Tagoreji is the finest poet India could ever produce. This is a poem written by him during the struggle for Indian independence. I happened to read it recently and was awed at the fact that this 'prayer' holds true for 'free' India as well i.e present day India as well. It is a shame that a poem written describing a free India more than half a century ago, during the British Imperialist rule, has not been achieved to this day. It clearly indicates the fact that only the color of the skin of the exploiters has changed from white to brown, while we remain exploited. (in brackets are those problems our country faces today.)
Where the mind is without fear(TERRORISM) and the head is held high(POVERTY);
Where knowledge is free(Corporate Coaching centers and Colleges);
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls(REGIONALISM/SEPARATISM/COMMUNAL Riots);
Where words come out from the depth of truth(CRIMINALS);
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(CORRUPTION);
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.
-- Rabindranath Tagore
good one yar.
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