RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Rabindranath Tagore (1861- 1941) is to India what Shakespeare is to English. He composed the national anthem of our country. He founded the Visva –Bharati University in 1921. His best known works are Gitanjali (Song Offerings),Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare- Baire (The Home and the World). His “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal. His mastery as a mystic poet can be seen here in this poem.

THE HEAVEN OF FREEDOM  

 (Where The Mind Is Without Fear)

        Heaven of Freedom is taken from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), a collection of 103 English poems. This poem is more like a prayer. It was written towards the early part of the 20th century when the struggle for political Independence was going on in India.

   This poem is like an offering to God, a prayer where the poet prays for a country which is a heaven of freedom. He prays for an atmosphere of fearlessness, a place where people can walk without the fear of being arrested.

                     “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
                      Where knowledge is free”

   In India people had lost their freedom in all spheres under the British rule. They had no self respect. They were divided on the basis of religion so that the British colonisers could rule over Indians for a longer period of time. The poet is referring to a nation where the people can hold their head high and will have dignity and self respect.

   According to him knowledge should be free to all. There should be no division among the people on the basis of caste or creed and no monopoly in providing education.

  Tagore wants the people to work with their hearts which is possible only if their minds are free. Further he goes on to pray for a world which is not fragmented or broken in the name of religious, cultural, economic or political issues. He longs for an undivided world where there is tolerance among the people, a world where people have the courage to speak truth and hold truth at any cost

            ” 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”.

  Tagore addresses God as the Father of the Universe and humbly requests him to awaken our country to such a heaven of freedom where thought is not limited by the age old customs and superstitious beliefs.