Aniruddha Babar
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Tetso College, Dimapur, Nagaland
Independence Day is annually celebrated on 15th August, as a national holiday in India commemorating the nation's independence from the United Kingdom on 15 August 1947, the UK Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act 1947 transferring legislative sovereignty to the Indian Constituent Assembly. Seventy-two years ago, when the British handed over this country to the Indians on August 15, Jawaharlal Nehru, the then-Prime minister, said: "At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." Since then, the red-letter day is celebrated with pomp and gaiety, across the length and breadth of India. Cultural programs and flag-hoisting ceremonies are the predominant affair of the day, while colourful kites fill the sky in the evening, to symbolize freedom. People indulge themselves in remembering the heroes of the freedom struggle and pay homage to them.
However, the question often lingers in mind as to whether the Indians really understood the meaning of freedom. Few years ago, as a socially and politically active student and freelance writer I was extremely hopeful and optimistic, and extensively spoke and wrote about this Great Nation that has undergone phases of revolutions and counter-revolutions. Today’s socio-political situation of India is as mysterious as a complex codex difficult to decipher. The issues that has never came before on the platform of political dynamics of India has injected ‘craze’ in the minds of people. From Cow Politics, Food Politics to Condom Politics – the nation- the secular independent India seems transforming into a State dominated by the moral policing and the policies made by people with rigid, narrow mind-sets. With the passage of time, it looks like the meaning of Freedom too has been redefined. Among eternal values of any given society, Freedom is the most cherished. The Nation-building exercise is undertaken on the strong foundation of Freedom and Liberty which values human existence as a free social and political animal. However, with surgical precision, if the last few years of India are analysed it may be realized that in the context of India; freedom is very different from mere political independence which the nation achieved when the British parliament passed Indian Independence Act 1947.
There is no freedom for the common man in present day India: not freedom from want, or freedom of expression or thought, or freedom to aspire to greatness, nor freedom from the ravages of endemic corruption, no freedom from social discrimination, religious mockery, suppression and cultural hegemony. The State is so feeble that India can fairly be seen as adoomed State in spite of having positive economic indicators and fairly healthy stock markets. The Indian State punches so far below its weight that it might as well not exist, in short, the nation is dreaming to go on a Mars without thinking of the baggage of the problems it has been carrying eternally. In the rat race of becoming Superpower India is losing its humane existence. Drastic changes in Education system including menace of privatization, rapid disinvestment of government undertakings, dilution in the effectiveness of Central and State Civil Services, indirect/lateral entry into Indian Administrative Service, involvement of private players in public affairs, Mass vigilanteism, cultural indoctrination- hegemony, ever increasing attacks on Tribals, Dalits, minorities, Murders of intellectuals and free thinkers have led the nation to the path of insensitive, fascist sycophants. The changing dynamics of the nation are enough to worry thinking minds who understand the undercurrents of the pattern of transition of India to the current state of affairs. Privatization of State Governance is a matter of concern. The control of the Indian state has seen to be going into the hands of industrialists. The narratives on Social justice has been redefined by the State in changing India as the Reservation policies stands void in light of the rapid inclusion of private players in the state affairs.
In the current chaos where India is trapped; the definition of growth needs to be challenged. Moreover, the nation that boasts to become a superpower cannot even feed two time meal to its large number of population, the nation that brags about high employment generation rate failing to stop Child Labour;where Women are still facing the wrath of lust, Dalits are murdered in the name of Caste, Tribal voices are suppressed by branding them naxalites and uncivilized forest dwellers, people of the northeast part of India continue to live in the dark facing racial discrimination and cultural hegemony of Hindu majority; also silently carrying stigma of being second class citizen, a nation where there is large ever widening gulf visible between literacy and education has no moral right to speak about economic growth.The history has taught us that the economic prosperity has never solved the problems of humanity but made them more complex by throwing them in the abyss at the point of no return.
The nation has to learn a lot. The policies which have been implemented in last couple of years will have big impact on the future. Welfare of the common man should be the priority of Government. By involving private players government cannot escape from its responsibility towards the citizen. Values of Justice and Welfare cannot be measured in terms of the statistics of Profit and Loss.
India was given independence by the instrument of transfer of power, however, with the transfer of power; attitude of “white Sahib” too was transferred. The political elites and power monger politicians have set personal agendas, egos, ideologies and religious beliefs before the nation. Self-aggrandizing attitude of political elites has reduced the nation to the level of a playground suitable to plot revenge, personal agendas, vendetta, ideologies and morals.
India has been going through conflict of ideologies, however, in recent years this hidden reality has become more visible. When religious and cultural differences beget violence, the moral fibre of the nation is destroyed. Nation is not a relationship between political institutions, but it is indeed a bond between people. In the context of violence that nation has witnessed in the name of culture and faith it would be pertinent to say that the India as a nation and Indian as a human being has never evolved. The problem lies with the system and also with the people who run the system. Every Indian is infected with the virus ofcastism, racism, tribalism,prejudices and socio-cultural ego. Nationalism should never be construed in the lines of fascism, but it should be understood as unconditional acceptance of differences and diversities. In the Nation where democracy is venerated State has no right to impose the morality, thinking, attitude and perspective of majority of population on minority. India would only be able to experience independence when the Indians free themselves from the clutches of their own thoughts, ideologies and false notion of nationalism and social supremacy which have no relevance to the age-old idea of the World as a One Family.
