There was a lot of hope and dreams of a happy,content and peaceful future in our eyes 60 yrs back when India became independant.The same leaders(well,most of them) which had led the final,decisive phase of India's freedom movement,had formed the first government of our maiden republic and were an intrinsic part of it.They had the entire country's faith(a situation which is nearly impossible to re-create today),when they sat down to formulate democratic principles and strategies to lead India forward.They failed us miserably.
I might be sounding audaciously brash and ungrateful if I associate our 'heroes' of the freedom movement with abject failure in their post-independance governance.But that seems to be the unfortunate truth.Not taking away a grain of the respect that they command(and deservedly so) for the valiance they overtook in leading India to independance,it would not be imprudent to observe that as administrators they failed miserably.
In fact,they failed in the final run of the pre-independance political process,when India got divided.Perhaps,in their eagerness to achieve the status of freedom,they thought they would deal with the consequences of The Partition somehow.But apparently they took into account potential future situations which were practically the short term consequences.As visionaries they failed miserably,being unable to comprehend the circumstantial ramifications in the distant future-the long term consequences-a situation which India faces today,right now.
One man could see it all.And he fought tooth and nail,in principle,the political process of The Partition.The true visionary he was,M K Gandhi almost went into political recluse when freedom was 'granted' at the cost of his dear country being chopped into two.It would be wrong to assume that he was a dejected man,deeply pained to watch helplessly millions of people leaving their own homes,their intrinsic roots to walk across the border and being bloodied by the senseless violence which had its seeds in the very act of Partition.He foresaw what would happen after decades.And he lost all hope,sensing the frailty of our independance.
It is sad that the country's patriarchs could not empathise with his dejection,and the palpable nonchalance that had engulfed him.
For him,independant India would never be the secular country that undivided India was.He could see the inevitable pseudo-secularism and minority appeasement which would poison the very roots of independant India's socio-political principles.His followers,the glorious founders of the Indian Republic,could never identify with his foresight.And the results form the reality of our present.
I might be sounding audaciously brash and ungrateful if I associate our 'heroes' of the freedom movement with abject failure in their post-independance governance.But that seems to be the unfortunate truth.Not taking away a grain of the respect that they command(and deservedly so) for the valiance they overtook in leading India to independance,it would not be imprudent to observe that as administrators they failed miserably.
In fact,they failed in the final run of the pre-independance political process,when India got divided.Perhaps,in their eagerness to achieve the status of freedom,they thought they would deal with the consequences of The Partition somehow.But apparently they took into account potential future situations which were practically the short term consequences.As visionaries they failed miserably,being unable to comprehend the circumstantial ramifications in the distant future-the long term consequences-a situation which India faces today,right now.
One man could see it all.And he fought tooth and nail,in principle,the political process of The Partition.The true visionary he was,M K Gandhi almost went into political recluse when freedom was 'granted' at the cost of his dear country being chopped into two.It would be wrong to assume that he was a dejected man,deeply pained to watch helplessly millions of people leaving their own homes,their intrinsic roots to walk across the border and being bloodied by the senseless violence which had its seeds in the very act of Partition.He foresaw what would happen after decades.And he lost all hope,sensing the frailty of our independance.
It is sad that the country's patriarchs could not empathise with his dejection,and the palpable nonchalance that had engulfed him.
For him,independant India would never be the secular country that undivided India was.He could see the inevitable pseudo-secularism and minority appeasement which would poison the very roots of independant India's socio-political principles.His followers,the glorious founders of the Indian Republic,could never identify with his foresight.And the results form the reality of our present.
Honesty is a farcical,utopian concept in today's politics.And our leaders become shamelessly proactive when they need the people's mandate to form governments.And our country has slipped into a self-induced stupor of hypocrisy.Our conscience has changed.We seem to be happy and proud with little steps of progress,barely trying to keep pace with the rest of the developed world.We conveniently overlook what could have happened,had our glorious leaders guided the country in the right direction with foresight and commitment.
Perhaps the child who sleeps in its mother's womb today,will wake up tomorrow with a new vision,a neoconsciousness which will rediscover the glory which lies latent in India's moral foundation which has survived the test of time through the last five thousand years.
Perhaps the child who sleeps in its mother's womb today,will wake up tomorrow with a new vision,a neoconsciousness which will rediscover the glory which lies latent in India's moral foundation which has survived the test of time through the last five thousand years.
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