The Saint and the Singer- Reflections on Gandhi and Tagore (An Old and Rare Book)

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Gandhi and Tagore may be regarded as the two makers of modern India. There is hardly any aspect of Indian life and culture that has not felt the impact of their personalities, ideas and achievements. The fact that India produced in a single generation two such extraordinary men shows the latent strength of the Indian tradition which asserted itself even at a time when the country was politically subjugated and economically exploited.

The significance of Gandhi and Tagore. however, is not limited to India. Their insights and anticipations, and the wisdom and beauty of their lives and teachings, are of immense value in today's world. In spite of the differences between their temperaments and attitudes on some questions. Gandhi and Tagore were products of a common tradition. Their agreement on fundamentals far outweighs their differences of emphasis on specific issues.

In this book an attempt has been made to describe the unique relationship of these two great men, their personal friendship, their affinities and differences. Some of their key Ideas have been restated in the light of the developments that have taken place in the world during the five decades after their departure. This is not an academic study, nor does it aim at gluing an exhaustive account of the work of either Gandhi or Tagore. The author has merely tried to focus attention on some of their important ideas and achievements that are of enduring value.

The book has been written in an intimate. spontaneous style. The author has given his own reflections in the light of his personal experiences and responses, particularly in the Introduction and the Epilogue. Although this is not intended to be a work of academic scholarship, many decades of study and thought have gone into it. Without the appreciation and encouragement of friends and former pupils this book would never have been published.

Vishwanath S. Naravane was born in 1922 at Allahabad, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Allahabad and worked on the faculty of the Philosophy Department of that University for nearly twenty years. He was invited as Visiting Professor at many colleges and universities in U.S.A, where he gave courses in Philosophy. Art, Literature, Cultural History. Asian religions and comparative East-West studies. He has had a particularly close association with Colby College in Maine.

During the last twelve years Naravane has been giving lectures at the Cultural Integration Fellowship at San Francisco and at the homes of some of his friends and former students in the Bay Area. When not lecturing in California, he stays at his home town, Allahabad, in India.

Naravane has published many books on various aspects of Indian and western thought, mythology and culture. He has also published monographs on Tagore. Sarat Chandra Chatterji. Ananda Coomaraswamy. Sarojint Naidu and Premchand.

The publication of this book is almost entirely the result of the appreciation and encouragement that I have received from friends and former students, in India and the United States.

When I started teaching philosophy at my alma mater, the University of Allahabad, Tagore had been dead for five years and Mahatma Gandhi was at the peak of his popularity, having brought India to the verge of independence. I had been under Gandhiji's influence since my childhood. And I had just finished my doctoral dissertation on A Philosophical Interpretation of Tagore's Poetry, for which I had to acquire a thorough proficiency in Bengali. During my lectures on Socrates and Kant I used to make frequent references to contemporary issues in the light of Gandhi's ethical principles. And when I lectured on Aesthetics, I often found appropriate examples from Tagore's poems to illustrate issues like art and nature, the role of personality in art and the affinity between aesthetic and religious experience. Many students discussed these questions with me informally in my office or at home. I also heard from them comments on my broadcasts on Gandhi and Tagore from the Allahabad and Lucknow stations of All India Radio.

The spoken word vanishes. I never bothered to keep copies of my radio scripts, and lecture notes were taken away by students at the end of the academic year. Some of my friends and former students suggested from time to time that I should put together some of my ideas on Gandhi and Tagore, the two makers of modern India, in the form of a book later I did publish a book on Tagore based on my PhD thesis and articles on Gandhi in various journals. An important chapter in my book on modern Indian thinkers was devoted to Gandhi. But it was suggested that I should offer in a single study, in the context of their common Indian tradition, the responses of Gandhi and Tagore, whose lives, ideas and works had left their stamp on the thoughts and feelings of millions of people in India and abroad.

The greatest reward in the teaching profession comes when a student becomes a friend. The classroom relationship is limited to one or two years But friendship, based on common interests and mutual esteem and affection, is something which endures. I had realised this in India, but not as deeply as I did in the United States. A few among my Indian students indeed became lifelong friends. But on the whole our Indian students are a bit too diffident to approach their teachers on a personal level. The traditional reverence for the guru also creates a distance which is seldom bridged completely. Unfortunately the cruel hand of death has taken away prematurely three of my most precious friendships with former students in India.