Independence Day – What it means to India's youth today?
On 15th August, 1947 India made her 'Tryst with Destiny'. On this day, the 200- year old British regime on Indian soil came to an end and by the Independence Act, 1947 the then Governor-general of India, Lord Mountbatten declared her a free nation. This year, our country celebrates 62 years of her freedom from foreign rule and very naturally comes the concern about what actually this means to the Indian youth.
India, in the mid-18th century started to become a part of the British Empire and gradually became one of the biggest British colonies in the world. This foreign rule and dependence was fought against and we achieved independence after a lot of struggle and movements. After all these years of gaining freedom, we surely need to analyze how far India has come along the way of her progress as we entered in the 21st century. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, in his speech as the first Prime-minister of free India, said: "A moment has come, which but comes very 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." So, post-independence, it was the journey of a long suppressed nation towards freedom, development and enhancement. As we passed six decades since our forefathers achieved a free India, we should really feel the pulse of the nation. As Dick Cheney observed, "It is easy to take liberty for granted when you have never had it taken from you." Thus, we should be careful and contribute our might in building a better nation.
Independence day, as of now, should not be carelessly surpassed as another holiday of our yearly calendar, as many of us, young people, would most likely tend to do as we don't often feel the sufferings our freedom heroes had to go through to bring us a free motherland, because to have a nation's own formed government to rule her people is not the complete definition of independence – it is just only a part of it. In these years, India has definitely progressed and evolved as a strong nation in the world's map, but a country's development should never become stagnant. We still have much more to do, a great many obstacles to bring down. Being a free nation, we need to liberate ourselves from the caste and religious biases in which we often indulge. Freedom means being free from the shackles of every vice that may hamper our development and cripple our mindset. The youth of this country thus bear tremendous responsibility of acquiring a broad vision. We have to remember that we are fortunate to have born in a free country; we don't have to fight for our intrinsic rights --- which our predecessors have already accomplished, so our goal lies in enhancing our land's richness and growth. We, the young Indians are the future and the sentiment and inspiration of patriotism should naturally imbibe from our forefathers and not fizzle out with the years passed. Till now, we have achieved fair progress in industrial and service sector growth of our country. But, India lives in her villages and improvisation of rural India and the agricultural sector of our country will open a new arena of overall progress of the nation of one billion people. We need to understand that education and opportunity should be accessible as much as possible to all segments of the society and work towards that equalization.
Real independence lies not only in self – rule, but in being able to churn the opportunity to create a nation which is not injured by the shackles of casteism, religious intolerance and lack of education. So, as years pass by, the importance of the Independence Day should not wane, rather it should mean more to us – to remember the responsibilities of rediscovering our country, to protect the privilege of living freely which is bestowed on us, to achieve more degrees of freedom by overcoming our weaknesses, because these are the greatest gifts we can give to the generations to come – the roots of responsibility and the wings of true independence.
-Suryatapa Ghosh
