The common man's idea of freedom is as varied as our multi-cultural identity
Freedom, as is often said, grants one the opportunity to be what one wishes to be. While all of us cherish the moment when we came out of the British colonial clutches, the notion of freedom remains an individual choice.
By Tapash Talukdar, ET Bureau |
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err
— Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom, as is often said, grants one the opportunity to be what one wishes to be. While all of us cherish the moment when we came out of the British colonial clutches, the notion of freedom remains an individual choice. In a century that, commentators say, belongs to India, how we perceive freedom will indeed go a long way in ensuring our footing on the global map. As one wades through the streets for an Indian’s idea of freedom, we come across a rainbow of views in the land of diversity.
As you read this article, Nathabhai Dahya would have helped unfurl the Tricolour on Independence Day for a record thirtieth time. As peon at the Rashtrya School near Rajkot—where Mahatma Gandhi once sat on a hunger strike—Dahya has been managing the flag-hoisting ceremony in the school playground for a full three decades. Every year this day, he puts the tricolour together, neatly wraps the flowers and petals inside it, and hoists it as a bundle atop the mast, only to step back when a VIP guest would unfurl the flag, heralding the national anthem in the background.
While we may pity Dahya for being the unprivileged on this day, he finds his job a real privilege.
“I take pride in doing this job, which is a big responsibility,” he says, as he reminisces how he revelled in the idea of having children getting a good education around him all day. So what if he was deprived of secondary education, the 64-year-old is now borrowing funds to send his elder son to Australia for higher education.
At the Blind Men Association in Ahmedabad, Kagji Rathod, 40, puts together hundreds of miniatures of the tricolour, which will be sold in busy markets and traffic signals. Rathod is one of the many visually-impaired people in the country for whom the three colours of the national flag make no sense. But every time he fixes the flag onto the bamboo stick, he makes no mistake—Rathod gets the colour sequence of the tri-colour right in every attempt. “Freedom is everyone’s right. And it’s everybody’s right to live and be free,” he says.
While our netas squabble in Parliament over who bought whose MP and the elite debate if we are putting national pride at stake by pointer fingers at Suresh Kalmadi and his men barely fifty days ahead of the Commonwealth Games, a bulk of India continues to work hard to make ends meet.
It is micro work by many such people, who may not get clean water or a pucca road or the benefits of the retail boom, that keeps India’s economy ticking. Every August 15, they fix the tricolour to their tractor or even a bullock cart and listen to the national anthem on their TV or radio sets. For them, however, the definition of freedom is a tad different from what we usually perceive.
For Pune-based sugarcane farmer Rakesh Deshmukh, 40, freedom is working outside a prescribed schedule. “I can work with my wife at farms as per my convenience, and sell my produce to the markets of my choice.” His wife also trails tractor on the farms and helps him in turning the organic yield. “We jointly manage our farming,” he proudly adds. His practice of freedom points out the right for work in equality.
— Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom, as is often said, grants one the opportunity to be what one wishes to be. While all of us cherish the moment when we came out of the British colonial clutches, the notion of freedom remains an individual choice. In a century that, commentators say, belongs to India, how we perceive freedom will indeed go a long way in ensuring our footing on the global map. As one wades through the streets for an Indian’s idea of freedom, we come across a rainbow of views in the land of diversity.
As you read this article, Nathabhai Dahya would have helped unfurl the Tricolour on Independence Day for a record thirtieth time. As peon at the Rashtrya School near Rajkot—where Mahatma Gandhi once sat on a hunger strike—Dahya has been managing the flag-hoisting ceremony in the school playground for a full three decades. Every year this day, he puts the tricolour together, neatly wraps the flowers and petals inside it, and hoists it as a bundle atop the mast, only to step back when a VIP guest would unfurl the flag, heralding the national anthem in the background.
While we may pity Dahya for being the unprivileged on this day, he finds his job a real privilege.
“I take pride in doing this job, which is a big responsibility,” he says, as he reminisces how he revelled in the idea of having children getting a good education around him all day. So what if he was deprived of secondary education, the 64-year-old is now borrowing funds to send his elder son to Australia for higher education.
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To him, freedom is having the rights to a decent education, being able to take one’s own decision and to be able to think independently (somethings that come with good education).At the Blind Men Association in Ahmedabad, Kagji Rathod, 40, puts together hundreds of miniatures of the tricolour, which will be sold in busy markets and traffic signals. Rathod is one of the many visually-impaired people in the country for whom the three colours of the national flag make no sense. But every time he fixes the flag onto the bamboo stick, he makes no mistake—Rathod gets the colour sequence of the tri-colour right in every attempt. “Freedom is everyone’s right. And it’s everybody’s right to live and be free,” he says.
While our netas squabble in Parliament over who bought whose MP and the elite debate if we are putting national pride at stake by pointer fingers at Suresh Kalmadi and his men barely fifty days ahead of the Commonwealth Games, a bulk of India continues to work hard to make ends meet.
It is micro work by many such people, who may not get clean water or a pucca road or the benefits of the retail boom, that keeps India’s economy ticking. Every August 15, they fix the tricolour to their tractor or even a bullock cart and listen to the national anthem on their TV or radio sets. For them, however, the definition of freedom is a tad different from what we usually perceive.
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Mumbai-based Nikhil Varma, who paints the tricolour on the cheeks and foreheads of school-children and cricket fans, feels his real freedom lies in being able to work anywhere in the country. “I have the freedom to travel and paint pictures as per my own imagination,” says Varma, who migrated from Jaunpur to Mumbai several years back. He feels a free society is one with an equal distribution of legal and working rights. For Pune-based sugarcane farmer Rakesh Deshmukh, 40, freedom is working outside a prescribed schedule. “I can work with my wife at farms as per my convenience, and sell my produce to the markets of my choice.” His wife also trails tractor on the farms and helps him in turning the organic yield. “We jointly manage our farming,” he proudly adds. His practice of freedom points out the right for work in equality.
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