Question

what is meant by narrow domestic walls

Answer 1

Here the word ‘domestic’ may be taken at more than one sense. It may mean regional or internal. It also points to the narrow attitude as opposed to a feeling of one united nation or one united human race. People often raise barriers around themselves based on their difference with the outer world in terms of class, caste, colour, race, religion, region, ethnicity and so on. These barriers are not favourable for nationalism and internationalism. That is why they are ‘domestic’ in nature.

Answer 2

What exactly is being an Indian…..it is not the land itself that makes up the country …the land is the physical property of the country regardless of its limitless beauty…it can never be the soul of a nation…it is the people…the culture the society as a whole and the one way of thought that makes a country what it is…it is the people feeling as one in their very souls that we are Indian. And our neighbor is Indian too...but then it is here that produces the contradiction and the paradox of our so called patriotism….feeling Indian and being an Indian is feeling a sense of belonging to a group.and yet we are prejudiced against our regional bretheren who are also part of the same group that we profess to be a part of and when we cannot feel an affinity with a fellow Indian because of his regional crdentials then how can we say we belong to India being against an Indian? ….we do not allow a fellow Indian to freely practice his own way of life in our territory demarcating cultural borders so then where is the freedom that an Indian enjoys in his country …its like saying I am Indian but all Indians are not my brothers and sisters….these are the narrow domestic walls that Tagore speaks of ..Where a man is discriminated against due to his only fault of wanting to be a universal Indian speaking in Hindi in Bengal or Bengali or Bihari in Mumbai etc.it’s all India so what,  but no!..For us it is Mumbai Bihar Bengal and Assam, it is never India. These are the narrow domestic walls we have created for ourselves. Will we ever be free