To India’s Independent Generations, Love and Respect

In his Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said,

Our Freedom Fighters did not stop fighting no matter what.
— Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

There have since been two generations after that generation of freedom fighters, and theirs was the real tryst with destiny. In a way, this nation has been built on their backs.

Ahead of India’s 69th Independence Day, considering the behavior of our great elected leaders in the monsoon session of Parliament, the happiest news that has come, is the appointment of Chennai born, IIT educated Sundar Pichai as the CEO of Google.

An Indian at the helm of something most of the world cannot do without. Wow! Moment of pride eh! Of course it is.

There was a profiling frenzy that dug into details of Pichai’s background and one nugget of information that stood out was that his parents spent all their savings on his flight to the United States where he went on a full scholarship to pursue further studies.

There are many like Pichai’s parents, their entire generation and the one after that, who made a compromise with India’s destiny, their future in return for their children’s.

So What?

To put it simply, many, many people from these two post-1947 generations sacrificed their hopes, dreams, aspirations, whatever you would call it, to see ours come to fruition. It’s no secret, that the things we take for granted today did not even exist in this country in our parents’ youth, let alone 60 odd years ago.

We talk about societal bias. They lived through blatant societal bigotry. We get agitated over banning of Maggi noodles but they lived through food shortages. We talk about freedom of speech, they survived the Emergency. We talk of communalism, they suffered through the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, the Babri Masjid Demolition and the 1993 Bombay riots.

Today the building of 100 smart cities is being proposed, they used to make trunk calls from their neighbours’ homes. We hate flight delays and want bullet trains, in their time the Indian Railways was an even bigger joke. They did not watch stuff on their laptops or tablets, TV viewing, was shared with the neighbourhood. We want foreign vacations, for them restaurants were a once in a blue moon affair. We look at the ways of rural India as a novelty, for them, its home.

India was built in front of their very eyes. We will never experience India’s charm like they did. They also saw an ugliness that has long since faded away. Their India was one in which most of us wouldn’t even survive, but, they hung on, so that we may get all the things we take for granted. No thanks needed.

But are we Independent?

I saw a post on Facebook this morning, Happy Independence Day?? Are we truly Independent?

It is a question that may be on many minds. Let me simply say, Yes.

We are truly Independent, from the India that the British left behind and the one that came soon after. And if you ask your grandparents, or even your parents that is enough cause for celebration.

A better India has been passed on to us, not to be preachy, but what we pass on will determine how we are remembered, because despite India’s many flaws we are a great nation, more importantly a great resilient people.

Jai Hind.

The sacrifices mentioned were not made so that one day they would be eulogised in speeches from the Red Fort or on Facebook posts and on Twitter.

Theirs is the silent sacrifice, made to give us a better tomorrow.

They don’t have round glasses and a charkha, or a topi and a rose, in the larger scheme of things they are as faceless as you and I. But Bismil Azimabadi’s ode to some of India’s fiercest freedom fighters, in my opinion, applies to India’s forgotten independent generations too,

ऐ शहीद-ए-मुल्क-ओ-मिल्लत, मैं तेरे ऊपर निसार, अब तेरी हिम्मत का चरचः ग़ैर की महफ़िल में है
— Bismil Azimabadi, Poet

There are unsung heroes who live among us. They may not have died for this country, but we owe them our dreams. Give them a hug once in a while, they’ve earned it.

Happy Independence Day!