On paper, India has been independent for almost eight decades. We hoisted our tricolour in 1947, bringing an end to centuries of colonial rule. But if freedom is what independence means, the power to live without fear, the right to speak without censorship, the power to dream without systemic obstacles, then the response is much more ambiguous.
India of today glows brightly in the global economy, sends spacecraft to the Moon and Mars, and holds G20 summits. And yet in the same breath, our headlines announce VVIP convoys idling roads while citizens perish in waiting, women combating endless struggles for justice, farmers drowning in debt, and journalists being muzzled for probing power. Political autonomy is a hollow concept if social, economic, and moral freedoms are lost.
True freedom has to go beyond our borders into our homes, schools, and streets. It is a woman able to walk home at night without fear. It is a farmer able to earn enough to get his children an education. It is dissenting, not equalled with disloyalty. It is public institutions serving the people, not the elite.
Yet we continue to observe inequality rooted in caste and class, religion being mobilised to separate instead of bringing people together, and corruption eating away at trust in the government. Most citizens, particularly in rural and marginalised groups, experience fewer rights in reality than are enshrined for them on paper.
Independence is not something one makes once it’s a daily responsibility. It demands that citizens hold leaders in check, stand up against injustice, and insist on a system where power works for the public interest. It demands that leaders keep in mind that power is a trust, not a right.
Seventy-eight years ago, our forebears struggled to put an end to foreign rule. Now, we need to struggle with a quieter but no less pressing war with apathy, disparity, and the gradual undermining of our democratic ideals.
If we do not succeed, then every August 15 can become a celebration of symbols, and not of substance. And if we do succeed, then independence will be more than just a date on a calendar, but a reality in all Indian lives.
