LEC052043 SNEHA SUNNY FEMINIST READING OF 'HEAVEN OF FREEDOM'

                        FEMINIST READING OF TAGORE'S 'HEAVEN OF FREEDOM'

Rabindranath Tagore, the ‘Bard of Bengal’ was the literary virtuoso who brought laurels to the country in the form of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature “because of his profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse, by which, with consummate skill, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words, a part of the literature of the West.” Gitanjali is the repository for one of the most anthologized poems ‘where the mind is without fear’/ ‘heaven of freedom’ that gently placed the ‘offerings’ to envision demography and awaken the hearts and minds to ponder over the concerns that Indians were yet to extricate. Tagore may be referred to as a 'feminist' because he voiced for the voiceless by penning down the subject of gender suppression with remarkable sense of respect for woman as Tagore observed ".....for we women are not only the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself". Similar is the idea we find while explicating ‘Heaven of Freedom’.

Heaven of Freedom was pin-pointed to the pre-independent Indian mindset by charting the ethical landscape of the society. Tagore’s vision of  motherland cannot be narrowed down as a mere utopist vision, rather as an inspiration acquired from his father; who was a guru in the reformist activities of Brahmo samaj and his musings of Bhagwad Gita, Upanishads etc aced the foundation of Shantiniketan and promoted co-education, thus kicking upstairs emancipation asa dire necessity. He wanted the re-creation of European episodes of enlightenment to take place in the amidst the reasoning strata of native inhabitants and thereby creating a society that promote education, freedom, courage, open to all in all its sense.

Tagore brought to forefront the concerns of women, their internal self, unhappy marital relation and her traumas like a radical feminist, through his body of text. His ideas were magical and bold enough to capture the relevance of topic by introducing the protagonists’ backdrop deep rooted in traditional Bengali Hindu families. “Through his works, Tagore is seen to break the false conventions of his society thus liberating women from their bondages. Tagore’s role in alleviating the minds of the Bengali reader is acknowledged anonymously today.” These elements in Tagore’s writings have captured my attention to re-visit ‘The Heaven of Freedom’ with a feminist perspective.

“Where the mind without fear poem describes the dream of Rabindranath Tagore where everyone in his country has head held high in dignity. The poet in his prose poem style uses imagery to take us to a country which is independent, where the people are free to express their thoughts, ideas, innovations and creations. Tagore is praying that God awakens his countrymen so that they come out from the darkness of ignorance, prejudices, disunity and all other evils.” (Anand)

 

The commencing lines of the poem bring in itself the fresh air of equality and a tone of warmth pleasing to all. The speaker urges the role of knowledge in kindling the emotions of strength and fearlessness. Tagore strongly believed that education as the key to empower her from the perpetual troubles of the patriarchal domain. As he writes in the Vishwa Bharti quarterly, “We in our home sought freedom of power in our language, freedom of imagination in our literature, freedom of soul in our religious creeds and that of mind in our social environment. Such an opportunity has given me confidence in the power of education which in one with life and only which can give us real freedom…” () This would further help her in achieving targets at every aspect of living thereby comprehending the art of living and managing to seek apt resolutions. This necessity is highlighted for men as well so that they too may come out from the darkness of ignorance; the ignorance of women and minorities since years. Tagore wants his idea of freedom to go hand-in-hand with the freedom of women thereby captivating the importance of radical feminism.

“Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls”(Tagore). Revising the line deciphers the priority of the ‘women’s world’ of ambitions and desires; not to be broken by the bleak parochial walls of child marriage, female feticide, sexual harassment, abuse and violence that strictly diminishes her future in particular and the ill future of the ‘world’ in general. Perhaps the only way to attain organic unity and liberty of women is possible only through the demolition of such fearsome ‘walls’.

“Where words come out from the depth of truth;

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;

where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action…”(Tagore)

 

The following lines personifies women by demanding to put forth sincere and tireless efforts to achieve the epitome of perfection, outnumbering the little expectations of the populace; that includes even those ill forces prevailing in the society that deteriorated them into discriminated grounds and swallowed their selves due to the outdated and irrelevant customs(dead habits). Simultaneously, the speaker gives solace to them saying that the ‘clear stream has not lost its way’ suggesting those helpful and educated people who are there to guide and support them in all the ventures to come. He aims this priorly to the women liberation movements put forth by him. 

 

“Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” With this concluding line he dwells on the theme of freedom and ethical choices for female population irrespective of the age, social status, and financial background. The end note presumably addresses the father-figure, God with a dual purpose, firstly, to show the patriarchal dominance and secondly to table the motion of women empowerment by eschewing the parochial interests and work together thereby fascinating the feminist goals through revolutionary strides.

 

Tagore, the progressive thinker was successful in establishing the feminist perspective of the poem that not only demanded freedom of Indians from the clutches of British but also the liberation of the women from the clutches of patriarchy and irrelevant customs. The poem stands relevant in the socio-political context of India as of date, constantly reminding its readers on self-realisation and mutual respect; as it shall serve to be a moral text invoking the generations to contemplate and work together to achieve the progress that Tagore had foreseen.

 

                                                             WORKS CITED

B. V Lasitha. “Resonances an anthology of prose and poetry”. Primus books,2015, pp 90-91

 

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1913. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2021. Wed. 3 Feb 2021. nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/summary

 

S.Anita Anto Arokia. “The reflections of tagore on the emancipation of women”. JEL, Sep 2012 vol 2,issue 2,pp 38-42 ISSN 2278-4896 tjprc.org/publishpapers/1-31-1346335573-7-English%20-%20IJEL%20-%20The%20Reflections%20-%20Arockia%20Anto%20Anita.pdf

 

Shila Shirin. “Tagore as a Feminist: Reflection from Tagorean Literature”.BRAC University.Dec 2015,dspace.bracu.ac.bd/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10361/5036/12103001.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed

 

Verma Rubina and Anand Jayanti. “Where the Mind is Without Fear”. An International Journal in English, sep-oct 2017, vol 3, Issue 5, pp.1-6 ISSN 2454-3454