Shackled by Superstition, Habit and Tradition

I delivered this speech on the 50th Independence Day and on leafing through this recently, I find my thoughts still relevant.

Dear friends,

Today we are gathered to observe a solemn occasion – that is 50 years of freedom of our country becoming independent. It is on August 15th 1947, a nation was born and we are all today inheritors of that freedom. There are three things required to be shed in a birth of any kind – blood, sweat and tears. And today we remember that we are able to enjoy liberty and freedom because people with vision and direction, even 150 years ago, were willing to shed blood, sweat and tears, in the fond hope of liberty.

If we are able to stand today and celebrate 50 years of independence, we must acknowledge that many persons from different parts of our country, diverse as they were, worked for a common purpose of an Independent India. Pearl S. Buck said; “One who has always been free cannot understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom, of those who are not free.”

Friends, as inheritors of freedom, we have not experienced the price we have paid to achieve it. But as citizens of this country, freedom also means responsibility and we have a responsibility to preserve it. Freedom means to me an opportunity to make choices and making choices which are positive and functional. Freedom means to look beyond self and look at the larger society.

One of the greatest responsibilities which all of us have is to the generations who would come after us. Let us question ourselves – What is the dream we have for our children? The environment they live in – how should it be? When we look at the future, we have very little choice. We have the choice of taking responsible action.

Just a word of caution as Robert Lynd has said:“There is always a danger that human beings will lose interest in liberty as soon as they have achieved it or – worse still perhaps ---- use their new-found liberty to destroy the liberty of others.”

I quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to world founded on four essential freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want. The fourth is freedom from fear.”

If we really look at the freedom which Roosevelt talks about, they all exist in our mind. Nobody has to give us freedom. We only have to enjoy and experience it.

Today, as we remember people who have helped us enjoy the fruits of freedom. People who have sacrificed their blood, sweat and tears so that we can stand as one nation. We who have enjoyed excellent education and a more than average quality of life, let us use this freedom we have, to liberate the many who are shackled by superstition, habit and tradition.

In conclusion, I quote from Rabindranath Tagore’s well-known poem:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

   Where knowledge is free;

   Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

   Where words come out from the depth of truth;

   Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

   Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

   Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action

   Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Emmanuel David