On 2 October 2007
2 October 2007 marks the 139th birth anniversary of Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, one of the architects of India’s freedom struggle. Come the morrow and we will witness a series of tributes to the “Father of the Nation” – prayer meetings and floral tributes, token fasts, music concerts for peace and non-violence, addresses by several khadi-clad people including prominent personae from walks of public life, dramas featuring sections of Gandhi’s life re-enacted by children in schools, screening of Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi” in several (dubbed) Indian languages, October 2 specials on news channels on the life and times of Gandhi, probably an odd screening or two on entertainment channel of Lage Raho Munnabhai to provide comic relief for the masses – in short, one day of lip service and celebrations “honouring” a man who orchestrated and participated in our freedom struggle and won for us freedom from colonial rule.
Personally, I value Gandhi’s contribution to our freedom struggle as much as I do the several others and my heartfelt thanks go to their “collective” efforts, efforts as a result of which I am able to proudly say I was born in a free India. However, is the India we live in today really representative of the freedom that Gandhi and his compatriots in the freedom struggle had in mind? I sometimes wonder, were he alive today, would he feel proud of what he sees around him?
Our cities are fast turning into vast cesspools where all of India’s dishonesty, greed, hatred, intolerance and lust drain into and are left to fester unhindered. Daily I see and read about instances like an Alastair Pereira walking free in Mumbai after killing seven people in an instance of rash driving, people killed in New Delhi for questioning simple but inequitable acts like breaking traffic rules in acts of brutal road-rage, vigilante justice in Bihar in defiance of the law, sexual favours for promotions/recuitments in the police force in Uttar Pradesh, non-implementation of the Justice Srikrishna Commission Report in Maharashtra, terrorist bombings in Hyderabad in the name of religion, bomb blasts in Assam by ULFA separatists, strikes in Tamil Nadu sponsored by the ruling DMK protesting against a court order in the Setu Samudram project, a school child stripped and humiliated in a New Delhi school for not completing her homework, political volte-face in Karnataka, the list is endless. I see and hear these all around me and I feel sick in my gut at Mera Bharat Mahan and what it was becoming.
I see hunger, poverty, illiteracy, pestilence, abuse of authority, disrespect for law and order, mis-governance, corruption, abuse of women and children, among several other ills – sadly, all the “Gandhian” ideals exist only on paper today or in some forgotten library shelf.
It is a shame that we do not properly appreciate the meaning of freedom and the responsibilities that it carries with it. To me, these responsibilities are quite simple and articulated in Article 51A of our Constitution, thus:
“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India–
(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;
(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;
(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;
(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;
(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;
(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement;
(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.
On 2 October 2007, rather than engage in mere lip service to Gandhi, we’d do better to refresh our individual and collective memories about our fundamental duties as Indian citizens and actually work towards upholding those duties. I see that as a more fitting tribute for this man and the ideals he stood for.
Cheers
S