Tomorrow is Independence Day - and Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi will address us from the ramparts of Red Fort, where the Grand Mughals lived, in his thin, warbled voice. All over India, the tricolour will be ceremoniously hoisted - and this is basically the CONgress flag. Marching bands will play the national anthem that glorifies "The Leader." Of course, it will only be The State that will celebrate. I doubt whether The People have anything to cheer about.
If you switch on your television to watch Chacha's speech on the occasion, do note that he is an extremely old man. Even his eyebrows and eyelashes are white. He was born in a village that is now in Pakistan. He has living memories of 15th August, 1947, for sure. His spirit must have been deeply stirred by Jawaharlal Nehru's "tryst with destiny" speech that fateful day.
And that, indeed, is the problem within India - it is the generation to which Chacha belongs that claims to have "fought for freedom." Yet, none of them knew anything about freedom. It is they who hero-worshipped Nehru and Gandhi, who opted for "socialism," who instituted "central economic planning" - it is they who really destroyed all our freedoms. Their false god is The State. No wonder, then, that 15th August, 1947, was but a false dawn.
Today, 63 years later, the vast majority of Indians are young. It is for these youngsters that I write, so that they understand what freedom really means. The future belongs to them. If CONgress totalitarianism is to be defeated, then it is the youth of India today that will do it. Freedom is not something we enjoy because our ancestors fought for it. It is something that each generation must fight for again and again. "Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty," as some wise man once said.
What is freedom? Well, quite obviously it is a condition you enjoy only when The State does NOT interfere with your personal plans. Every action of The State is nothing but a negation of freedom. Even if The State decides to educate the unlettered, and we foolishly agree, a tax will be levied for the purpose, and all taxation, being a violation of Property, is a negation of freedom.
In other words, there is nothing "positive" that The State can ever do to promote your freedom. You are free only when The State is severely restricted in size and scope. Always keep that in mind. It is this "political science" that the generation to which Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi belongs were unaware of. They mistook freedom for The State. They mistook The State for "society." They fucked up real bad. Exactly how bad we now know - for the entire sub-continent is a mess. If the youth of today are to set things right, their first civic duty is to "study" the Philosophy of Freedom. They must know what it is before they begin to battle for it.
I am not at all pessimistic about the future. I have full faith and confidence in the youth of today. They are a generation that has never really known the hard "socialism" of the 60s and 70s, the years during which I was growing up, when nothing much was available in our markets and The Economy was completely moribund. This generation has grown up with The Market. They wear Levi's jeans, drive fancy cars and bikes, drink Scotch whisky, carry imported mobile phones and are totally Internet-savvy. They sneer at "socialism" - the PSUs, the planners, et. al. They despise our politicians. Their dreams are of Capitalism - and these are dreams they dream in technicolour. Well, someday soon, they will realize that dreams are not enough - and that our reality is obscene. That day, they will begin to fight for real freedom. May that day come soon.
The bestselling novelist, Chetan Bhagat, is a representative of this generation. Today, the ToI has published a thoughtful column by him, a spoof on what Chacha might say tomorrow, from the ramparts of Red Fort. I loved the last lines - about freedom. Do read it. It speaks volumes about the intellectual disconnect between Chacha and our youth. And it leaves me with hope.
I am confident that this new generation will fight for their own future.
I am confident that India will soon see a New Freedom Struggle.
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