When Will India Get Its Independence?
“Once thousands were against rape, now lakhs are supporting a rapist.” RIP to those candle marches, which we have learned from Rang De Basanti; after all, we have learned because that was trendy and catchy. When will India get its independence? ‘Twenty-first century India: (n.) Where youth is updating their Snapchat, parents are busy worshiping fake gods, society… Read More »
“Once thousands were against rape, now lakhs are supporting a rapist.” RIP to those candle marches, which we have learned from Rang De Basanti; after all, we have learned because that was trendy and catchy. When will India get its independence?
‘Twenty-first century India: (n.) Where youth is updating their Snapchat, parents are busy worshiping fake gods, society is supporting criminals, Politics keeps putting a VR box on people’s eye, Party-ism is a new religion, Judiciary is Harry Potter, Media is Tyrion Lannister and left people who talk intellectual are given tags of anti-National.’
70 years of Independence and yet we live in fear, that our voices may take our jobs, declare us anti-culture, at a level may take our lives. 1947: We still celebrate it because we were together, we were not deaf-mute, we believed in watching things without fanaticism, we were brave enough to overcome our fears, we were concerned about our freedoms and most importantly we believed in humanity. Comparatively 2017: We have everything but independence.
Nation gives birth to nationalism and patriotism which itself shows we are one & superior within ourselves but India falls Rank 4 in Internal violence. “Unity in diversity” the phrase took India to a different level but does we really mean it? The forced nationalism, fanaticism in Indian politics, internal & external security threats, cultural emergency and the roles played by the media and its journalistic ethics changed India a lot after Independence, especially in the last two decades. Through this article, we try to touch almost the basic as well as the presently running issues of India which shows it’s struggling to meet its independence and we will let you decide whether India is Independent in real means or not.
‘Saarejahan se acha, Hindustan humara’ (Better than all the World, is our India). This is not only a phrase, it’s a nation’s nationalism which recites the stories of India’s freedom struggle, people, diversity, culture, ethics, norms, tradition. The holy land wears the crown from Kashmir, which enhance its wealthy-ness from the 7 sisters, hold its pink beauty from Rajasthan, covering all the central India it shows it’s linguistic -ness from the east Konark Sunrise to the greenery of Kerela it gathers the prosperity, and from Mahastras’s cultural ethics, Goa’s Multi-religious culture to Kanyakumari witnessing the sunset; the country enjoys its own incredibleness. Deep words for India from Romain Rolland, French Philosopher
“If there is one place on the face of this Earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.”
‘Dream’ which means a lot in each of our lives, likewise India have its own dream to call it a nationalist state, to become a self-governed state, enjoy full sovereignty, have its own identity and a lot. Dreams are endless but there’s a saying “never dream about dreams, start working on it”. Even when we are given our fundamental rights, the peeping thought behind it is to enjoy our rights by not harming others. The same rule applies with dreams, ‘don’t kill others dream while full filling your dreams’. But are we living our dreams to fullest? Why are we breathing our rights freely? Are we not afraid to stand with truth? Are we not afraid that if we point out mistakes we will be charged with sections? Above all, do we really have any independence?
“Accused of carrying beef, teen killed on a train,” “86% killed in cow related violence since 2010 are Muslim,” “97% attacks after Modi Government came to power.” News like this makes us a great, diverse country where every religion and caste is treated equally. Isn’t it? Indian Constitution’s gist narrates that no person should be discriminated on the name of religion, caste, gender, race, color, sex. The supreme law of the land provides us fundamental rights, where Articles 25-28 give us the right to practice and propagate any religion.
The 42nd amendment added the word ‘secular’ to the Indian constitution. Even the State claims India does not discriminate between religions then why today, hundreds of Indian Muslim girls being forced into converting to Hinduism? In 2015, a term came ‘homecoming’ which is very ambitious Hindu campaign. The goal of Gharwapsi is to bring members of minority religious groups—mostly Muslims and Christians — “back to Hinduism, back to their original home,” says Dharm Narayan Sharma, central secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), one of India’s largest Hindu nationalist organizations. And he makes no apologies and further added: “This is the work of India.”
The nationalism word is becoming so reasonable that people think it is a license to take law in hands. This is the 2017 India, where, in the name of Nationalism, people can fly above limits, they can dive deep into people’s religious sentiments. While JNU case of Kanahiya Kumar was going on, outside Punjab and Haryana HC people strike with Nationals Flag. Now are we in that situation that people starts giving threat with flags, and they show this nationalism?
Someone posted a meme of PM and he is charged with sedition. Someone disclosed the truth about military situations, and he charged for trails. No one has the right to speak about PM. Why? It is our decision to write on our Facebook and Twitter wall, they will not decide it. We have given complete right to speak, to think, to keep up our privacy. Basically what we are facing in Hindu Nationalism and party-ism, not Indian Nationalism.
Mahabharata 13:117:11 says:
“There is nothing in the world dearer than one’s life. Therefore, a man should show compassion, behaving towards others as he would have others behave towards himself.”
Hindus are having even gave respect to Guru Shukrachrya. Not only to demon’s guru but also gave respect to demons. Not only Hindu gods but very religion’s god gives respect to their enemies. When the demon turned against gods they did not ask him to go to Pakistan. Then why today? When people speak the truth, why do they call us anti-national and give us threats to send us to Pakistan? It’s been 70 years since we have attained Independence, and yet we are under the cage of political extremism. Politics these days took gradual change as compared to the last decade and so did people.
“If you follow someone blindly then you lose the judging capacity you possess.”
Same happened recently in Baba Ram Rahim’s case. Blind followers of the self-styled ‘godman’ started agitations in spite of condemning him for his offenses when the court found him guilty. If we are talking about blind followers then let’s not forget Ram Rath Yatra, 1990 and the riots happened conjugatively related to it were all the results of blind supports. People kept on believing and supporting the things without even thinking once.
