�Where the Mind is Without Fear� (from Gitanjali -1912) by Rabindranath Tagore

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. Freedom�

Freedom by Rabindranath Tagore

Freedom from fear is the freedom

I claim for you my motherland!

Freedom from the burden of the ages, bending your head,

breaking your back, blinding your eyes

to the beckoning call of the future;

Freedom from the shackles of slumber wherewith

you fasten yourself in night�s stillness,

mistrusting the star that speaks of truth�s adventurous paths;

Freedom from the anarchy of destiny

whole sails are weakly yielded to the blind uncertain winds,

and the helm to a hand ever rigid and cold as death.

Freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet�s world,

where movements are started through brainless wires,

repeated through mindless habits,

where figures wait with patience and obedience for the

master of show,

to be stirred into a mimicry of life.

With apologies to the great Nobel laureate, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, here is a
prayer for my
country in 2019 and beyond:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.

Where every citizen is blessed with equal rights and opportunities, not an India
which is divided
and discriminates on religion, region, caste, class, gender and income.

Where we keep religion out of politics and politics out of religion.

Where we cast our vote, but don�t vote our caste. Where vote banks are replaced by
an
enlightened, inclusive politics that truly respects our diversity.

Where secularism is about plurality and mutual respect, where communal harmony is
about
celebrating Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Nanak Jayanti with equal fervour.

Where a bhajan and a carol, a qawali and gurbani are sung with gusto, where our
unique, multiple
folk traditions are a badge of pride.

Where the periphery joins the mainstream, where from Imphal to Idukki, the State
reaches out to
the remotest corners of a vast land with equity and empathy.

Where a Muslim does not have to prove his patriotism every time there is a terror
attack in
Kashmir or when a Lashkar chief spews venom against India.

Where a Dalit is not shunned in a college hostel or a temple or a village well

because of caste
prejudice.

Where dignity of labour is respected, where �manual scavenging� is abolished in

letter and spirit.

Where an Adivasi�s forest rights are protected, where tribal land can�t be acquired
without
consent and a just price, where a labourer is assured a minimum wage.

Where individual freedoms guaranteed under the constitution extend to food, housing
and
marriage. Where there are no �fatwas� or diktats, but where a Hindu can reject
eating beef, a
Muslim can stay away from pork but neither will impose food restrictions on the
other.

Where killing in the name of the cow, just as killing innocents in the name of
religion, must be
seen as acts of terror that lead to speedy convictions.

Where a Hindu-Muslim marriage is not seen as love jihad but as an inter-community

marriage
based on personal choice.
Where the right to free speech is fought for vigorously but where hate speech and
incitement to
violence is punished. Where the mob cannot decide which film to censor or which
book is to be
banned. Where in the land of the Kamasutra, cultural freedoms are preserved.
Where a woman feels safe on the streets at midnight and can share public spaces
with men
without being sexually harassed.

Where the girl child is treasured and given equal space in our hearts and minds.

Where the freedoms of our young are not curbed by a self-anointed moral police.
Where being
gay is not a crime but a matter of sexual preferences.

Where, not every trader and businessman is seen as a �tax chor� just like not every
politician is a
thief.

Where a street vendor does not have to bribe the beat constable simply to earn his
right to a
livelihood. Where the small and micro enterprise is not harassed by a return to an
inspector raj.

Where the poor don�t have to shiver in winter in a ramshackled night shelter while
the super-rich
live in the warmth of their twenty-three-storey centrally heated homes.

Where private entrepreneurship is encouraged not stifled, where job creation

becomes a national
mission, where wealth is not just hoarded but shared.

Where a VVIP can�t walk through security without being checked even as the aam
aadmi spends a
lifetime in queues.

Where an Aadhar card provides better delivery of public services but doesn�t make
an individual�s
private information available to the state from life to death.

Where we don�t fight over temples and mosques, but fight instead for better
hospitals, schools
and civic amenities.

Where equal access to quality education and health becomes the primary goal of the
state, not
the business of running airlines or hotels.

Where public monies are spent on schools, playgrounds and hospitals, not on statues
and
decorating political party offices or on remembering birth anniversaries of our
netas.

Where we encourage the spread of higher education institutes of excellence, where

exam systems
are reformed to reward the best and the brightest, where marks matter but so do
values.

