"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new…India discovers herself again."
- Jawaharlal Nehru
(on Indian Independence Day, 1947)
Exactly 63 years ago, India had been emancipated from the 200 year old British rule. Thousands of hearts had rejoiced this new found freedom and the tricolor was hoisted lighting up candles of new hopes in the denizens of the world's largest democracy.
As I passed the Delhi Secretariat building aboard the Metro, I noticed that it was not the useful itself. Decorated and lit up, it was an astonishing sight over the Yamuna and the dark cloudy Delhi sky. Immediately, the thought of "whats so special today" sparked in my head and it only took a few neurons to figure that it was the eve of our Independence day. Ever since, I have been thinking hard and deep about what this day means for us - or rather what it was supposed to mean for us (pardon me in case I sound sarcastic - I have every intention of being so). Over the last couple of hours, I have troubled myself with the idea of what this Independence was intended to be by the martyrs and possibly, what it has turned out to be.
Honestly and sincerely speaking, I don't have a clue what the Mahatma and other saviors of our nation had envisaged the country to be after these many years. In every sense of imagination, I am incapable of knowing whether they would be satisfied with where India has been able to arrive at after this relatively decent stint of freedom. But what I do know is that we are an 'Independent' nation in one sense of the word and still a dependent one in many others. What I just said and what I am going to say next may appear to be cynical and very unpatriotic to you (I am sorry. No hard feelings. Some one's got to say the truth!!!).
We, the citizens of this potentially great nation, have strived very hard over the last several years to establish an identity of our own and of our country - well done!
At the same time, I can't help conjuring the fact that we could have been miles ahead in our journey.
I am going to play devil for a while (if I am not one already) and think of some of the reasons why I think we haven't done justice to our freedom and not taken India to greater heights.
1) Our priorities:
Truth be said, the priority order of an average Indian works in the following sequence
He/She (Self/Money/Career) --> Family --> State --> Country
Now I have absolutely no issue with your priorites. After all, each one of us has the right to pursue our dreams and ambitions. But the point that I want to make is that we are not a nationalistic population.
There are only 3 occassions in the entire calendar year when we really feel patriotic - 26th January, 15th of August and the day of a India-Pakistan cricket match. Ounces and ounces of blood oozes through every vein in your body for some moments on these days (though most of us still remember the first two days only as holidays more than anything). For the balance 362 days, we are a totally uninterested group of people thinking we are isolated from the country.
Rarely do we put the need of the country before our own...yet we feign patriotic fervor whenever our north-western neigbours are mentioned.
Hell, not even half of us turn to vote!
This is a point of great concern. A country as diverse as our own cannot progress until all of us move towards a common goal. We can no longer remain apathetic towards what is happening in other parts of the country. We need to be a more sensitive nation - towards our own problems at least and look for appropriate solutions.
Another relevant example would be the feeling of regionalism - we have not been able to overcome the petty differences of localism, religion, education, etc. and work together as a nation.
2) Our attitudes
Terms like insensitive and indifferent are too generous for us. We have somehow learnt to take our hard earned freedom for granted. Thats evident around us - in every sphere.
The following exemplify what I mean:
a) Rules are meant to be broken- "There is only 1 occassion when we stand in queues - the Rajiv Chowk Metro station - that too is contingent on the presence of a guard". You know what I mean - jumping lights, breaking traffic rules, the list is endless - so lets not get into it.
b) Civic sense - "my litter is not my problem - if its yours, clean it up". We blame the authorities for poor civic conditions, yet leave no opportunity to dirty it ourselves. We are not used to taking the pain of cleaning our own junk - throwing litter, plastic, etc. anywhere and everywhere, no etiquettes, no sense of responsibility towards elderly (pardon me ladies, but until you are 60 or physically challenged, you can also vacate your seats for the elderly, and I promise to continue offering you my seat), the lecherous male gender....phew...
c) Taking the easy way out - "each one of us is connected to the big shot in the area". We make mistakes and we don't accept them. Rather we justify them...if that doesn't work, we try to bribe our way out...and if that doesn't work...we take out our swanky phones to make a call to one of our connections...trust me...everyone's got one!
d) "Chalta hai" - we are so used to taking things the way they have been that we don't care a heck for what happens. Some of us are a fatalist lot who think that nothing ever is gonna happen in the country and that it will go to the dogs. I wonder if Gandhi ever thought that way.
e) Lack of foresightedness - we live in the present...thats ok...but with no regard to the future - all of us are only concerned about what you get...not a bit about what we are leaving behind for the next generation - we waste precious resources - water, electricity, fuel and yet we don't cease from complaining. If we don't mend our ways now, I am sure our kids will be cursing us one day.
If one starts to think about the wrongs that we have, we will possibly end up writing for several more days. But thats not what I want to leave behind.
Most of 1299,999,999 citizens of India are waiting for the miracle to happen when something dramatic is going to happen and we will be metamorphosed in to the superpower of the world. Trust me, such things happen only in Enid Blyton's works.
Its time that we get up and make the change happen by being that change.
Until that time, I think we still need to break from the shackles and fight for our freedom, again, this time in a different sense.
