Poem & Production: Nidhi Mahajan
Urdu Calligraphy: Athar Rather
Camera: Athar Rather, Shiv Kumar Maurya
Video Editor: Puneet Bhatia
Rabindranath Tagore’s Where the Mind is Without Fear envisions an India where thought is unrestricted and society is not fragmented by biases.
This reworked version of the poem imagines an India where age, gender, sexuality, religion, caste and creed do not come in the way of love.
An India where young people like Ankit Saxena are not murdered for loving a person from a different religion.
An India where consenting adults are not harassed by self-proclaimed bearers of morality.
An India where an outdated law like Section 377 does not put desire in a box, dehumanising those who do not fit into assigned categories.
An India where someone like Usha ‘Rosy’ Buaji (played by Ratna Pathak Shah in Lipstick Under My Burkha) is not criticised for her sexual desires.
Where love is without fear
and hands are held with care
Where desire is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow walls of caste and creed
Where words come from the bottom of the heart
Where affection stretches its arms for an embrace
Where the clear stream of innocence has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of patriarchy and gender binary
Where the heart is led forward by love
Into ever-warming compassion and intimacy
Into that heaven of freedom, let my country awake
So, on this day, strive for a more tolerant India.
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