Independence

 As 2022 marked the Platinum Jubilee of our Independence, last year I created an alphabetically arranged list of  nouns that celebrated India's uniqueness. "A:Allure, B:Bravery, C: Caution" types. It got published on the blog, and within minutes, it was lost in that dark hole called the world wide web. How? Why? I would not know it! Of course, given the celebratory mood, I did try to retrieve the list from my memory, et al.

This year, let me try something different. Yes, seventy-six is sure old for a human being. For a nation though, it is just the beginning. India, moreover, is a complex phenomenon. We are an ancient civilisation, but a very young nation. Oh, no, I am not talking about the by now beaten to death concept called 'demographic dividend'. What I mean is compared to any Western colonising countries, we ARE indeed young.

Given this conundrum, 'an ancient civilisation, a young nation', to understand India better, I am going to narrate two anecdotes about elephants. An elephant is a unique animal. It is hyper intelligent, very sensitive (remember the Aesop story about a wicked tailor who hurts an innocent, loving elephant for the heck of it, and for crude fun), truly kind and hugely powerful. 

Anecdote Number One: When a baby elephant is born, the mahout starts tying it with a soft rope made of grass. The elephant, when it grows up, has gotten so used to this concept called chain that it never occurs to this intelligent animal that he can unshackle himself any moment! Anecdote Number Two: An elephant has to climb in to a lorry. To help him, a huge sheet of solid wood is placed in a vertical/diagonal way so that he can get in easily. Yet the sensitive giant would not clamber up unless and until the mahout directs it with a goad, the 'ankush'.

My submission is that India is like that elephant, mighty, brilliant, but it has got used to its shackles and goads. What are these? One of them could be casteism, a shackle which now is becoming a goad in a subtle but sure way.  Yet another shackle-n-goad is the need for approval of/from/by others, especially the Western colonising countries. Our politicians hence want democracy in our sovereign country to be saved/supported by the U.S. and the U.K.! One adverse documentary by the BBC, and we lose our sleep, our cool over it.

Most importantly, we are now less argumentative, and growing more rabid. The best proof thereof would be the t.v. debates, of course.  We seem to have forgotten that an argument needs a counter-argument, not shenanigans. True, you have to talk to a fool only in the language he/she understands. Yet none can defeat an intelligent, rational, structured and organised thought process that is constantly evolving. Why 'react'? Instead why not 'respond' pro-actively? Why should we justify ourselves constantly? We need to break such shackles and goads in my opinion.

I have a firm belief that the only possible  comparison ever is only with one's own self, what one was, what one is, where one would be, thus growing constantly and creatively. If the competition is only with oneself,  there is an unmistakable growth. Similarly, one's own line is thus eternally longer, and one does not heed belittling by others.

We need to be independent of all the internal and external coercions, compulsions and constraints. We would thus be free "of" the "with us or with them" kinda Bush-ean binary. Thus shall we be free "from" the psychological/intellectual bullying and terrorism, free "of" empty personality politicking, but free "to" be ourselves, to explore new vistas and  horizons!

Pratima@ Freedom and liberty/with responsibility/thus are we born-n-bred free! Happy Independence Day!