A Study In Calmness And Contentment: Jawaharlal Nehru In The Company Of Rabindranath Tagore

Their expressions are striking—Pandit-ji with an intense, pensive and distant look, and the Gurudev exuding grace, calm and contentment, with his eyes half-closed

Saptak Choudhury Published Aug 29, 2020 00:00:00 IST
2020-08-29T00:00:00+05:30
2020-08-28T20:51:38+05:30
A Study In Calmness And Contentment: Jawaharlal Nehru In The Company Of Rabindranath Tagore Jawaharlal Nehru with Rabindranath Tagore, dimensions and photographer details unknown, 1936 (Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Two luminaries who contributed to India’s struggle for independence in vastly different ways—Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore—shared admiration and respect for each other.

The diverse, fascinating conversations the two men shared over the years ranged from the way the non-cooperation movement was shaping up to broader discussions on the different crises, such as fascism, facing our civilization. Noted statistician, the late P. C. Mahalanobis, also reminisces, in an article, about the time when Nehru visited Tagore in Kolkata in 1937 and the two spoke on what was more apt as a possible national song—Bankim Chandra’s Bande Mataram or Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana.

Looking at the serene picture (above) taken in 1936, one wonders what the interaction between the two may have been like. Their expressions are striking—Pandit-ji with an intense, pensive and distant look, and the Gurudev exuding grace, calm and contentment, with his eyes half-closed. It lends a certain wholesomeness to the entire scene.

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