At 79, I don’t believe the question is whether India has succeeded or failed. To me, India remains very much a work in progress—walking, sometimes running, occasionally stumbling, but certainly on the path to success.
As expected, yesterday WhatsApp became extraordinarily patriotic. Videos and messages arrived from folks one hadn’t heard from since the last such occasion. And, of course, there were the many prescriptive and doomsday messages, which I deleted with equanimity…
Last evening, a few families caught up for dinner. There were enough of us with divergent views on the current dispensation, its policies and the overall prevailing environment. And, with that, enough and more debates and disagreements ensued.
Disagreements apart, one thing was clear: none of us was any less Indian, nor did any of us mean ill to the nation.
Let me sneak something in here, though. I love conversations that are objective, without conveniently adding “context” merely to defend a point already made. When I see bias creeping in, I smile and let it go. But then, just maybe, the person across the table is doing the same with me—for I may have the blind spot too!
After reading from and about the many stalwarts who strove hard for our independence, it is obvious that they shared an objective while often taking vastly different paths towards it. And, boy, what ferocious disagreements they had! Between Ambedkar, Bose, Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Savarkar, there were probably more hues of opinion than even 256 shades of grey could accommodate. There was certainly no homogeneous view about the path India should take towards freedom, or subsequently towards development.
Freedom is my right to question any or all of them—and to allow others to do so with the same spirit.
Perhaps democracy requires us to practise three freedoms.
The freedom to speak.
The freedom to disagree.
And the much harder one—the willingness to allow others to exercise the first two without immediately questioning their intelligence, motives or patriotism.
Social media has given every Indian a printing press, a television studio and, occasionally, the confidence of someone who has read neither side of the divide.
Democracy isn’t tested when we agree. It is tested by what we do with disagreement.
And perhaps we should “let a hundred flowers bloom” – although borrowing that phrase from Mao to make a case for free expression does come with a rather large historical asterisk!
One thing, though, I would like to claim that I always listen patiently to opposing views. My family may wish to exercise their democratic right to disagree.
Perhaps maturity as a democracy isn’t about everybody reaching the same conclusion. It is about reaching different conclusions without concluding that the other person is an enemy.
So, yesterday I stood for the flag and celebrated the extraordinary, argumentative, frustrating, chaotic and fascinating nation that is India.
And I listened to someone I disagreed with.
Perhaps, at 79, that’s also a small celebration of freedom.
Nidugondi Speak 