“Freedom is a matter of mind and heart”, said Dr S. Radhakrishnan in an Independence Day broadcast to nation as the President of India and added “If the mind is narrow and heart bitter, there is no freedom whatever else we may have.”
Incidentally, we ….. the contemporaries….. the children of “free” India’s first generation stand today as a living evidence of narrow minds and bitter hearts inherently incompatible with the very concept of freedom. As the nation is all set to celebrate the 66th year of its independence, our hearts and minds have much to ask themselves and much to answer.
In an article wittten by him just before his death, an incredibly self-effacing crusader of freedom struggle Achyut Patwardhan had thus referred to the annual observance of Independence Day. “For me, this is not a day of jubilation but one of the silent reflection as to why we have not succeeded in the realization of our major objectives which gave meaning to years of national endeavour. We had no control on what the British were doing, but today we are masters in our own house…. And it is necessary to reflect on what has prevented us during the past years from taking effective steps for what lies totally in our power….”
65 years ago, a wiry ageing Indian stood up to remind his countrymen of their “tryst with destiny”. At the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947, Jawahar Lal Nehru declared the awakening of India “when the whole world slept”. Today, the self-professed claimants to Nehru’s legacy donot hesitate compromising Nehruvian ideals as long as that ensures the continuance in office of a lameduck Government bereft of initiative and discredited by the presence of ministers who have to go underground to avoid imprisonment for their criminal track-record. If for the independent India’s first generation of politicians, going to jail for the country’s freedom was a matter of honour; for the independent India’s third generation of politicians, going to jail for scam, murder or rape is no longer a shame.
On the eve of country’s first independence day, Mahatma Gandhi had refused to attend the celebrations at Red Fort and instead engaged himself in a lonely trek in the villages of Bengal …. walking on foot, comforting the bereaved and entreating them to remove from their hearts every trace of hatred and distrust. Today, the leaders who outwardly swear by Gandhi are infact the most vociferous in using occasions like Independence Day to seek political mileage through rhetoric of hatred and distrust.
Suspicion. Anger. Grief. Hatred. Greed. Selfishness. Disgust. Vengeance. In the autumn of ’47, it was Hindu and Sikh against Muslim. As the independent nation grew a little older, it was Sikh against Hindu and Hindu against Muslim. Today, as the independent nation matures into 21st century, it is Hindus against Hindu, Muslim against Muslim and Sikh against Sikh. At the dawn of independence, it was the socialist against the capitalist, the “have-not” against the “have”. Today, it is one profiteer against other profiteer, one scammer against another scammer, one corrupt against the other corrupt, one tainted against the other tainted.
Long before India became free, Rabindranath Tagore expressed the wish “Where the head is held high and the mind is without frear….into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake!” Ironically today, our heads have risen so high that we command every other head to bow before us, our minds have grown so fearless that we terrorise our fellow brethren and we have so realized the joys of a heaven of freedom that we wish to have a separate such “heaven” for each one of us.
Deprived of the advantage of parental resources or ancestral wealth or family lineage, the unpatronised uncared unheard unemployed youth of 2012 is the true “disillusioned” son of free India…. even though an unknown son of India. He stands as a complete embodiment of six decades of perverted freedom. Yet, he marches ahead…. Stumbling, falling, abusing, cursing and still rising again. He shall survive to witness another anniversary of India’s independence only if he is spared by the combined menace of state favouritism, terrorism, fanaticism, corruption, price rise and unemployment. And, if he succumbs, his end shall herald the imminent fall of an “apologetic” independence that can no longer sustain Umapathy nor can realize Faiz’s poetic dream of awakening into a cherished dawn “…. Woh Intezaar Tha Jiska, Yeh Woh Sahar Nahin!”
http://www.jammukashmirnow.org/65-years-of-free-india-dr-jitendra-singh/
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