Just, Liberal, Equal and United India: An Ideal Unachieved

 

“Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.” --- Babasaheb Dr. BR Ambedkar

After reading this long quote by a great Indian, one may wonder why Ambedkar is saying paradoxical things. To be clear, what Dr. Ambedkar has said might be paradoxical in the way the quote is structured, but it is the reality that one might witness in present India, i.e., India@75. In today’s India, we the people of India aren’t truly free in the sense that though we have constitutional guarantees, we are still discriminated against and our liberties are curtailed. This is the point at which the imagined/ideal India of our constitutional framers and various freedom fighters fails. There is no doubt that India has achieved remarkable success in the last 75 years in certain sectors, but it is also not false that India, even after 75 years of independence, is still backward in many social, political, and economic aspects. Recently, a news flashed which reported that a nine-year-old Scheduled Caste child was brutally beaten up by his teacher in Rajasthan for drinking water from a pot. This incident took place on 20th July, 2022 and the victim had to be hospitalized. Unfortunately, the victim succumbed to the injuries inflicted by the casteist teacher on 14th August, 2022. This incident is one of many atrocities that the people of marginalised communities still face.

This article aims to depict what leaders of 20th century India wanted and unravel some instances wherein we have achieved success and lists various things that have not been achieved even after more than 7.5 decades.

ACQUIRING THE INDEPENDENCE

In his book, India’s Struggle for Independence, Bipan Chandra says that the national movement was fully committed to parliamentary democracy and civil liberties. It provided the soil and climate in which these two ideals could root themselves. Most of the freedom fighters and other leaders of that era devoted their lives to the fulfillment of this dream.

Bhagat Singh didn’t fight against the Britishers. He fought against the inequalities and disparities that the British system brought about. He aimed to make India a true socialist and egalitarian society wherein every citizen was equally treated and the resources were equally distributed among them.

Likewise, Nehru negotiated over India’s independence and he also wanted a just and equal society. After becoming the president of the Indian National Congress in 1929, he tried to inculcate some leftist ideas into the mainstream Congress that were directed towards egalitarianism. Nehru wanted to make India a liberal democracy wherein every citizen participated and had the freedom to interpret the meaning of democracy in the way he/she wanted. He favoured the concept of “Secularism” and worked for its implementation. It is for this reason that he is still criticised by right-wing groups.

Dr. Ambedkar, in my opinion the greatest social reformer, who devoted his life not only to the upliftment of Dalits but also to the equality of every citizen, irrespective of his caste, gender, race, religion, etc., didn’t fight for nominal independence. His fight was against the social evils that existed in Indian society and to gain real and true freedom by eradicating those evils. He gave the right to vote to every citizen and the value of each vote was also uniform. He wanted social and economic democracy before we make India a political democracy.

To sum it up, our freedom fighters and social reformers wanted to make India an equal, liberal, democratic, secular and socialist nation.

ACHIEVED

India since Independence has achieved several feats in various dimensions. It has advanced politically, socially and economically. It has not only done great in terms of these three dimensions but also in various other fields such as sports, aeronautics, etc. 

The one of the greatest thing that India achieved after gaining the Independence was the world’s lengthiest and longest written Constitution which guaranteed us various rights in the form of Fundamental Rights and other constitutional provisions for the welfare of the citizens.

In the field of Space and Technology, India has done considerably good. It launched its first satellite named ‘Aryabhata’ in 1975. India also became the first country to reach the Mars on the very first attempt.

In the field of Finance and Technology, India touched its 100 unicorn startups milestone. The latest addition to the list being the neobanking fintech startup named “Open”.

India not only fought but also won four wars, in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999, against the irritating nation (Pakistan). India and its various Prime Ministers and Presidents, from time to time, have shown the world its military and diplomatic power.

According to IHS Markit report, India is likely to become Asia’s second largest economy by 2030 by overtaking Japan in terms of GDP. This also means that India is likely to become third largest economy in the world by 2030.

