Needed: A Lesson in History

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I am not a midnight's child or a child of partition. Actually, I was born the year after Nehru died. In a sense, I represent the post-Nehruvian generation, those for whom the freedom struggle was confined to Amar Chitra Katha comics and history textbooks that valorised our national icons. And yet, i must confesss there is something about 60 years of Indian independence that fills me with a sense of pride and nostalgia.

Pride in being an Indian, nostalgia for what it must have been like in those heady days ahead of August 15th 1947. Looking at sepia-tinted images of Rajpath on the day India achieved freedom, one can imagine the frenzied crowds, the sense of utter joy at being a free nation. We take freedom for granted today.

We couldn't have been quite so bindaas 60 years ago. That perhaps is our greatest achievement, creating a sense of uninhibited freedom among millions (spit where you want, vote for whom you wish!).

Few gave this country a chance of survival 60 years ago. The prevailing wisdom was that India would crack apart into dozens of princely states, that the centre would simply not hold. By contrast, it was expected that Pakistan would be a more homogenous nation,united by religion. As it has turned out, Pakistan is on the brink of disaster, a nation undermined from within by religious fanaticism and an emasculated middle class.

Sure, India too has its crisis points, it is an imperfect democracy, battling poverty, farmer suicides and unemployment, but despite the imperfections, its been astonishingly resilient.

In his remarkable book, India after Gandhi, historian Ramachandra Guha tries to unravel the enigma of India. Why does India survive he asks in his final chapter?

His answer, a sense of a shared symbols - cricket, cinema, music - a respect for diversity, and above all, a remarkable constitution that guarantees fundamental rights and enshrines the principle of one man one vote. I think this country owes a huge debt to the framers of the constitution. I cannot think of a more progressive document anywhere in the world, one that respected individual rights above all .

We must be blessed that in the 1940s a collection of rare public figures came together to frame the constitution. It might be difficult to imagine this in our polarised times, but in the 1940s, Indians had the sagacity to realise that people of differing ideological persuasions needed to be brought together so that every possible talent could be harnessed.

Ambedkar may have been no friend of Gandhi, but it was the Mahatma who insisted that he part of the constitution drafting committee. As the Mahatma put it, "Freedom has come to the Indian nation, not to the Congress party." (will some members of the Congress party learn from this?)

Maybe, we need to read our history books once again to understand the true meaning of freedom, of being an independent nation. Today's young and restless I fear (and I hope I dont sound ancient here) often have little knowledge or interest in history.

How many young Andhraites know of the sacrifice of Potti Sriramalu, the man whose fast unto death led to the formation of the modern Andhra Pradesh, and laid the basis for liguistic states. How many young Maharashtrians know of the samyukta Maharashtra movement and the sacrifice of those who fought for their state?

Is any young Punjabi interested in reading the biography of Tara Singh? The Forward Bloc may keep the flame of Netaji alive, but do young Bengalis bother to read his life story? Sadly, we are becoming a country ignorant of our history.

We seem more comfortable with the quick fix cinematic idea of Gandhi in Munnabhai (a film I enjoyed), then doing anything to really try and understand the man behind the Mahatma.

In the 60th year of Independence, we need to make a pledge: a pledge to try and appreciate our history a little more.

Remember that old chestnut: those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

Meanwhile, have a great Independence Day. (And while sending sms greetings to friends, maybe pause to think of all those great men and women who made this day possible.)