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| − | ==Chapter 2==
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| − | MUSSOLINI AND TAGORE
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| − | In January 1925, on his way back to India, Rabindranath Tagore arrived in Italy. The peaceful atmosphere of the poet’s journey from Buenos Aires to Genoa changed suddenly. Tagore intended to reach Venice via Milan and take the first available ship to India.
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| − | The poet and his party were not at all prepared for receptions and welcomes in Italy, but Mussolini had decided to exploit Tagore’s visit and make all the political advantage he could out of it.
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| − | The Italian political horizon was full of uncertainty and difficulties. On 10th June 1924 the socialist and anti-fascist member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Giacomo Matteotti, had been murdered. Two days after, hundred and thirty-five members of the Chamber abandoned the Parliament. Most probably Mussolini had not given any personal order to kill Matteotti, but he was morally guilty since he was the leader of the fascist movement including the extreme wings of the party. Anyhow, on 3rd January 1925, three weeks before Tagore’s arrival, Mussolini stopped the opposition and enforced a dictatorial regime.
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| − | Tagore reached Milan on 21st January. He was accompanied by some relatives and his faithful secretary Leonard Helmhirst; on the train from Genoa to Milan there was Carlo Formichi,1 an indologist sent by Mussolini with the task of capturing the poet and controlling his staying in Italy, and taking him to Rome in particular.
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| − | Among other prominent persons to welcome Tagore at Milan station there was Duke Tommaso Gallarati Scotti who was of considerable help and later steered the poet to overcome safely all the political entanglements.
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| − | Unfortunately or fortunately for him, Tagore got sick and was confined to bed for ten days. During this period it was Duke Gallarati Scotti who explained the poet the heavy political situation of that period and the danger of his meeting Mussolini: his meeting would be exploited and his words would be altered and misunderstood.
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| − | Before getting sick, Tagore could speak at the Circolo Filologico on 22nd January. His was not a lecture on a pre-arranged subject but a conversation from brother to brother, a pilgrimage among the souls in the name of universal love. Tagore’s talk in English was not recorded but the main newspapers reported some passages in Italian. We have been able to find a remarkable passage in a Milan newspaper:
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| − | Today you suffer. The shadow of Europe’s misery is thrown on the world. You were great when you were able to love. Today you suffer because you do not love. The lack of love does not allow us to create beautiful things. The monotonous mask of a commercial civilization does not express the spirit. Beauty comes from patience, and greedy people do not have any. Where is today a voice able to speak on behalf of all the human beings?2
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| − | On 25th January the “Corriere della Sera” published a short notice announcing the repetition of the same lecture in Naples; but Tagore did not go either to Naples or to Rome. His sudden illness was providential for him. On 28th January his health was better and he decided to leave for Venice. In a press release he apologized for his impossibility to extend his stay in Italy and promised to come back next summer “when weather conditions are similar to those of my country”. This last sentence was surely added to gild the pill. In fact the press release concluded by saying that he intended to buy a house near a lake in Lombardy in order to be able to stay in Italy longer. This news was meant to flatter the government and to demonstrate that the poet was not hostile to fascism.
