Independence Day: A Journey of Blood, Sweat, and Sacrifice

On the occasion of the 77th Independence Day of India, let’s take a moment to remember the great sacrifices that our great freedom fighters made in this long and arduous struggle to see their motherland free from British colonialism.

At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the whole world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom, as the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, mentions in his famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech on August 15th, 1947.

In this writing piece, we are going to learn about what Independence Day should mean to the average Indian, especially the younger generation that don’t seem to be aware of the price that their ancestors have paid to achieve the freedom that they enjoy today and take for granted so easily.

There are no free lunches in this world, a fact that everyone who suffered bondage for a sustainable period of time needs to realize before its too late, given the fact that those in power, in whatever form or capacity, always aspire to enslave the weak and downtrodden.

Independence Day: The Inherited Truth

While unfurling the tricolor from the ramparts of Red Fort, the first bequeath we got was the ultimate truth people tend to always forget: freedom comes with a price. The price in question is the countless lives of men, women, and children, along with mental slavery.

Upon gaining independence, the euphoria of breaking free from the shackles of colonial rule eclipsed the pain and sacrifices that had paved the way along this journey. The horror of partition, the centuries of oppression, shattered dreams, etc. are but a few heavy prices that we have paid to free India.

The reality of freedom is not just hard to fathom given how we attained it, but in the continuous efforts required to preserve it. Fighting to achieve a goal isn’t half as hard as sustaining it, a fact that India knows better than other colonized countries.

India, being the oldest and richest civilization on the planet in terms of wealth and culture, has suffered constant loot and plunder by countless foreign invaders right from the early 12th century to the most recent, as well as the most well-known colonization by the United Kingdom.

Indian Pride

The heavy toll extracted in the freedom struggle is something that the millennials have little idea about due to the conveniences and privileges of modern-day lifestyle, making them complacent and blind to the fact that the freedom they take for granted isn’t invulnerable and, therefore, needs to be vigilantly protected.

The fact of the matter is that freedom isn’t self-sustaining; it requires constant nurturing, defense, and, when push comes to shove, sacrifice.

The citizens aware of this fact take pride in their country and try to serve it in anyway possible—by joining the army, earning accolades in sports by representing their nation at international level, getting good government jobs, among others.

This inherited truth elucidates that citizens, including the author, remain ever mindful of the price paid for achieving freedom and the huge responsibilities that come with it. Freedom is more fragile than glass that every person enjoying it needs to protect from time to time.

Conclusion

As we celebrate 77 years of independence, the echoes of that hard-won freedom reverberate through time, reminding us that there are no free lunches as mentioned above. The credit goes to the freedom fighters; every kind of luxury we enjoy today is due to their struggle and sacrifice.

Yet, as we teach our children the stories of our glorious past, we must also teach them the darker chapters—how we lost our independence before we gained it. The bloody trail of India’s colonization is splattered across the pages of the country’s history.

It isn’t just enough to remember how we won our freedom; it is even more important, in current times, to recall how the bonds of slavery took us into their stranglehold in the first place. This helps us exercise caution and avoid repeating the mistakes made in the past, due to which we jeopardized our present and future.

Introspection is very important when analyzing how India lost its freedom many, many centuries ago. We cannot just limit our minds to the 200 years of British rule, as that will be the true essence of celebrating our independence, and not just on August 15th of each year by hoisting the Indian tricolor.

The legacy that needs to be passed on is this: the torch of liberty is a burden as much as it is a light. And as the years roll on, may we never forget the price paid and the lessons learned, for they are the bedrock upon which our future must stand.

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Summary

Article Name

Independence Day: A Journey of Blood, Sweat, and Sacrifice

Author

Udit B Nath

Publisher Name

Buzz & Beyond

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