UNACHIEVED

Despite achieving success in many spheres, India has still not been able to become what the framers of the constitution and freedom fighters desired it to be. Everyday, Dalits are discriminated against and subjected to various forms of atrocities. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s data, women in India are raped every fifteen minutes. Muslims are lynched in the name of religion and the sacred beliefs associated with it.

The Indian Constitution’s preamble aims to bring justice, liberty, equality and fraternity to India. But on the contrary, we have not been able to completely achieve any of the above mentioned ideal.

Justice: The constitution tries to secure social, economic and political justice for all citizens. It meant to abolish all the privileges that particular sections of society had. To the disappointment of many of us, we have not been able to make India a just society. In 2020, a Dalit girl was gang-raped in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh. She dies in the hospital and was cremated by the police officials without the consent of her family. The accused, who were Thakurs (Upper-caste community), had the caste privilege to challenge the family and the social activists fighting for justice for the victim. Their privilege of being a member of dominant caste helped them to delay the justice to the victim.

Liberty: The constitution guarantees us the right to freedom of speech and expression which forms a part under the wide ambit of ‘Liberty’. Liberty acts as a license to do the things one is willing to do under minimal or reasonable constrains. But in today’s India, our liberty is being curtailed by the oppressive regime in place and other organizations that are affiliated to a particular ideology. There have been many instances where the citizens were charged under draconian laws such as UAPA, NSA, Sedition (S-124A IPC), etc. This arbitrary imposition of these laws have curtailed the liberty of the citizens. Dr. Kafeel Khan was charged under NSA for a speech that he delivered against the Citizenship Amendment Act. He remained in jail for about 7 months once the NSA was invoked against him. There have been various other instances where the liberty of the dissenting citizens was curtailed.

Equality: The most important dimension of the India’s Constitution is its belief in the doctrine of ‘Equality’. It guarantees us the equal protection of law and equality of opportunity. It also prohibits any discrimination based on caste, creed, gender, religion, etc. Equality, like Justice and Liberty, is no exception to what India has not achieved. Dalits and Tribals are regularly being reminded of their social position as mentioned under various religious scriptures. They are being tortured, raped and murdered by the dominant caste groups in order to claim supremacy over them. This use of violence against them is used as a tool to maintain the status quo in the society. According to the Human Rights Watch report, Dalits are made to wash their own tumblers so that glasses reserved for dominant caste Hindus are not ‘polluted.’

Fraternity: The preamble of the constitution aims to make India a united country. It aims to create a sense of commonness and brotherhood among various sections of the society. But in recent years, many glimpses of disunity and hatred have been seen. Dalits have been killed if they try to break the shackles that the religions have imposed on them. Muslims have been lynched in the name of ‘Cow’. In retaliation, the Muslims have also killed some Hindu persons. This disturbs the social fabric of India and goes against the ideal of ‘Unity in Diversity’.

Due to all these incidents, the idea of India is shattered into pieces. Even after 75 years of Independence, we are faced with the same set of problems as they were at the dawn of Independence. In the concluding chapter of his book “A history of Prejudice”, Gyanendra Pandey states that the prejudice based on caste still persists in India and in this article’s context, the prejudice based on caste, gender, religion, etc., still persists in India. The reason behind the persistence of these social evils in our society lies in the fact that we are still stuck to the conservative ideals mentioned in various religious scriptures. Even now, we consider the sacredness of some beliefs more important than the life of an individual. Dr. Ambedkar wanted us to deny the authority of any such text which upheld any form of inequality, but unfortunately, we have not been able to do that.

We, the people of India, need to eradicate them in order to make India a great power in the coming future. In doing so, we need to take into consideration what the Fundamental Duties of the Indian Constitution state. It states that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals. Not only that, it also requires us to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom. In order to commit ourselves to what Fundamental Duties state, let us all take a pledge on this Independence Day to identify all the prevailing inequalities and work against them and aiming to make India a true “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.”

“True patriotism would be to make your ordeal of sufferings and sacrifice a revolution. A revolution that becomes a force to make India free from bondage of capitalism, misery of imperial wars, communalism and political aggression.” --- Shaheed Bhagat Singh

By: Deeptish Thapa