August 14 Wednesday..... A day before Independence Day, with 66 years behind, my thoughts go back to that day when the National Tricolour was unfurled, without fear from Imperial yoke. Though I was born post independence, 17 12 1951, the fact that I was a student of Modern Indian History helped me to recreate the saga of the struggle and was simply overwhelmed with the period 1857 to 1947. Truly it was an anti colonial encounter with British imperialism with a distinct economic content and the entire period was a struggle of the earlier nobility, the educated middle classes, the common folk, the peasants and workers from all parts of the country against bondage. It had both violent and non violent strands and participation of Hindoos, Muslims Sikhs and others. The Companys rule followed by Her Majestys Govt. gave us many good things like education and enlightenment, railways but it also impoverished the economy and thereby the people suffered beyond redemtion at the hands of the colonial masters. I may advise that if possible one may go through The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru to get a glimpse of the country and the struggle with the advent of the foreign rulers. Right from 1857 names of patriots and martyrs are in plenty and if today we are slightly empowered with some dignity, let us not forget all those who sacrificed their lives for posterity. It is also a fact that even after 66 years a sizable section of the population is without economic security, facing a lot of problems in day to day life. The ultimate remedy lies in proper growth of agriculture, industry, infrastructure with improvement in social indices and distributive justice. At this moment let us remember that we are all Indians committed to the cause of uplifting the havenots and ensuring that not a tear drops from any ones eyes, a life of plenty and dignity to everybody. Respect for all and tolerance towards others is another necessity. Finally a nation rises when there is peace and its citizens improve their character, sacrificing their self interest for the common good. When 15 August 2013 comes tomorrow each of us must introspect how good we can build this nation towards peace, development and progress. The sacrifice of the MARTYRS should not go in vain. JAI HIND..... 12 18 PM..... MAY ALL BE BLESSED.....
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 06:50:41 +0000