“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but 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. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her success and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”
Thus spoke Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India on the midnight of the 15th of August 1947, 64 years to the day that this blog post appears. The joy of India’s independence was mixed with the tragedy of the largest mass migration in human history, the Partition of India. Normally on this day, I write about what it means to be Indian and last year I had written about the speech I would have given to the people of India, from atop the Red Fort. However, this year, I am no longer an Indian citizen, but an Australian. Thus I do not wish to project myself in the role of the legislature, executive or the judiciary, but as a common man; a common person of Indian Origin.
It is common knowledge of the immense sacrifices people undergo, when charged with the task of nation building. As Thomas Jefferson said “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”. The quest for Indian independence saw that tree overflowing with the blood of patriots. To this day, the tree is being continually refreshed, by not only patriots wearing military uniform, but ordinary people, doing extra-ordinary things. These people all summoned the courage in preparing for a common goal. They went for walks, they went without food, they marched during “shoot at sight” orders, and they threw leaflets in Parliament only to see an independent India. If these great men and women came back to India on August 2010, what would they do? Head for another walk? The correct answer may not be too far from this statement. India 2010 is different to India pre-1947 in many ways very similar in others.
A loose body of princely states, one which many wagered could never integrate to form a Union of States, is now a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and a multi-religious vibrant democracy. Yet from time to time, the fires of parochialism, secession and communalism burn and are stoked by leaders with vested interests.
A country, which had famines with alarming regularity before 1947, has not had a single famine for the past 64 years. Yet in 2006, almost 18000 farmers committed suicide due to various reasons.
A nation, which in 1911 only had 12% of its population literate in 1947, now has 66% of its population literate. Yet, this is much below the 84% World benchmark. A state having a growth rate of approximately 3% during Independence, now boasts of a growth rate of 7.4%, with the fourth largest PPP in the world. At the same time, the per capita income of the country is ranked well below leading economies, and even below nations like Sudan and Moldova.
Yet, despite of all this, India races forward even as many cynics argue "despite the system and not because of it". However, it is hard not to share an optimism about India. Role models like Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and Subroto Bagchi only reinforce this optimism. Politicians like Rahul Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Shivraj Chauhan give hope that the young will lead a nation of youth in the years to come.
Yes, there are problems. Yes, there are scandals. Yes, there are deep issues which cannot be solved at the drop of a hat. These require time, these require patience of more than 64 years. These problems were made by humans, so therefore the solutions will come with humans. Two of my favourite quotes come from the US President John F Kennedy, when he said
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country"and
"...we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills..."
In closing, I leave with Tagore's vision of India:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Jai Hind.
