"If I had to live more lives than one, I would have sacrificed each of them for my country's sake". Do you remember this statement? Yes, these lines were stated by "Kartar Singh Sarabha" a 19 year younger freedom fighter from Punjab who stated these lines while giving up his life in "Ghadar Movement".
Sometimes I feel so unlucky of not being part of my country's freedom struggle, of not being like such young exceptional heroes, I feel unlucky of not being like Hasrat Mohani, Bhagat Singh, and Chander Shekhar Azad who were the shouters of "Inquilab e Zindabad". Many a times, I weep for we have forgotten such flabbergasted Personalities also the essence of independent India "Mahatma Gandhi" Who scuffled throughout his life for liberating us from oppression, who proved that we require to prefer moral superiority over material superiority by advising the people of his land to help the enemies I. e, the British, during second World War for he could recognise a clear difference between democratic states of Western Europe and Totalitarian Nazi Germany. Stop here and ask your self, Are we inspired by these great actions of great freedom fighters ? Are we prioritising their principles of being humble even to the enemies ? Are we enjoying that freedom which these heroes of truth and tolerance gifted us? Well! We slaved under British for about 175 years and our heroes finally liberated us from these monsters on 15th of August 1947, The great day for our nation "Bharat".
Our heroes of freedom struggle not only liberated us from British but also struggled to liberate us from the terrible evils of Sati System, Head shaving of widow, Child Marriage and yes the major evil of untouchability. Now it's about 75 years of we , as an independent nation but here multiple questions strike in my mind though. Are we really free? Are we free to question the ruling section? Are we really living in a casteless society, in a society of love and peace for which Bapu even forgot about communal award of August 17,1932? These questions persuade me to divulge that we are unfortunately still living under slavery, not slaving under any other nation but under our own nation where girls still hesitate to go outside after 7 pm, These questions force me to ask everyone how can we say we are free in a nation "Bharat" Where everyday news channels acknowledge us that a runner of the country , the person whom we elect to power has committed an embarrassing act of rape, these questions force me to state that we are really under slavery in our own nation, the nation where people scuffle to get a single bite of biscuit to remove their hunger but they don't get it, where people have nothing to wear, where the promise of granting living wages under Article 43 hasn't been still fulfilled. I want to pose an open question here , I want to ask here where do we really stand ? Recently I read a report which forced me to think that we need real independence. It was a report about a 17 year old dalit boy who went to Domkhera village of Uttar Pradesh to offer pooja in a Mandir but he was refrained from practising pooja by some brahman caste men, they thrashed and did beat the boy. The boy went to nearby police station to file a report against those men but unfortunately the defense showed inaction and the younger dalit was shot dead in his own home later on. See, what is occuring in our country, the same evils are being followed for which our freedom fighters even lost their lives while fighting for such evils' removal.
Keeping in mind such horrific events which occur constantly in our country, How can we say we are independent? It hits so hard when people of our own nation devastate and oppress the people of same land for the gratification of their needs! Isn't it a big hurdle of being holistically independent i.e. being free from disgust ? It hits so hard when we have the best constitution to follow, the holy document for which our heroes spent 2 years 11 months and 18 days to formulate but we have failed to comprehend that book and we are still creating discrimination on the basis of gender, caste, class, colour, religion and creed, etc. Keeping such things in mind, will you still say we are a free nation? Do you remember Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, a Sanskrit Scholar more a social reformer? He was was the person who fought to end child marriage and fought for women's education during the slavery under British. See how amazing these people were. They scuffled to gift us spiritual more a holistic liberation, that liberation which we are squeezing and throwing away today and the result is truly conspicuous . How can we say we are a free nation when our own chosen leaders, representatives commit the crimes like rapes, corruption, murder and casteism and our protectors show no action?
My dear fellow citizens, we have to accept that we are not independent yet and I say it without any hesitation. See the result of our internal weakness has lead to the outsiders' like that of China's infiltration. Who is responsible for this? Ruled or the Ruling. Indubitably we have to say it is 'We' as a whole. It's we who allow the happenings of the disgust like domestic violence, rapes etc. Which tend to weak us internally and pave the way for outsiders to infiltrate us in any way. Indubitably our own silence is letting the people of our own land to oppress us through different ways. Isn't it our misfortune that despite knowing that our Constitution is the king of kings, the fundamental law of land and guarantees our fundamental rights, we are still silent, embracing inequalities and don't speak up although we are aware what a beautiful provision our Constitution gives us. Why we are ignoring such things and declare them minor? Why do we allow the free walk of actors of such evils? It's only because we haven't recognised the worth of our rights more the gifts which our heroes gave us. It's because we don't want to initiate the process of a moral nation as we think it is useless. It's because we have become so busy in settling our material life and unfortunately have ruined our moral independent life. I'm certain once people recognise and comprehend the worth of their rights, the gifts which Constitution has given us and then embrace and practice them, our country would indeed be a heaven on earth. That day we will be truly independent. I, being the youth more the citizen of this country want to give a call to my fellow citizens and I want to state ,My dear fellows "Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached " the goal of attaining holistic independence . We have freedom of speech, so practice it and keep scuffling for attaining a new Bharat which will be truly free.