Where the mind is without fear

When do you hear your fears loudest?

I have experienced their creepy presence sometimes in the quiet when I am alone by myself and other times in loud cheerful social settings. Some fears live with us in the everyday, some bubble up in the rumble of new changes. May be deep down all our fears share the same DNA makeup but how they manifest and impact us varies greatly under different situations.

When one is alone in a physical space, the fear is more primal. We assess the unseen threats and try to make an escape strategy. When I hear squeaking sounds in the dark, I try to block out irrational fear of wandering spirits. When I am walking alone on a wooded trail, all the creaking nature sounds conjure up images of a sudden appearance by a wild animal; although I am still undecided about shining a torch in the direction of the noise or just making a quick dash.

Growing up in the hills back home, the troops of monkeys and langurs sitting by the roadside made you quicken your pace. In the cold winter months, sightings of big cats prowling in search of food were often reported. The visceral fear of encounter with the wild in urban spaces was quite real.
The other phantom lurking in the shadows of the hills was wide-spread alcoholism. The story of alcohol in the hills dates back to the British period. Under colonial auspices, consumption of liquor began to spread with the paraphernalia of the Raj: soldiers, bureaucrats and the establishment of "hill stations".It then quickly ensnared the under-employed male populace and in today’s context with the steady liquor license revenue for the government coming from tourism & hospitality industry, it has found firm ground. Often after dark (in short winter days) unsteady walking figures were a common sight. To ward off harassment from these inebriated souls, a feisty aunt once advised to give them a gentle push down the hilly road-quite an intrepid lesson in self defense.
Most of our primal fears can be traced to early childhood and they stay with us even when the physical environment has changed with adult life. Each one of us is blessed and cursed in our own way; we fear some things more than others and vice versa.

Next up are the fears that we face in social situations & interactions. Our social fears evolve out of our personal and professions aspirations. This temporal fear, shape shifts as we go through life, the nervous rush of forgetting the opening lines of a poem at an elocution competition later morphs into fear for academic or professional success.
Our moral compass hinges on fear of repercussions of our actions.The legal system as a deterrent to crime is borne out of our inherent fear to get caught and be punished.
The specter of fear also looms over innocuous daily social interactions like the constant fear of 'sounding dumb'. Special events like graduation, engagement make some people particularly anxious(wedding being the class topper here). In most part, our social fears follow the regular cadence of life, they come and go in waves.

Moving beyond the personal cocoon of fears, we realize that our social, economic and political background play a major part in our fear psyche. The internal & external is intertwined in a complex relationship, their cumulative impact affects us at an individual level and also as a social entity- race, religion, sex.
There is a dismal scenario, where the external loudness of fear completely blocks out the normal rhythm of life. There are people living in extreme existential threat with constant risk to their lives and the lives of their loved ones. They fear persecution for their social, religious and personal choices.
As a society, we need to develop social, economic and political institutions that protect and defend the most vulnerable against prejudice and oppressing forces. Our goal should be to strive for a world-

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..
.-Rabindranath Tagore.

What happens when these ideals no more guide us as a global society?
Our political environment is undergoing big changes; a different strain of government institutions are gaining ground. The changing mood of the populace and the political noise gaining strength is challenging the current model of human progress. Public discourse has a completely different tone and the acceptable norms of proprietary are blatantly flouted by 120 character ‘tweets’.
We are living in a world more unpredictable, more confrontational. We had lulled ourselves into a false sense of security and equanimity. The existing structures need to be questioned, but I am not sure if the people making the most noise have anything but their own interests in mind.
Ostensibly we are talking about economic strife but what seems to be really guiding us is a xenophobic philosophy(the blueprint for Brexit & Trumpism).

I am definitely on the low side of optimism seeing the recent developments and genuinely afraid that things may take a turn for worse, before they get better. But i still hope for a world where the mind is without fear and the head is held high..