Freedom at 70

    

                                                            Concept of Freedom at 70

The ideas in this article relate to the concept of Freedom  and are mainly addressed to University scholars and faculty members because they have the opportunity to translate these ideas into reality through an engagement and dialogue with their students.  Whether in practice or not, the idea of University, apart from its focus on academic studies, is it should serve as a platform for creating opinions, for debates and discussions, for germination of new ideas and theories that will focus on development of the society and its people. While academic learning is towards understanding and specializing in different branches of knowledge, the ultimate goal of higher education is to turn out enlightened citizens with intelligent and independent thinking, imbued with a sense of responsibility towards themselves and also towards their less fortunate fellow beings in the society. Hence this article is an appeal to the professors and scholars in our universities and colleges to introduce and incorporate the concept of freedom, in all  academic studies and  activities.

When we talk about “Freedom” the first speech that the mind recalls is Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech with the opening sentence: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ‘all men are created equal’". This year is special for us in India as we celebrate the birthday of our independence that we got three score and ten years ago. But many of the new generation may not understand the value of that freedom because they have not experienced un-freedom. The only time the young,modern generation raises its protest is when by a fiat from a paternalistic authority, it is denied simple freedom such as the sartorial freedom and the freedom to chill out, in short freedom to not do anything. For those of the present generation, the Independence Day celebrations are more of a ritual and have to be compulsorily observed as it seems to be imposed on them.

On the morning of our Independence Day, while going on my daily walk, (which the younger generation mocks at as a daily ritual of the older generation who have nothing to be anxious about except their health), I heard the full blare of patriotic songs, sung off tune by school teachers and rounded off with a stentorian exhortation to the young boys and girls wilting in the sun, to add voice to their off key renderings. It was certainly a way to engage them till such time the hon’ble Chief Guest arrived to hoist the tricolor flag. (In India one will never be invited to be a Chief Guest if s/he has the reputation to arrive on time. The more the delay, the greater is the status of the CG.) I wondered what would be going through the minds of the youngsters. Certainly anything but patriotic musings during this interminable wait in the strong sun with throats parched drier by the periodical  shouting of “Bharat Mata  ki Jai” as per the teachers’ instructions. Even if there had been a vestige of patriotism in them it would have vanished with the ordeal of standing, waiting and screaming almost muttering ”our spirit is willing;  but the flesh is weak”

I returned from my walk to listen to the loquacious TV anchors waxing eloquent about how our Bharat was, is and will be “Mahan”(great). The continuous surge of words eloquently exalting our greatness sounded nothing but empty rhetoric. In fact the Breaking news ironically scrolled at the bottom of the TV screen flashed one more day of our medal-less outing in Rio Olympics. The TV anchors debated about the PM’s speech-its hits and misses, but no one said a word about the President’s address on the eve of the Independence Day. President Mukherjee had quoted from the Upanishads: “May God protect us; may God nourish us; may we work together with vigour and energy. May our studies be brilliant; may there be no hostility amongst us; may there be peace, peace, peace” almost reminding us of T.S.Eliot’s famous last lines in The Wasteland “Om Shanti, Om Shanti, Om Shanti, where the Thunder in the parched Wasteland spoke from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad “Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata/Shanti, Shanti, Shanti”(giving, compassion and control) as the three ethical concepts to provide rain (hope) for mankind. The President’s address  was a  sober, wise and open-minded speech that spoke to the men and women of India to practice these three qualities to counter forces of divisiveness and  intolerance, to prevent  attacks on the weaker sections of society, and to strike back at  the demonic power of terrorism used as a means of subjugating the world to one single control.

As I recalled these three words, Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata, I tried to understand what freedom at 70 means for all of us today. Pandit Nehru had ushered freedom at midnight in 1947, but seventy years later that freedom, instead of ushering in the arrival of a new dawn every morning, has gradually been frozen to darkness at noon. We have become a nation of selfish individuals blinded by our own avarice with no thought of sharing and caring for others around us. The small degree of economic development since Independence has made us greedy for more. No giving, no compassion, no control over one’s greed for more acquisition.

