Whatever be the definitional problems with freedom, it is possible to identify those that India has squandered and gained in the past 58 years. 'The most substantive liberty to be enhanced since independence is freedom for women. Despite continuing instances of violence and injustice, women have begun to seize the initiative in all walks of life, in villages and in cities, and have asserted their will and their ability to be heard and counted.' UNDISCOUNTABLE: Independent India has fabricated for itself the freedom to be happy. Contrasted with crass materialism or consumerism, this freedom manifests itself in the celebration of shared joys.
We must never forget in the present day that those people who have got their political freedom are not necessarily free; they are merely powerful. The passions which are unbridled in them are creating huge organisations of slavery in the disguise of freedom.
Rabindranath Tagore in Nationalism
IN our preoccupation with growth-rate figures, surging stock-market indices, nuclear might and the quest for a permanent Security Council seat, we no longer ask what it is to be free. Is it because the idea of freedom is elusively difficult to define? Has our preoccupation with the here and now made us shrink and limit the notion of freedom? Or is it just a case of taking freedom for granted? Is it because we have begun to believe in the propaganda of our own power and invincibility, illustrated only a year ago in the shrillness of the "India Shining" propaganda? The answer to all these questions is a bit of all these and much more.
Enslaved by poverty
Whatever be the definitional problems with freedom, it is possible to identify the substantive freedoms India has lost and won in the past 58 years. The most visible loss of liberty during this period is the lack of freedom from poverty. Poverty is ugly and the most grotesque form of slavery. It dehumanises the spirit and shows the inadequacy of an entire people. Gandhi said that he was working for winning Swaraj (independence) "for those toiling and unemployed millions who do not get even a square meal a day and have to scratch along with a piece of stale roti and a pinch of salt." In that sense, a very substantial part of India still lives in bondage.
Closely linked to this is the lack of freedom from hatred, violence, bigotry and corruption. Communal riots, sectarian violence and ubiquitous corruption have severely restricted the freedoms a citizen enjoys. Parochialism and a limiting notion of nationalism have reduced considerably the amount of freedom a citizen enjoys today, and to that extent, the quantum of unfreedom has been on the rise.
Inability to build institutions and nurture them is the next roadblock in the path of freedom. Consequently, freedom from arbitrariness still remains a distant dream. The ordinary citizen is constantly being assailed by what Tagore called the "insolent might" of the powerful. In large areas of public life, might seems to be the only right.
Mediocrity
Above all, freedom from mediocrity is still a distant dream. This manifests itself visibly in ugly buildings, inadequate civic infrastructure and environmental degradation. Otherwise, the inability to produce original ideas and new knowledge is the most obvious illustration of this loss of freedom. Predictably, the ability to use technology someone else has created is often mistaken to be a sign of originality. In routine ways, we are mostly happy to settle for the second best or intellectual handouts.
The story of freedom in India is not, however, one of gloom and doom alone. The most substantive liberty to be enhanced since independence is freedom for women. Despite continuing instances of violence and injustice, women have begun to seize the initiative in all walks of life, in villages and in cities, and have asserted their will and their ability to be heard and counted. Freedom for the Dalits has been another singular achievement of the last five decades or more. Dalits have found a sense of self-possession and a voice that compels attention. If there exist powerful forces that still oppose the rights of the Dalits, they do so against an entity that is empowered and assertive.
Plurality, a survivor
Another freedom that has survived constant onslaughts is the plurality to choose from many tongues, many gods, manifold ways of life and culture. Religious intolerance, communal hatred and politicisation of religion haven't been able to take away the diversity that underwrites the very essence of this freedom to choose one's own life and destiny. The best thing about this freedom is that it has survived and strengthened without a great deal of help from either the Indian State or the formal processes of politics.
A very important freedom that independent India has fabricated for itself is the freedom to be happy. This has very little to do with metaphysical notions of happiness or the classical idea of contentment. Contrasted with crass materialism or consumerism, this freedom manifests itself in the celebration of shared joys and ecstasies. Cricket and cinema are the most obvious instances of this form of freedom. They provide an invisible way in which every Indian communicates his happiness to every other Indian.
The freedom to demand one's rights has grown from strength to strength. There is hardly any segment of society, which has not become conscious of its rights and the ways in which to protect them. The Indian citizen has graduated from being a receptacle of rights to being an individual who not only demands them as a matter of entitlement but also someone who redefines their nature and scope.