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| − | While in Venice, before boarding the Lloyd Triestino ship to India on 1st February, Tagore took the opportunity to emphasize the “misunderstanding and the contrast” between India and Europe:
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| − | When voyages were difficult the messengers of the West reached the South East with a spiritual preparation to understand the peoples they visited. This was the attitude of Marco Polo who loved the people of the East and was loved by them in an atmosphere of sincere attraction. Today, when the longest voyage can be considered a picnic, passengers visit tourist places and hotels in India, but do not knock at the doors of the houses to know the real conditions of their inhabitants.3
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| − | More or less was Elmhirst’s description of the events:
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| − | The journey from Buenos Aires to Genoa was both peaceful and productive but we were not at all prepared for the official fuss and reception that welcomed us on our arrival in Italy. Mussolini had apparently decided to make what political capital he could out of Tagore’s visit and he was determined to bring Tagore to Rome, if he could, by sending a special reception committee to capture him. Luckily we had to travel via Milan where we were cared for by good friends who warned us of the political danger of his [Tagore’s] public appearances, and these were, in consequence, apart from one visit to the Scala, cut out altogether. Tagore had, I realized later, always hoped to form his own individual judgement of Mussolini when a suitable opportunity might arise, but he was now homesick for Santiniketan and so agreed to take ship direct from Venice as soon as a boat was available. Duke Gallarati Scotti and his wife took considerable risks both in Milan and later, to steer us safely past all the political schools and entanglements, and at last Tagore was happily settled in his chair, on a boat in Venice, homeward bound for India.4
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| − | After the failure of his first attempt, Mussolini started his own outflanking movement in order to capture Tagore’s support. First of all he gave many facilities to Italian journalists supporters of his regime to go to India with the double purpose of getting first hand information and making propaganda in favour of fascism. Among them there was the well-known journalist Mario Appelius, author of a travel book India, widely circulated, which was dedicated to Mussolini, “the exceptional man who in the hour of despair had first rate capacity and courage”. Common elements of the activity of the Italian journalists of that period were a nationalistic attitude, the glorification of the fascist homeland, irony and discredit towards other countries, in particular eastern countries not yet nations and under the colonial yoke of countries unfavourable to fascism.
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| − | On a cultural level the fascist propaganda was assigned to the previously mentioned Carlo Formichi and to the young orientalist Giuseppe Tucci.
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| − | In a book about India, Carlo Formichi reported what he had said to Tagore while travelling from Genoa to Milan:
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| − | During the travel from Genoa to Milan Rabindranath wanted me to inform him about the political situation in Italy. It was the only time he heard me speaking of politics. I told him the painful story of the tragical disorder our country had been plunged in after the first world war, that is the story of strikes in public services and the impossibility of many Ministries to enforce the law, to reorganize public finance, to restore elephantine bureaucracy, in a word to give the country a government able to settle the serious problems of the time. I went on telling him how the soldiers, who had saved the country from external enemies, had joined the Fascist Party to save the country from internal enemies, and guided by an extraordinary man, Benito Mussolini, after an almost bloodless revolution, cherished and blessed by most Italians and approved by the king, held in their hands the reins of the Country, thus restoring, as if by magic, discipline and law. I added that only those who had undergone the pains of anarchy could understand the gratitude of the Italians to Fascism and the necessity to forgive violence needed to lead a horse by the bridle. Listening to my words, the Poet nodded with his head now and then.5
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| − | It is useless to say that it was a party version even though Formichi spoke honestly of the misunderstandings and difficulties of the Poet’s speech at the Circolo Filologico, which opened the way to “harsh controversies, bitter discussions, suspects and hates [...]. Though the Poet spoke with good intentions, Fascists were right to consider him an unwelcome guest”.6
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| − | On 20th August 1925 Carlo Formichi received from Tagore an invitation as a visiting professor to the Visvabharati University from November to the following March. Immediately after, Tagore sent a request for a lecturer of Italian and books of Italian Art and Aesthetics as in his university library there were only Benedetto Croce’s works. This request was submitted directly to Mussolini who did not miss this opportunity.7
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| − | On 4th November 1925 Carlo Formichi left Brindisi carrying with him a collection of Italian classics and art books to be presented on behalf of Mussolini; at the same time Giuseppe Tucci was appointed Italian lecturer. Tagore reciprocated by sending to Mussolini his poetical Bengali work in ten volumes and a formal telegram which was of course considered by the Italian press as a support:
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| − | Allow me to convey to you our gratitude in the name of Visva-bharati for sending us through Prof. Formichi your cordial appreciation of Indian civilization and deputing Prof. Tucci of the University of Rome for acquainting our students with Italian history and culture and working with us in various departments of oriental studies and also for the generous gift of books in your name, showing a spirit of magnanimity worthy of the traditions of your great country. I assure you that such an expression of sympathy from you as representative of the Italian people will open up a channel of communication for exchange of culture between your country and ours, having every possibility of developing into an event of great historical significance.8
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| − | On 8th December 1925 Carlo Formichi had the chance to speak to Tagore about his probable voyage to Italy. On that occasion Tagore told the Italian indologist that he was ready to go to Italy but only as a poet. And Formichi in perfect agreement added: “Thanks to Mussolini’s magnanimity, the previous misunderstanding had been cleared, and I am sure that if you go to Italy as a poet your visit will be a triumph”.
