AS A DAUGHTER OF INDIA, I DO NOT FEEL I AM FREE
As India celebrates its 70 years of Independence, it also marks 70 years of learning to survive, develop, govern, fail and succeed in the modern world. Redundant laws of culture, government, arts and worldview continue to be religiously adhered to here, thereby raising multifarious questions about if we are independent at all?
The citizens of this country fear and not respect the laws and lawmakers, who are their representatives. We vote not for who is better among good but for only the bad among the worst. Communal diktats and feelings regulate the human behavior. Years of independence have not been able to erode the pall of inferiority, and it is most visible among the intelligentsia of the nation, the academicians, our think tank, who feel validated only upon receiving applause from the West. We are still mentally colonial slaves of a politically independent nation. The ‘heaven of freedom’ Tagore alludes to in his ‘Where the mind is Without Fear’ seems to be the reserved privilege of just a few.
As a daughter of India, I do not feel I am free.
The issue of physical vulnerability plagues me as soon as I step out. An able, empowered woman is humiliated with terms like ‘dominating and cunning’, whereas such a man is looked up to and respected. All talk of equality falls short when only baby girls are found abandoned.