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{{Short description|Poem by Rabindranath Tagore}}
"'''Where the mind is without fear'''" ({{langx|bn|চিত্ত যেথা ভয়শূন্য|''Chitto Jetha Bhoyshunno''}}) is a poem written by [[Nobel Prize in Literature|1913 Nobel]] laureate [[Rabindranath Tagore]] before [[Indian independence movement|India's independence]]. It represents Tagore's vision of a new and awakened India. The original poem was published in 1910 in "Naivedya" and, in Tagore's own translation, in its 1912 English edition. "Where the mind is without fear" is the 35th poem of ''Gitanjali'', and one of Tagore's most anthologised poems.

It is an expression of the poet's reflective spirit and contains a simple prayer for his country, the India of pre-independence times.

==Original Bengali script==
:চিত্ত যেথা ভয়শূন্য, উচ্চ যেথা শির,
:জ্ঞান যেথা মুক্ত, যেথা গৃহের প্রাচীর
:আপন প্রাঙ্গণতলে দিবসশর্বরী
:বসুধারে রাখে নাই খণ্ড ক্ষুদ্র করি,
:যেথা বাক্য হৃদয়ের উৎসমুখ হতে
:উচ্ছ্বসিয়া উঠে, যেথা নির্বারিত স্রোতে
:দেশে দেশে দিশে দিশে কর্মধারা ধায়
:অজস্র সহস্রবিধ চরিতার্থতায়,
:যেথা তুচ্ছ আচারের মরুবালুরাশি
:বিচারের স্রোতঃপথ ফেলে নাই গ্রাসি,
:পৌরুষেরে করে নি শতধা, নিত্য যেথা
:তুমি সর্ব কর্ম চিন্তা আনন্দের নেতা,
:নিজ হস্তে নির্দয় আঘাত করি, পিতঃ;
:ভারতেরে সেই স্বর্গে করো জাগরিত৷

==English translation==
Tagore's own translation, in the 1912 English edition of ''[[Gitanjali]]'':<ref name="Gitanjali (Song Offerings), 1915">{{cite book |last1=Tagore |first1=Rabindranath |title=Gitanjali (Song Offerings) |date=1915 |publisher=The Macmillan Company |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/gitanjali00unse/page/27 27]–28 |url=https://archive.org/details/gitanjali00unse |access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref>
<poem>
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments;
by narrow domestic 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—;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
</poem>

==History and translation==
This poem was most likely composed in 1900. It appeared in the volume ''[[Naivedya]]'' in the poem titled "Prarthona" (July 1901, Bengali 1308 Bangabda). The English translation was composed around 1911 when Tagore was translating some of his work into English after a request from [[William Rothenstein]]. It appeared as poem 35 in the English ''[[Gitanjali]]'', published by [[The India Society, London]], in 1912.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://onemorelibrary.com/index.php/en/books/literature/book/indian-literature-373/gitanjali-3074 | title=Gitanjali | publisher=The India Society, London / One More Library | date=1912 | access-date=28 April 2019}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
|editor = Sisir Kumar Das
|editor-link = Sisir Kumar Das
|title = The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, v.1: Poems
|publisher = [[Sahitya Akademi]]
|year = 1994}} p. 9.</ref> In 1917, Tagore read out the English version (then titled 'Indian Prayer') at the [[Indian National Congress]] session in [[Calcutta]].<ref>[[Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyay]], ''rabIndrajIbanIkathA'', 1981, p.104</ref>

As in most of Tagore's translations for the English ''[[Gitanjali]]'', almost every line of the English rendering has been considerably simplified. Line 6 in the English version omits a reference to ''manliness'' (পৌরুষ), and the stern ending of the original, where the Father is being enjoined to "strike the sleeping nation without mercy" has been softened.

This poem often appears in textbooks in India and is also popular in Bangladesh. There is a [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] translation of this song by the name "''Mage Deshaya Avadi Karanu Mana Piyaneni''" ([[Sinhala script|Sinhala]]: ''මාගේ දේශය අවදි කරනු මැන පියාණෙනි''; lit. "My father, let my country awake") which was translated into Sinhala by [[Mahagama Sekara]].

==See also==
* [[Freedom of thought]]
* [[Independence Day (India)]]
* [[Romantic nationalism|National revival]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929093548/http://pib.myiris.com/speech/article.php3?fl=02031309955 Quoted by the Prime Minister] at [[Visva-Bharati University]] (15 December 2001)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928010751/http://speakerloksabha.gov.in/Speech/SpeechDetails.asp?SpeechId=137 Quoted at the 66th Session of the Indian History Congress]
* [http://nitib2.wordpress.com/2006/02/02/where_the_mind_/ "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high"]
* [https://englicist.com/notes/summary-where-the-mind-is-without-fear-rabindranath-tagore Where The Mind Is Without Fear - Summary]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060428125057/http://www.outlookindia.com/mad.asp?fodname=20041122&fname=Making&sid=1 Where the Mind is Without Fear]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060902010338/http://www.calcuttaweb.com/gaan/rabindra/index.shtml Bengali Songs - Rabindra Sangeet]

{{Rabindranath Tagore |state=uncollapsed}}

[[Category:Bangladeshi poems]]
[[Category:Poems in Bengali]]
[[Category:Indian poems]]
[[Category:Poems by Rabindranath Tagore]]

Chitto Jetha Bhayshunyo - Revision history

2409:4060:2EC8:FBDE:1C9C:A138:B8E1:F27B at 17:41, 11 September 2025