A rare photograph of the great poet, Rabindranath Tagore, taken by the Fascist ruler of Italy, Benito Mussolini, hangs at the Madhavi Mandiram Loka Seva Trust in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. The photograph was given to the veteran Gandhian G. Ramachandran, founder of the trust, by C.F. Andrews, a friend and follower of the
Mahatma. As usual, Tagore is serene and meditative in the photograph. But that calmness hides the ruckus which his encounter with Mussolini caused. When Tagore, the great humanist and propagator of democratic ideals, visited Italy in 1926, the much-maligned Mussolini jumped at the opportunity to host him. He also invited the media to witness his meeting with Tagore.
Tagore visited Mussolini on May or June at his office in Rome when the latter took the photograph. The poet, who was apparently not keenly aware of Mussolini’s murderous campaign in Italy, also uttered words of praise much to the dictator’s delight.
This caused huge controversy and Tagore made amends after leaving Italy by writing that “it was an imperfect encounter between two personalities whose ideologies and beliefs were worlds apart”.
Sister Mythili, the managing trustee of Madhavi Mandiram, said that Andrews, a Christian priest who espoused the ideals of Gandhi, gave the photograph to Ramachandran, who later co-founded the Gandhigram Rural University at Dindugal, Tamil Nadu.