Article Title: Writers who stood up for what they believed in

Article Summary

The article at hand finds the writer praising Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore and French writer Romain Rolland for their intellectual egalitarianism and prowess, that can be glimpsed through their mutual conversations. Both these authors knew and loved each other, and were writing letters at a time when the world and both their countries were in throes of powerful and destructive colonialism and nationalism. Both of them resented the fact that nationalism was being carried too far and turned into a force of evil in their countries. Rolland had, in particular, tried to form a band of thinkers and creative people who were egalitarian, cosmopolitan in their outlook, in response to writers being used for propagandist aims during World War I. Tagore joined his initiative, and both seemed to have the same sentiment – one’s country is to be loved, but not at the cost of hating other countries or countrymen. The both of these agreed on several points including this, and were particularly fond of each other. The author of the piece ends by saying that the correspondence of Tagore and Rolland shall prove instructive even today, in climes that are polarized and hate-spewing to the maximum degree.