Where reservations create a level playing field but not at the cost of merit. Where
scholarships for
the economically deprived become the basis of admission and equal opportunity.

Where the rule of law is not simply a meaningless piece of paper to be thrown away
at
convenience but where scamsters are caught and the weak protected. Where archaic
laws are
removed and judicial delays eliminated.

Where a restaurant owner doesn�t get a licence without adhering to fire safety
norms and we
boycott those who do.
Where municipal authorities are held accountable when the drainage system collapses
in the
monsoon and no citizen runs the risk of falling into an open manhole.

Where our children don�t have to wear masks in the winter to keep their lungs
protected from air
pollution. Where untreated sewage doesn�t lead our city lakes to burn; where trees
are not
indiscriminately cut to accommodate VVIP colonies.

Where the Reserve Bank remains a trustee for our hard-earned money and doesn�t
extinguish it
overnight through unilateral political firmans, where digital India is to be
welcomed but not all
cash can be criminalized.

Where leadership of a political party is earned based on hard work not ordained
based on lineage,
where democratic impulses must replace dynastical traditions.

Where Swachh Bharat is not just an artful slogan or a well-choreographed photo op

but is a
workable goal of providing sanitation to all. Where cleanliness begins at home and
in the
neighbourhood.

Where no one goes hungry while others feast, where the poor don�t have to walk
miles to access
clean drinking water while the rich bathe in swimming pools.

Where the fight against corruption doesn�t stop at the gates of the well-connected
and powerful.
Where those with influence don�t get away with repeated bank scams and escape to
safer climes.

Where I can invite a Pakistani friend home to dinner without being dubbed anti-
national. Where a
Kashmir solution can be arrived at without using the gun or stone-pelting. Where
there must be
zero tolerance for mindless violence.

Where India and Pakistan do not fight each other over land and religion but wage a
war together
against poverty, hunger and illiteracy.

Where judges provide speedy justice and teachers, a fulfilling education, doctors
don�t cheat
patients, builders don�t dupe homeowners and contractors build pucca roads.

Where traffic rules are followed, where public transport is improved, where railway
bridges don�t
collapse, where urban infrastructure is truly �smart�.

Where user-friendly technology becomes an aid to all and not a privilege for a few.
Where our
engineers are encouraged to innovate not imitate.

Where the cycle of farm suicides ends and the kisan gets a remunerative price for
his produce.
Where the agrarian economy is reformed and raising rural incomes prioritized.

Where doctors and professors, scientists and soldiers are respected and honoured
just as much as
corporate leaders are feted and film stars and cricketers celebrated.
Where knowledge banks are valued more than bank balances, where intellectuals are
not
targeted, history books not rewritten, the Mahatma not reduced to a picture on a
rupee note,
Nehru not pitted against a Patel or Bose, where ideological differences don�t set
us up as �them�
versus �us� enemies.

Where Page Three may be about glamorous Indian celebrities, but Page One should be
about the
deserving, if at times anonymous, real Indian heroes.

Where winning an Olympic medal matters far more than who wins the IPL.

Where journalists cover farmer suicides and agrarian distress with the same
intensity as they do a
cricketer�s wedding to a film star.

Where there is less abuse on social media and more reason, less monologue and more
�samvad�.

Where we don�t just tell generation next what is wrong but also inspire them with
what is right
about India.

Where we value our citizenship and ask what we can do for India instead of ruing
what India has
failed to do for us.

Where our politicians realize they are meant to serve not rule us, where a people-
centric
leadership realizes that humility matters more than egotism, where netas learn to
accept
mistakes, where parliament puts national interests above competitive politics,
where anti-
corruption watchdogs are autonomous, where strong institutions matter more than
shallow
individuals.

Where true patriotism isn�t about standing up in a cinema theatre during the
singing of the
national anthem but standing up for what is right and just.

Where being Indian is not about Left versus Right or handing out certificates of
nationalism but
about putting citizenship first, a robust civic nationalism that binds us all as
Indians with equal
rights and duties�where the ultimate holy book is our multifaith republican
constitution.

Into that �new� India and heaven of freedom let my great country awake.

Rajdeep Sardesai is an author and TV news presenter. His book 2014: The Election
That Changed
India is a national best seller that has been translated into half a dozen
languages. He tweets at
@sardesairajdeep.
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