One of our favourite poets, Rabindranath Tagore wrote the following poem in early parts of twentieth century. It is hung in a lot of school premises in India. In 1977, when Mrs. Gandhi declared emergency, there was heavy censorship of newspapers. Lots of people were sent to jail, tortured. There was fear in the air. Apparently this poem started vanishing from the walls. Don't know whether it is just myth.
I can not find it in me to provide a reasoned, nuanced post about this. I obviously don't have any sympathy for the LGF comments crowd. I also like Anil's weblog and keep going back there. But in the larger debate, when you get beyond things like LGF's target audience, I feel alienated by the stridency and fundamentalism of both the left and right. I found Nick Denton's post on the subject dignified. But I dont think there is any political umbrella anymore for people like me.
Instead I give you this poem. It says what I believe in:
"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"
Kind of.
If I can contextualize it, Gitanjali (the book from which this poem is taken) was published in 1910. India was under British rule. People were divided by all sorts of narrow, sectarian divisions. The way most looked at it, it was India that needed to wake up and join the outside world which looked just wonderful and fine. If you do a strictly textual study, you are right.
On your second comment: I don't know. I definitely believe that politically if you don't have enough momentum to bring in significant change, it is probably better to lay off. Witness Nader and the Florida fiasco.
Theoretically, your premise of "attempting to alter to perfection the most optimal one available a better choice" makes complete sense. The selfish question is: how feasible is it and at what cost to you? After 10 years of working, my faith in the ability of common men to change the much maligned system is a lot less. On the other hand, some of the muck sticks to you. It takes its toll. Mostly, it is not worth it.
Sometimes, the cause it worth it. I hope that if ever the time comes where my voice really becomes important in civil life, l prove to be alright.
Great men have of course changed the course of history many a times. But where I come from, we have been betrayed by our politicians way too many times.
I hugely admire people who try to change things from inside. As for me, I would like to be more involved in civil life wherever I live/go, but in areas which won't give me blood pressure, but areas which are dear to me and where I think I can make some positive change - e.g. education
Well...it probably became a completely unrelated rant. But anyway ...
Posted by: Kaushik on October 25, 2002 6:09 PMTwo comments:
ONE: Taking the poem in a global context, isn't the use of word country in the last sentence a complete contradiction of "Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls"?
TWO: Laura/Kaush: If the quest is to break away from all existing, organized political umbrellas because they don't confirm to your ideology, then forming your own political umbrella is a choice. But if there is no timemotivationmoney to form this umbrella then, isn't adhering to and attempting to alter to perfection the most optimal one available a better choice?
We are going to have to make our own umbrella, I think.
Posted by: Laura on October 25, 2002 1:48 AM