On this day, the 77th Anniversary of Independence I have always wanted to see the military parades, the one at Delhi. It is grander on the Republic Day but nevertheless. I would love to watch the flag being unfurled; the anthem sung. Alas… I wake too late. Sleep, is so often underrated. Ironically, one thing I can do is stay up all night, a completely irresponsible skill. Had one done so 77 years ago, one could have witnessed our tryst with destiny. It was on 14th July 1942 that the simmering pot for independence blew over. Five hard years of struggle would pass before the idea of India would come to fruition.
However, to say India became independent from the British is not accurate. We still follow the 2- chamber government. The then Viceroy stayed back as the first governor-general of India. The nascent India would later go on to purchase tanks and ships from its former masters. UK remains a top study destination for the Indian Youth. What we did, was gain independence of action, the action to choose our representatives. We gained the Independence to create our own laws and make changes to it as we saw fit. There are better words for this; freedom, Swaraj.
No nation is entirely independent. Not even the North Korea, sanctioned to the hilt. This dependence is ever more striking on an individual level. Try as one might, to exist in the modern world is to exist on shared dependence. It is the ability of the humankind to collaborate and organize in larger and yet larger groups that gave us the mastery over this world. We need each other as much as we might despise it. It would do well to remember this in a world where hate and cat videos spread faster than anything else.
During our tryst with destiny, we had in mind the father of our nation, the legions of his followers that got us this freedom and the many who were yet to enjoy the same. On this day the 77th anniversary of freedom, let us ensure we honour them, and in the same breath let us hold each other in our minds. In a future threatening to be filled with the human-like, let us hold each other and acknowledge that there still are tears to be wiped, suffering to be mitigated and that it is our duty to do so. India, all nations for that matter, may perhaps be but a myth of our collective imagination. Well, so be it. Let the desire to bring prosperity to our collective be a good reason to awake from bed each day and in good time.
Well… I would have, but I stayed up late again.
-Shakthieswaran M
Final Year – B.E. Mechanical Engineering
Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT)
