Independence day?

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this is very inspiring!!! go ahead and spend sometime reading it...

 

 

>Looking forward to celebrating Independence Day

>

>Aug 15th. India’s Independence Day.

>

>As per Webster’s Dictionary:

>Independence: The state or quality of being independent; freedom from

>dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by, others;

>self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one's own affairs without

>interference.

>

>In this context of Independence, August 15th should be called something

>else. ‘End of Raj Day’, perhaps. Else, ‘Brits have Gone Day’ or ‘Rule by

>Indians’. ‘Or maybe, ‘Partition Day’. Or perhaps hire one of the ad

>agencies

>to think of something cool. But certainly not Independence Day.

>

>Of course, I am assuming that the independence we speak of is of the people

>who live in India – not of some nebulous entity like the culture of India

>or

>the land or the mountains.

>

>Before I am told that I speak nonsense, consider this.

>

>A couple of months ago, the Minister of Irrigation in Rajasthan said that

>the raindrops belong to the Department of Irrigation. They do not belong to

>the people – they belong to the government. Is this the Independence we

>want

>to celebrate? When pushed, the learned woman cited a treaty signed between

>the British and the Princely state of that time. Realize this – the laws

>made by the British are still the laws by which we are being governed. What

>Independence do you want me to celebrate?

>

>As learned individuals who are internet savvy, one might be aware that the

>frameworks within which the laws for communication exist today are the ones

>that were formulated as the Indian Telegraph Act by the British. Do not

>laugh that they are ludicrously outdated (how can the laws governing mails

>in the pre-postal age be used to govern internet traffic). Be outraged that

>the laws made to ensure that dissension and criticism of government

>policies

>could be controlled are the ones being applied now to an independent

>people.

>

>Significant portions of the laws that govern us today are the same as the

>rules the British Raj used. In the days of the Raj, one could not have the

>natives using up the resources. They had to be kept aside for the Empire.

>They had to run the engines that ensured that the Sun never set on the

>empire. Thus rights to mine, to log and cut trees, the right to make salt,

>were taken away from these natives. These rules hold even today. Well, we

>have almost won back the right to make salt in the last year or so. For the

>good of the people, the Government of India had decided that they could not

>make their own salt. Gandhi would have been beaten up by the same rules 50

>years after 1947 as he was before 1947. So that iodine is added for the

>sake

>of less than 2% of Indians, salt production was taken away from the hands

>of

>the people. Salt prices rose from 50 paise a Kg to Rs. 6 a Kg – all of

>which

>went to a few select groups such as Lever and Tatas. The law strangled the

>poorest – those who cannot afford anything but salt with their bread had to

>pay this price.

>

>The tribal communities who live by the forest, who have protected the

>forests for more centuries than we can imagine cannot have access to forest

>products. That access is restricted to large companies that may mow down

>acres of forests every day.

>

>1856-1859 witnessed the 2nd Santhal rebellion, the Kharwar rebellion of

>Palamore, and the 1857-1858 mighty revolts. Within 12 years, the 1871 act

>was passed. The Dhikaros were notified as criminals, robbed of their

>traditional profession, and were sent to prison whenever any crime took

>place. They were both ironmongers and ironsmiths. This means of livelihood

>was taken away. No alterative means of livelihood was offered. They live

>outside the main village. Only in a few villages, they have remained as

>first-comers, and later people from other communities built their homes

>around them. The villagers, irrespective of caste, religion and tribe,

>treat

>them with suspicion. So, they seldom get chances to work as agricultural

>laborers. The villagers do not allow Dhikaro women to enter the main

>village. They are suspected to be informers for thieves. The British has

>permanently stigmatized them. This is not restricted to East India. The

>same

>is true of tribes in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, among others.

>These were tribes who rose against the British, who were labeled thieves by

>the British. We – in Independent India – still treat them as such. Even

>today, the Indian Police first picks up members of these tribes for

>questioning every time anything happens. Their women are regularly raped

>during conflicts. They still live on the outskirts of the villages. How can

>I believe then that the people of India are independent?

>

>In an independent community, free dissension is allowed. Criticism of

>government policies is not termed as anti-national. The law does not equip

>itself to brutalize those that dissent. These are certainly not the

>features

>in ‘Independent’ India. Time and again, those protesting government

>policies

>have been brutally beaten up and put in jail. Police has been ordered to

>fire on unarmed demonstrators. The knowledgeable finance minister of India

>terms the demonstrators dissenting against government policies as urchins.

>How is this different from the days before August 15th, 1947? What has

>changed in ‘Independent’ India?

>

>Most ironically, a citizen living in India is not allowed to fly the

>national flag except on certain days. You can be arrested if you do that.

>The people of India, who fought for independence behind a symbol of the

>flag, often dying for the cause, cannot be trusted with holding the

>prestige

>of this flag high. The people of Independent India, thus, cannot be trusted

>to fly the flag of their nation freely. Come to the US to fly the Indian

>national flag freely.

>

>Is this the Independence you would like for me to celebrate?

>

>The proclamation being that ‘WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA …. IN OUR CONSTITUENT

>ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT

>AND

>GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION’ – we the people of India adopt, enact

>and give to ourselves a memorandum of how we will govern our selves.

>

>I look forward to Independence. I look forward to celebrating Independence

>Day in India. I look forward to celebrating the independence that the Bard

>of Bengal eulogized. I look forward to celebrating the independence that

>the

>constitution of India theoretically guarantees me.

 

 

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