Where the Mind is Without Fear (Summary and Questions and Answers)

Where the Mind is Without Fear. Rabindranath Tagore.

About the poet: Rabindranath Tagore reshaped Bengali literature and music and was the first Asian to be awarded with the Nobel Prize for Gitanjali, in 1913. He has written multiple novels, poems, short stories, travelogues, dramas and thousands of songs. His writings are influenced by both Indian and Western traditions. His famous works include Sonar Tari, Gitanjali, Balaka (poetry), Raja, Dak Ghar, Muktadhara (dramas), Nastanirh, Gora, Ghare Baire (fiction) and the list is endless. About the poem: Where the Mind is Without Fear is one of his famous poems. It was originally composed in Bengali, under the title ‘Prarthana’, meaning prayer. This poem appeared in the volume called ‘Naibedya’ in 1901. Tagore wrote this poem when India was under the clutches of British rule. He wrote this poem to encourage the countrymen, to instil courage in their hearts and minds. Lines 1-2: The poet prays to God that his countrymen should not cower in fear. They should be free from oppression and compulsion. Their heads should be held high. He wants his countrymen to be fearless and have a sense of pride and selfdignity. They should not be daunted by any kind of oppression and should be determined in their pursuit of goal. In the second line, the poet dreams of a nation where knowledge is accessible to all and sundry. Only the light of education has the power to obliterate the darkness of ignorance. Hence, he wants everyone to be educated irrespective of class barriers. Lessons taught should have spiritual importance and should aim at the all-round development of a student’s personality.

Lines 3-4: Prejudices, discriminations divide people. They germinate the seed of hostility in all. The poet wants that there should not exist any form of difference among people based on caste, creed, language, sex, religion and colour. Prejudices and superstitions are the narrow domestic walls that divide us into groups, thereby breaking our unity and making us weak and fragile. Lines 5-6: Tagore wishes that the people of his nation will be forthright and honest. Their words should come out from their hearts. Their words should be clear and distinct. The poet asks everyone to work hard, without exhaustion, to reach their desired goal. His countrymen should tirelessly stretch their arms towards perfection. They should work hard till they attain perfection. The figure of speech used in the sixth line is personification. ‘Tireless striving’ has been personified as a human being, stretching his arms to attain perfection in his desired mission. Lines 7-8: The poet wants his people to be rational and logical in their thinking. They should not be dictated by the blind superstitions and traditional conventions. He draws an analogy between ‘reason’ and ‘clear stream’ and compares ‘dead habits’ to a ‘dreary desert’. Reason should not lose its way in the sand of dead habits. Lines 9-11: The countrymen should have a progressive approach and encourage new thoughts and ideas. Their minds should be led forward by the contemporary new objectives. In the final line, the poet addresses Almighty as ‘Father’ and prays to him to let his country wake up to such a heavenly abode of freedom where there is brightness, radiance and confidence all around. Extract based questions along with their probable answers: Q1. “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free” a. Name the poem and the poet.

Ans: The name of the poem is Where the Mind is Without Fear and the name of the poet is Rabindranath Tagore. b. Name the form of the poem. Ans: The poem is written in the form of a prayer, an invocation to Almighty. It is written in free verse. c. What does the poet want our ‘mind’ and ‘head’ to be? Ans: The poet wants our minds to be without fear and heads to be held high. d. What is meant by ‘mind is without fear’? Ans: ‘Mind is without fear’ – the phrase alludes to the fact that our minds should be fearless. We should not be daunted by the shackles of oppression. Fear should not be able to daunt us. Our heads should be held high, without any form of fear or restriction. e. Explain: ‘head held high’. Ans: ‘Head held high’ means to have self-esteem. The heads of the countrymen are held down because of the excruciating oppression suffered by them in the hands of the British. The poet wants their heads to be held high with utmost pride and dignity and not bowed down. f. Whose mind is the poet talking about and why? Ans: The poet is talking about the minds of the countrymen. He wants his countrymen to be fearless and not remain gripped in fear. His countrymen were under the clutches of British when he wrote this poem. So his vision is of a fearless India. g. What is the vision of the poet? Ans: The poet envisions a ‘World of Freedom’ that can only be gained if the countrymen are fearless. Only a fearless mind can hold his head upright and straight. He wrote this poem when the Indians were under the control of British. So he visualises a mental picture of free India, without any external domination. h. Why does the poet feel that his countrymen should not feel any kind of fear?

