‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high’ : A visit to Shanti Niketan

Long back, when I used to be an avid reader of books and journals (i have moved to reading more of faces and minds :)), I read what could be called as the mother of all catchphrases. I read this in an article by Abraham Zaleznik, a leading scholar and teacher in the field of organizational psychodynamics and leadership, in the Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1997. It says:

‘𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒃𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒑𝒉𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔.’

By strokes of good fortune, nearly all my life, I have not only harboured many such catchphrases, but also lived them. One such catchphrase is this famous passage from Tagore’s Geetanjali. Every line of which has reverberated my thoughts and emotions and given me a sound and rivetting purpose for life. Yesterday was a special day when I had the opportunity to click a picture with the handwritten portrait of this passage and Tagore’s life size portrait at the Ravindra Bhavan in Shanti Niketan.

‘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.’

Right from the moment, I reached the campus, I had a serene and soulful feel of a home coming. Even as I decided to go there on a short notice and landed first at its central library, the very warm and receptive attitude of the Librarian Dr Nimai Saha, his associate Mridula and from thereon to different departments – Geography, Politics and Economics, Journalism and Culture and finally the Vice Chancellor office (though I could not meet the VC Bidyut Chakrabarty, as he had meetings elsewhere) made it both a joyful and fruitful visit to the campus.

I decided to go to Shanti Niketan only on Monday afternoon as I had a daybreak between my meetings at the Transport Directorate on Monday and the meeting with the Minister of Transport Snehasis Chakraborty today. I planned to visit the campus 3 years back but it was closed in the Covid lockdown.

On Tuesday, I got up even earlier than usual and was there before 6am at Howrah station to catch the Ganadevata Express to Bolpur Shantiniketan, where I reached by 8:45am. By 9am I was at the campus, which is just a few kms away.

It is a beautiful, green campus, dotted with heritage buildings and what was rosogullah to my eyes- a large number of bicyclists – young and old, women incidentally more than men, with an influx of AC and MC*-infested modernity of some of its newer buildings. This is their way to reject what Nilanjan Bandopadhyay, resident scholar on Tagore on the campus, called as Tagore’s ‘refined poverty’ and ‘austerity’. I corrected him that what Tagore practised and preached can be aptly called as frugality and I went on to cite my other bundle of catchphrases from Wolfgang Sachs 1992 essays Development : A Guide to Ruins and Oswald Spengler’s 1921 Decline of the West. Nilanjan was keenly demure about my argument. He referred to me a good number of books by Tagore though I emphatically told him that my real interest is to practice what Tagore stood for and not merely to regurgitate what he wrote.

* Air-conditioners and Motor Cars

In this passage on frugality, Wolfgang Sachs lays down the rubrics that would do Tagore proud, of how it is not same as poverty (even refined versions), scarcity, austerity or destitution.

‘𝐵𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑦/𝑖𝑙𝑙, 𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙/𝑎𝑏𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙, 𝑜𝑟, 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦, 𝑟𝑖𝑐ℎ/𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑; 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑎 𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, 𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑡. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦.

𝐹𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑧𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑇𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 – 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑆𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑓𝑖𝑡 – 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒.

𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑠, 𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑐𝑎𝑠ℎ. 𝑁𝑜𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑦.’

I conclude this note by sharing this concluding passage from ‘Crisis in Civilisation’ by Rabindranath Tagore written in April 1941, three months before his death on 7 August 1941

‘𝑨𝒔 𝑰 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅, 𝑰 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅 𝒄𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒘𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒏. 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒎 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆. 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒘𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒐𝒏, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒔. 𝑨 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕, 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆.’

Today we witness the perils which attend on the insolence of might; one day shall be borne out the full truth of what the sages have proclaimed:

अधर्मेनैधते तावत् ततो भद्राणि पश्यति |
ततः सपत्नीन जयति समुलस्तु विनश्यति ||

– मनुस्मृति 4. 174

‘𝐁𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭.’