{"id":191896,"date":"2021-08-16T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T11:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=191896"},"modified":"2021-08-15T06:34:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T05:34:00","slug":"indias-independence-day-15-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/08\/indias-independence-day-15-august\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Independence Day\u201415 August"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independence of a prisoner or a country is a very important event
\nA prisoner freed from jail means restoration of dignity and life
\nA freedom lost due to rules imposed by police or the governments<\/p>\n

Similarly, independence of several countries colonised by foreign powers
\nMost African nations colonised by England or France
\nSo were most South American countries colonised by Spain and Portugal
\nA small country Portugal, overpowering the large local populations in Brazil
\nNot only in that region but also in Goa in India on the western\u00a0coastal<\/strong><\/p>\n

The superpower USA, parts of which first colonised by Spain, France
\nThen overpowered by the mighty British fleets with canons and guns
\nDestroying the local indigenous peoples, their cultures, languages
\nSpain moving away to\u00a0the southern parts, France to the northern Canada<\/p>\n

India a land of Buddha, Krishna, Ram, Jain and Nanak, etc.
\nIndia that never went out to attack any other peoples
\nRepeatedly invaded, conquered by small and large Muslim powers
\nEstablishing sovereignty as Mughal dynasties of Babar, Akbar and others
\nBuilding forts, mosques, destroying temples, places of learning
\nDowngrading local languages and establishing Persian language as official
\nFortunately Sanskrit, some southern ones \u2014 Tamil, Kannada holding fort.<\/p>\n

Am I forgetting the British rule in India?
\nHow can I ignore 200 years of British rule where they overcame Indian rulers
\nThey entered through the East India Company for trade and commerce
\nThey wanted us to honour British monarch by chanting\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0God Save the Queen<\/em><\/p>\n

They built churches, memorials, Mall Roads and grand imposing buildings
\nThe British built the President Estate<\/em>\u2014 official residence of the Indian\u00a0President
\nThey built grand buildings of the Indian parliament and\u00a0\u00a0the government
\nThey built the heritage structure of Delhi University established in 1921
\nIn fact they built the modern city of New Delhi, not disturbing the old one<\/p>\n

But they overemphasised learning of English language and its writers,
\nIgnoring vast local learning, decrying traditional knowledge and its scholars
\nThey pampered local princes by limited powers under the British umbrella
\nMany were rich, the Nizam of Hyderabad<\/em> being the richest person
\nWhy bother about the marginalised peoples toiling in fields, small hovella<\/p>\n

Then came people like\u00a0\u00a0Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Netaji Bose<\/em>
\nWho declared that they would work hard to free India of the colonial yoke
\nThey struggled, were imprisoned but can one imprison the idea of freedom?
\nTheir struggles and determination of ordinary people succeeded on the day
\nOf\u00a0August 15 1947 \u2014<\/strong>seventy five years ago with freedom of India and creation of Muslim Pakistan
\nA country belligerent towards India \u2014 its peoples and beliefs of millions<\/p>\n

But India will survive; people will thrive on values of equality, honour, justice<\/p>\n

We hail Mahatma Gandhi,
\nWe remember his\u00a0Salt March\u00a0<\/em>to\u00a0Dandi<\/em>
\nHe is the
\nFather of our Nation<\/em> who promoted freedom and nonviolence<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hail Mahatma Gandhi,
\nWe remember his\u00a0Salt March\u00a0to\u00a0Dandi
\nHe is the
\nFather of our Nation who promoted freedom and nonviolence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[759],"class_list":["post-191896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}