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| − | It is useless to underline this kind of tricky involvement. In spite of this statement the Calcutta “Modern Review” published in January 1926 an article against Fascism and went on with other attacks in the February and March issues.
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| − | Formichi’s action was however successful. Tagore agreed on going to Italy and the Italian indologist informed immediately the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 20th January 1926 Mussolini consented to the Poet’s official visit.
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| − | Flood of words have been written on this visit. Actually the extant versions are three: the fascist report, that of Tagore’s entourage, and the anti-fascist one.
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| − | Apart from the Italian newspapers which were totally unreliable since they had to publish the press communications issued by the government and were under the sword of Damocles’ censorship, the only direct report of Tagore’s two meetings with Mussolini was that of Formichi who was present at the visits. About the first, on 31st May, Formichi reported that the conversation was extremely cordial and lasted for half an hour. In the second, on 13th June, Tagore spoke as a poet and the only commitment was his final sentence: “in the innermost nature of things there is an asleep creative force which is waiting for the impulse of a great personality in order to go into action”, a statement which was quoted in several daily papers. As we can see, it was a vague commitment typical of the oriental behaviour which was however considered as consensus by the fascist press. In his book published three years after the events, Formichi made a short description of what had happened after Tagore’s departure ending with: “I have polemized with him [Tagore] in foreign newspapers and I do not intend to go back to what has been the deepest disappointment of my life”.9
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| − | Then there are the recollections of Tagore’s entourage: his son Rathindranath and his daughter-in-law Pratima Devi, professor Prasanda Chandra Mahalanobis and his wife, besides his “secretary”, a young prince, the son of the rajah of Tipperah, a small princely state in the north-east of India, near Calcutta – Tagore’s faithful friend Elmhirst, who had arrived in Naples to meet the poet and to follow him, left Italy when he realized that he “was not at all approved of by the official Italian party of welcome”.10
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| − | The direct sources are Tagore’s letter to the “Manchester Guardian” published on 5th August 1926 and the articles in the Calcutta magazines “Modern Review” and “Visvabharati Quarterly” in September 1926.
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| − | In the five-page “Notes” published under the title of “Rabindranath Tagore visits Italy”, the anonymous writer, who was surely somebody of the Visvabharati institution, wrote that, when the Poet was about to leave India for Italy, he did not entertain the idea of going there as a state guest. From the report of the Secretaries of the Visva-bharati [Tagore’s son Rathindranath and professor Mahalanobis], we can see that, whatever the reasons for his change of mind might have been, from the point of view of making the Visva-bharati known in Italy, the Poet’s acceptance of the invitation of Mussolini was very fortunate.11
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| − | In writing thus it was meant to justify Tagore’s official voyage. The notes covered photos of Tagore at the Baths of Caracalla, at the University of Rome, and at the Coliseum, with a chronicle of cultural events, in particular the Poet’s lecture on the “Meaning of Art” on 8th June, with the attendance of Mussolini, the Foreign Secretary Dino Grandi, the Mayor of Rome, and many other notables. Besides, the poet was received by the king, had lunch with the British ambassador, and gave several interviews to newspaper reporters, though some of what he said was wrongly interpreted in the press. No mention of the meeting between Tagore and Benedetto Croce, and a short negative reference:
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| − | There were some critical persons who objected to Italy paying too much attention to him [Tagore]. But such critics were few and far between.12
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| − | The political problem was faced in the last part of the “Notes” under a paragraph “Tagore’s Condemnation of Fascism”:
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| − | A letter from Rabindranath Tagore addressed to Mr. C. F. Andrews, castigating the Fascists for their political conduct and for the dirty trick they played on the Poet by showing him only the good side of their government of Italy was recently published in the daily press. It came as a surprise to us after the glowing accounts of mutual understanding and fellowship that we received from the Secretaries of the Visva-bharati who accompanied the Poet to Europe. In this letter Tagore rebukes the Fascists for many crimes which they may have committed sometime in their private (national) life, but which Tagore somehow found out after he left Italy enjoying Fascist hospitality to the fullest and thanking the Fascists for their kindness till his last moment in Italy. It transpires in this letter that the Fascists hoodwinked Tagore in more than one way. They gave him such a whirl of nice experiences during his short stay in Italy that he could never for a moment dream that even the Fascists had a darker side to their character. They also published in the Fascist press exaggerated accounts of Tagore’s views on their country and countrymen. Tagore found out the truth about Fascism evidently from non-Italians outside Italy and the false nature of the statements printed as emanating from him by reading translations of cuttings from the Italian papers.
