It is that time of year again!
It is August 15th. It is time to get out the Orange White and Green confetti out and start celebrating. Celebrate madly... sing songs about our struggle... praise the motherland... eat some candy...watch a patriotic movie or two... renew our hatred to the enemies of the nation and then... everything is business as usual. Go back to daily lives. In this hullabaloo and meaningless rhetoric, I think, we forget what we are celebrating. Without thought, words like Independence, Freedom loose their meanings. What is this independence we are talking about and from who? And what is Freedom we are celebrating? Is it just the change of rulers or is it really Freedom of thought, Freedom of choice and a chance to live in a free world...if at all it exists.
I think, we are not free. We don't have a reason to celebrate. We right now live in country, though claims to be free, enslaves its own people. We just got new masters and that's what happened on this hallowed day. Earlier, we had masters who stole from us and who looked different. But now, we have master who just look like us. On August 15 1947, India turned in to a dog eat dog land. We have more than a million people who bear silent testament to this. The savages of the new nation began on the first day and since then, it has been the way of life. We have a government that steals money, land and lives from the poor under the pretense of development, which turns a deaf ear to the peaceful struggles. We fear police more than the ones they are to protect the people from. We have millions of people who are homeless. Our option of self governance are a party that solely functions on principle of hereditary monarchy and the other that functions on fostering hate along the lines of religion.
In a country where the religion of tolerance and the religion of peace fight each other killing thousands...Freedom is a far far land and it is a long long journey. In a land of SEZs, fake encounters, paternalistic judiciary which can never be criticized, corrupt law enforcement, trails that last for generations, POTA, doctored textbooks, how can we be free. In a land where nothing is free...everything has to be bought and everything is sold... no body is free. We need to change our perspectives drastically to achieve the freedom we always talk about. That's the day when we can truly call ours independent.
I think, we are not free. We don't have a reason to celebrate. We right now live in country, though claims to be free, enslaves its own people. We just got new masters and that's what happened on this hallowed day. Earlier, we had masters who stole from us and who looked different. But now, we have master who just look like us. On August 15 1947, India turned in to a dog eat dog land. We have more than a million people who bear silent testament to this. The savages of the new nation began on the first day and since then, it has been the way of life. We have a government that steals money, land and lives from the poor under the pretense of development, which turns a deaf ear to the peaceful struggles. We fear police more than the ones they are to protect the people from. We have millions of people who are homeless. Our option of self governance are a party that solely functions on principle of hereditary monarchy and the other that functions on fostering hate along the lines of religion.
In a country where the religion of tolerance and the religion of peace fight each other killing thousands...Freedom is a far far land and it is a long long journey. In a land of SEZs, fake encounters, paternalistic judiciary which can never be criticized, corrupt law enforcement, trails that last for generations, POTA, doctored textbooks, how can we be free. In a land where nothing is free...everything has to be bought and everything is sold... no body is free. We need to change our perspectives drastically to achieve the freedom we always talk about. That's the day when we can truly call ours independent.
Labels: Independence 1947 August 15 Freedom, India
posted by scrupulous at 10:22 PM
1 Comments:
I wont dispute anything that you have said. In fact whole heartedy agree with you.
But (there's always a BUT isn't there!! :)) you need to see that for a people so bogged down by all those ills there needs to be atleast one single occasion to focus on what needs to be done. And what better occasion than the day, when looking forward to a golden future became possible.
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