Anjum Alam for BeyondHeadlines
“A moment comes ,which comes but rarely in history , when we step out from old to new … India discovers herself again,” Pandit Jawaher Lal Nehru.
On the eve of 15 august 1947, J L Nehru’s a famous “Tryst with Destiny” speech marked the beginning of an independent India with words which symbolize triumph and a new hope.
India won its freedom from the clutches of the British Empire through continuous and untiring struggle against those, who were exploiting not only the people of India but its resources too for two centuries.
Thousands were martyred, many women widowed and sons and daughters orphaned.
When Pandit Nehru unfurled the tricolour at the Red Fort in New Delhi, as thousands watched him in excitement and joy and paid tribute to martyrs who have given the free India as a gift to the Indians.
However, this hard fought freedom did not come easy. India was partitioned and the communal violence that followed saw lakhs killed. Its scar still felt in the psyche of the two nations.
And now India has completed 64years of her age, at this moment when we are celebrating the 65th independence day with joy, there is no doubt that in 64 years, India has certainly achieved what many countries could not. With 8.5% GDP India is now an emerging economy.
Besides all these, has India achieved the real freedom which Nehru spoke of in his historic “Tryst with destiny?”
It is still to win its freedom from corruption and scams – the 2G, CWG, Bofors, Adarsh, etc. Poverty is still high, and India has the dubious distinction of highest number of poor citizens in a single country. The stigma of the caste system still punctures all talks of inclusiveness and equality. Communal harmony and mutual trust is still wanting.
Old age of ‘bondage’ thus persists, a period of misfortune has not completely ended and quest for New Age will continue till then.
The struggle for a freedom “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; (and) where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls” that Rabindranath Tagore speaks of still continues.
(Anjum completed his Masters in History from Jamia Millia Islamia)
