FREEDOM

-Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—

died August 7, 1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story

writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new

prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali

literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on

classical Sanskrit. He is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist

of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-European to

receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Theme of the poem

1. Sense of nation:

– Inaction arises from fear: people afraid of rebellion

– People lie in passive subjugation – no resistance against British

– Clouded judgment and insecurity – caused by fear

– Destiny that will bring it to ruin

2. National identity:

– Poet’s individual identity fused with that of the community’s greater

identity

– Desperation to bring forth change: cannot stand and watch injustices

– Nation annexed to another nation: sovereignty clashes

In the poem “Freedom” Rabindranath Tagore an acclaimed Indian writer and the winner of the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1913 expresses his wishes and vision for his motherland, India. He supported Indian
independence from Britain and desired the end of the British Raj, which is the subject of "Freedom."The
first wish he has for India is the wish of freedom from fear. He believes fear of his countrymen is
responsible for her plight of slavery. In the first two lines of the poem, he refers to India as the
"motherland" and states that he wants India to be free from fear. His use of alliteration, or repetition of
the "f" sound in the words "freedom," "from," "fear," and "freedom" again in the first line, emphasizes
the urgency of his call for Indian independence. The word "freedom" is repeated throughout the poem
to express the poet's deep wish for his country to be independent.

The second wish he has for his motherland is the freedom from the burden of sense-less, illogical, and
orthodox beliefs and traditions which don’t let her see the future. In the third line, he builds on the
image of India as an aging mother, and he wants her to be free from the "burden of the ages," which
refers to the yoke of English control of India. The aged woman who represents India bends her head,
bends her back, and blinds her eyes under the burden of colonialism. These lines also use alliteration
with the repetition of the "b" sound. Tagore speaks of the way in which India does not see the future or
imagine a brighter future for herself by blinding her eyes. Instead of looking forward, India sleeps with
what Tagore calls "shackles of slumber," or time spent not thinking of her future. Instead, India is
fastening herself "in night's stillness," meaning that the country is committed to the past and to the
current situation of colonialism. The country "mistrusts the star that speaks of truth's adventurous
paths," meaning that the country does not look around in its dark time (represented by night) and
imagine a brighter future for itself as independent.

His third wish for India is to break free of her fear of taking risks; he wants her motherland to dare to
walk on the adventurous path; he also wants her not to trust so much in the uncertain destiny; nor allow
the control of her forward movement in the hands of narrow-minded and heartless people.His last wish
for her motherland is the freedom from humiliation of living as slave in the hands of foreign invaders.
When Tagore asks for "freedom from the anarchy of destiny," he means that he doesn't want his
country to just blindly and passively follow the fate that has been given to it, and he compares this fate,
or destiny, to a sailboat that has to follow winds that are blowing in every direction and that is captained
by an uncaring hand. This is a metaphor in which his country is compared to a sailboat following
uncertain winds with an uncaring person at the helm.He wants her to stop living like a puppet whose
each and every movement is governed and controlled by the master of the show. He wishes for her
motherland to live freely, taking her own decisions and creating her own future. Then, Tagore asks for
freedom from India living in a "puppet's world," by which he means a world in which India is controlled
by other countries and forces as a puppet is controlled by a puppeteer. The movements are
orchestrated through "brainless wires," meaning that England controls India without thinking and by
following "mindless habits," meaning customs that are followed without reason. In this extended
metaphor comparing India to a puppet show, figures, who are clearly Indians, wait obediently just to
follow the master of the show, meaning their English rulers. Therefore, the Indians live "a mimicry of
life," meaning an inauthentic life controlled by others.