What can we wish for today? Rather the question is how to get rid of the negative qualities that we have acquired, to make freedom once again a possible reality?  This, inter alia, translates into the question as to what kind of freedom do we want?  Let us once again recall Pt. Nehru’s speech when he began with the famous sentence: “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now that time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially”. He had the foresight to observe that the pledge cannot be wholly redeemed but at best, very substantially.” The time has come to acknowledge that we have failed to honour the pledge and to map out where we have failed significantly to do so. Pt. Nehru had exhorted us to dedicate ourselves to the service not just to the country but to humanity as a whole. This can be achieved only through acceptance of mankind without any bias in the name of religion, caste, colour, class and gender. We have to rediscover and bring back the religious pluralism and humane values in our public sphere and discourse. So the first wish is for

* freedom from religious bigotry, freedom from xenophobia, freedom from chauvinism and jingoism and freedom from colour discrimination.

 Freedom brings with it responsibility. Responsibility is two-fold- responsibility towards oneself and responsibility towards others, but the two are not confrontational. Responsibility involves accountability to one’s own standards of conduct and behavior and by extension to the observance of general laws of propriety, humanity and justice in dealing with others. One has to be authentic in all dealings and remain true to oneself.  Our responsibility is to serve the millions of people in India who constitute the last rung of the social order, who live below the poverty line. We have to work hard to end poverty, hunger and disease. In serving others we serve our own cause because no one can live apart or in isolation. No one can be free if others are not free. Rousseau’s famous statement” Man is born free; he is always in fetters” should spur us to act with responsibility.  The Bible says "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that constitutes responsibility.  The second wish is for

*freedom from selfishness and inauthenticity in our actions and words and freedom to be ever true to what one really is.

To understand the value and worth of service before self, to valorize authentic living, to recognize the worth of religious pluralism and to cultivate humanity, we need to be well educated. Unless the cobwebs of illiteracy and ignorance are removed, our minds cannot reach higher ideals that are essential to preserve our hard-won freedom. Plato said “Ignorance is the stem and root of all evil”. It is an oft repeated fact that one half of the world does not know how the other half lives.  Unless the country educates every one of its citizens- young and old alike, the country cannot articulate the idea of freedom. The third wish is for

*freedom from illiteracy, ignorance and mental darkness

If the country is to be a homogenous unit, if the nation has to contribute to the solidarity of mankind, the essential requirement is Peace.  “Peace”, to quote Pt. Nehru,” has been said to be indivisible; so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this One World that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.”. The idea of “One Planet, the Earth, One Family, Mankind” has to be reinforced to strengthen Peace against forces that attempt to destroy the idea of unity within diversity.  The fourth wish is for

*freedom from the scourge of hate mongers who seek destruction of diversity and coercive unification of mankind through violence and massacre of innocents.

We are witnessing violence all around us. The gun culture is the newest import from the West. It has removed the word “disagree’ from its vocabulary. There is no space for ‘ the other’ to occupy or for the other to say  “I beg to disagree”. The only response is the gunshot. The fifth wish is

*Freedom from violence and the gun culture and freedom from compliance to unethical and unlawful forces that demand compliance to their diktats.

We suffer from lack of work ethics and work culture. We lack faith in the uplifting value of work that has an inherent ability to strengthen our character and personality. The sloth and slovenliness that we see around us is an index of the great Indian mantra of chalta hai, the devil- may -care, happy- go- lucky attitude of mediocrity. The sixth wish is for

*freedom from misogyny, rape, mental torpor and physical inertia and above all freedom from lack of will to work and achieve excellence.

Our Rio outing is a clear representation of our personality/character matrix. What we lack is aspiration to reach the infinite. Unfortunately we identify ambition and aspiration as synonymous terms. Aspiration is a strong desire for achievement, a will to succeed. But    “Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.”(Josh Billings)  It is Marcus Aurelius who distinguished the two thus: "A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires." Hence the seventh wish is for

Freedom from ruthless ambition and freedom to develop our personality with an aspiration to reach beyond one’s grasp.

The overarching wish to encompass all the above is

*Freedom from corruption, freedom from indiscipline, freedom from negative ambition, freedom for expression and action(within the framework of the Constitutional Law) and freedom from uncleanliness in words and deeds..

The 70 year old  pledge that Pt.Nehru envisioned can be redeemed if we practice Datta, Dayadhvam and Damyata- for in the act of giving, in the practice of compassion and in our ability for self control we serve ourselves as well as humanity. Freedom at 70 is to see one in many and many among one.  

I believe and affirm that we as teachers are the only group who can redeem the pledge of 1947 and develop in our young students the desire, the energy and the will to preserve, protect and nourish our freedom.