Rozsa Hajnoczy, wife of a Hungarian professor, kept a journal of her
impression during their three years stay at the ashram. After her death
in 1942 this was published in Budapest and became one of the classics of
modern Hungarian literature. For through Rozsa’s clear yet
compassionate eye we witness Tagore’s ‘heaven of peace’ beg torn apart
by the tensions that were shaking the foundations of the Raj, by
subversion and riot among students and staff, and by the ill-fated
East-West marriage between Atany Ray, a professor of English, and his
European wife, Himjhuri. For these dramatic events Rozsa Hajnoczy
provides a kaleidoscopic background of temples, places, harems and
hovels, of mountain, jungle and plain, of princes and beggars, of holy
men and revolutionaries. All this, and the portraits of Tagore, Gandhi,
and the cosmopolitan characters on the campus, surely contains much that
will be a revelation even to those who remember those times.
Contents: