Mind Without Fear

An interesting poem by the great Rabindranath Tagore, which suits to the current situation of the world, and probably beyond!

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.

The Two Diminishing Communities

Year 2010, the Chinese year of Tiger, has seen some efforts from our Government as well as people to save two special communities that are feared to be extinct in years to come. The Parsis and the Tigers.

Apart from decreasing numbers, there are some other similarities in between the Parsi community and the Tigers. Like Tiger is our national animal, the Parsis introduced us to our national symbol, cricket, which is more of a religion in our country. Like the Tiger attracts a host of foreigners, the Parsi business houses such as the Tata’s, the Godrej, the Mistry’s etc have managed to attract a lot of foreign investment.

The underlying reason for both the problem is urbanization and modernization. Let me start pointing out the reasons for the acute decrease in the number of Tigers in our country. Firstly, with human population explosion (no wonder ours is truly a land of Kama Sutra) forests have been on decline and the concrete jungles are fast replacing the real ones. This affects the natural habitat of the Tigers. Also, the human greed to make business out of anything possible, Tigers have been poached for their skin. With guns being invented, hunting-for-bravery became a great hobby, which considerably contributed in reducing the Tiger population.

Even before we achieved our Independence, Parsis were among the most influential people in our society. Their uncanny ability, be it in business, science or law, their inherited wealth and their life style, set them a cut above the rest. Mahatma Gandhi once quoted “In numbers Parsis are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond compare” That’s how each Parsi-run business house has made India proud in ways more than one. Then why this community suddenly started declining in numbers. Obviously with such a background, they acquired modern thinking. Modern thinking for most of us means a blind imitation of the west. This resulted in high divorce rate and some people opted-out of the institution of marriage. This sort of individualistic and modern attitude probably resulted in catastrophic consequences.

A recent study by a scholar from a reputed business school in the US shows that the self-oriented values (such as comfortable life, exciting life, pleasure, social recognition, capable, intellectual, social power, daring, and others) becoming more important, while others-oriented values (such as true friendship, wisdom, helpful, loving, polite, sense of belonging, loyal, honoring parents and elders) becoming less important.

I have observed this is phenomena in the present generation. But it would be wise to foresee the consequences, before it gets too late. The reducing number of Parsis and Tigers, tale should serve as an eye-opener to us. Remember, modernization means a progressive advance, which would make us, as well as our future generation, proud and not a mindless growth which would eventually cause the fear of extinction!