Are we truly free?

Even though India is hailed as being democratic, we Indians have conceived democracy in the most primitive manner. We haven’t yet risen to a democratic way of thinking because the centuries-old submissiveness hasn’t still got out of our DNA. Still recuperating from the hangover of a casteist hierarchy, citizens are unable to accept the virtues of democracy and bow before politicians as if they are kings. Religious and political slavery hinder them from questioning the authorities. People with thoughts based on religion and caste, we differ to introspect or question and have no social democracy. At least elections ensure political democracy. Such a tuned population can’t progress much in this scenario. However, the only alternative to this is democracy itself.

As a solution, we need to actively involve in all kinds of cultural and social processes. We have an excellent Constitution that ensures individual rights, social justice and a federal structure; we just need to raise our voice. The government has an autocratic attitude. Even as we celebrate 70 years of independence, 33 per cent of Indian villages are under military rule.

The draconian Rowlatt Act was formed to counter the freedom struggle in 1919, but today’s POTA and UAPA Acts are imposed by the government on its own people – the ones who elected them to power. How democratic is that!
Choices are being forced in the case of even food, beliefs and nationalism. My nationality might depend on my territory, my nationalism is not. It’s my choice and mine alone. I can change my nationality with a Green Card; it’s that simple. People are being forced into an unnecessary war zone in the name of non-existent feelings like patriotism, which has become a tool for nasty political games. Even sports can’t be watched with sportsman spirit, but with minacious patriotic overtures. Also, any criticism against a government is perceived as a criticism against the nation, thereby, hindering one’s freedom of expression, freedom to object.

At a time when the State is dangerously obsessed with creating ‘others’ and oppressing its own people with utter disregard to citizen rights and Constitutional values, there is no point in celebrating freedom.

The gap between the haves and have-nots, dropout rate, poor sanitation facilities and child mortality rate are all increasing, no matter who rules. No government has concepts about social welfare; they just follow the colonial style of rule, under which the life of women, Dalits and all marginalised people is affected.

There is no possibility for a revolutionary cultural or intellectual boom in a situation where India is becoming an object of ridicule before the whole world. Absurd ideas like rearing Uranium-producing cattle and cutting off oxygen-producing trees, as they bring bad luck, make us a laughing stock before the world. The saddest part is even as we claim to be progressive in science and technology, we project ourselves as a regressive society.

The duty of any State is to ensure primary safety of life, property, right to food, expression, movement and belief. Only with democratic values and mutual respect can changes be brought in. Every individual is a tool of a religion, caste or political party; there is no choice. Only power can ensure justice, but here, the system is corrupt and people are denied social justice. Only an upgraded democratic system can ensure true freedom.

As told to Vandana Mohandas