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!
