In a debate during my school days, on "Indian Development", one of my friend said, "Indian became independent, at the stroke of Midnight, in darkness and still remains in it!". He extracted a line from The first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru's Independence Day speech, Tryst with Dignity and dramatized it.
Why Midnight?
I always wondered, why did we declare ourselves Independent at midnight. The credit, goes to Mountbatten, the then Governor General of India, who laid down 3 June Plan for Partition of India and the Independence of the country's. 15 August, 1947 happens to mark the second Anniversary of Japan's surrender before him during second world war, which he considers a lucky day. Our astrologers considered, 15th an unlucky day. As a work around, they suggested that India should be declared Independent before 12:39 AM on the Midnight.
You may have wondered, why then Pakisthan celebrates it's Independence on 14th August. Again, the credit goes to Mountbatten. Since, he is the Governor general of both the countries, India and Pakisthan and was forced to attend both the celebrations. For his convenience, Pakistan's Independence day celebrations were preponed to 14th August, 1947.
Indian independence did not come in a day, a month or a decade. It took, long years of Struggle. Nation building, Nation Mobilization and National Unity were the challenges our Freedom fighters had to face in the very process.
Nation Building and Nation Mobilization
India as a nation can be traced back to the Kind Bharata. Even, with much diversity, we were united many times in the history by great Kings , Bharata, Samudragupta, Ashoka, Chandragupta II to name a few. But the situation in late 19th century and early 20th century was not quite the same. India was divided into almost 500-600 princely states, areas under direct control of British. Freedom fighters , in early 20th century fought not just against, the British governance but also the evil forces like superstition, poverty spread by the Imperial rule and stagnated Education system. Revival of Vedas, Celebration of different religious, educating against superstition was the way adopted by the social reformers, Freedom fighters to give shape to the Nation.
In today's modernized society, Mobilizing the nation may not seem to be a problem. But the time, when we don't have necessary communication facilities, this is a momentous task. The role of Print Media in achieving this feat is remarkable.
Influence of the World
A fact we often ignore is the influence of world on Indian Independence struggle. Gandhi's adaptation of Non-Violence moment was widely taken from the principles of American Revolution. Russian Revolution influenced India towards both socialism and Communism. The legacy of Netaji is also influenced by the changes surrounding us.
Bhagat Singh, influenced by the famous idea of Auguste Vaillant,who bombed on chamber of Deputies in Paris and proceeded to death penalty in his famous attempt to mobilize the crowd. The feat was successfully achieved by Bhagat Singh, with incomparable determination and love towards his Mother Land.
Bhagat Singh in an essay, Why am I an Atheist, declared, Nation First is his motto. Satyagraha, Dandi March, Quit India Moment, Revolt of 1857, Numerous Peasantry moments, Religious reforms, Workers Revolts... The legacy of our Freedom struggle is written in numerous sacrifices and Patriotism of the Indians.
True Independence
Truly speaking Indian Independence struggle doesn't end on 15th August 1947. It continued long after that, in consolidating Princely states and re-drawing of boundaries within the country led by Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Framing a foreign Policy led by Jawaharlal Nehru during the cold war, Land Reforms led by Vinoba Bhave to name a few.
Indian progressed, White Revolution, eradication of Unaccountability, Polio, Educational Success, wonders in Space research can be placed in it's crown of Development. But still there is certain belief that, we are in darkness, just like my friend's. Are we in?
Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, the modern day Freedom fighter, as I call him, asked Indian's to Dream, till that Dream doesn't let us to sleep. He asked us to believe that we going to accomplish our goals. Are we going to do that?!
There is a famous saying, "History repeats itself". History only repeats itself only when we fail to learn from the past and carry on with the future.
Earth is a very diverse body - lakes, oceans , land forms, atmosphere. Lot of complexity. But it is that diversity, that keeps the equilibrium in check. Today we are facing problems of Pollution, Global Warming, almost all of these are created by Man. Image what would happen in next 300 years, if man disappears from this world tomorrow morning. Won't earth return to it's previous state?! India is a Natural, Diverse - Many Cultures, Languages, Religions. Can't we co-exist, ignoring all those Man-Made disruption to untie our unity?!
Wake up. A Nation needs to be build., which is the only tribute we can give to all those sacrifices by our esteemed Freedom Fighters. Happy Independence day.
Jai Hind!
Comments
Post a Comment