We are on the verge of celebrating our 69th Independence day. The kites that fly in the sky not only serve as a means of entertainment but also symbolize the high hopes and aspirations that our nation covet this 15th August.
India has progressed a lot since it got Independence in 1947. India has covered it's journey with lots of hurdles and potholes. Not only that, it has also emerged as the largest democracy in the world.
But I still find myself asking the same question to each one of you hopelessly,
Are we really independent?
Did independence only stand for sending Britishers back to their nation. Did it only mean freeing ourselves from the bondage, from the slavery?
If yes, then I beg to differ.
We all must have read the headlines few days back. Police raided hotels in Mumbai and humiliated and assaulted couples who were making love behind closed doors, in the reign of privacy with mutual consent. Police believed that they served as a savior to our society, they performed the role of moral policing. But is this where we actually needed such a 'responsible' action on their part? I mean, invading somebody's privacy is an act of audacity but preventing people from molesting women and children in open spaces is not? Here it has been portrayed that making love is a couple's fault, most evidently the guy's fault but raping a girl is a girl's fault. It's her clothes or actions that were provocative. Is that what the police and politicians wishes to preach our civilians? It takes years before any action is taken against the rape accuser but the raid and attack on the love birds was quite an instant exertion.
Then we recently witnessed porn ban. Well who can forget that? Our concerned government banned 857 porn sites due to interim reasons.I mean yes, I totally support ban on child pornography but what about the other sites? And not only the porn sites, the government regulated the ban on some other humorous sites as well which apparently serve no pornographic content. We in India talk about freedom, but was it really a justified action? Isn't this the violation of Article 21 ( right to personal liberty ) of an individual?
All of these cases made me ponder on the definition of independence.
India has revolved? Yes.
Is it still attached to it's roots, societal beliefs and practices? Yes.
Is it time to do away with the unwanted societal obligations? YES.
Another issue we witnessed few months ago, homosexuality a crime again. Supreme court turns the clock back with gay sex ban. Section 377 of the Indian penal code makes sex with person of same gender punishable by law. I fail to comprehend that how something as beautiful as love can be a heinous crime in front of the law? Love is love. Whether a man loves a woman or a man loves a man or a woman loves a woman, hardly makes any difference. Love doesn't follow religion, caste, creed or gender. It happens, eventually on it's own. Those lovers are sinners just cause their bodies and hearts crave for someone of their own gender? Isn't it the violation of basic human rights?
Independence has been long achieved but the answers to these questions are yet to arise.
I feel mentally bone-tired when I notice all these backward thoughts and activities that we're still clinging on to.
But then, I get this thought that how can we free ourselves from the old school behavior, the traditional frontier? How to be determined enough to fight for what's right and what's not, for what is morally correct and what is not and make our judiciary realize that it's completely our choice to decide whom we want to love and whom we don't and what should be watchable and what not?
And if it happens,
Will it be still this difficult to freed ourselves? Will we still be slaves to our own partisan minds, to our hidebound society?
But this won't be done on it's own, by itself and neither this is a film where a hero will come for our rescue, as the liberator of humanity and society.
We all know the answer, it lies within us. It's high time we make our politicians, cops and society understand the real definition of independence. It's time that we make them discern that independence isn't only about relieving ourselves from the colonial rule, it's much more than that.
It's about releasing ourselves from all the evils, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Lots has been said, now it's the hour of doing something. Something brawny.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
India has progressed a lot since it got Independence in 1947. India has covered it's journey with lots of hurdles and potholes. Not only that, it has also emerged as the largest democracy in the world.
But I still find myself asking the same question to each one of you hopelessly,
Are we really independent?
Did independence only stand for sending Britishers back to their nation. Did it only mean freeing ourselves from the bondage, from the slavery?
If yes, then I beg to differ.
We all must have read the headlines few days back. Police raided hotels in Mumbai and humiliated and assaulted couples who were making love behind closed doors, in the reign of privacy with mutual consent. Police believed that they served as a savior to our society, they performed the role of moral policing. But is this where we actually needed such a 'responsible' action on their part? I mean, invading somebody's privacy is an act of audacity but preventing people from molesting women and children in open spaces is not? Here it has been portrayed that making love is a couple's fault, most evidently the guy's fault but raping a girl is a girl's fault. It's her clothes or actions that were provocative. Is that what the police and politicians wishes to preach our civilians? It takes years before any action is taken against the rape accuser but the raid and attack on the love birds was quite an instant exertion.
Then we recently witnessed porn ban. Well who can forget that? Our concerned government banned 857 porn sites due to interim reasons.I mean yes, I totally support ban on child pornography but what about the other sites? And not only the porn sites, the government regulated the ban on some other humorous sites as well which apparently serve no pornographic content. We in India talk about freedom, but was it really a justified action? Isn't this the violation of Article 21 ( right to personal liberty ) of an individual?
All of these cases made me ponder on the definition of independence.
India has revolved? Yes.
Is it still attached to it's roots, societal beliefs and practices? Yes.
Is it time to do away with the unwanted societal obligations? YES.
Another issue we witnessed few months ago, homosexuality a crime again. Supreme court turns the clock back with gay sex ban. Section 377 of the Indian penal code makes sex with person of same gender punishable by law. I fail to comprehend that how something as beautiful as love can be a heinous crime in front of the law? Love is love. Whether a man loves a woman or a man loves a man or a woman loves a woman, hardly makes any difference. Love doesn't follow religion, caste, creed or gender. It happens, eventually on it's own. Those lovers are sinners just cause their bodies and hearts crave for someone of their own gender? Isn't it the violation of basic human rights?
Independence has been long achieved but the answers to these questions are yet to arise.
I feel mentally bone-tired when I notice all these backward thoughts and activities that we're still clinging on to.
But then, I get this thought that how can we free ourselves from the old school behavior, the traditional frontier? How to be determined enough to fight for what's right and what's not, for what is morally correct and what is not and make our judiciary realize that it's completely our choice to decide whom we want to love and whom we don't and what should be watchable and what not?
And if it happens,
Will it be still this difficult to freed ourselves? Will we still be slaves to our own partisan minds, to our hidebound society?
But this won't be done on it's own, by itself and neither this is a film where a hero will come for our rescue, as the liberator of humanity and society.
We all know the answer, it lies within us. It's high time we make our politicians, cops and society understand the real definition of independence. It's time that we make them discern that independence isn't only about relieving ourselves from the colonial rule, it's much more than that.
It's about releasing ourselves from all the evils, mentally, emotionally and physically.
Lots has been said, now it's the hour of doing something. Something brawny.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
