Beyond Independence!

In a few hours’ time, we are due to celebrate the 67^th year of being an independently ruled nation. With a celebrated democracy and years of applauded progress behind us, this could be a good time to pause and think. How independent a nation are we really? Yes, we are free from the shackles of British rule that once wounded the very soul of Mother India, but is an independent nation just that?  After more than 50 years of self-rule have we been able to evolve into an independently thinking nation – thoughts that are free from Western clutter? Have we been able to uphold the very ideals that led our forefathers to revolution?

With each year we march towards becoming a developed nation – with our GDP rising, increased urbanization, better education, more hospitals, improved homes – we seem to be developing on every front. While we are moving ahead rapidly towards becoming a nation that boasts of modernization and advancement of economies and industries, the regression of the moral attitudes has hardly been noticed!

 After 56 years of having revolted fiercely against a corrupt system, corruption has perpetrated the very pulse of our nation. From the local traffic police to the clerk at the municipality offices to the politicians, everyone looks at bribery as a routine measure. And why not? For every-time that we need work done sooner, or want to get out of a tricky situation we don’t hesitate to slip a few notes under the table. Schools have adopted the Western methods of education, without having first put the same into the Indian context. While the Iliad and Odyssey have become a part of the regular school syllabus, the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata are disappearing into oblivion. While our children are becoming experts in English and other world languages, several of our indigenous tribal languages are becoming extinct; the tales of Tagore, Saratchandra, Premchand, Bibhutibhushan, Jaishankar, RK Narayan are slipping into oblivion. Child labour is a rampant plague that furrows every state. While the country is doing all it can to alleviate poverty and illiteracy, it turns a blind eye towards those who suffer gender crimes. While on one hand we are a country that celebrates and worships women, the ugly façade is one that perpetrates heinous atrocities towards the womenkind, without so much as blinking. As a nation, while our cities have modernized our souls have only degraded, and the only ones who can be held accountable are we, the ones who have brought this about! How many more decades will it take us to rise and be the change we want to see? How many more decades of revolution will it take us to be truly independent?