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| − | We are at a loss to give any opinion on this sudden dénouement. Before this a message alleged to be from Tagore created a sensation in the Indian press by its strange phraseology and sentiment. Later on it was discovered that the message was a fraud and had nothing to do with the Poet. Here again is another letter from Tagore in which he subjects his erstwhile hosts and friends to a merciless chastisement for showing him round only the best part of their house and for telling people that he loved them much. Can we be sure that this letter either is genuine?13
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| − | The important part of this last passage is the “sudden dénouement”, that is the conclusion, the alleged message from Tagore. Actually Tagore had made those declarations but in a different context and the fascist press had reported them according to their convenience.
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| − | Let us now concentrate on Tagore’s long letter to his friend Charles F. Andrews on 20th July, published in the “Manchester Guardian” on 5th August 1926. The letter, divided into eight paragraphs, faced the problem of the “interviews in Italy”:
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| − | The interview is a dangerous trap in which our unwary opinions are not only captured but mutilated. Words that come out of a moment’s mood are meant to be forgotten; but when they are snapshotted, most often our thoughts are presented in a grotesque posture which is chance’s irony. The camera in this case being also a living mind, the picture becomes a composite one in which two dissimilar features of mentality have made a mésalliance that is likely to be unhappy and undignified. My interviews in Italy were the products of three personalities - the reporter’s, the interpreter’s, and my own. Over and above that, there evidently was a hum in the atmosphere of another insistent and universal whisper, which, without our knowing it, mingled in all our talks. Being ignorant of Italian I had no means of checking the result of this concoction. The only precaution which I could take was to repeat emphatically to all my listeners that I had had as yet no opportunity to study the history and character of Fascism.
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| − | Since then I have had the opportunity of learning the contents of some of these interviews from the newspaper cuttings that my friends have gathered and translated for me. And I was not surprised to find in them what was, perhaps, inevitable. Through misunderstanding, wrong emphasis, natural defects in the mediums of communication, and the pre-occupation of the national mind, some of these writings have been made to convey that I have given my deliberate opinion on Fascism, expressing my unqualified admiration.
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| − | This time it was not directly the people of Italy whose hospitality I enjoyed, but that of Mussolini himself as the head of the Government. This was, no doubt, an act of kindness, but somewhat unfortunate for me. For always and everywhere official vehicles, though comfortable, move only along a chalked path of programme too restricted to lead to any places of significance, or persons of daring individuality, providing the visitors with specially selected morsels of experience.
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| − | The only opinions I could gather in such an atmosphere of distraction were enthusiastically unanimous in praise of Mussolini for having rescued Italy in a most critical moment of her history from the brink of ruin.
