Open Letter- 24

 Dear society,

Sorry for my late wishes; Happy Independence Day! Had this been a digital letter, I would have sent you a pop up link to open that says Happy Independence Day with my profile in front of the red fort or may be a prominent temple fort to emphasise my loyalty towards the country. Anyways, this being a replica of traditional post card letter I have to be content with barely wishing you with mere words. By the way, my apologies for skipping the mandatory pleasantries.

How was your week? Mine was  full of freedom; freedom offers, freedom talks, freedom videos, freedom image edits, freedom refined oil, freedom sale on Kurtis, freedom yoga classes, freedom contests, freedom video calls, freedom hangouts, freedom nostalgia, everything but freedom from the freedom context. (Forget the oil brand. I am not advertising).

I clearly remember my school days when freedom week was full of parade rehearsals, choir practices, speeches, sermons, classes on freedom struggle and finally the most awaited chocolates. Those days are my most cherished treasures and they shall stay with me until my last breath as the moments that made me what I am today.

Independence Day from then to now has changed a lot. Yesterday I had lots of statuses to put up, many videos to share and comments to be made. I had to greet all my friends on social media and change my cover picture to tricolours so that others wouldn’t look at me as an anti-national. Beyond everything else, there was the much awaited part like the chocolates that once held everyone’s attention; Freedom Sale.

I have been eagerly waiting for this year’s freedom sale to see if I can lay my hands on a new smartphone that usually might not fit my budget list. With e-commerce sales, it’s all about being the fastest decision maker online. With all my self-contradictory tones and restless thoughts, you already know if I was able to buy one.

Disappointed at my failure, I switched on the television to live the patriotic aura that the country might be drowned in. I was not disappointed by the television channels. As expected, all the movies, songs, debates, discussions every channel I set my eyes on was painted in the tricolor. Movies hailed heroes that gave their lives for the country, songs were sung in praise of our defence forces, debates ran about India’s ability in fighting back and long discussions took place about what means to be an Indian.

I leisurely surfed through different channels for a while and finally shut the television down with a headache and a blurry vision. I had to look at the clock twice to realise that my leisurely surfing took place not for a while but for an astonishing six hours. That explains the headache and the blurry vision. 

Later, as I sat in retrospection of all that I saw, I happened to identify a shocking coincidence in the content. Most of the films and debates that supposedly considered themselves as reflections of patriotism were indeed a call for war against a common enemy, be it Pakistan, terrorism, China or a fanatic brotherhood.

When I was young, I was proudly told that the beauty of India’s independence lies in its concept of ahimsa. It was a bloodless war run by civilians against a colonial empire. It was resistance against suppression, determination against brutality and non-cooperation against slavery that won India its independence. Indian freedom struggle was not a result of a rebellion. It was not a result of bloodshed. It was not a result of violently overthrown governments. It was a result of peaceful deliberations, non-violent resistance and gradual handing down of power. India, with its freedom struggle taught a lot to the world. It made possible what the world until then thought was impossible. That non-violence is not a symbol of weakness but of strength. That a country's war need not be fought by muscled warriors alone. It can be fought by a sixty year old toothless patriot as well.

As these thoughts kept reeling in my mind, I kept wondering how this scenario is gradually changing with every passing year. We are finding ways to justify ourselves that our war was not won with mere non-violence and non-cooperation. We did have warriors who did the secret work that actually led to our independence. We are trying to justify ourselves that we were no cowards and our men did fight with blood and bone to defend their motherland. We try to justify ourselves that we fought like everybody else and we were not special. Let the world think Indians have a concept of their own, but we will prove them that we too love bloodshed and we do not know any great mantra called ahimsa, the greatest weapon on earth. 

Dear society, I had a restless night yesterday with all these thoughts disturbing me to the core. Why do you think we are trying to showcase ourselves as equally aggressive and violent when it comes to territorial issues? Are we afraid of being called cowards? Or are we afraid of accepting that our war really was a greater one that we might not be able to stand up to? Why are we trying to rewrite our history? Why are we trying to glorify valour over ideologies? May be we are taking a paradigm shift and this time it is going to be the warrior that gets more respected than a scholar. May be we shall soon start teaching our kids that a sword is mightier than a pen. That day might come, and we are none to say it is a wrong route that we shall be sending our kids in. It only shall be a different route that might be filled with blood and brutality unlike the one that we are walking now, which is filled with debates and verbal contradictions.

I hope you will write back to me regarding my current dilemma.

Thanking you for being a patient listener as you have always been,

Yours Independently,

An Expecting Mother.