How do we value Freedom? - Anguished Plea by an Indian to fellow Indians

Somehow blogging never excited me since long, but today I had an urge to express something and here I am writing my first blog post, a day before our 64th Independence Day. As I was coming back from office, there were discussions around what needs to be done on Independence day, etc which triggered my thought process. The debate that went in my mind after that is the seed for this post :) This however was written in emotion than with a prepared mind. So please ignore if there are any grammatical mistakes and errors.

I was just wondering how much do we value the Freedom, our Independence now that we are enjoying the 64th year of it. How much do we value our freedom - The freedom to express anything and everything when we dont give a chance for our subordinates or colleagues or for that matter our parents to speak anything against our will,
The freedom to enjoy our lives without any fear when thousand others are dying in the borders everyday fighting for keeping us free,


The freedom to lead our life selfishly not caring for our fellow humans but expect everyone to pacify our ego,
The freedom to comment upon everyone as irresponsible for everythingthat is happening around when most of us shun to take up responsibility for the same everything,
The freedom to comment upon changing everything in our country when we are the reason for its condition as we move to foreign countries and dont even pay tax here.



I had a question to ask all of us, yes including myself. Do we think this freedom is free of cost-The freedom that was earned by millions of Indians who sacrificed their lives for the future generations, the freedom that is retained by thousands of soldiers spending their lives in our borders giving their lives, the freedom that is ensured by millions of responsible citizens. Is it of no value for us? Don't we care a damn about it? If we really do care, what have we done to realize the value of it? This was what Lord McAulay said about India in 1835.



But today, Is India the same as in 1835? I dont think we are the same any longer. We believe we have progressed a lot since Independence. But is this progress? We as a nation are so obsessed with foreign things, foreign culture, foreign branded clothing, foreign technology, what not, everything foreign from the way we live to the way we love :) Why are we so obsessed with everything imported and why do we love going to the foreign countries to make a living causing the brain drain? Since the time of ours', our parents and their parent's childhood we have been hearing that India is a developing nation. But we, our children, their children want to live in a developed nation, if not move to a developed nation like the US, Singapore, UK etc. When will we make the dream of making India a developed nation come true? It has to start somewhere.


We, the youth of the nation, may not be 100% of the population of our country but we are the 100% future of our country. If we run away from our country for earning in dollars and making a higher living, who is going to change the future of our country. We say that our government is inefficient and a bunch of corrupted old fools are running it. We say our laws are too old, the whole system sucks, we say our streets aren't clean, there are no trees or greenery anywhere in the city, we say that the transport system is screwed up, we say that our country can never change, we appreciate being "Slumdogs" and love it when the poverty of our country is awarded the Oscar.


We shout, crib, taunt,jeer and just keep saying it, just keep wondering why nothing changes, why we are the way we are. Nothing changes by its own. We have to be the change we want to see. We love the rules, the laws of the foreign, the rules to keep their streets clean, the traffic rules and everything else in the foreign. But in our own country, we give a damn to rules, we violate our laws, throw clutter wherever we are done with it, we break the traffic rules, we never pay our bills correctly. We boast about the foreign countries that they arent corrupted and says our system is screwed and rotten with corruption. But we are the ones who violate rules, corrupt the officials for mending or relaxing or even forming new rules for our own convenience.

When it comes to burning social issues like dowry, killing girl child, crimes against women, communal rights, regional rights, child labour we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my rights to a dowry.'

Blame it on the system for everything and anything. How does the system form? We are the ones who use our vote, who use our rights to form it. What does a system consist of for us? For us it consists of our neighbors, other people, other officials, other religions, other castes, other creeds, other communities and the government. It’s always the "other", definitely not us. For becoming a better country, everyone of us needs to be a better citizen. As Maddy says in Rang De Basanti, "Koi desh perfect nahii hothaa hai, usey perfect banaaanaa padtaa hai". But what do we do instead?



When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution or making a difference to the system, we lock ourselves along with our families into a cozy corner and run for dollars to countries far away. Like losers, we run to the US to praise their system and enjoy the dollar dreams. When there is recession and the American economy is down, we run to the Australia. When Australians ill-treat us and even kill some of us, we run to the UK. When UK is in bad shape, we run to elsewhere. As a last resort, we come back to our country when we are thrown out by every other nation.

We don’t even use our "VOTE" but we expect the system to get better, someone else to clean the system, make it the best place for us so that once we are thrown out by the foreign countries during recession, come back to our country and enjoy the freedom earned and being retained by someone else. We are so habituated to enjoying the freedom that we don’t know the value of it. Our conscience is mortgaged to money.

So what do we do? Every generation needs to earn its own freedom and earn it for their next generation. Next time, we meet a soldier, we should thank him and salute him because for our tomorrows, they sacrifice their todays. One lesson we have learned from our history is that we haven’t learned anything at all. It is better to be late than never. We can work for a better India. We are all involved in politics, the outcome of it, which means we are the ones who can change the outcome. We are the system and hence if we change ourselves first, the system will change.

This blog post is not intended to blame or hurt anyone’s feelings, it’s just the anguish, an agony which is the outcome of an average Indian’s introspection on India’s 64th Independence Day. If this induces some thought for a change, makes ourselves indulge in our country’s progress, instigates an ounce of retrospection, pricks one’s conscience - that is considered the greatest achievement of this post. Let’s do what India needs from us.

JAI HIND