In January 2017, a poll was organized by Chetan Bhagat, TOI Contributor on ‘If Modi wanted to declare an emergency to eliminate corruption, would you support it?’ The results: Of nearly 10,000 participants, 57% said they would support such an emergency. Yes, a significant section of progressive young Indians is happy to give up democracy and vote themselves vote less. Well, this is nothing to get surprised about. We are the same state people who once supported Ram Rajya and somewhere still supporting. Well its obvious that people are now following one leader. After all, he promised to a hundred things and brought up hopes within people.
That’s a different story that he keeps roaming across the country and we did not even find a single matter of concern from his side when Punjab and Haryana were burning a few days back. It is completely okay for us that we believed from the age of kings that King should go and live with his citizen so that he can actually feel the problem. Our king keeps roaming everywhere except his own kingdom.
70 Years of Independence and we are still discussing the internal and external security challenges that India is facing. Our freedom fighters dreamt a peaceful nation but we failed to fulfill that dream. Sometimes our citizens become the biggest threat to the security as every day or two we hear news about riots, agitation, lynching, religious issues etc. National crime record bureau says in 2015, 789 riots happened in India. And if we’ll more filter then Haryana tops the list with 201 such cases and Rajasthan having the least numbers. i.e. 16.
Are our relations with people have rotten and weak or our sentiments have caught by any disease? Some communist has always been in a search of communal issues to take advantage of it, and at the end, the only thing happens is that our society becomes victimized.
If we’ll continuously ignore these incidents and society will not think about itself then people will not be in the place to recognize and greet one another. We are a developing country at one hand but if we’ll see the reality then our thinking is still underdeveloped. External security has been India’s main concern over the years.
The hate and enmity the neighboring countries are building is the biggest threat to India. Ceasefire violation by Pakistan is increasing every year as till August 1 there had been 285 such violation which is way more as compared to 2016 which has 228. China has always been a matter of concern to India along with Pakistan. Every day or two they put their army in borders and the result we get is that the possibility of war increases.
Recently Doklam border issue was there and Indian and Chinese army was head to head but finally, they called back their troops. These days’ cyber-attacks are also a matter of concern as everything in the country is online now. A few days back cyber-attack happened but it didn’t affect India much.
Peace and harmony are the most important things of humankind, and saving humanity should be the main and foremost goal of the society. If we’ll keep ignoring these problems, then our humanity is the biggest threat.
A reserved boggy in metros, reserved quotas, reserved everything with a tagline of ‘ladies first’, are Women of India so weak that they always need a reservation? Need feminism tag then only they can survive? If she will wear short skirts then she is a slut, if she wears salwar suits then behenji. Has many boyfriends, then she is a whore, has no boyfriend then she is lesbian? If she wears hot pants she is giving a sign to sleep with her and if she is wearing a burka then she is encouraged to look inside the burka.
Vulgar songs are party anthems, but if she uses slangs then that is unacceptable. Women are strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives her. Why can’t we just accept the things they are. India has a huge problem with backward thinking and sexist policies. It is facing a cultural emergency now due to its lack of respect for women and its earlier tolerance for rape. It is clear to almost everyone that India is facing a cultural crisis.
As a developing country, they are caught in the middle of old-fashioned ways of life and new progressive ideas. They also have a huge population and a growing poverty problem. Within this context, they are facing an emergency, because they do not know how to involve women in modern society. They will have to learn and learn quick, that sexual violence is not acceptable.
“In a democracy government reigns for five years and journalism governs forever and ever”. Media is the fourth pillar of democracy, and it plays that role in our lives like sugar does in a tea. A mirror always shows us a true portrait of one’s, media is like that only. It shows the true picture of democracy. But are we getting true pictures of democracy these days? There have been various cases where journalism faced a shameful moment, two reporters were found dealing with one politician to not to air his news and asked him some bribe, one reporter found taking questions that he should ask from a politician in an interview.
These acts are against the journalism ethics and standards. Media should be a critic of any government and politics and criticize all the wrong move. A journalist should not be a part of power but he should be parallel to it. There are many examples of a true journalism like reporting in the time of emergency, various stings etc. but these days’ perception of journalism these days is like media shows people what they want to show, doesn’t matter what is right or wrong.
Journalism ethics says that media should be independent, should always truth and accuracy, fair and impartial and accountable. But things come with two hands what people are doing to them who are reporting in a true sense, people exploit them in public platform, they abuse them and even sometimes call anti-national.
In 2016 outside the Patiala house court, Delhi two journalists who were covering sedition case was assaulted by a group of advocates. If we expect some ethics from journalist then we also have to show some ethics, we are not living in the hypocrite world we should appreciate what a true journalist is doing and should condemn what a fake journalist is doing.
Arundhati Roy says: “Nationalism in one kind or another was the cost of most of the genocide of the twentieth century.”
Today we can gather people for caste, religion, race, sex, color and even on tax and we name it nationalism. Only parties and leaders speak. rest is following blindly. The country lives with a new religion i.e. party-ism. “Anti-Nationalism is a slang, which should not be used in a democratic country like India”: Swami Nathan, Economic Times‘.
Actually what matters in this country is Hinduism and Party-ism. When a nation splits, a new flag is chosen, and we have made nationalism a joke and a license to start an internal war.
Mark Zuckerberg, welcomed her second daughter by saying “we will try our best to make the world a better place. for every child in your generation”. The world needs only humanity as nationalism nothing else. Now you decide yourself whether India is yet to meet its independence?
– Smrutirekha Singh and Nagendra Singh
3rd Position, 1st National Essay Writing Competition 2017 on ‘Nation and Nationalism’ presented by Legal Bites
