Maharashtra Board Class 10 English Kumarbharti Unit One Chapter 1.1 Where the mind is without fear PDF Download

1.1 Where The Mind Is Without Fear...

Warming Up!

Pair up with your partner and match the terms with their given meanings.

Teacher's Note

These five words help us understand the ideas that Rabindranath Tagore used in his poem. Think about how patriotism means loving your country, just like you love your school.

Exam Trick

Remember: Patriotism = love for country. Environmentalism = care for nature. These two words often come in exams together.

Points to Remember

Humanism means thinking about people in a real way, not in a magical way.
Patriotism means loving and supporting your own country.
Internationalism means thinking about the whole world, not just one country.
Liberalism means having modern and free ideas.
Environmentalism means protecting trees, animals, and clean air and water.

Poems in English are of different types.

Sonnet, Epic, Limerick, Lyric, Ballad, Humorous, Elegy, Idyll, Free verse

Taking the help of a dictionary or internet, guess and write the type of poem against its description.

(i) A long story-poem, often mythical

(ii) A short story poem with a message

(iii) A poem of 14 lines

(iv) A song-like poem

(v) A poem with no uniformity of rhyme, rhythm etc.

(vi) A poem set in picturesque, rustic background

(vii) A sad poem, lamenting death of a loved one

(viii) A 5-line short funny poem with rhyme-scheme aabba

(ix) A poem written, just to create humour

Teacher's Note

Different types of poems are used to say different things. An elegy is sad, like when someone dies. A limerick is funny, like jokes we tell in the school.

Exam Trick

Remember: Limerick = 5 lines and funny. Sonnet = 14 lines and serious. This helps you identify poems quickly in exams.

Points to Remember

Epic poems tell long stories about heroes and gods.
Sonnets have exactly 14 lines and are about love or sadness.
Limericks are short, funny, and have 5 lines.
Elegies are sad poems written when someone dies.
Free verse poems do not need to rhyme or have rhythm.

Where The Mind Is Without Fear...

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the author of Gitanjali and its 'profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse'. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

This poem is one of his vastly read and discussed poems. It was originally composed in Bengali and later he himself translated it into English. This poem is from his Nobel Prize winning anthology 'Gitanjali'.

Tagore lived during the time when India was ruled by the British. In this poem, besides political freedom from British, Tagore also appeals to God for social, educational and economic freedom for the people of India.

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.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Narrow domestic walls: Division on the basis of religion, caste, class and colour in societies and between countries of the world.

Tireless striving: Continuous efforts and struggle.

Stretches its arm: Aims at achieving a goal.

Dead habit: Old traditional rituals and customs that are harmful.

Ever-widening: Forever broadening one's outlook.

Heaven of freedom: Condition of total freedom of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, while respecting those of others.

What does the poet pray to the Almighty for?

What are 'reason' and 'dead habit' compared to?

What does the poet wish for?

Teacher's Note

This poem is like a prayer to God. Tagore wants India to be a free country where people are not afraid and can study anything they want. It is like our dream for a better school and country.

Exam Trick

Remember: This poem repeats the word 'where' many times. This shows the poet keeps asking for many good things. Count the 'where' words in your exam answer to show you understand the poem.

Points to Remember

The poet wants people to have no fear in their minds.
The poet wants education and knowledge to be free for everyone.
The poet does not want walls that divide people by religion, caste, or colour.
The poet wants people to work hard and never give up their dreams.
The poet calls for freedom as a 'heaven' where good thoughts and good deeds live together.

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