"If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its

choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found
solutions, I should point to India."

As I drove on the roads of my city, I saw many children running at the traffic signals waving
the tricolor flags and trying to cajole passersby to buy them. The windows of the car would
roll down, and someone would give them little change in lieu of the flags. This made me
ponder on the eve of 73nd Independence Day – “Have we truly achieved our
Independence?” On the eve of independence I started my day browsing on the internet and
searching for the literal meaning of the word Independence and this is what I found, ‘Self-
governance’, ‘Self-sufficiency’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Liberty’, then a thought popped up in my mind,
‘Are we really Independent?’

Is it enough being a constitutionally independent country? Are we living with complete

freedom, are we really liberated? These are the few questions we have to ponder upon.
While we have claimed our sovereignty from the foreign rule many years ago, but do we truly
have freedom of living in a dignified manner.

It’s been more than 65 years since we are free from the clutches of British rule in India.
Today standing here after 65+ years, do our women feel the freedom, freedom from the
atrocities against them? Are our kids safe today? Do our students have the freedom to select
the career they want? Do we have freedom from caste discrimination? Have we got the
freedom from the communal tensions in our country? Have we got the freedom from the
corruption? Have we got the freedom from all those corrupt, criminal politicians? Have we at
least got the freedom from our basic problems like poverty and unemployment? If your
answer is No then we need to revisit our belief on being free and independent?

Everyday, we experience this disparity closely, but we have become so immune to it that we
turn a blind eye towards it. In a nation, where manual scavenging is still a profession for
many, casteism still rampant with many not having access to basic amenities like education
and sanitation, we need to ask ourselves what does independence truly mean. Even after so
many years of independence, women cannot venture out to pursue education or careers due
to the fear for their own safety. They are not free to express their opinions without being
trolled – whether online or offline.
We call ourselves a free nation, but do not have the freedom to choose what we eat, what
we wear or even whom we love. Independence Day doesn’t mean one day of nationalist
pride, it means a commitment to serve the nation in a truly inclusive way. We salute the
brave hearts and heroes who fought in the freedom struggle but they dreamt of a nation of
peace and harmony where people prospered. Until unless we eradicate these social evils,
intolerance and learn to accept differences and celebrate them, the people in the country
can’t prosper.
It’s not like I am pointing out only negatives about our country, we have undergone many
positive changes after independence, in fact lot many. It’s just that me being a proud Indian,
just wanted to highlight on few issues on which we together as Indians have to come
together , out of our comfort zones and strive to make our great country India a much better
peaceful place to live in.

UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. On the eve of this Independence Day let us keep
all our differences aside and fight against these grappling issues and make our India
independent from all sorts of slavery.

I hope that someday, I will see those kids in schools unfurling the National Flag in their
schools and not selling them on traffic signals which would be trampled upon by cars the
next day. It is our duty to make the dream of a progressive nation with all citizens having
equal rights to live with dignity come true.
"Freedom not like a flower, but like a mountain from which molten lava emerges and
solidifies...
It is like clay that you can mould to create and it is up to you to create;
it is a choice to create...
Freedom is never giving up. Freedom is the absolute truth... and in truth there is valour..."