How Independent are We?

It’s that time of the year again, when patriotic songs and tricolor messages do the rounds on television and social media. Every year, come August 15 and everyone’s feeling gung ho about India and everything Indian.

But what about the remaining 364 days of the year, barring perhaps, Republic Day? Are we really that into the tricolor then or do we push it to the back of our minds and focus on the next release of the latest gadget from the west?

If you look closely, you can see that the definition of independence shown above has a lot of ‘self’ in it. Mahatma Gandhi added another ‘self’ to his vision of an independent India – self reliance or self sufficiency, otherwise known as ‘swadeshi’. Translated literally, it means ‘of one’s own country’. It refers to the movement that was started in pre-independent India, where communities were encouraged to be self sufficient in order to remove any dependency on outside forces, like the British. The movement was fierce, with people deciding to use only Indian goods, burning their imported clothes and picketing stores selling foreign goods.

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How the tables have turned! We wouldn’t dream of burning our western designer label clothes now, would we? Globalization and commercialism are the order of the day, with Indians, especially the youth, opting for products that are manufactured anywhere but in India. The number of authentic Indian craftsmen is fast dwindling and their art is disappearing with them. Now, it’s easier to find information on the top trends from the Paris Fashion Week than on the Kathputli craft from Rajasthan!

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And it’s not just the things we use or the food we eat; even our lifestyle choices are becoming largely westernized. Which begs the question this Independence Day: how independent are we really? We make grand statements and express great pride whenever India is in the news for achieving something, but how authentic is this ‘Indianness’?

Mahatma Gandhi says, “To believe in something and not to live it, is dishonest”. So let’s not make empty proclamations about our love for the country. Let’s try to be independent in every sense of the word, so that future generations are self reliant, self respecting and authentically Indian. Jai Hind!

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