Freedom – An Indian Style

It is high time for us to realize what we understand by the word Freedom. It appears that what we understand is that, doing what we want, when we want, and how we want is freedom. The one point to understand is that such freedom can only exist in the jungle, as, freedom in civilization has a different interpretation. No civilized man can be free in this manner, as this style of freedom is apt to destroy civilization, as we see in the example of India today. Once we claim to be civilized, we can never aspire to be free in this way. Thus, freedom of Indian style and civilization can never go hand in hand, as, the more civilized a community, the less free is the individual. It is this misinterpretation of freedom that is leading India to a state of complete chaos in every sphere of its existence, be it political, social, educational or personal, or any other sphere. This is because; each Indian is doing what he wants with no inhibitions or restrictions of rules and regulations of discipline which tie a community into one entity.

I daresay that, our type of freedom can never lead to a compact disciplined, and happy society for always, each one of us has to have a different desire to do different things, thus there is bound to be an absolute lack of cohesion, and clashes with what others won’t, have to invariably occur everywhere, so much so that, confusion has become the order of the day. Instead of harmony and unity, there are constant bickering among all and everywhere in India and the culprit of creating this situation is the so-called and gifted “freedom”.

We have got all the freedom but, no one, yes, no one, has ever cared to teach the uneducated Indian how to make use of this gift, and neither has anyone been taught the fact that each freedom comes with its corresponding duty, the other side of the coin of freedom. The average Indian even the so-called educated, have not ever cared to fulfill their responsibilities corresponding to the freedom they continue to enjoy. None of us has ever cared to learn the duties that go hand in hand with the rights we enjoy, and the result is, today’s India, where every place is rampant with confusion, indiscipline whether it be the home, the school, the office or the road. This is the result of our wrong interpretation of independence on the one side and an incomplete education regarding the use of freedom.

We must remember that every right has its corresponding duty, at least now, after 50 years we must learn our duties as well as we have assimilated the lesson of our rights. The tragedy has been that in India we have put the cart before the horse, and given or taught people their rights without explaining to them their duties as well. At least now, at this juncture, to save India from complete destruction, we must set our cart in order, and learn more about our duties and the rights will then fall in their right and appropriate places.