On the occasion of India’s 76th Independence Day, the Prime Minister of India urged Indians to be proud of their country and celebrate the day with great gusto and excitement. There was a nationwide campaign of #HarGharTiranga and it was a sight to behold when people proudly hoisted flags on the terrace, balconies and even on their vehicles. The whole nation was immersed in festivity with celebrations taking place nationwide.
However, there was one major flaw. When people were encouraged to celebrate the day, I’m sure the vision was not hooliganism yet as usual, people interpret speeches and religious texts as per what they desire and deem fit. Just like we witness on many other occasions, the beauty of this day too was marred by jarring music being played on DJ’s in such a high decibel that it is literally against the law. The roads were plagued with rash drivers, driving at high speeds and waving the National Flag with such ferocity as if they were charging at an army of warriors, brandishing swords!
What’s ironical is that these people whose love for their country suddenly comes alive on one single day, have totally no clue as to how rich a cultural heritage of our country is, and how we need to not only conserve but also add positively to it so that we can pass on a richer legacy to the future inhabitants of this nation.
Our country has given so much to the world that if we look at those accomplishments, we will realize that we are a far superior race than we are made to believe. We do not need to ape the west as we already had all, much before they even figured it out those things.
From Yoga, meditation, plastic surgery, numbers, theorems, to the most recent and ridiculous “Turmeric Latte”, we Indians have been innovators. That of course is a completely different story that the idea of patenting never occurred to us Indians, as we believed in free sharing of knowledge rather than claiming it as ours and stamping our name over it.
A video I watched recently highlighted how Baudhayana calculated what we all know today as the ‘Pythagorus theorem’ in 800BC while Pythagorus lived in 570BC, the ‘Fibonacci Sequence’ was discovered by an Indian sage Gopala in 1135BC after whom Hemchandra studied it yet the world knows it was figured out by Italian Mathematician, Fibonacci. Aryabhata propelled the theory that the earth is round, rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun yet all the glory has gone to Copernicus. The Indus Valley civilization was far more modern than any other civilization and inspired the west to use brick-bonding for construction. Sushruta successfully performed plastic surgery at a time when the world struggled with basic medication! It is common knowledge that India gave the world ZERO and also an Indian calculated the value of ‘pie’
Strangely enough, people today have misconstrued the meaning of peace, togetherness and a sense of community. We are ready to label people as anti-communal and anti-national at the drop of a hat. What we need to focus on after 75years of Indian Independence is that we are the proud children of a great nation and must take pride in it in a way that humanizes the atmosphere of the nation and takes it to greater glory. We need not trivialize the achievements and sacrifices of our ancestors by indulging in a behaviour that troubles others and must celebrate not just one day, but every day as Independence Day and abstain from resorting to hooliganism in the name of celebration and patriotism.
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