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| − | In the third paragraph, after saying that in Rome he had met “a seeker of peace14 who was strongly convinced not only of the necessity but of the philosophy of Fascism”, Tagore stated:
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| − | [...] it is absurd to imagine that I could ever support a movement which ruthlessly suppresses freedom of expression, enforces observances that are against individual conscience, and walks through a blood stained path of violence and stealthy crime. I have said over and over again that the aggressive spirit of Nationalism and Imperialism religiously cultivated by most of the nations of the West is a menace to the whole world. The demoralisation which it produces in European politics is surely to have disastrous effects, especially upon the peoples of the East who are helpless to resist the western methods of exploitation. It would be most foolish, if it were not most criminal, to express my admiration for a political Ideal which openly declares its loyalty to brute force as the motive power of civilization. That barbarism is not altogether incompatible with material prosperity may be taken for granted but the cost is terribly great; indeed it is fatal. The worship of unscrupulous force as the vehicle of nationalism keeps ignited the fire of international jealousy, and makes for universal incendiarism, for a fearful orgy of devastation. The mischief of the infection of this moral aberration is great because today the races of humanity have come close together, and any process of destruction set going does its work on an enormously vast scale. Knowing all this could it be believed that I should have played my fiddle while an unholy fire was being fed with human sacrifice?
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| − | The other paragraphs dealt with historical problems: fascism an American infection?; Christianity and European political thought; aggrandisement of the slave state: a lesson from India. The seventh paragraph was devoted to Mussolini: Tagore’s impression was typical of a mystic seer who wanted to analyze the qualities of his interlocutor. Anyhow the Poet made his statement in the last paragraph “suspended appraisement” where he clarified his position and postponed his judgement to the future:
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| − | If Italy has made even a temporary gain through ruthless politics she may be excused for such an obsession; but for us, if we believe in idealism, there can be no such excuse. And therefore it would be wise for us to wait before we bring our homage to a person who has suddenly been forced upon our attention by a catastrophe, till through the process of time all the veils are removed that are woven around him by the vivid sensations of the moment.15
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| − | The next day the “Manchester Guardian” published an interview to Tagore while in London. The Poet stressed two points of his previous letter: first, that he wished he could have remained neutral with regard to Italian politics; second, that not only Italians but also many Englishmen in Italy had openly expressed in favour of fascism including the British ambassador in Rome, who “highly admires Mussolini and his doings, and was quite sure that Mussolini was the one man who could have saved Italy from utter bankruptcy and disorganisation”.
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| − | The reaction of the Italian press was terrible. The “Popolo d’Italia”, the Milan newspaper founded by Mussolini and directed by his brother Arnaldo, published an article in the style of which one can see Mussolini’s personal influence:
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| − | After his first experiment [the 1925 visit to Milan], Tagore has come to Italy a second time, has accepted the homage of the Government and of his Head, has shown off in the most important towns. This time too the “old man” has not aroused our sympathy. As far as we are concerned, when a poet does not understand the tragedy of his people, he is not a poet but a mystifier. This oblique dervish, whom others’ mental deficiency has made a great man of him, has taken advantage of what Italy, always prodigal and refined to her guests, offered to him as a homage to the Indian people, who is great in history and truth, terrible in its enigmas. Later on, after crossing the borders, Tagore has suffered the bastard pressure and the order of Jews and Freemasons, and has given vent to his hate.16
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| − | The very same day also the Milan newspaper “Sera” made things worse by heaping contumelies on the Poet:
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| − | procurer-looking, vicious teen-ager, small poet, affected love-gardener, admired by hysterical women, great sponger, mechanical phonograph, in a carnival dress with a magician cap and a long loose garment typical of a discredited physician.17
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| − | The comment of the “Assalto” from Bologna on 28th August was hard and sarcastic:
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| − | That Tagore, who has come to Italy twice to give us an essay of his very heavy poetic thinking, is an old ham worthy of out highest contempt [...]. This seer is the maintained of many governments. So much per lecture [...]. This man, slimy, insinuating, and honeyed like his words and poems, has come to Italy on invitation of the Government, paid and helped by the Government. He has praised Italy, magnified Fascism, extolled Mussolini [...]. This misshapen old man who impressed people with is long black garment and white beard, as soon as out of the Italian borders, has spoken ill of Italy, fascism and its great leader, much greater than him [...]. He has acted just like whores who always swear they are in love with their latest customer. Today we say that we do not like Tagore as a poet anymore because he is emasculated and backboneless, that we despise him as a man because he is false, dishonest and shameless.
