Where Mind Is Without Fear

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Critical Analysis of Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Where The Mind Is Without Fear” RabindranathTagore's writing is highly imagistic, deeply religious and imbibed with his love of nature and his homeland. RabindranathTagore’s poem, ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ ,included in the volume called Naibedya, later published in English ‘Gitanjali’ is a prayer to a universal father-figure, presumably, God to elevate his country into a free land. Here Tagore defines Freedom as a fundamental system of reasoning of a sovereign state of mind, established or accepted as a guide for governing the man in a nutshell. A freedom fixes the limits and defines the relations of the moral, ethical and powers of the state of mind, thus setting up the basis for life. The first line of the poem is one of the most significant sub clauses which go to build up the poem. The ‘World of Freedom’, which Tagore envisions for his countrymen, can only be attained if we possess a fearless mind. Only a fearless mind can hold its head upright. So attain true freedom one has to have a mind which is ‘Without fear’. Thus, the poet wishes to be awakened to a heaven where the mind can work fearlessly and the spirit can hold its head high and again its knowledge is crystal clear reasoning: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free;” A free country means where one can acquire knowledge in all freedom of choice. The big world of man is fragmented or restricted to small mutually exclusive compartments. The poet preaches that our minds, instead of being engulfed in such prejudices and narrow superstitions, must be enriched by thoughts and actions, which are worthy and beneficial for the sake of the country: “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth;” In an
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