Today marks the sixty first anniversary of the independence of a religiously as well as geographically diverse land called India. We Indians celebrate this day by buying flags from street children to be put up on the dashboards of our cars, watching patriotic movies and maybe eating dinner in some restaurant playing patriotic music.
And the very next day, we are back - spitting on the roads, screaming on our cell-phones and begging in front of the rickshaw-wallahs, the babus in government offices and the like. A lot has changed in these sixty odd years of independence - the sarees have been replaced with mini skirts and low waist (or maybe hip) jeans, farm-lands have been replaced with industries and refineries, the authoritative brits have been replaced by the bureaucratic babus, rhythmic classical compositions have given way to new-age music inspired internationally or remixed locally, and above all the land of spices has been transformed to the land of cheap and skilled labor.
Truly, India has made leaps of progress in these sixty odd years - specifically the last one and a half decade. However, what raises a doubt in my mind is whether the average Indian is truly Independent - in spirit and in practice?? It is still a nightmare to get work done from any public sector company, bribing is still the best way to move things at government offices and there is no accountability of any mistakes except for the common man not paying his taxes. Small businesses still struggle to get finance from banks, power and water are still a luxury for most, education is still an election agenda, privatisation is still a taboo and government can cap the price of any commodity whenever it wants.
Maybe we need many more uprisings before we can really call ourselves "Independent".
And the very next day, we are back - spitting on the roads, screaming on our cell-phones and begging in front of the rickshaw-wallahs, the babus in government offices and the like. A lot has changed in these sixty odd years of independence - the sarees have been replaced with mini skirts and low waist (or maybe hip) jeans, farm-lands have been replaced with industries and refineries, the authoritative brits have been replaced by the bureaucratic babus, rhythmic classical compositions have given way to new-age music inspired internationally or remixed locally, and above all the land of spices has been transformed to the land of cheap and skilled labor.
Truly, India has made leaps of progress in these sixty odd years - specifically the last one and a half decade. However, what raises a doubt in my mind is whether the average Indian is truly Independent - in spirit and in practice?? It is still a nightmare to get work done from any public sector company, bribing is still the best way to move things at government offices and there is no accountability of any mistakes except for the common man not paying his taxes. Small businesses still struggle to get finance from banks, power and water are still a luxury for most, education is still an election agenda, privatisation is still a taboo and government can cap the price of any commodity whenever it wants.
Maybe we need many more uprisings before we can really call ourselves "Independent".
2 comments:
Well Gutka, Independence has turned more meanigful after liberalization and what we are facing are the side effects of it. The working class, not all but quiet a large number of it has done a lot of things the hard way and to erase that from there memory and asking them to learn from scratch seems a bit difficult In a country like india, where people still belive in Superstitions and black magic, we cannot expect utter profesionalism and straight forward solutions.I belive we have to give more time to the peolpe of india, to the working class and to the new generation which will develop all there skills in this golden period of Growth,excitment,wealth to learn and make this country a True World leader.The seeds are being sown... Wait and Watch
hey teja
keep writing
i will keep reading..
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