Vande Mataram!!!
Exactly 63 years ago, India had been emancipated from the 200 year old British rule. Thousands of hearts had rejoiced this new found freedom and the tricolor was hoisted lighting up candles of new hopes in the denizens of the world's largest democracy.
As I passed the Delhi Secretariat building aboard the Metro, I noticed that it was not the useful itself. Decorated and lit up, it was an astonishing sight over the Yamuna and the dark cloudy Delhi sky. Immediately, the thought of "whats so special today" sparked in my head and it only took a few neurons to figure that it was the eve of our Independence day. Ever since, I have been thinking hard and deep about what this day means for us - or rather what it was supposed to mean for us (pardon me in case I sound sarcastic - I have every intention of being so). Over the last couple of hours, I have troubled myself with the idea of what this Independence was intended to be by the martyrs and possibly, what it has turned out to be.
Honestly and sincerely speaking, I don't have a clue what the Mahatma and other saviors of our nation had envisaged the country to be after these many years. In every sense of imagination, I am incapable of knowing whether they would be satisfied with where India has been able to arrive at after this relatively decent stint of freedom. But what I do know is that we are an 'Independent' nation in one sense of the word and still a dependent one in many others. What I just said and what I am going to say next may appear to be cynical and very unpatriotic to you (I am sorry. No hard feelings. Some one's got to say the truth!!!).
We, the citizens of this potentially great nation, have strived very hard over the last several years to establish an identity of our own and of our country - well done!
At the same time, I can't help conjuring the fact that we could have been miles ahead in our journey.
I am going to play devil for a while (if I am not one already) and think of some of the reasons why I think we haven't done justice to our freedom and not taken India to greater heights.
1) Our priorities:
Truth be said, the priority order of an average Indian works in the following sequence
He/She (Self/Money/Career) --> Family --> State --> Country
Now I have absolutely no issue with your priorites. After all, each one of us has the right to pursue our dreams and ambitions. But the point that I want to make is that we are not a nationalistic population.
There are only 3 occassions in the entire calendar year when we really feel patriotic - 26th January, 15th of August and the day of a India-Pakistan cricket match. Ounces and ounces of blood oozes through every vein in your body for some moments on these days (though most of us still remember the first two days only as holidays more than anything). For the balance 362 days, we are a totally uninterested group of people thinking we are isolated from the country.
Rarely do we put the need of the country before our own...yet we feign patriotic fervor whenever our north-western neigbours are mentioned.
Hell, not even half of us turn to vote!
This is a point of great concern. A country as diverse as our own cannot progress until all of us move towards a common goal. We can no longer remain apathetic towards what is happening in other parts of the country. We need to be a more sensitive nation - towards our own problems at least and look for appropriate solutions.
Another relevant example would be the feeling of regionalism - we have not been able to overcome the petty differences of localism, religion, education, etc. and work together as a nation.
2) Our attitudes
Terms like insensitive and indifferent are too generous for us. We have somehow learnt to take our hard earned freedom for granted. Thats evident around us - in every sphere.
The following exemplify what I mean:
a) Rules are meant to be broken- "There is only 1 occassion when we stand in queues - the Rajiv Chowk Metro station - that too is contingent on the presence of a guard". You know what I mean - jumping lights, breaking traffic rules, the list is endless - so lets not get into it.
b) Civic sense - "my litter is not my problem - if its yours, clean it up". We blame the authorities for poor civic conditions, yet leave no opportunity to dirty it ourselves. We are not used to taking the pain of cleaning our own junk - throwing litter, plastic, etc. anywhere and everywhere, no etiquettes, no sense of responsibility towards elderly (pardon me ladies, but until you are 60 or physically challenged, you can also vacate your seats for the elderly, and I promise to continue offering you my seat), the lecherous male gender....phew...
c) Taking the easy way out - "each one of us is connected to the big shot in the area". We make mistakes and we don't accept them. Rather we justify them...if that doesn't work, we try to bribe our way out...and if that doesn't work...we take out our swanky phones to make a call to one of our connections...trust me...everyone's got one!
d) "Chalta hai" - we are so used to taking things the way they have been that we don't care a heck for what happens. Some of us are a fatalist lot who think that nothing ever is gonna happen in the country and that it will go to the dogs. I wonder if Gandhi ever thought that way.
e) Lack of foresightedness - we live in the present...thats ok...but with no regard to the future - all of us are only concerned about what you get...not a bit about what we are leaving behind for the next generation - we waste precious resources - water, electricity, fuel and yet we don't cease from complaining. If we don't mend our ways now, I am sure our kids will be cursing us one day.
If one starts to think about the wrongs that we have, we will possibly end up writing for several more days. But thats not what I want to leave behind.
Most of 1299,999,999 citizens of India are waiting for the miracle to happen when something dramatic is going to happen and we will be metamorphosed in to the superpower of the world. Trust me, such things happen only in Enid Blyton's works.
Its time that we get up and make the change happen by being that change.
Until that time, I think we still need to break from the shackles and fight for our freedom, again, this time in a different sense.
Vande Mataram!!!
