Freedom is an emotion as I see it, it needs to be felt and needs to be prevalent not only in words but in action too. The right to act, speak, live, and follow whatever you believe in is freedom. There was a lot that people went through and a lot was sacrificed in order to declare ourselves free. It was years of injustices, ruthlessness, torture, humiliation,  and sacrifices that went into making all of us free, to live in our own country. Those who came to rule had exploited and looted everything that was our very own and they were successful because of something that they were quickly able to understand. They knew this had to be done to be able to rule over us. The policy of 'divide and rule'. The very fact that this was adopted was proof enough of how scared they were of the strength of the nation and its people. A policy which became easy to implement because of the disparity in society. The very fact that amongst the people there were many who still believed in the old system of discrimination in society on the basis of caste, creed, and financial status. Society succeeds as a whole not if there are loopholes which can be taken advantage of. Whilst some could not give up an opportunity to be in the good books of the ones who ruled, some had to do so under obligation or compulsion. The rest had to face the consequences of those who, though part of them, enjoyed position and status for being loyal to an outsider. It took quite some time when the need to change was required for the benefit of the people and for the nation.

Freedom was fought for and freedom was granted but the policy still remained there as we could never free ourselves from it. The nation had to part with its own and the emergence of two new nations was established. How was this a success because someone, somewhere still decided to follow the policy of ' divide and rule' so that governance would be easy. The strength and unity of the nation were once again compromised with. Yet we still declared ourselves free.

Years have passed by and we celebrate this independence with great pride and celebration, not realising that the people might have changed who are responsible for the nation but the policy has not. We announced ourselves as being ruled 'by, for, and of' the people. Agreed the chosen ones are from us, by us, and for us but the definition of 'us' is still questionable because 'us again implies division and we keep being ruled by those who still let the policy be. We fail to realise once again that as one or as a whole we are more powerful and this means difficult for those in power to rule over the people. The strength of any nation is its people and it is them who can change anything that they want. Unfortunately, we have fallen prey to this policy. To gain our freedom we let ourselves be divided and sacrifice a part of us. Today we are fighting to be free again but not as a nation but as different identities. Thus making ruling over us so easy, manipulated, and manageable. Today we fight for ourselves, our place, our communities, and our rights. A nation which describes itself as one where every community or religion is free to live and follow and sets an example for others is now again ready, but this time willingly, to establish themselves as individuals. The strength that we have had as a whole is now overshadowed by the show of strength by individuals who want to break free. A nation which stood as one against an outsider and fought together stands fighting with each other. Time and again we easily give in to anything that talks about only our interest and not the interest of the nation. We have taken freedom as a way to out do each other, discriminate and exploit each other and weaken each other. We have the freedom to speak against each other. We have the freedom to act against each other. We have the freedom to disregard each other. We have the freedom to let some rule over us because we have given them the freedom to do so.

The instances, the events, the news, and everything around us give us a feeling of being free. Indeed we are because we are free to speak anything that can hurt the sentiments of anyone. We are free to protest, violate and disrupt the rules and laws of the nation. We are free to even rise in arms to show our strength without even thinking twice about the benefits of our nation. We are free to take lives and even break free from the norms of humanity and even are free to satisfy ourselves by playing with the innocence of so many. We are free to walk in and destroy the existence of anything and anyone for our personal benefit and free to instigate others to stand up against each other. When an event or happening does not speak about it as a group of people or a person but highlights their identity. An identity which is irrelevant, where what has been done is questionable but not who did it. Yet we freely identify and objectify as we still follow the policy that once helped a stranger rule us for years.

We are free today, we live freely for ourselves, freely for our benefits, freely for our rights and identity because we freely follow and let those in position follow the policy which once compelled us to be ruled by an outsider and today we willingly let ourselves be ruled by those who are part of us. We paid a price to gain freedom and today we pay a price to be free. 

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