 This book contains a frank and illuminating commentary on Gandhiji and his
ideals by the eminent French philosopher, Romain Rolland. Romain Rolland, recipient of the 1915 Nobel Prize for
Literature, was born
into a middle-class family in Clamecy, France. His father was a lawyer. He was
educated at the Ecole Normale Supe rieure and the Sorbonne. He later worked as a
professor at the Ecole Normale in Paris and the Sorbonne. As a great European
and contemporary of the Mahatma, his views have a special value. The appraisal
and assessment of Gandhiji's ideals of truth and non-violence and of the
strategy of passive resistance against the mighty British Empire is of
particular interest as it comes from a brilliant mind of the materialist-oriented
West. Long before the
world bestowed renown on Gandhiji for his political sagacity, Romain Rolland probed and made known to humanity the spiritual
greatness of the man. The two understood each other fully and the great scholar
from the West found and drew inspiration from the well-springs of that highly
cultivated and dedicated soul. While expressing his admiration for Gandhiji's
ethical approach to religion and politics and his readiness to sacrifice
everything for the sake of truth, Romain Rolland does not hesitate to quote
literally from Tagore and Andrews, who criticised some of Gandhiji's political
decisions. He also brings out how British policy forced Gandhiji to switch over
from an attitude of loyal co-operation with Great Britain to that of non-violent
non- co-operation. Readers will find the book a sustained interest throughout.
 Romain Rolland published his first book, HISTOIRE DE L'OPERA EN EUROPE AVANT LULLY
ET SCARLATTI, in 1895. He is most famous for his ten volume work, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE,
which was published between 1904
and 1912. Rolland was born Jan. 29, 1866,
into a middle-class family in Clamecy, France. At age 14, Rolland went to Paris to study and found a society in spiritual
disarray. He was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure, lost his religious
faith, discovered the writings of Benedict de Spinoza and Leo Tolstoy, and
developed a passion for music. He studied history (1889) and received a
doctorate in art (1895), after which he went on a two-year mission to Italy at
the École Française de Rome. Romain Rolland was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1915
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