75 Years of Freedom

-- Prardhana Seraphim Valaparla, IIK Young Contributor

Monday, August 8, 2022

It’s no doubt that India has been through its ups and downs during the colonial and post-colonial periods.We must take into consideration that India is shaped not only by its freedom but also by the struggles it went through as a country. Unity has been the bond that proved to be the main pre-requisite that taught Indians true freedom is not found by hands of power but in the strength of unity at heart.

We can not say that it was the leaders alone that fought the colonial struggle; but also the patriots who were brave enough to stand face–to–face with death just for the peace and freedom of our country. It may sound silly but it takes true courage for a person to act than to speak with words in such an unpredictable state of our country that kept changing every day with new colonial laws that often revealed the oppressive face of the Britishers. These people proved that it was not richness nor secular divisions that a person needed to save the country. To this day unity has still been the binding factor of our citizens in terms of elections that need popular approvals and disapprovals to implement laws that satisfy the country as a whole.

Speaking in terms of students that fought the colonial struggle. It is impractical to imagine the intensive oppression and mental stress that they’ve gone through. Seeing people beat up on the streets, new laws that shut down schools recklessly prevented the main necessity of a child’s life – Education.

When the British left India, the nation was obviously in turmoil. There were riots everywhere in the last years of the Raj and the administration proved thoroughly incapable of ruling India. Since agriculture was ignored, for the most part, there were massive famines throughout the British rule and dwindling incomes as farming were one of the widely followed professions in India. Industries were no better - very few major industries that existed in India were slowly wiped away from the existence of the middle classes from the face of the Indian economy

The caste system was appalling and the British Indian government found itself in a two -way problem - unable to get anything done to fix the problem. While the rest of the world was fast-moving up, the 200 years of colonization saw India's social systems at their worst. Landlords [Zamindars] were ruling the roost in most of India. The government permitted semi-slavery as long as they paid their dues. By the 1950’s , things were too unbearable.

In politics, things were messy too. There were all these independent kingdoms, each with their own ideas of administration. Literacy rate was abysmal - little more than 10% of India could read & write.

These drastic changes are most often unheard. India was’nt worried about competing but was mindful that it was just the beginning and hearthed all the small producers by protecting them from competition with the world producers and supporting produce to meet domestic. The Green Revolution was a huge change for the farming profession that kept the light of hope lit in the farmers who believed that they had to give up on farming. Politics had to be based on people’s decision because of the trauma faced by the Indians under the colonial system of administration.

Since the past 75 years , India has proven its strength in trying to maintain peace and remain as a secular country , accommodating a huge number of religious and linguistic diversities. This important result and the example of the importance of unity in a country is none like anyother

Let us stay united from now on till forevermore
JAI HIND!!