Abstract

The personal, cultural, and political relationships of Rabindranath Tagore with Italy make an intriguing component of the poet's complex relationships with the West. This article focuses on Tagore's two visits to Italy in the 1920s, drawing heavily upon Italian sources. It examines the tensions between liberal anti-fascists like Tommaso Gallarati Scotti and admirers of Benito Mussolini like Carlo Formichi as they strove to influence their celebrated guest, and the impact on him of testimony by wives of anti-fascists who had been tortured. It confirms that Tagore's 1930 conciliatory handwritten letter was actually sent to Mussolini. However, when Hitler and Franco rose to power, Tagore fully understood the ominous nature of fascism, and he made public appeals against it.

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