August 15: Whose Independence?
By Saswat Pattanayak
New York City, August 15, 2024
Today marks India's Independence Day from a historic British colonialism era, but not from the contemporary colonialism saga that remains ongoing. In some ways, the historic phase was worse, but in so many more ways what's ongoing, is. It was perhaps inevitable because the Indian society has by and large forgotten the lessons of anti-colonial struggles that were not just employing diverse tactics against the British, but the movement had succeeded only because of its inclusivity. The struggles had comprised fighters across provinces, religions, genders, languages and class status. It had also benefited from international struggles waged by the Indian diaspora worldwide, as well as from the activism of British working class that fought against England's ruling elites in favor of India's liberation. Little wonder then that India ended up being an architect member for the United Nations as part of its international obligation, and Nehru earned a statesman stature that was reserved only for a few in the world. India's advocacy/aspirations for disarmament, non-aligned movement, socialism, and anti-colonial struggles in Africa were all factors that had defined India in its early years.
But just as human nature is not static, a nation's nature cannot forever be fetishized as glorious. India's global standing today is that of being a complicit bully in perpetuating wars and genocide. Instead of standing with the colonized of Palestine, India is providing military support and ammunition to occupying forces of Israel. Horribly timed gala weddings that mock the working poor in its lavish displays of an arrogant celebrity culture occupy Indian minds more than thousands of children getting massacred. Closer home, instead of recognizing the legitimacy of a student-led revolution in Bangladesh and to work with a historic ally to minimize any crisis, India is using the occasion to ferment communal distrust among its own people. Inside home, instead of curbing down possible unrests among an already fractured landscape of diversity, xenophobia is ruling the day stemming out of manufactured majoritarian insecurities.
There is nothing "happy" about the Independence Day. Even the most Hindu of the lot will agree that violence against women is at such a peak that even female doctors - let alone working class poor - are not safe in their workspaces as amply demonstrated in West Bengal last week. Indian feudalism has remained unfazed and it transcends political parties, states, and religions. Anyone finding reasons to celebrate August 15 will have to do so only by living in denial of their own complicity in perpetuating the cycle of violence and machismo that define Indian patriarchy and warmongering. The primary reason Indians are unable to stand in solidarity with Palestinians today is not because of any informed mindset that dictates to them that Israel has a right to exist, but because Indian society has proved time and again how incapable it is to be empathetic towards those that are oppressed and marginalized whether at home, or abroad.
Whether Manipur or Kashmir, whether Muslims or Christians, whether Dalits or women - Indian society today as sustained through its ruling class ideologies, is just a rogue narcissistic one that thrives with the logic of treating the exceptional with glory, not the commonplace with humility. Not just with success stories where only those approved by the corporate class get validated; even when it comes to failures to protect women and minorities, only the most heinous of them are registered as worth the attention. Meanwhile, the most commonplace, the most ordinary, the most visible traits of systemic violence and discriminations, continue to get overlooked. This Indian exceptionalism is precisely the anathema to its professed goals that remain in letters but lack in spirit.
On this day for those who still wish to indulge in patriotism, they need to recall HLV Derozio's parting words "My fallen country! One kind wish for thee!" Of course, there never was any halo worth revering, but let the kind wish be in line of what Langston Hughes later hoped for America. If applied to India, they all will ring true -
"Let (India) be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any one be crushed by one above.
(It never was India to me.)
....The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where everyone is free."
