74 years past the ‘The Tryst with Destiny’

-- Gokul Rajith, XII-B, United Indian School

Thursday, July 30, 2020

The years of struggle stood at the peak of its success in midnight. After the 200 years of colonization, at the eve of independence, the millions of Indians cherished their joy as their struggles had been answered while Nehru ji spoke the ‘Tryst with destiny’. Nevertheless, we were left back in a state of deep divisions and over exploited mentality. The future was a bleak vision, one which would require years to repair the damages made by the vicious acts- both morally and economically. But the pioneers of the struggle and the citizens of the nation took up to the task, correcting and outweighing each step with the crucial vision of the future. The leaders of our communities and nation joined hands, taking the hope of the millions on their shoulders and powered by the support of the collective thinking, led our young nation through the international community. And 70 years later we stand on the horizon of possibilities with dashing success. Yes, we are proud Indians.

“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps...”, I played Nehru ji’s speech, heaving a deep breath as the Goosebumps took over me. The pride of freedom could never be expressed through words, but Nehru ji’s speech was the closest it could get. There was not a single person in the crowd who didn’t shed a tear that day and now 70 years later, I twitched to not let myself cry. Who wouldn’t of course? With the vision of our motherland freed from the shackles long withheld, our people awarded freedom to identify themselves as their own leaders in our nation, our young vibrant motherland rose out on august 1947 , with a will of peace and adherent determination.

We had one of the best arrays of freedom fighters we could ask for, but one man was instilling and Inspiring more than anyone else. There is inspiring, highly inspiring, and then there is Mahatma Gandhiji. He who lived by a set of values( ahimsa, truth, morality, simplicity and harmony to name of a few of the broad spectres) which communities and society’s continue to adore and symbolise as one of the greatest, cutting across international borders. The father of India he is, but could we as Indians say that our nation succeeded in preserving the Gandhian values, which once gained us our freedom? If we did or didn’t, how did it ultimately affect our national values and our current state of society?

Inequalities in income, gender, caste, education, and class still exist. The mutilating aspect untouchability is still eminent in various rural and urban parts. The government might not be the ‘dream’, Corrupt political leaders, and parties still play an important role in our nation. Rigged elections, communal clashes, and the whole aspect of social, political, and economic inequalities are commonplace across the land. Hence in many ways it seems the Gandhian aspects of our past are far apart from our present structure of society and nation. But I say we aren’t.

We arise from a land of a multiverses of cultures and religion, each blending to form the richest society, like a wonderful piece of yarn fabricated into a beautiful cloth. The divisions do exist, but they could never be the drawbacks of our society, or the viewpoint for an outsider. For we Indians, with our innate patriotism, form a nation of intellectual geniuses and admirably talented artists with the kindred spirits and the greatest philosophers alongside our rich, intricate, and classic cultural history. That’s what makes us special. For never have our nation seen a failure as the end of the road, rather our failures served as the greatest leaps towards our rise as a successful nation. The socio-political and economic difficulties are just another mould in our path to success, a path build by our greatest leaders and inspirational intellectuals. But the mould shall be dealt with great carefulness, the Gandhian principles shall be revoked within our population. For being a nation of equals and owing to our constitution, the generations of strive towards the eradication of these injustices are ever so high.

We have stunned the international community through our nations power in ways of unity, intellectual achievements, and radiation of the magnificent Indian culture all around the world. From being the CEO’s of multinational companies (google, Microsoft and adobe to state the few) to being considered as the emerging superpower, the strength of our culture and nation has been distinguished from the rest of the world.

Now, On this 74th rebuke of the auspicious day of independence, to relish our centuries of heroic social and freedom struggles, owing to those who shed their lives for swaraj and to embark upon the upcoming generation the furtherment of social, political, economic, and holistic development of our country, I invite the citizens to join hands to celebrate. To stand by equity and justice, to be the spirit of Indian culture and most importantly to be the proudest patriotic as I repeat-

“Citizenship consists of the service of the country” – Jawaharlal Nehru

Jai Bharat!!

Gokul Rajith, XII-B, United Indian School