By Sandeep S. Sandhu
Come the 57th Independence Day of the country, that a man of integrity and values like Dr. Manmohan Singh will unfurl the Tricolour from the ramparts of Red Fort. Even this time the formal rituals will be conducted with utmost diligence, of course amidst an ever-growing security threat. As usual parades would be held and anthems sung in glory of the nation. The worthy Prime Minister, a person of such high fidelity that he is, must be feeling awesomely lonely at the top of power pyramid that is perilously fraught with corruption, apathy and sloth. But can he alone turn the matters around? No, says the general refrain. What can a hapless individual do? Helplessly watch the flow of turbulent waters till they engulf you and drown you or jump into the whirlpool of social and political injustice to move across.
“Ask not what the nation can do for you, ask what you can do for the nation”, the late John F. Kennedy offers the panacea. But whither is the freedom to serve the nation? What is it that you call a free nation? His illustrious contemporary and compatriot Martin Luther King gives vent to his feelings in the famous “Let Freedom Ring” speech made on August 28, 1963. It makes the job of defining social and political freedom easier for us;
And so let freedom ring -- from the prodigious hilltop of New Hampshire
Let freedom ring -- from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring -- from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring -- from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring -- from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that.
Let freedom ring -- from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring -- from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring -- from every hill and molehill of Mississippi,
from every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
"Free at last, free at last.
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Only names need to be changed and text of his speech becomes completely contextual to our country. It is not till freedom rings from heart of each and every Indian, not till it rings from every nook and corner of the country, can we call ourselves truly free.
The present day situation of the country, however, is completely different. The sordid circumstances of the day, remind me of a poem written by Khalil Gibran, I had read fifteen years ago:
Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave eats bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress.
Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.
Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.
Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.
Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting, and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting again.
Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.
Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
