Our country completed 60 years of independence today. A fact that would have very simply past by me had I not got exposed to certain behind the scenes info about the sequences and events that led up to this day and the time after 15th august 1947.
It happened so that I have been reading Nehru’s biography by Frank Moraes these days and hence have been sub consciously in touch with the pre independence atmosphere and mood. Today I spent the entire day watching one debate program after another and could not help but feel supreme pride and privilege to having belonged to this country.
It started with me realizing in depth the meaning of a sentence so often used and encountered- “Unity in Diversity”- it sounds good and is true too but the magnitude of it all seeped in as I got exposed to different point of views and facts of this great country.
The events like- objecting to the dynastic monarchy by means of non- violence despite they being ruthlessly autocratic, then the partition to end the massacre that was to begin with perpetuated by someone else, then the road blocks to integrating this vast country with its varied ethos and cultures and hence varied mind sets, then the choice of secularism, then the mechanics of human greed for power and riches, the wars, the internal conflicts, the religions, the emergency, the sudden deaths of country heads, the near bankrupt economy to liberalization, to babri masjid, to famines, to riots, to bomb blasts…to petty killings…to large scale illiteracy…the massive population…phew!! But all this while a SUCCESSFUL DEMOCRACY!
While intellectuals over the world awaited us to collapse, we went on and on…and here we are today getting bigger and stronger…however we are not yet there and what is more important is for us not just to get there but stay there- at the top.
Its time to contribute. In every little way, from picking up that waste paper on the road and throwing it in the nearby dustbin or to take a step towards writing to the authorities to make arrangements for more dustbins!! Vote- u must. Understand the Right to Information Act. Keep writing your feedbacks to the media channels and let them know that they are answerable to us and cannot be taking their dynamism into over enthusiasm in the process looking pompous and irresponsible.
Read a little on the history and I’m sure you’ll end up getting into the mood. Many of us could not be part of the times back in 1947; we can make the difference NOW.
We are an intelligent and sensible breed and I’ll end my write up with an excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech on the first anniversary of Indian Independence (15th August 1948)-
“All of us talk of India and all of us demand many things from India. What do we give her in return? We can take nothing from her beyond what we give her. India will ultimately give us what we give her of love and service and productive and creative work. India will be what we are: our thoughts and actions will shape her. Born of her beautiful womb, we are children of hers, little bits of India today, and yet we also the parents of the India of tomorrow. If we are big, so will India be, and if we grow little minded and narrow in outlook, so will India be.”
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