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| − | And finally the anti-fascist version which involved many different people then and later on.
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| − | A global vision of the problem was faced by Gaetano Salvemini18 in a long article published in 1957; unfortunately some of his words must be taken with the benefit of inventory since they were expressed longer after the fall of fascism.
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| − | We think it is useful to examine the situation after Tagore’s departure from Italy.
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| − | On 22nd June 1926 the Poet left for Switzerland: he was accompanied by Carlo Formichi as far as the border of Domodossola. Tagore’s first stop was at Villeneuve where Romain Rolland lived. The famous writer, who got the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915, two years after Tagore’s, left a journal Inde concerning the period from 1915 to 1943, which was published posthumously in a limited edition in 1951 and in a revised and enlarged edition in 1960.
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| − | Under the date of 23rd June 1926 Rolland wrote:
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| − | Mahalanobis est sévère pour les amis italiens de Tagore, en particulier pour le prof. Formichi, le grande orientaliste, dont il juge sans indulgence la faiblesse de caractère, l’asservissement au mussolinisme. Mais il laissent entendre que Tagore a subi l’attrait de Mussolini, qui s’est montré avec lui simple et naturel. Eux-mêmes ne l’ont pas vu, ou n’ont eu avec les maîtres de l’Italie que des rapports officiels. Benedetto Croce est le seul Italien de marque qui soit venu voir Tagore.19
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| − | The day after, Tagore himself revealed his thoughts thus leaving his Swiss friends in a state of consternation:
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| − | Tagore dit qu’il a beaucoup hésité à venir, à accepter l’invitation qui lui était faite. Ses premiers entretiens sur le fascisme ont été sur le bateau de l’Inde en Europe, avec le capitaine. Puis pendant tout son séjour en Italie, les conversations avec des amis ou notabilités de toutes sortes. Tous admiraient le fascisme, le disaient nécessaire, et, pour en mieux appuyer le caractère inévitable et sauveur, ils se dépréciaient eux-mêmes, ils dépréciaient toute l’Italie; ils la disaient incapable de se gouverner soi-même, de se maîtriser, de garder l’ordre et la paix. - Alors, Tagore en arrive à exprimer des théories, qui m’étonnent chez lui, pour légitimer le fascisme: si un peuple est réellement incapable de se diriger, s’il risque de succomber dans le chaos et la violence stérile, il faut admettre pour lui la nécessité d’une domination inflexible, qui supprime momentanément les libertés particulières au profit du bien général.20
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| − | Rolland let the Poet speak; it was difficult for him to interrupt Tagore’s words. At the moment of the discussion, the poet did not face the whole situation but only passages here and there. Finally, it was Rolland’s turn:
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| − | [...] je parlerai au Poète, au nom de l’Italie bâillonnée, de l’Italie martyre. J’ai le message de ceux qui souffrent à lui faire entendre [...]. Je parle des députés que j’ai reçus de la jeunesse italienne, - de ces jeunes étudiants de Milan, abandonnés et trahis par leur maîtres, - de ce généreux Umberto Zanotti Bianco,21 de ces idéalistes mazziniens, souffletés dans leur conscience, malades de honte et de douleur morale, - du sage Amendola,22 assassiné, - de l’intègre Salvemini, exilé, et toujours sous la menace du poignard, - etc. Et je vois le visage de Tagore se contracter: car sa noble nature, infiniment sensible, ne peut supporter l’idée de la souffrance réelle et de l’outrage infligé à la personne humaine”.23
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| − | After a tea-break, Tagore went on speaking. He said that India was not yet ready for self-government and the British domination was the lesser evil, and expressed his difference of views with Gandhi, who “dans l’affaire du Khilafat, n’a pas travaillé, comme il espérait, pour l’unité de l’Inde, mais pour l’orgueil et la force de l’Islam”.24
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| − | In the evening Mahalanobis informed Rolland of the Italian trip and read to him his notes:
