What is independence?
What is independence? What does it mean? Does it only mean that we are free just because we don’t serve another country? We are celebrating 74th independence, which is the result of many people’s sacrifice.
It seems like a dream that India was the largest economy in the world. I am talking about that time when India was not India because it was Aryavarta. We exported a lot of valuable products since the period of Mahajanpadas. Our per capita GDP growth was the highest. After the starting of the Mughal period, India became the largest manufacturing power. India was producing 25 per cent of the world’s industrial output. This was the status India had at that time. There were certainly lots of superstitions in the society, and it was necessary to remove them. But, have we also lost our loyalty, unity, and humanity? Then why is India suffering from poverty, bad health, and bad quality of living?
India fell in total distress after independence because we were serving another country when most of the other nations were developing. India’s literacy was 17 per cent with 32.5 years of life expectancy at birth. Our per capita growth was zero from 1600 to 1870 and 0.2 from 1870 to 1947. Our per capita income was Rs. 18 in the 19th century. It wasn’t the end of all of our problems, because problems never stop coming back. It was a new war, and the name of the war was survival.
Economists, politicians, and experts tried many different ways to make India a better place. They faced both success and failure. Slowly, all those people were gone who dreamt about a beautiful India. A new era was about to begin where respect, love, and humanity does not exist.
India has excelled in many fields. India’s name is on the list of developing countries now. But in economists’ opinion, the former idea of developed-country is not applicable anymore. So, a new list came in existence, World Happiness Report, in which India ranked 144 out of 156 nations. All the developed countries’ positions are at the bottom of this list. This list is based on crime, health, quality of living, etc. India’s rank is 65th in crime. Women, from 6 months to 72-year-old, have been raped throughout the country. Thomas Reuters Foundation experts’ survey proved that India is the most dangerous country for women.
74-year is a huge time for a country. K. C. Agrawal wrote in his book India in Chaos that the government of India has limited interest in the people’s welfare. We have to accept that we don’t appreciate our people’s potential. Many people go to the celebration of Independence for food because gathering food is like a war for them. A normal man only thinks about his child’s empty stomach. So, are we truly independent? Is this the India that the freedom fighters died for?