Where the mind is without fear
Rabindranath Tagore
Text
• Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up
Into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country
awake
Background
• Rabindranath Tagore wrote his poem Where The Mind Is Without Fear in
the first decade of the Twentieth century.
• It is the 35th song in his famous book Geetanjali which was awarded the
Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He wrote this poem during the peak
hours of the cruel and brutal British Rule in India.
• It is his Utopia, in which he prays God to let his country wake up to a
blissful heaven of freedom that is his dream. The distance between his
dream and the real state of affairs in his country is far, and he skilfully
brings to world's attention the state into which his great nation has been
fallen into by the British Empire.
• He does this without offending anyone and as is expected from an
England- educated noble genius.
• 6 years before India achieved Independence, Tagore had died without
seeing a free India.
• In the present times, this poem not only tells us about the horrible
downtrodden position to which his country and it's heritage was brought
to by Britain but also acts a measure whether India has progressed any
after half a century of her independence.
• By describing his visions of the characteristics of a
glorious country, he emphasises the pitiful plight of his
native land. He prays for a heaven of freedom, to denote
the hell of submission and slavery prevailing then.
• People cannot express themselves fearlessly. The
Nation's head is forced to be held low and stooping.
Knowledge is not free.
• The Nation is broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls, divided into isolated segments by
geographical and political barriers.
• It is true that Lord Curson's cunning partition in 1905 of
his native Bengal into Muslim and Hindu Bengals as part
of the notorious policy of Divide and Rule heart-broke
and frustrated the poet, the strong emotions emanating
from which are reflected here.
• The poem is a masterpiece - it beautifully
captures foundational principles that any
nation should adopt - or a concise description
of what the constitution of any country should
look like or what a free country should look
like. In his view, it would be a country where
people can express their views freely without
fear of repercussions,
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people share and spread knowledge freely,
people are open minded and willing to listen to each other's perspectives,
people are true to each other, value their integrity, and honest in their dealings,
people work hard and strive for perfection in quality,
people are driven by reasoning and scientific temper, instead of fallacies,
hypocricies, or ideologies.
people are open to change and don't succumb to inertia or continue age-old
orthodox customs and practices that do not meaningfully apply anymore,
people are progressive, think of bigger goals and accomplish them, constantly
raising the bar.
When such a vision is accomplished, such a country would be free, and a heaven
to live in.
• The poet then denotes that spoken words no more
come out from the depth of truth, the meaning of
which anyone can guess.
• The ancient stream of reason which once flowed clear
and unhampered through the ages has now lost it's
way into the desert sand of Unending dead habits.
• A God-fearing nation has now become captain less and
the once-ever widening thought and action of a mighty
nation, have got stuck where it was decades back.
• So he prays to God to raise his country into that heaven
of freedom where everything is opposite.
Summary
• In the poem, ‘Where The Mind Is Without Fear’, Tagore sketches a
moving picture of the nation he would like India to be. Where
everyone within the fold of the brotherhood is free to hold up one’s
head high and one’s voice to be heard without having any tension
of fear of oppression or forced compulsion. Where the knowledge
is not restricted by narrow ideas and loyalties. The British rule had
robbed India of its pride and dignity by reducing it to a subject
nation. The India of Tagore’s dream is a country where her people
hold their heads high with their pride in knowledge and strength
born of that knowledge. Where all countrymen must come out the
aged-old world of people who have lost the vision of one humanity
by the narrow loyalties of caste creed and religion. Prejudice and
superstitious which narrow the mind and divide people would be a
thing of the past. Where the words of truth come out from the
depths of the heart and are spoken out courageously in the open
for the world to hear. People would work for perfections in the clear
light of reason leaving aside all superstitious rituals.
• Where everyone is free to toil and work hard for
anything they desire either for their own or for the
good of the nation. Everyone is encouraged to strive
tirelessly till they attain full satisfaction in reaching
their goals and perfection. Where blind superstitious
habits of thought and action have not put out the light
of reason. Where people’s mind should not dwell in the
mistakes of the past nor be possessed by it. On the
other hand they should be led by the power of
reasoning to be focused on the future by applying
scientific thought and action. Tagore’s only prayer to
the Supreme Ultimate is leading the nation to such an
ideal state of heaven. It is only by the universality of
outlook and an abiding passion for the realization of
great human ideals that India will achieve her true
freedom. This way alone she will realize her destiny.