Ans: The poet is aware of how glorious India used to be in the past, how India soared high before her pinions were chained. With the advent of the British, the countrymen had lost their pride, confidence and self-esteem. So the poet dreams of a free country where his countrymen would not feel any kind of fear or oppression. People would hold their heads high and voice their opinions freely. i. How would the countrymen be able to hold their heads high? Ans: The countrymen would be able to hold their heads high if they are free from oppression of any kind. They would derive strength from their access to knowledge which can help them to become confident. Their knowledge would not be confined to narrow thoughts and ideas. No narrow walls would bind them into shackles. All these would help them to hold their heads high. Q2. “Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls.” a.

Explain: ‘Where knowledge is free’.

Ans: Knowledge helps us to understand various things and everyone has the right to gain knowledge, irrespective of their caste, creed and status. The phrase ‘Where knowledge is free’ occurs in Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Where the Mind is Without Fear. The poet wanted an atmosphere where knowledge would be freely accessible to all and not restricted to a particular section of society. The opportunity of gaining knowledge should not be given only to the rich and affluent sections. It should be freely available to all- be it the rich or the poor, without any kind of social barriers. It should not be restricted by narrow ideas and social backwardness because it is only the light of knowledge that can drive away the darkness of ignorance. b. What are the ‘narrow domestic walls’ that the poet speaks about? Ans: The ‘narrow domestic walls’ refer to the barriers and obstacles that do not allow social progress.

They pose as a hindrance in the path of advancement. The ‘narrow domestic walls’ stand for narrow considerations of caste, creed, sex, religion, language, race, geographical divisions, colour divide people instead of uniting them. They are the narrow local divisions that actually separate and weaken us. c. What according to the poet, ‘breaks up the world into fragments’? Ans: The ‘narrow domestic walls’ like differences in caste, creed, sex, religion, language, race, geographical divisions, colour break up the world into fragments. They create differences among us and separate us. That is why, the poet envisions a free country, devoid of all types of prejudices. d. In what way can the ‘narrow walls’ be harmful to a nation? Ans: Fervent patriotism, love and mutual cooperation, peaceful habitation- all these can help in uniting a nation. However, the ‘narrow domestic walls’- differences in caste, creed, sex, religion, language, race, geographical divisions, colour divide us. They bound us in the traditional shackles of prejudices and superstitions. They can harm a nation by refraining it from advancing further in the path of progress. These walls make us conventional and rigid, opposed to new ideas and thoughts. Tagore wishes to eradicate the domestic walls in order to establish a democratic society, devoid of any despotism.

Q3. “Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection” a. What do words ‘come out from the depth of truth’ mean? Ans: The words ‘come out from the depth of truth’ mean words that are spoken by an individual, must be forthright and sincere, it means when one is free from doubt and he has nothing to hide. The words spoken by him will be clear and distinct. The words spoken by an individual, should come out straight from his heart and he should always speak the truth, not being afraid of any consequences. b. Why does the poet want the words to come out from the depth of truth?

Ans: The poet wants his countrymen to be fearless and confident. Thus he wants words to come out from the depth of truth, words that are sincere and honest, words that are devoid of deceit and falsity. c. What does the poet want his countrymen to aim at? Ans: The poet wants his countrymen to aim at perfection. He wants them to stretch their arms tirelessly towards perfection. He wishes them to strive hard, without any exhaustion till they attain full satisfaction in reaching perfection. d. Name the figure of speech used in ‘tireless striving stretches its arm’. Ans: The figure of speech used in ‘tireless striving stretches its arm’ is personification. Personification is a figure of speech where living attributes are conferred upon non-living things. It represents an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature. Here, ‘tireless striving’ is personified like a human being stretching its arm to reach its goal towards perfection, discarding all the old traditions and prejudices. e. What does the poet mean by ‘tireless striving’? Ans: ‘Tireless striving’ refers to working hard with full zeal and enthusiasm, without getting tired at all. This should be done to reach its goal towards perfection which freedom from the oppression and rigidity.

Q4. “Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit” a. What does the poet mean by ‘clear stream of reason’? Ans: The phrase ‘clear stream of reason’ appears in the poem Where the Mind is without Fear. The poet appreciates logic and reason. He knows that only logic and reason can defeat old traditions and customs, superstitious rituals and narrowmindedness. The stream of reason must be clear and free flowing, without any shackles. b. Why has ‘reason’ being compared to a clear stream?

