But ‘where’??
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 toward perfection….. PERFECT, absolutely perfect. This decades-old poem by Nobel Prize winner Ravindra Nath Tagore had conceptualized a utopian state of human thought, action and social processes and articulated a wonderful yardstick to measure the holistic development of any civilization.
The very first line, “Where the mind is without fear”, reference frame being contemporary India, can we claim that most of the minds are without fear? NO! Many men travelling late night with their two- or four-wheelers have the fear of getting their vehicle snatched. Most women think twice before stepping out of house after it dark. Girls have an inherent fear of facing misbehavior from the opposite sex, and boys fear of unnecessarily facing road rage. Mothers have a perpetual fear of their children’s protection from physical harm, and fathers reel under the fear whether their ward will obtain an appropriate job after college. These are all very strongly rooted fears persisting in all strata of Indian society and the MIND is NOT without FEAR.
Doctors fear getting beaten up by patients’ relatives, labourers working at a height fear death by falling, lawyers fear abrupt halt in income, politicians fear losing the next election, a pregnant lady fears revival of post-delivery life, a rural mother fears losing a malnourished child, a pedestrian fears being hit from the back, an elderly fears lack of support from the family and an endless list of fears continues. Stretching out to the other part of the world, there exists fear of war, fear of terrorism, fear of pharma-mafia, fear of famine, disaster, recession, global warming… endless. So it’s very clear that the Mind Is Not Without Fear.
So if we treat this simple poem as a target to be achieved towards sociological evolution or simply of the development of our country, even the first line, maybe 5% of the whole poem pertaining to 5% of the target has not been attained. Something definitely needs to be done about this. Written around 125 years ago, Tagore had titled this poem ‘Prayer’, and God has not answered even the first line of it yet! Where is the mind without fear?
by Dr. Jayanti Sahay (A-703, Shubhkamna Apartments; 9811987707)
