Is India Really Independent?
Aug 15th, 2010 | By Valentina | Category: Articles
“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance… We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again.”
These are the impressive words of the speech titled, “Tryst with Destiny” given by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on August 15, 1947. The real struggle for independence of India had begun almost 90 years before in 1857, when a group of sepoys mutinied against the East India Company.
Nevertheless it needed another 90 years for India to become an Independent State.
But, today, one must take a moment to ask oneself – is India really free and independent?
Other countries are still invading India. They build factories which produce goods they can’t produce in their own country for the same money, even if it means ignoring the safety regulations. Child labour is still common, and not a lot of eyebrows are raised when a ten year old boy serves us a cup of tea.
Hundreds and thousands of people have been, and are being, affected by terrorism, still we say India is free and independent?
Corruption rules the country, still we say India is free and independent?
A sizeable population does not know where their next meal is going to come from, still we say India is free and independent?
At such times, we should look back at times when India was really free and independent, even if that was a long, long ago. The Wikipedia has this to say about that time:
The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE, was the first major civilization in India. A sophisticated and technologically advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600 to 1900 BCE. This so called Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age which witnessed the rise of major polities known as the Mahajanapadas. The following 4000 years have been known as the classical period of Indian history, during which India has sometimes been estimated to have had the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world, controlling between one third and one fourth of the world’s wealth up to the 18th century. But what happened then. India lost the freedom to the East Indian Company and the British. They invaded the country and the downfall of the Indian Empire has begun. It needed 200 hundred years of foreign occupation to destroy a thousands year old history of freedom.
India is definitely free and independent now, even more so on paper. But, a question that needs some thought is what does this freedom really mean. How long will it take before each of the citizen’s life is guaranteed? How long will it take to beat corruption? How long will it take to understand the real meaning of freedom ?
These lines have been written by a person who isn’t an Indian Citizen – not on the paper at least – but feels a deep connection with the country, and has thoughts of freedom and independence topmost in her mind.
Lastly, I would say Indians be proud, proud of your country, proud of your ancestors, and let your children be proud of you. Jai Hindi!
Image Courtesy: svilen001 from sxc.hu
Hi Valentia, I write for the Mag as well and am intrigued by your endorsement of freedom for India.
The blame is ours and not out political leaders as you may have witnessed in your stay here. Even the common educated folk just don’t protest. They don’t even speak up and easily submit to authority and confidence.
And that brings useless illogical loopholes by which freedom goes out and repression seeps in. For instance, the court violates its own laws, juniors appoint their own senior, toss of coin decides election disputes, contempt is written as judgment to be treated as contempt only if a common citizen crosses the line. I could go on and on and give you links to every example I cited above.
The blame’s mine. Because I don’t speak up enough. But at least I have got started and thats the ray of hope which keeps the Indian going. 🙂
AWESOME Work
I m going 2 fight against Corruption.
I am not saing anything 2 anyone but i m saing 2 myself that fight against corruption.
JAI HIND!!!!!!
Hi Vellentina
I have read your two blogs touched india ,really I am surprised that you are foreign person still you think lot of like this for our nation india ,really I wish that one day I want to meet you, don’t mind,because in current time my india’s postion is very serious but nobody or one single person worry about nation,I am daily tense about nations future and all Indians future that what will be happened in next ,there is no shame in our politician and their supporters ,people becomes selfish . thanks I have so enough time to write this but I leave but you can share and I also wanted to share feels about my nation, to wake up my peoples from comma .
agar humme azzadi mil to kanun ne hamare hatkudiye hai .ye desh aazad tum khelayega gab corrupption
pricerice aur terrorism mitjayega.aur india-pakistan fir se hindustan ban gayega.
Hi Vellentina
Really nice to read your article and i am genuinely surprised and happy to know that this article about my country is written by someone who is not an Indian.
Surely you have mentioned the facts and the reality of India. There are just 02 things i would like to add or you could also do a research on the same if you like…one is “The Indian Society”. No doubt i am proud of who i am and where i come from but definitely Indian Society needs some serious focus. Our society (to be precise – society of Northern India) really sucks and is spineless. The principles that it follows are not at all in tune with today’s generation. Trust me today’s generation knows its limits but Society needs to broaden its thoughts and thought processing. Differences between a girl and a boy still prevails in our so called well educated urban society and it hurts…it hurts being a daughter sometimes.
anyway…nevertheless i still love my country. no one is perfect and its good in a way as there’s always scope of improvement.
second thing…its Jai Hind and not Jai Hindi
i really liked your article
I just want to say that we can’t change someone if he/she doesn’t want to change. I hope India will definately change.
Incredible India! I will make sure that my country raises on top of the world
Agar hum dusro par claim lagane se acha apne aap ko sudhare uske bad dusro ko positive think kare to better rahega.
Hamare desh me curruption is liye jayada hai ki ek chor nirdosh ko chor bolkar uspar julm karta hai.
“first improve ur self then other”
hi vallentina please tell me some lines on are we independent i want it