Ans: The poet has compared ‘reason’ to a clear stream because he wants the countrymen to support logic and rationality and discard old, meaningless conventions and customs. Like a stream is crystal clear and free flowing, reason and logic allows us to be free from impure ideas and thoughts. It enhances clarity of mind and discards obscurity. It offers us a freedom from the narrow domestic walls such as caste, creed, sex, religion, language, race, geographical divisions and colour. c. Name the figure of speech used here in the line ‘Where the clear stream of reason’. Ans: The figure of speech used here is metaphor. Metaphor is a figure of speech where an implied or hidden comparison is made between two different things that are not related to each other but they share some common characteristic features. Here in this poem, reason has been compared to a clear stream. The poet has compared ‘reason’ to a clear stream because he wants the countrymen to support logic and rationality and discard old, meaningless conventions and customs. There should be a transparency in it, like the flowing stream of water. Like a stream is crystal clear and free flowing, reason and logic allows us to be free from impure ideas and thoughts. It enhances clarity of mind and discards obscurity. It offers us a freedom from the narrow domestic walls such as caste, creed, sex, religion, language, race, geographical divisions and colour. d. What is the importance of ‘reason’ according to the poet? Ans: ‘Reason’, according to the poet, is important because it enables a man to think rationally. It helps the man to think logically, with a clarity of perception. This will broaden his outlook and he will learn to leave aside superstitions and dead rituals. He will be able to progress forward, with a clear bent of mind. e. Explain ‘Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.’ Ans: The line ‘Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit’ appears in Rabindranath Tagore’s Where the Mind is Without Fear. It is a metaphor. The clear stream of reason and logic gets lost in the dreary desert sand of outdated customs, blind superstitions and meaningless conventions.

Their rational thinking must find its way out of the dead sand of blind beliefs and should not get lost in the sand of dead habits and rituals. The dead habits make the people weak confining them to the walls of shackles and conventions. A man, trapped in the web of narrow-mindedness, cannot prosper ever. Hence, Tagore wants his countrymen to be progressive and open to new thoughts and ideas. Q5. “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.” a. Who is ‘thee’ here? Ans: God, the Almighty is ‘thee’ here. b. Where does the poet want to be led? Ans: The poet wants to be led into a world of freedom, a free world and not a cloistered one. c. Where will ‘thee’ lead forward? Ans: The poet wants ‘thee’ to lead us forward, into an ever-widening thought and action, into a heaven of freedom where fear does not exist. d. What does the poet mean by ‘ever-widening thought and action? Ans: ‘Ever-widening thought and action’- the phrase appears in the poem Where the Mind is Without Fear. `The poet wants his people to express their opinion freely. Their thought and action must be broad and wide. Every individual must always aim for excellence in every sphere of his life. The poet wants his country to be awakened where God will lead his people into an ideal heaven where they are free and strive hard. God will guide them in the progressive path of thought and action. They will be thoughtful as well as ready to put those thoughts into actions that will help them to attain true freedom. e. What does the poet mean by ‘let my country awake’? Ans: The poem was written when India was facing oppression in the hands of the British. India had lost her supremacy and her glory. She was in a deep slumber of ignorance. Thus, the poet wants his country to awake from her slumber, he wants his country to awake into ‘that heaven of freedom’ where there would be no fear or

oppression, where there would be no ‘narrow domestic walls’, where people would be guided by God and where there would be the true light of freedom. f. Who is ‘Father’ here? Ans: God is referred as ‘Father’ here. g. Describe the ‘heaven of freedom’ Ans: The heaven of freedom is described as an abode where the individuals have attained freedom in its truest sense – Freedom from fear oppression and discrimination. Tagore has written this poem when India was in the grip of the British. His countrymen had lost confidence and the ‘narrow domestic walls’ had broken up the world into fragments. Thus, the poet visualizes a heaven of freedom where the people are free and have abandoned all fears and prejudices. It is a place where the ‘clear stream of reason’ reigns over the ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’. It is a place where people live with dignity, self–respect and pride. Tagore’s ‘heaven of freedom’ will have no walls of separation and people will rise up to a new hope, radiance and confidence. h. Name the volume in which the poem has been included. Ans: This poem was included in the volume called ‘Naibedya’. The original poem bears the title ‘Prarthana’, meaning a prayer.