Gandhi & Tagore were contemporaries. Though they openly admired each other, their views on many issues differed dramatically.
Gandhi was an arch conservative and a nationalist. He believed that India’s progress lay in going back to our traditions and rejecting most Western mores and practices.
Tagore was a liberal and an internationalist. He believed that the essence of India and its progress lay in its assimilative nature that incorporated and harmonized influences from all quarters of the world.
Gandhi was a man of action.
Tagore was an artist who created out of thoughts, words, music and paint.
Tagore gained quick recognition and admiration in the West and then as quickly became a figure of derision and is internationally almost forgotten today.
Gandhi gained international recognition slowly but remains a much admired and cited world figure.
Paradoxically Tagore endures in the culture and daily life of Bengal and Bengalis while Gandhi’s influence in modern India’s culture and its daily life has faded away almost completely.
Tagore and Gandhi. The contrast, I believe, is multi-dimensional, fascinating and archetypical of the essential duality of life, nature and civilization.
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