Swaraj Or Azad Bharat?

To begin with a very happy republic day to all of us who have been such an amazing audience to all the drama that has been unfolding in our country for so long. Kudos to all of us for that.

This republic day gets along with itself a bittersweet feeling in my heart. A feeling that makes me feel like we have mocked our constitution enough now and the words like democracy or republic are slowly losing their meaning anyway.

Recently, there had been a surprising turn of events and I have watched more patriotic movies than the genres I prefer watching usually. All of it has just made me ponder about one big question that why did we fight all those battles? With what motive did our ancestors think that we deserve ‘azadi’?

Beginning right from the time when we have been invaded and exploited so much by the Mughals that they bestowed us with the status ‘Sone ki chidiya’. We laid golden eggs and we were and are one of the most fertile regions that exist on the planet. We needed leaders like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and many others to instill the light of Swaraj into our hearts which ignited the fire in our ancestors to free us from the clutches of the Mughals. It took them years, thousands of lives and sacrifices, tears, pain and hardships to see their dream of Swaraj getting fulfilled when we were freed.

However, that did not last well and long with us. We were raided again and held captive as soon as the East India Company began expanding its roots on our soil. Even then, it took us tonnes of freedom fighters like Gandhiji, Tilakji, Boseji and multiple revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azadji, Bhagat Singhji and many more to acquire freedom. All our ancestors and great ancestors did this and thousand more sacrifices for one single reason – our freedom.

I am nothing but an ungrateful Indian if I do not take moment here to thank them all for whatever contributions they made to get us where we are today. Safe and free.

We made the constitution, we made our own democracy and we vowed to unitedly stand strong as a country but aren’t we all failing each time we put our selfish motives over our country’s motives? Each time one of us becomes corrupt or violates and exploits the rights bestowed upon us as a citizen of the country, we betray our land. Each time we fail to do our duty (as basic as voting) we fail our ancestors. Each time people become corrupt and think ‘iss desh ka kuch nai hoga’ we are letting down all those sacrifices made repeatedly for us.

We have let our country down so much to a point that despite having an amazing educational history, we still do not have institutions that could confer upon us valuable degrees. The graduates end up going abroad, studying and living there.

However, amidst all this, we keep forgetting that there are people out there in uniforms colored – green, blue, white and khaki. The people who work tirelessly amongst all the temperatures Mother Nature bestows them with. The ones ‘jinke ke liye apna desh, apni azadi se zyada kuch important nahi lagta, apni jaan bhi nai.

This republic day, a big salute to all those heroes who do not have folklores about them but that never stops them from being the ‘rakshaks’ they are.

We are Secular. Republic. Democratic.

That’s all that matters.

We have made enough Sacrifices but now it is time to make Peace so that we could have our own Prosperity.

SATYAMEV JAYATE