter. I am daily seeking light. This unity between Hindus and Muslims is also life's mission. The restrictions too hamper me. But I know that when I have the light, it will pierce through the restrictions, meanwhile I pray, though I do not yet fast. I hope you were none the worse for the strenuous work in Poona and equally fatiguing long journey. Mahadev translated for us your beautiful sermon to the villagers on 20th ultimo.

With love,

Yours M.K.Gandhi

***

The Cult of the Charkha by Tagore published in the Modern Review, 1925

The appointed time has not long gone by, yet die intoxication lingers,—the intoxication which consists in a confusion of haste with speed, in a befogged reliance on one or two narrow paths as the sole means of gaining a vast realisation. Amongst those paths prominently looms the charkha. And so the question has to be raised: What is this swaraj?

Our political leaders have refrained from giving us any dear explanation of it. As a matter of feet we have the freedom to spin our own thread on our own charkha. If we have omitted to avail ourselves of it, that is because die thread so spun cannot compete with the product of die power mill. No doubt it might have been otherwise if the millions of India had devoted their leisure to the charkha, thereby reducing the exchange value of home spun thread.

But nothing proves die hopelessness of such an expectation more than the fact that those very persons who are wielding their pens in its support are not wielding the charkha itself.

The second point is, even if every one of our countrymen should betake himself to spinning thread, that might somewhat mitigate their poverty, but it would not be Swaraj. What of that? Is the increase of wealth a small thing for a poverty stricken country? What a difference it would make if our cultivators, who improvidently waste their spare time, were to engage in such productive work! Let us concede for the moment that the profitable employment of the surplus time of the cultivator is of the first importance. But the thing is not so simple as it sounds. One who takes up the problem must be prepared to devote precise thinking and systematic endeavour to its solution. It is not enough to say: Let them spin.

Gandhi's rejoinder to The Cult of the Charka published in Young India:

The criticism is a sharp rebuke to Acharya Ray for his impatience of the Poet's and Acharya Seal's position regarding die charkha, and a gentle rebuke to me for my exclusive love of it. Let the public understand that the Poet does not deny its great economic value.

If every disagreement were to displease, since no two men agree exactly on all points, life would be a bundle of unpleasant sensations and therefore a perfect nuisance. On the contrary, the frank criticism pleases me. For our friendship becomes all the richer for our disagreements. Friends to be friends are not called upon to agree even on most points. Only disagreement must have no sharpness, much less bitterness, about them. And I gratefully admit that there is none about the Poet's criticism. I am obliged to make these prefatory remarks as Dame Rumour has whispered that jealousy is the root of all that criticism.

Such baseless suspicion betrays an atmosphere of weakness and intolerance. A little reflection must remove all ground for such a cruel charge. Of what should the Poet be jealous in pie? Jealousy presupposes the possibility of-rivalry. Well, I have never succeeded in writing a single rhyme in my life. There is nothing of the Poet about me. I cannot aspire after his greatness. He is the undisputed master of it. The world today does not possess his equal as a poet. My 'Mahatmaship' has no relation to the poet's undisputed position. It is time to realise that our fields are absolutely different and at no point overlapping. The Poet lives in a magnificent world of his own creation—his world of ideas. I am a slave of somebody else's creation—the spinning wheel. The Poet makes his gopis dance to the tune of his flute. I wander after my beloved Sita, the charkha and seek to deliver her from the ten-headed monster from Japan, Manchester, Paris etc. The Poet is an inventor—he creates, destroys and recreates. I am an explorer and having discovered a thing I must cling to it.

The fact is that the Poet's criticism is a poetic licence and he who takes it literally is in danger of finding himself in an awkward corner.

***

In Young India of 11, March 1926, Gandhi wrote a postscript to the controversy between him and Tagore:

In spite of the weakness of body to which the Poet himself referred in his address at the Abhoy Ashram, it was a good thing for Dr. Suresh Banerji, the manager of the Abhoy Ashram, at Comila to have drawn Dr. Tagore there. The reader knows that the Abhoy Ashram was established for the purpose of khaddar development. The Poet's acceptance of the address and such association as it may imply on his part with the khaddar movement, dispels if any dispeller was necessary, the superstition that the Poet is against the spinning wheel and the khaddar movement in every shape or form.

Life is an organic whole. It is the spirit that after all matters. It is not a fact that there is lack of strength in our arms. The fact is that our mind has not been awakened. "Our greatest fight here therefore is that against mental lethargy. The village is a living entity. You cannot neglect any one department of its life without injuring the other. We are to realise today the soul of our country as a great indivisibleBetween 1915 and 1941, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore exchanged a series of letters debating subjects such as truth, freedom, democracy, courage and the future of humanity as the nation was fought for independence.

***

Depite their differences, both Gandhi and Tagore also identified the inherent flaws with capitalism and modernity - the unending spiral of more and its essential Western nature. While they believed in the idea of a modernist education, both believed that the Indian idea of simplicity could best counter the perils of Western modernity.