Very little of all this would have happened had India not exercised the freedom to remain a democracy. The longevity and perpetuity, if not the excellence, of democracy has ensured that no individual or ideology has been able to paint this country in monochromatic colours. The noise and chaos of democracy might often produce an unbearable cacophony, but it still affords its people to have a voice. All that is needed is for the voice to be regularly modulated in ways that will ultimately reduce the overall shrillness of public discourse. A little restraint will also help to listen more carefully to the disquieting, but meaningful, silence of the silent majority. posted by mandar talvekar write to me Permanent Link
Rabindranath Tagore in Nationalism
IN our preoccupation with growth-rate figures, surging stock-market indices, nuclear might and the quest for a permanent Security Council seat, we no longer ask what it is to be free. Is it because the idea of freedom is elusively difficult to define? Has our preoccupation with the here and now made us shrink and limit the notion of freedom? Or is it just a case of taking freedom for granted? Is it because we have begun to believe in the propaganda of our own power and invincibility, illustrated only a year ago in the shrillness of the "India Shining" propaganda? The answer to all these questions is a bit of all these and much more.
Enslaved by poverty
Whatever be the definitional problems with freedom, it is possible to identify the substantive freedoms India has lost and won in the past 58 years. The most visible loss of liberty during this period is the lack of freedom from poverty. Poverty is ugly and the most grotesque form of slavery. It dehumanises the spirit and shows the inadequacy of an entire people. Gandhi said that he was working for winning Swaraj (independence) "for those toiling and unemployed millions who do not get even a square meal a day and have to scratch along with a piece of stale roti and a pinch of salt." In that sense, a very substantial part of India still lives in bondage.
Closely linked to this is the lack of freedom from hatred, violence, bigotry and corruption. Communal riots, sectarian violence and ubiquitous corruption have severely restricted the freedoms a citizen enjoys. Parochialism and a limiting notion of nationalism have reduced considerably the amount of freedom a citizen enjoys today, and to that extent, the quantum of unfreedom has been on the rise.
Inability to build institutions and nurture them is the next roadblock in the path of freedom. Consequently, freedom from arbitrariness still remains a distant dream. The ordinary citizen is constantly being assailed by what Tagore called the "insolent might" of the powerful. In large areas of public life, might seems to be the only right.
Mediocrity
Above all, freedom from mediocrity is still a distant dream. This manifests itself visibly in ugly buildings, inadequate civic infrastructure and environmental degradation. Otherwise, the inability to produce original ideas and new knowledge is the most obvious illustration of this loss of freedom. Predictably, the ability to use technology someone else has created is often mistaken to be a sign of originality. In routine ways, we are mostly happy to settle for the second best or intellectual handouts.
The story of freedom in India is not, however, one of gloom and doom alone. The most substantive liberty to be enhanced since independence is freedom for women. Despite continuing instances of violence and injustice, women have begun to seize the initiative in all walks of life, in villages and in cities, and have asserted their will and their ability to be heard and counted. Freedom for the Dalits has been another singular achievement of the last five decades or more. Dalits have found a sense of self-possession and a voice that compels attention. If there exist powerful forces that still oppose the rights of the Dalits, they do so against an entity that is empowered and assertive.
Plurality, a survivor
Another freedom that has survived constant onslaughts is the plurality to choose from many tongues, many gods, manifold ways of life and culture. Religious intolerance, communal hatred and politicisation of religion haven't been able to take away the diversity that underwrites the very essence of this freedom to choose one's own life and destiny. The best thing about this freedom is that it has survived and strengthened without a great deal of help from either the Indian State or the formal processes of politics.
A very important freedom that independent India has fabricated for itself is the freedom to be happy. This has very little to do with metaphysical notions of happiness or the classical idea of contentment. Contrasted with crass materialism or consumerism, this freedom manifests itself in the celebration of shared joys and ecstasies. Cricket and cinema are the most obvious instances of this form of freedom. They provide an invisible way in which every Indian communicates his happiness to every other Indian.
The freedom to demand one's rights has grown from strength to strength. There is hardly any segment of society, which has not become conscious of its rights and the ways in which to protect them. The Indian citizen has graduated from being a receptacle of rights to being an individual who not only demands them as a matter of entitlement but also someone who redefines their nature and scope.
Very little of all this would have happened had India not exercised the freedom to remain a democracy. The longevity and perpetuity, if not the excellence, of democracy has ensured that no individual or ideology has been able to paint this country in monochromatic colours. The noise and chaos of democracy might often produce an unbearable cacophony, but it still affords its people to have a voice. All that is needed is for the voice to be regularly modulated in ways that will ultimately reduce the overall shrillness of public discourse. A little restraint will also help to listen more carefully to the disquieting, but meaningful, silence of the silent majority. posted by mandar talvekar write to me Permanent Link
No comments:
Post a Comment