New Delhi: Moments before American actor and activist Martin Sheen was arrested at a climate change protest Friday, he burst into poetry, reciting the poem Where the Mind is Without Fear by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Sheen was speaking at Fire Drill Fridays, a weekly climate change action protest organised by actress Jane Fonda on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. As she handed over the stage to him, he is heard saying, “This woman has been one of my hero’s nearly all of my adult life, and clearly the world will be saved by women.”
Sheen is a prominent Hollywood actor and has acted in movies like Apocalypse Now and the popular television series West Wing.
“We are called to find something in our lives worth fighting for, something that unites the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh, something that can help us lift up this nation and all its people to that place where the heart is without fear, and the head is held high…” he said and then went on to recite the entire poem.
The poem was written by Tagore in 1912, and was part of his renowned collection of poems Gitanjali. He became the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913 for the collection.
Sheen, along with actor Joaquin Phoenix of the movie Joker fame, were arrested for civil disobedience. The protests have been a weekly affair since October, with the intention that US political leaders “address the climate emergency we are in.”
Indian Twitter is excited
Indians on Twitter are sharing the video with much pride, calling the recitation “inspiring” and “something to behold.”
Clearly the world will be saved by women and we have seen too many, just too many instances in recent times. In word & spirit Martin Sheen beings Tagore alive https://t.co/ORQk32HyNC
— Anusha Ravi Sood (@anusharavi10) January 11, 2020
Martin Sheen reciting Tagore will leave you shaken and stirred https://t.co/y5WoSdaKGk
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) January 11, 2020
Martin Sheen reciting Tagore – goosebump stuff. Inspiring, electrifying… https://t.co/klus4GZnvM
— Somnath Mukherjee (@somnath1978) January 11, 2020
However, this isn’t the first time Sheen has recited Tagore. In 2016, Sheen recited Where the Mind is Without Fear as a part of the #VoteYourFuture campaign ahead of the presidential elections that year. Sheen considers himself a peace activist.
This poem is a very amazing poem, conveying very far reaching message and meaning. Hindus will take message of this poem and don’t fear the Muslims in Kashmir, Pakistan, Bengladesh and Afghanistan. They should also stop fleeing from the Muslim dominated areas in India like Mallapuram, Kairana, Malda, Murshidabad, Kishanganj, Siwan, Dasna, Bashirabad etc places.