Azaadii

As India rushes to celebrate yet another Independence Day,people across the country will tell you that they are not free.Because independence for them has ceased to mean freedom.The country, Imrana will tell you in Muzaffarnagar, will be freewhen maulvis brandishing the Qur'an will not tear away a helplessmother of five from her husband and children just because her father-in-law raped her. The country will be free, Sharmila will tell youin Manipur, when women won't have to strip naked to protest theviolation of their bodies and minds by jawans who are supposed toprotect them.There will be freedom, Gladys Staines will tell you in Baripada,when rampaging mobs will not burn missionaries along with theirlittle sons.Most of all, there will be freedom when people in khaki won't rapegirls in police chowkis in Mumbai and exploit tribal women inRanchi.There will be flag-hoisting in schools and government offices andhousing colonies this year. Toffees will be distributed and babus,plump with bribes, will unfurl the Tricolour. But Imrana will not bethere, nor will Sharmila. And there won't be Ramnath Behara, whosold his three-year-old daughter in Bolangir for Rs 1,500.It is these people and their fates that the country, the governmentand the powers-that-be have to mull during freedom day festivities.Independence should make sense to such people, who now watch otherscelebrate freedom. The meek, it seems, are light years away frominheriting the earth. We can brag about the spiffy malls, smoothflyovers, the growing middle class and its rising buying power, butthe blinding light of modern India keeps in the shade realities thatare as primitive as they are barbaric. Horrific bits of news that weread every morning can dull the gloss of any billboard ranting aboutIndia's shining march to peace, progress and prosperity.It is shameful when, in the 21st century, a village gathers in theinteriors of Uttar Pradesh to hang a girl who dared to marry someoneoutside her caste, or when entire towns are full of men withoutwives because all girls have been killed in the womb. Or when peoplewho have been beaten, raped, abused and threatened, need to bribethe local police inspector just to lodge an FIR. Out freedom ishollow if a pregnant Dalit woman, unable to move in time to give wayfor a politician's convoy in Bihar, is beaten to death.Freedom, by extension, should mean justice. Then why can't we pinthe blame, 20 years after, for the massacre of innocent Sikhs in thecountry's capital. Amazingly, enforcers of justice don't know whomto blame. Not that the murders happened surreptitiously. They tookplace in broad daylight, orchestrated by people who were known."To be free", said Nelson Mandela, "is not merely to cast off one'schains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedomof others". That, sadly, is yet to happen. Going by his definitionof freedom, half of India is not free and the other half doesn'tgive two hoots about it. Otherwise, there would have been anationwide furore when an entire state remained cut-off for 49 daysdue to a blockade by students who wanted a separate homeland. Thecountry would have been shocked every time a woman was killed forbeing a 'witch', every time a Dalit was abused and every time achild was sold.There won't be freedom, either, as long as 400 million of thecountry's one billion people are below the poverty line and 40% ofthe population can't read and write.There are, of course, no British boots to trample over brown faces,but there are boots everywhere — brown feet in boots quashing brownpeople. Real independence will come when among the crowd thatsprints to the town square for the flag-hoisting there is the happyface of Imrana, laughing with her children. When Behara, instead ofselling his little girl, carries her in his arms; when Sharmila, whohas been fasting for years in protest against the excesses ofsecurity forces in Manipur, says she no more feels an alien in thecountry she was born. Then, all of us can clap as the flag fluttersin the wind.