Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Independence

Who is an independent person? Rather what is meant by independence?

Well, the dictionary meaning enumerates the following conditions for being independent:
i) free from outside control or influence,
ii) self-governing,
iii) having enough money to support oneself,
iv) not connected, separate.

The meaning, the exact one I know is known to all. It is true that it was not required by me to enlist them. But I did that on purpose. Anyway, we as human beings need reasons for doing even simple things. And however the simple the job might be, the reason needs to be forcefully compelling to gather momentum and urge and provide thus, the required driving force. Because irrespective of the level of difficulty of the job, one thing that needs to be overcome is the word and phenomenon described by Newton. That is inertia!
In my case also, these opening lines served as the launching pad for what I intend to write. It gave the required time to regroup my thoughts; otherwise it is too easy to fall prey to deviation via digression from the actual topic of concern.

After thinking quite a bit about what should I write in my second blog, I stopped at this thought. I could have chosen from any of my quotable quotes (yes, I do have as this was my initial hobby), but given the mood I am in right now, this was the most appropriate. Also I had to take into consideration the intellectual gentry who frequent this site.

So quite clearly my decision-making depended upon a few things, however pertinent they might be to the situation. The fact remains that the final decision was not an instantaneous one. It was not self alone, who took the decision. The various aspects that go on inside one’s brain were the influential aspect. I am sure all of you will be in contradiction to my views as the various thinking modes and aspects of an individual’s are generally taken to be mutually inclusive giving in totality the person his/her personality. But herein I tend to differ. To me they are mutually exclusive. Every fibre of one’s being is just like a “dx” which when integrated gives the final picture of that person, physical as well as intellectual.
In that context, it was not an independent decision, though this view is in direct contradiction to the parameter (i) and more in line with parameter (iv). Can’t be helped. It is my own and indigenously independent!

Incidentally, this blog is not being written in defiance to the dictionary. I am too small a person to even think of that. What I intend to do is, write what I “feel” about the word. The ethos of the word. The hidden implications that tugged at my heart where it was relayed by my various hyperactive nerves.
I beg to be forgiven for the physiological inaccuracy.

Now to come straight to the point, are we independent in the strictest of senses? The question we keep asking ourselves is how much independent are we? Given the situations around us we are bound to introspect in that line. There is nothing wrong with that. Rather very natural. Though this question means we are trying to quantify independence. Is it a measurable quality? Once we try to do so, which we are inadvertently doing, we undermine independence.

But independence has been subject to abject stampede.
Prove me wrong. None of us is independent. 15th of August, 1947 has been our theoretical independence. Independence from merely the British rule. This I say with all regards to our leaders. But isn’t it true that “this” independence doesn’t even spare a moment of gracious remembrance to all who laid down their lives to free our nation from the British rule. Those days were and are considered days of oppression. I don’t deny that, but then in lieu of that, what have we got? Proxy independence. Foreigners ruled us then and now we are being ruled by the selfish designs of some people. Our freedom fighters, fought for a better India, but I am saddened to state that it is God’s grace that they didn’t live to see this independent India, which I am sure they didn’t envisage. Had it been so not only they would have been disillusioned, there is every likelihood of them falling prey to the bullets of a fellow countryman. If not that, then by an external perpetrator who could be active only because of the help from insiders. Those insiders, I am not stating that they help by their own volition. True, they are at times forced to do so, with otherwise promised dire consequences. But, frighteningly and shamefully this help comes generally in lieu of money. Greed, people prefer to patriotism. They rebuff the term, ‘traitor’, both in terms of its existence and ethos. And quite disgracefully, there is not dearth of such people.

The fallout of this increasing number of unethical people is the turbulent times we are in. Isn’t it true that everyday we are thankful to the God for saving us from unnatural fate? Don’t we move from our house with quite an amount of apprehension as to what awaits us around the corner? Bombs or bullets? The friendly neighbourhood seems to be camouflaging innumerable unseen disasters. Is it independence? It hurts because we are “supposedly” a sovereign democratic republic, as mentioned in the constitution. This is hypocrisy to the infinity.
Why? Simply because, the prevailing environment that has been forced upon us. How “Sovereign” are we then? It has become so easy for handful of evildoers to pump into our country, God knows, how many hundreds of negative elements which are one of our principal ailments.
The less we talk of the term “Democracy”, the better. It was meant to “for the people, by the people and of the people”. By “the people”, it was meant the common people, in the form of their chosen representative. Yes, people are ruling but only those who are in a powerful position by virtue of, lesser virtues. “Netas” have become more powerful than the cause they represent. This is not democracy. Rather a form of “collective autocracy”.
To come to the last but not the least, “Republic”, I shan’t go to the depths of it. Too much of complications involved and likelihood of many ruffled feathers. Though I too being a part of the common public, don’t feel much flutter would be created. Who cares about the views of “general” citizen? But still, since I am it I have to air my views on “republic”. In one word, there couldn’t be a bigger sham.

Thus we are not what we claim to be. We are presenting to others an illusory idea. Who is to be held responsible for depriving us of the various fundamental rights mentioned in the constitution? Who is responsible for this insecure security of the nation? We are truly hostages of hypocrisy, greed, dishonesty and non-integrity
To me it is not the glory of our “Independence” but the ignominy of a “Life In Dependence”

Sushmita Mukherjee
28th April, 2009

No comments:

Post a Comment