In a week from now, India will celebrate its 65th Independence Day.
The entire country will remember (yet again) the valiant superheroes who fought for our freedom. Movies will be shown that renew our spirit of patriotic fervour and we shall sing songs praising our country and its people.
The Prime Minister will hoist our national flag and make a speech, a long one, behind a bullet-proof glass/cabin. Promises will be made, we would be reminded of the sacrifices so many people have made for our country and how awesome our future looks and that there is no country better than ours. New schemes for a new section of people with various degrees of so-called backwardness will be announced. We would also be asked to work towards building a better nation, strive for a successful future and be noble citizens.
The tricolour, our national flag, would be sold at every traffic signal, for a meagre sum ranging from Rs. 5 to about Rs. 100. Some of them would be made from cloth, while most of these flags would be plastic. We will stick a flag in and/or on our vehicles to show how proud we are of this great nation of ours.
Children (well, at least some of them) will go to school, grudgingly, although nothing will be taught.
Facebook will have “How Indian Are You?” apps which will reinforce your Indianness, but steal your information. Twitter will be full of hash-tags with the string “India” somewhere in between. Quotes will retweeted, status messages will be liked and shared. We will be tagged by friends on pictures of the tricolour on which you will be obliged to say Vande Mataram or Jai Hind or whatever patriotic phrase that comes up.
Some of us will also find this to be an opportune moment to register their protest against certain policies or decisions of the government. These people will try to politically and emotionally blackmail us by saying if we’re not with them, we’re unpatriotic.
We would also be told that for 64 years, our country has been under the rule of uncouth, corrupt politicians for far too long and it’s time that we, the people, got involved. We would get confused because we thought all this while it was we that elected our government, but we still end up spending time glossing over, arguing about the movements that apparently have been kick-started “for the people and by the people”.
The next day?
Well, the next day, we go to work.
The next day, we forget about how to build our country and worry about our next client presentation.
We ignore the traffic cop harassing a motorist on our way to work and come up with new ideas to “save tax”.
We honk incessantly at the idiot who stopped his car at a red light, but savour the small victory over him when we overtake him from the left.
We “like” Anna Hazare’s fast on Facebook, but we need that extra slice of cheese in our burgers.
We discriminate against one another on the basis or religion, caste and language, but condemn attacks on Indians by those racist white people.
We will be peaceful with our neighbours, but we will beat up our own for speaking their minds.
We will continue to deny our fellow countrymen basic civil and human rights, and yet continue to ask for more rights in the WTO and the UN.
We discuss, at length, about the Khans of Bollywood, but we are not bothered about what goes on in Manipur.
We kill unborn girls and yet, we worship Goddess Durga and Maa Kaali. We blame the goverment for everything, yet, we don’t vote.
If this was the freedom, the independence, that our “great leaders” fought for, one has to wonder – was it worth this?
Amen.
Naveen Roy
August 11, 2011
Well said – you are a totally unpatriotic person. How can you talk such ill??
The Wabbster
August 11, 2011
What to do! Happens!