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| − | Tagore a été magnifiquement - (outrageusement) - circonvenu. A son dernier voyage en Italie, (Milan et Veneto), il n’avait eu affaire qu’à des individus ou à des Sociétés indépendantes, nullement à l’Etat. Ses amis personnels, comme le duc Scotti, étaient antifascistes; et l’opinion, en Veneto, l’était aussi. Dans la presse fasciste, un courant hostile se manifestait franchement contre Tagore; et il ne lui eût prudent alors de prolonger ses conférences dans l’Italie du centre et à Rome. Il n’y eût certes point évite des scènes scandaleuses et des outrages”.25
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| − | Then the Indian professor narrated the arrival at Santiniketan of Formichi and Tucci, “mussoliniens fervents, - et bien déterminés à prendre Tagore dans leurs filets, - de parfaits agents de la propagande fasciste”. The poet, in Mahalanobis’ words, “se rendit bien compte du danger; et jusqu’au dernier moment, il hésita à partir. Les deux compères italiens guettaient les circonstances”. Mahalanobis explained that there was no seat for him on the Italian ship and that he reached Naples with another ship after the first meeting between Tagore and Mussolini. Hence he repeated what Formichi had said of the meeting. About Tagore’s meeting Croce26 professor Mahalanobis was very short: “Benedetto Croce est venu, ainsi, sur l’ordre de Maître [Mussolini]. Il est venu, et il s’est tu. Il n’a parlé avec Tagore que de choses de l’esprit. De son antifascisme, Tagore n’a rien su”.
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| − | Tagore asked his friends for some days of meditation and agreed on answering some questions from Georges Duhamel, a French friend of Rolland’s. On 30th June Tagore read to his friends his answer; actually he did not answer those questions but read them an article he had written previously. According to Rolland it was an article “conçu dans une forme vague et diffuse” with a flattering portrait of Mussolini:
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| − | [...] l’énergie formidable du haut du visage, la douceur humaine du bas; il le compare à Alexandre et à Napoléon; et termine par quelques lignes où il préfère platoniquement à ces héros de l’action les héros de la pensée”.27
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| − | The whole group was embarrassed, Duhamel was angry, Rolland regretted to have involved the French journalist and Tagore. The Poet promised to revise the article, but according to Rolland it was not a problem of form but of substance. It would have been sufficient to tell the story of his meeting Croce; Mussolini and Formichi pretended to phone to Croce but they did not take any action. It was one of Croce’s pupil who went to Naples and took the philosopher to Rome incognito, just in time to meet Tagore on the very day of his departure.
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| − | Actually, though reluctant, Mussolini ordered Formichi to send a telegram to Benedetto Croce, who received it in Naples in the late evening of 13th June and assured to be in Rome next day at 10 o’clock. The fact is that an Italian Army captain, Carmelo Rapicavoli, probably a pupil of the philosopher, went to Naples in the night between 13th and 14th June 1926 and took Croce to Rome to the Grand Hotel where the meeting took place, at the presence of Rapicavoli who acted as interpreter between the two.
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| − | There are three versions of their conversation, reported by Mahalanobis, Formichi and Rapicavoli, which are more or less identical, though the latter one seems the most complete. The main part dealt with the philosophical problem of the “being”, which was faced in a too vague manner, probably due to the translation, not easy for two people belonging to different cultural worlds, who met for the first time, in difficult circumstances and in a hurry.28
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| − | On 4th July Tagore left for Zürich where on 8th he met Guglielmo Salvadori’s wife, an English lady who told him of what had happened to her husband after writing an article critical of fascism in the “New Statesman” in 1924. From Zürich the Poet went to Vienna where he was called on by Angelica Babalanoff and by Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani,29 counsel for the defence in Matteotti case.
