Of India and its Freedom — 75 Years Down, an Eternity to Go
As our Independence turns 75, let us look back at where we came from and how far can we go riding on the democratic wagon.
India is celebrating the 75th Independence Day this 15th August. Every year, we, Indians, rejoice in the hard-earned freedom, and symbolically witness our rights and civil liberties, enshrined in the Indian constitution, in practice at the iconic Red Fort in the heart of Delhi.
But this year is extraordinary due to the semisesquicentennial — 75th — anniversary of India’s ‘tryst with destiny’. And it is only fitting to look back on the journey, lest we forget, that led to our freedom from the British colonial rule, the leaders who heralded this hard-earned peace to form the world’s largest democracy, and the milestones our young republic has achieved in these 75 years.
The British left behind a vastly torn nation marred by the wounds of the colonial enterprise. The Indian economy, with a share of 24.4% in the world economy in 1700, accounted for a meagre 4.2% of the global economy in 1950. The nation’s geography was remoulded with British ink in the corridors of power without much regard to the actual people who lived in the hamlets and villages of Punjab and Kashmir, among other border areas of India and Pakistan.
‘Divide and rule’ was the British policy to support the ‘Great’ nation’s enterprise of advanced civilisation. And divide and rule they did the Indian subcontinent on numerous levels — economic, social, religious, educational, cultural, bureaucratic and so on.
But let’s not harp on the facts of elongated barbarism and subjugation that continued for over 150 years by the British on the Indian people. They did, after all, give us the ‘gift’ of democracy. They bestowed the King’s holy blessings upon the Commonwealth and Dominion in the native years of India’s independence, after torturing, killing, and maiming our people, and exporting our wealth to build the mansions and barracks of British officers. Let’s not harp on these, lest we might remember.
According to the predictions of many eurocentric scholars, India was doomed to fail as a democracy given its inherently diverse fabric and pluralistic society. To their dismay, were they alive, India today has become one of the most successful democracies in the world. It is on an upward trajectory as far as the western notion of development is concerned.
India’s economic course since 1947 has seen its portion of ups and downs. Once branded a “third world country”, India is now among the world’s biggest economies. The national GDP stood at Rs 2.7 lakh crore in 1947. Seventy-five years on, it has reached Rs 135.13 lakh crore. India is now the 6th largest economy globally and, if all goes right, is on its way to becoming the third-largest by 2031.
This is not to say that the journey till here has been easy. Among a wide range of goals for the new nation, the founding fathers envisioned a country that was equal for all, and where, for all, the nation was equal through its constitution.
But, of all the difficulties that we have overcome so far as a nation, the idea of India perceived in its inception seems amiss from today’s societal fabric.
While the economic statistics have increased, life expectancy has proliferated, and food and vitamin consumption have improved, the Indian society, at large, is primarily divided. Today’s polarisation is much like the one that existed 75 years ago, when India was haunted by the same ghosts of religious bigotry, communal disharmony, and violence.
The discourse around the Indian identity has shifted significantly in recent years. To be honest, it has not come as a shock for many. The governing dispensation of today’s India is the offshoot of the ideology that was birthed many years before India got its independence. This ideology is hardcore in its support for uniformity, electoral success and strong ground presence.
The founding fathers of India, who have been put in the witness box a lot in recent years by the ruling dispensation and its allies, shared the Indian democratic space with not only like-minded leaders, but also with those whose views and ideologies were juxtaposed to them.
A History of Modern India (Source: History Association)
When the ancestors of today’s government called for ‘Ek Nishan, Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan’, the leaders of newly independent India did not brand them as terrorists and extremists calling for forced uniformity. They acknowledged them and included them in key posts such as the Minister for Industry and Supply in the government.
Today, this seems highly unlikely, if not impossible.
At the larger outset, India as a nation has come a long way and has an even longer way to go. Leadership in this journey will keep changing, and the reminders of the colonial past will keep popping up now and then. What will matter is how the people remember the past and choose the leadership, and what factors determine the play of their electoral participation.
India’s global standing will bolster regardless, as was envisioned by the founding fathers, and the economic growth will catalyse in coming years. All that is a natural occurrence and has happened regularly for 75 years in independent India’s history.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still, it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.
“Cheshire Puss”, she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.
“Come, it’s pleased so far”, thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where”, said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go”, said the Cat.
Alice Meets the Cheshire Cat.
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
On the 75th Independence Day, it does matter where we have come from and where we have reached. This is not an aggrandisation of the leaders of the Indian Independence Movement — Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, Bagha Jatin, Surya Sen, Subramania Bharati, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sarojini Naidu, Pritilata Waddedar, Begum Rokeya, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, and many others. Instead, this is a look back on the past and a hopeful prospect of an inclusive India that boasts the strength of unity in diversity rather than homogenising differences.
Views are the writer’s own and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Volunteers Collective.
Written by Aakash Sharma. He is a member and the editor at Volunteers Collective. Aakash is an English Literature major from the University of Delhi and writes with a focus on politics, socio-economic issues and literary-cultural phenomenons.
