Nurturing freedom Musings on Independence Day

 Representational image.: File photo 

Samantak Das | TT | 26.08.21: As I grew older, one thing became gradually clear to me when I looked back on these cherished memories — the freedom we took for granted was not so simple a thing as our history books made it appear. Take, for example, an exchange I had with one of my uncles when I was about fifteen or so, who had made his home in the West for decades but steadfastly refused to part with his Indian passport, even though he’d had to face problems at the border checkpoints of various countries he had visited, or tried to, unsuccessfully. When I asked him why he hadn’t taken on the nationality of the country that was now his home, he said, “My father had a passport that said ‘Indian Empire’ on it. I’m no slave of Empire, I’m a free Indian citizen.” I didn’t dare point out to him that none of his children seemed to have inherited his sense of patriotism and loyalty to India since they were all citizens of the country in which my uncle lived.

According to some estimates, the number of Indians who were born before Independence makes up less than 3 per cent of our population now, but when I was young practically all the adults in the family had memories of British rule; memories they were happy to regale us young ’uns with. Almost all of them are dead now, but I sometimes wonder what they would have made of today’s free India that they, or their parents’ generation, had so ardently dreamt of and fought for. Would they be satisfied with the path we have traversed in these last three-quarters of a century? Would they be disappointed at the ways in which, to quote a beloved grand-uncle, India is free but so many Indians are still in shackles? Would they be happy with our present leaders and the directions in which they are taking the country? What would they make of what our generation (rapidly approaching senior-citizen status) has done with the freedom that can, without much exaggeration, be considered their gift to us? As I was musing on such matters this Independence Day, I was reminded of a poem by the great African-American poet, Langston Hughes (1901-1967) called “Freedom” which goes like this: “Freedom will not come/ Today, this year/ Nor ever/ Through compromise and fear.// I have as much right/ As the other fellow has/ To stand/ On my two feet/ And own the land.// I tire so of hearing people say,/ Let things take their course./ Tomorrow is another day./ I do not need my freedom when I’m dead./ I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread./ Freedom/ Is a strong seed/ Planted/ In a great need./ I live here, too./ I want my freedom/ Just as you.”

How have we watered and tended that strong seed of freedom that was bequeathed to us by those who came before and — perhaps more pertinently — how will those who come after us care for the tree that has sprung from that seed? Will its branches be sturdy, its leaves bright, and its fruit nourishing a quarter-century hence when the tree completes a hundred years of existence? Will all Indians be able to reap the harvest of freedom by then?

Samantak Das is professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, and has been working as a volunteer for a rural development NGO for the last 30 years