The Wheel of Change

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”

This sentence, made famous by the fact that it was enunciated by our first Prime Minister Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, a few minutes before we gained Independence, documents the aspirations of our nation as it stood on the threshold of freedom that night. Looking back at that day 63 years ago, I feel proud of all that this former ‘jewel’ in the British crown has achieved. We have transformed a former ‘feeder economy’ of our imperialistic rulers into the world’s 4th largest economy, with a with a purchasing power parity of roughly $3,000 trillion. We have conquered the I.T sector as surely as Alexander the Great conquered the world more than 2000 years ago. To top it all, we also wear the crown of being the largest successfully functioning democracy in the world. While our nation grows at an astronomical rate, one would probably say that we have, or are in the process of fulfilling all the dreams dreamt by the common man 63 years ago. And yet, one look at the very core of our nation reveals the stench of decay accompanying all the glitz and glimmer of a young, advancing nation. With all the poverty, illiteracy, dependence and backwardness that we have shed in the past 6 decades, we unfortunately have shed a quintessential part of our nation’s soul-our national pride. Today, unfortunately, unlike 63 years ago, you will find a very few people who live their lives with an attitude which is not, ‘typically Indian’.

When I say ‘Typically Indian’, I mean the spectacularly selfish attitude sported by almost all of us today. Most of us live under the false impression that by being a law abiding citizen, voting regularly and paying our taxes on time, we fulfil our duty to the nation. After that, we are free to criticize anything and everything that is wrong with our country. We grumble that our roads are dirty and filled with potholes, the air is so much more polluted than before, there is inflation everywhere we look, terrorist attacks are growing, so on and so forth. In fact, while most citizens highlight the best of their country, we Indians are famous for loudly complaining and enlisting everything that is wrong with our country to tourists or other citizens. This is probably why, in face of any calamity, we find it particularly hard to stand up as a single unit and fight back. Our lack of self-confidence as a nation reflects poorly on our international image too. This quality of scattering away in face of danger is probably what makes our nation a soft target for terrorists, business malpractices and such crimes.10 terrorists held Mumbai hostage for 3 days, and humiliated the entire nation. All we did was hold a peace march before the Taj Mahal Hotel. 20,000 people died as a result of careless handling and dangerous storage of a toxic gas in an abandoned plant in Bhopal, and yet there was barely any action taken against anyone. Numerous medical drug and pill making companies from developed countries use our country as a guinea pig for their experiments, and, miraculously get away with it. All we do, is conveniently point our fingers at our seemingly ‘spineless” government, and dismiss the matter at hand. We don’t even bother to attend protests or strikes, unless we ourselves have been victimised. Our selfishness has the incredible quality of making us unable to empathise with our fellow citizens. We are only mildly troubled by anything that is not in one way or the other affecting us. But as soon as we face the heat, then the issue at hand becomes a matter of utmost importance. But, to our dismay, we find that there is no one to stand up for us when we ask for help or justice – just as we refrained from standing up for others during their troubled time. This starts a vicious cycle, which prevents any major improvement in the way our nation is run.

We mustn’t forget that we are a democracy. We are the nation. Our job as a citizen is also to vote the right people in, to stand up in our demand for justice, to redress the major grievances of our fellow citizens. We are the ones who must take the initiative of our nation’s security, and we are the ones who have to very firmly refuse to be walked over by the greater powers, as we sometimes are. Most importantly, we must learn to cultivate a feeling of pride in our nation, of what we have achieved, of what we have the potential to achieve. We are a mighty nation, with the 2nd largest population base in the world. It is time, that we exploit the complete potential of this populace and stake our rightful claim on the international stage. And the first way to do that – is to wake up and embrace our nation, embody the true implication of freedom and start spinning the wheel of change, this Independence Day.

Sharvari Pandit