As the flag unfurls..

Before the tricolor unfurls and the reverberations of the national song dissolve into the air, it is time to pause, reflect and savour the spirit of this country and its freedom.

We may have a handful amongst us who may have been part of the long struggle for independence or witnessed the blood baths on our soil years back. But the larger nation is the one born with the silver spoon of freedom, untouched by the butchery of partition, having only read accounts of freedom struggles or experienced the atrocities of colonial powers through what was conveyed on film reels.

And like any generation that was born into the lap of comforts, we too have been raised as a spoilt nation, unaware of the toil and blood that our forefathers sacrificed for the nation that we call our own. We have been raised with a sense of ‘entitlement’ to our freedom but not with the ‘responsibility’ that comes with this magical power of freedom. Our concepts of nation and nationalism are fudged, malleable, and manipulatable. The dream and passion that wove this country’s fabric together and celebrated the diversity that formed the embellishment to our intricate weave is now under looming threats.

We struggle with identities and ‘reference points’ and anything that deviates from the average is mocked, mobbed, eradicated or simply brushed under the carpet. Inclusiveness is a larger cultural impediment than it was thousands of years back. The rich cultural pedigree that we carry is now being trampled in the face of industrialization and ‘development’ (a term whose scope and definition is questionable).

The passion that fueled a string of provinces to unite into a nation seventy one years back needs to now be rekindled amongst us – for us to stand and fight for something that matters to the larger humanity, for us to contribute to the ambition that we set for ourselves seventy one years back, for us to celebrate our individualism and yet embrace our diversity with the same fervor. Else, before we realize it, we would have fought a full circle to finally reach the start of our pre-Independence.. a divided population that the East India Company encountered years back.

Of course there are strides and leaps that we can be proud of but the pride would be complete if we took the entire nation through this stellar journey – giving every individual and community the chance to participate in this journey and not leaving anyone behind with a deep sense of injustice, discrimination or bitterness. Then we shall finally find peace and growth in the folds of the tricolor!