The dawn of August 15, 1947 brought along with it new beginnings a new and independent India was born; an India free from the clutches of British power, an India full of new dreams and ideas of development, progress and growth which have been achieved to a great extent today. Independence Day is celebrated on a great scale in our country. Similar celebrations are seen across the border a day earlier- 14, 1947, when Pakistan earned their freedom not only from British rule but also from India. For the world independence is synonymous with freedom, but for both these nations, independence means a lot more than freedom. It refers to the sacrifices made, the lives lost and most importantly partition. The division of one united country into two distinct nations, thus creating one of the most prominent and biggest rivalries in world history. We say we have won our independence from the British, but is it really we who have won? Well in my opinion, it’s the Britishers who won. Their concept of ‘Divide and Rule’ worked. They succeeded in destroying our unity. They left 73 years ago but not before dividing not only the land but also its people and their religion. In its aftermath, partition left thousands of people stranded and homeless. Partition alone claimed as many lives as were lost during the freedom struggle. It could have been averted had our ancestors been a little more strong willed.
Partition has strained relations to an irreparable extent. For example, in the recently concluded Men’s Cricket World Cup, there were celebrations across the country as India lost to England. It was because this loss meant Pakistan were out of the World Cup. Memes started flooding social media. Nobody left out a chance to degrade the players. But as a cricket loving nation, wouldn’t it be a little better if we could sympathise with them?
Social media could be used to support our fellow Asian country. That would have been true sportsmanship from a country which has produced not only the ‘God of Cricket’ but also other cricketing legends. We only talk about change, but nobody actually believes in practising it. As quoted by Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We as citizens could bring about this change by doing these small things. Also, Pakistan could have handled the scraping of Article 370 (Kashmir issue) in a more mature way rather than cutting off trade and transport relations with India.
Why do we forget that before being anything else, we are humans? God has given us the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad and also to have different feelings. Then why don’t we use these abilities? Communal harmony is the need of the hour with the world facing different crucial issues.
I hope as these two nations celebrate their Independence, they will also work on the existing factors that curtail this freedom; the major one-being better neighbours to each other. JAI HIND!!