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| − | The conclusion of the affair was that Tagore wrote from Vienna the 20th July letter which was published in the “Manchester Guardian” on 5th August, we have dealt with previously.
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| − | A few years later, Tagore wa contacted by the French novelist Henry Barbusse, a pacifist who had got in 1916 the Goncourt prize for an anti-militarist work. He sent him an appeal “To the Free Spirits”: “Under the name of Fascism we see everywhere crushed or threatened all the conquests of freedom, that had been achieved by centuries of sacrifices and strenuous efforts [...]. We can no longer remain silent in the presence of this bankruptcy of progress” – was the core of the problem. Along with it Barbusse sent Tagore a personal letter asking him for an answer to be used “in case of need by publishing it partly or in extracts”. Tagore’s answer was positive but uncommitting, probably mindful of what had occurred after his visit to Italy. In his letter he was sympathetic but he never mentioned Fascism or the like: “It is needless to say that your appeal has my sympathy, and I feel certain that it represents the voices of numerous others who are dismayed at the sudden outbursts of violence from the depth of civilisation” – was the opening – “I rejoice at the fact that there are individuals who still believe in a higher destiny of man, proving in their suffering the deathless life of the human soul ever ready to fight its own aberrations” – was the closing.30
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| − | The interest of the Italian press finished but not the interest of the Italian diplomats from the Embassies in Asia. They were constantly reporting to Mussolini who was also Foreign Minister.
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| − | On 7th January 1927 the Italian Vice-Consul in Calcutta, E. Benaglio, sent to Rome the summary of an interview from Tagore to the Bombay “Evening News of India” published on 24th December 1926 under the title of “Europe in turmoil”. The Italian diplomat underlined Tagore’s admiration for Mussolini’s enterprises along his fear for the future of Italy when she will not be governed anymore by such a man.
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| − | Six months after, on 27th July the Italian Consul in Singapore, Luigi Neyrone, reported Tagore’s visit to the governor Sir Hugh Clifford. During his staying in Singapore, in a private conversation with an Italian gentleman, Tagore recollected his visit to Rome, adding that unfortunately there was a “difference of views” between him and the head of the Italian government.
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| − | On 29th March 1930 an internal note of the Italian Foreign Ministry informed Mussolini and the Head of the Police of a probable arrival of Tagore to Rome according to the French press.
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| − | The Poet did not of course come to Italy, but he sent to Mussolini a letter from New York. Why did he write it? Perhaps in order to soften the situation? It is reported that in November 1930, back from Russia, Tagore met at New York Carlo Formichi, who was visiting professor there. During the conversation, Tagore expressed his intention to clarify any misunderstanding he had with Mussolini and Formichi suggested him to write a letter. We do not know whether the facts were such: we reproduce it because it was a noble letter which however remained undisclosed31 and unanswered. The letter was recorded by Mussolini’s secretariat under the arrival date of 10th December: an Italian translation of it was made for Mussolini, who read it and pencil-marked the second paragraph:
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| − | 1172 Park Avenue, New York, Nov.21, 1930
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| − | Your Excellency
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| − | It often comes to my memory how we were startled by the magnanimous token of your sympathy reaching us through my very dear friend Professor Formichi. The precious gift, the library of Italian literature, is a treasure to us highly prized by our institution and for which we are deeply grateful to Your Excellency.
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| − | I am also personally indebted to you for the lavish generosity you showed to me in your hospitality when I was your guest in Italy and I earnestly hope that the misunderstanding which has unfortunately caused a barrier between me and the great people you represent, the people for whom I have genuine love, will not remain permanent, and that this expression of my gratitude to you and your nation will be accepted. The politics of a country is its own, its culture belongs to all humanity. My mission is to acknowledge all that has eternal value in the self-expression of any country. Your Excellency has nobly offered to our institution in behalf of Italy the opportunity of a festival of spirit which will remain inexhaustible and ever claim our homage of a cordial admiration.
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| − | I am Your Excellency, gratefully yours,
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| − | Rabindranath Tagore
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