This freedom is sacred

Our country has come a long way from that historic day when India attained freedom. It was a hard-earned freedom, with different uprisings against the British in different parts of the subcontinent initially merging in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, one that is referred to by historians as the First War of Indian Independence. It is a fact that different parts of present-day Independent India came under British rule at different moments of history. Some were never under direct control of the British, some others were colonies of the French and Portuguese, many princely states, including Manipur and Tripura joined the Indian Union much after 1947. Sikkim, on the other hand, became a part of this country only in 1975. Likewise, two major portions of this great country, one in the east and the other in the west, had become Pakistan; the former subsequently became Bangladesh. While India’s freedom movement itself is a different kind of story, especially because of its non-violent nature, a large number of people – patriots all – also laid down their lives in the struggle for throwing off foreign yoke. While most of the freedom fighters, and all those who saw the country become independent, are dead and gone, there are very few still alive who can recall and relate those amazing stories of non-violence, determination, courage, foresight, patriotism, conviction and selflessness that contributed in their own respective ways to compel the British to leave the subcontinent. They came from all regions of the subcontinent, all sections of the society, all communities and all social and economic groups. They could easily have compromised and settled for some personal benefit, but they did not. Their commitment to India – to a free, sovereign, pluralistic and egalitarian India – was absolute and devoid of the self. Though the struggle for freedom began at different times in different parts of the country, all agree that it was only since the emergence of a young lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in 1915 that the movement took a different turn. Gandhiji, as he subsequently came to be fondly called, gave the movement a new dimension, a new impetus and a new meaning to freedom, one which was driven by non-violence and truth – satyagraha – where ideals in human life were given very high regard. Gandhi’s vision of the ideal society in Independent India was that of a non-violent and democratic social order in which there is a just balance between individual freedom and social responsibility. Perhaps Gandhiji’s most noble mantra was to point out that the power of ahimsa is far greater than the power of himsa. The power to stay your hand is far greater than the power to strike with your hand and himsa has no place in the society. The weapon of ahimsa was the most effective weapon Gandhiji gave us. Like his other teachings, it was rooted in the ancient wisdom of India and yet has a resonance in the 21st century and in our daily lives. Looking back, one can see how far India has come from 1947 – from just 12 per cent literacy to 74.04 per cent, from a GDP just short of 30 billion dollars to close to 2,700 billion dollars, from life expectancy of 32 years to 65 years, power generation from 1,362 MW to 3,56,818 MW, to name a few. We are fortunate that we attained freedom thanks to the sacrifice made by millions of our fellow countrymen. It is true, they left us with a free India, but they also left us with unfinished tasks for the development of our society, for the empowerment of the proverbial last person, for their liberation from poverty, and social and economic inequality. Every breath in our collective life as a nation is a tribute to our freedom fighters – and a commitment to accomplish whatever is still unaccomplished. And, as Tagore wrote – “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high/ Where knowledge is free/ Where the world has not been broken up into fragments/ By narrow domestic walls/ Where words come out from the depth of truth/ Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection/ Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way/ Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit/ Where the mind is led forward by thee/ Into ever-widening thought and action/ Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

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