INDEPENDENT INDIA
Its been 73 years of independence and yet we have failed to build India as a country which was imagined by our freedom fighters. The patriots who laid their lives for the independence of the country believed in the oneness of being an Indian, however, let aside oneness we have managed to eliminate 'Indian' as an identity. 73 years after the united struggle for independence, we have very gracefully managed to bring in the social evils of caste and jati into the very fabric of constructing new India. Not only caste, we have also successfully divided ourselves on religious, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, regional and state lines.
I can say this with such surety because of an incident that happened in my college days. Our professor in our class of 50 undergrad students in their 2nd year did a social experiment while giving a lecture on the Delhi Sultanate and social changes. He asked " apart from your name what is your identity, answer in one word?" to me the answer was very clear. Apart from me being me, I am an Indian. so I thought that the answer for every one will be the same. To my surprise only one person apart from me had the same answer. All the others were Rajputs, Brahmins, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Biharis, Marathis, Gujratis and what not, but being Indian was not their first Identity. Proving my statements in the paragraph above.
P.S. I am not a self proclaimed patriot, this is a true incident, which my classmates are a witness to.
Why am I telling this story? Why am I talking about failures of our social structure? Why am I bringing up the Identity issue especially on the Independence day? Why am I doing this......?
Do I want recognition?..... No!.
Do I like to criticize?...... Certainly Not!.
The most important, Am I an anti-national?..... Well this is for all those to answer who read this blog.
Do I like raising questions?....... YES
Individuality is the essence of collective belonging and oneness. One experiences belongingness to a particular place or society where his/her individuality is accepted, thus developing a strong cohesion. We should all have our own idea of what our Identity should be, but to me, it feels as if we all have a predefined notions about almost every thing fed to us by the society we live in (SOCIAL CONDITIONING). Yes, India is an Independent country and has been so for the last 73 years. However, the vast majority of the Indian people are still bound by the shackles of the social pressure, social obligations and the social conditioning.
To the majority of Indian brain Social Conditioning is like the snapdragon processor in the android smartphones. Just as the processor dictates the device's functions and limits them, the role of each and every one of us is decided by the society. In Human history, we began as individuals, we created a society to suit our needs, and now the society is creating roles for us to suit its needs. Its just like humans giving birth to artificial intelligence and then being manipulated by it.
15th August is a happy day for all Indians, as India got its freedom from the oppressive British rule, India became Independent. However, the true independence is yet to be achieved and the goal is still far from being in sight. Let's pledge, not to others or to the state or the Indian constitution, but to ourselves to be as independent as we can be in our thought process and not let society guide us. Let's pledge to build a society that we see fit and not adjust in the predefined social roles. The day when we all will start to question and change what we feel wrong about the society, it will be a new dawn for a new India, which then in the true sense of the word will be Independent.
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