This World Press Freedom Day, Support a 'Press Without Fear'

A century after it was penned, Tagore's poem 'Let my country awake' continues to inspire global journalism.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma

Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high," wrote Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore in 1910, when the British were plundering India.

Yet, around 122 years later, Tagore's poem continues to be a guiding light for journalistic inquiry, both in India and across the globe.

On this World Press Freedom Day, we read out his poem, titled Let my Country Awake.

Let My Country Awake

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.

जागे ये देश हमारा

जहां मन में भय न हो कोई, और ऊंचा हो भाल
जहां ज्ञान हो मुक्त,
जहां संकीर्ण दीवारों में न बंटी हो दुनिया
जहां सत्य की गहराई से निकलते हों शब्द सभी,
जहां दोषरहित सृजन की चाह में,
अनथक उठती हों सभी भुजाएं,
जहां रूढ़ियों के रेगिस्तान में खो न गई हो,
तर्क-बुद्धि-विवेक की स्वच्छ धारा
जहां लगातार खुले विचारों और कर्मों से
मिलती हो मन को सही दिशा...
ओ परमपिता, स्वतंत्रता के उसी स्वर्ग में जागे ये देश हमारा !