Disclaimer: I'm writing this post with all due respect to those great men and women who laid down their lives to free our country from colonial rule.
Quite frankly I dont think we got independence on 15th August 1947. A mere change of hand-cuffs doesn't mean we're free. Even wasn't the situation in our case. It was a mere change in the hand which held the keys. We were no different than we were under our former rulers. In fact we were actually worse off in quite a few aspects. This was no independence.
We achieved independence, though quite accidentally I must add, on 24th July 1991. That was the day when we were reborn. It was as if a 44 year old nation had been "put-to-sleep" and the phoenix had risen from the ashes.
Just like I fail to understand the scenario pre-1947, the future generations will be bemused on hearing the tales of license raj and other legends of the pre-1991 era. I don't even want to recollect those dark-ages or write about things which are now gone for good.
Independence is a slow process since it takes generations to change the attitude towards everything. The knowledge of being independent cannot bring about a sudden attitudinal change overnight. The shifts are pronounced if a comparison of the attitudes of those born in 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s is to be made and responses are to be noted when each of them was 20 years old. A lot more change is yet to come.
It is only now that we have started seeing the sprouts of the seeds we had sown in 1991.
The most difficult part of being independent is indeed not being dependent in thought. Harping about our drawbacks and have a indifferent approach towards the country isn't the solution. Every nation has it's pain points but nations don't cure pain-points, citizens do! Only the future generations born in the self-confident India which doesn't really need acknowledgement from someone else to realize it's ability, which doesn't hide behind five thousand years of tradition and culture to prove it's greatness will do justice to this country. This is still not the case.
It may not happen anytime soon. It may take quite a few years but one day it will happen. That is the India I dream about. That is the India which those men and women who laid down their lives for our freedom dreamt about. That is the India worth working towards. Cynics would obviously scoff at this but the nation is finally awakening to it's true potential and that is a reality. It's only a matter of time before each citizen feels as proud to declare that he's an Indian!
I had written a more elaborate article but cut it short because it's time has not yet come. May be some Independence Day few years down the line I'll post my complete thoughts on this. For now, I'm just glad I'm here to build a nation which will be great some day!
Jai Hind!
Quite frankly I dont think we got independence on 15th August 1947. A mere change of hand-cuffs doesn't mean we're free. Even wasn't the situation in our case. It was a mere change in the hand which held the keys. We were no different than we were under our former rulers. In fact we were actually worse off in quite a few aspects. This was no independence.
We achieved independence, though quite accidentally I must add, on 24th July 1991. That was the day when we were reborn. It was as if a 44 year old nation had been "put-to-sleep" and the phoenix had risen from the ashes.
Just like I fail to understand the scenario pre-1947, the future generations will be bemused on hearing the tales of license raj and other legends of the pre-1991 era. I don't even want to recollect those dark-ages or write about things which are now gone for good.
Independence is a slow process since it takes generations to change the attitude towards everything. The knowledge of being independent cannot bring about a sudden attitudinal change overnight. The shifts are pronounced if a comparison of the attitudes of those born in 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s is to be made and responses are to be noted when each of them was 20 years old. A lot more change is yet to come.
It is only now that we have started seeing the sprouts of the seeds we had sown in 1991.
The most difficult part of being independent is indeed not being dependent in thought. Harping about our drawbacks and have a indifferent approach towards the country isn't the solution. Every nation has it's pain points but nations don't cure pain-points, citizens do! Only the future generations born in the self-confident India which doesn't really need acknowledgement from someone else to realize it's ability, which doesn't hide behind five thousand years of tradition and culture to prove it's greatness will do justice to this country. This is still not the case.
It may not happen anytime soon. It may take quite a few years but one day it will happen. That is the India I dream about. That is the India which those men and women who laid down their lives for our freedom dreamt about. That is the India worth working towards. Cynics would obviously scoff at this but the nation is finally awakening to it's true potential and that is a reality. It's only a matter of time before each citizen feels as proud to declare that he's an Indian!
I had written a more elaborate article but cut it short because it's time has not yet come. May be some Independence Day few years down the line I'll post my complete thoughts on this. For now, I'm just glad I'm here to build a nation which will be great some day!
Jai Hind!
2 comments:
10 years to the date .... year 197-98, I had written an essay
"50 years of Independence"
enlisting enough pros and cons about the post Independence India.
What you say is true, 1990/91 was when India changed dramatically and has definitely made way more progress till 2007.
And yet, you may call me a cynic if you may but I am not buying the "INDIA SHINING THEORY".
the expln wud not be apt as a comment , I rather blog abt it :)
Neither do I subscribe by the theory that India is shining.
But we have defnitely come out of the very dark and the very very dark ages. May be we were forced to. May be we had no other choice. Whatever may be the reason...
So I'm pretty sure India will shine someday and that is really the undertone of the post! I would be happy to do something which will take India closer to shining and would be ecstatic if India actually shines in my lifetime...
Cheers!
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