Primary sourceSpeech24 December 1937
Peace Message to Rabindranath Tagore
Karel Čapek · 24 December 1937
A 1937 radio peace message by Czech writer Karel Čapek, addressed to Tagore, showing Tagore's global standing as a humanist voice.
This recording shows how Tagore was seen abroad as a leading humanist voice to whom peace appeals could be addressed.
About this source
What it is
This is a radio recording of a peace message delivered by Czech writer Karel Čapek on Christmas Eve 1937, addressed to the Indian poet and humanist Rabindranath Tagore. It is the only known surviving recording of Čapek's voice.
Why it matters
By the late 1930s, Europe was moving toward war, and intellectuals like Čapek looked to respected global voices such as Tagore to call for peace. That Čapek chose to address Tagore directly shows how widely Tagore's reputation as a humanist and thinker had spread beyond India, reaching writers and public figures across the world.
Look closer
- Why might Čapek have chosen to address this message specifically to Tagore?
- What does this recording suggest about how international and connected intellectual life was in the 1930s?
- What historical moment (just before World War II) makes this message especially urgent?
This speech is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rabindranath Tagore on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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