Ottant’anni fa, Mahatma Gandhi visitò Roma con il desiderio di incontrare il papa. Era Mussolini, però, che desiderava incontrarlo. Voleva cogliere l’occasione per rafforzare la sua immagine e per promuovere se stesso? Qualunque siano state le sue intenzioni, la storia testimonia gli effetti negativi di quell’incontro per Gandhi e per la marcia dell’India verso la libertà. In quest’articolo l’autore ricostruisce questa vicenda intrigante basandosi sugli scritti dei principali soggetti coinvolti, in particolare i diari di Romain Rolland, Mahadev Desai e Gandhi stesso.

Eighty years ago, Mahatma Gandhi visited Rome with a desire to meet the Pope. It was Mussolini, however, who was eager to meet him. Could Il Duce have seized the opportunity to boost his own image and to further his own devices? Whatever his intentions, history bears testimony to the adverse effects of that ten-minute encounter – for Gandhi and for India’s march to freedom. In this paper the author reconstructs the intriguing turn of events based on the writings of the key persons involved, especially the diaries of Romain Rolland, Mahadev Desai and Gandhi himself.