The Other Side of India at 75
A brief recollection on the 75th Independence Day in India
Posted on 14 August
India is celebrating its 75th Independence Day this year. After a couple of centuries under direct or indirect colonial rule, it finally got independence in ’47, with much thanks to the World War II and the British homesickness. In the college where I work at, everything revolves around the preparation that is on full swing as if the most fundamental identity in our life is nationality. Nothing can be further from the truth, though a statement like this can invite hostile stare, even more so when you are in the Mainland, where nationalism has got a brand-new face after the arrival of the rightists in this part of the world eight years ago. It is though so paradoxical that the rightists, who based their politics on religious identity and such affiliations, have no problem when the very name of their religion was coined by outsiders but that’s another story.
Just to put things into context today, humans love no bondage and restrictions. It is in/with our independence, freedom and liberty that we can strive to be our best self, at the personal and political levels. However, there is something which is wrong at its most basic level. To put it bluntly, the government celebrates it Independence Day more wholeheartedly than many of my colleagues would mostly do out of compulsion in our college, yet the government simply cannot understand the idea, consciously or not, that every society, every nation in its most technical sense, and every people must have as well as enjoy their rights to self-determination. And it is as legal and natural as unfurling the Indian tricolour to represent patriotism and nationalism.
Refer to Kashmir, Nagaland and Manipur and anybody can see how this issue spreads out, often in the most destructive ways. This is not a surprise though, given the fact that the deprivation of the rights of some nations commenced right after the Indian independence; just that it has been making off by virtue of its comparative legal, political and financial powers to deprive the others in contemporary politics.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is one such example. It was originally enacted as the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance by the British colonialists to contain the Quit India Movement in 1942. This act, which is no less than waging a war against its own citizens, shows that there are still unsettled issues in the idea of India. It is altogether different that the Muslims and later, the British had laid the ideology of this territory (or a State, technically) throughout South Asia as in many other parts of the world. Meantime, Indian revisionists have all the ready-made answers to counter this argument with much thanks to the creation and propagation of ideas made possible by the education system established by the British colonialists—but only for the portion of the geographical area called the Mainland India.
Way back in 1951, one of the first groups to counter the hegemony was the Naga National Council (NNC) that conducted a plebiscite on 16 May 1951. Historical records show as high as 99.9% of the natives opted for independence. However, today, the details are lost with the propaganda from both the sides. Specifically the Government of India on one hand, and on the other, the NNC have been changing their identities several times from those days—and the latter which went on to become the Naga Central Government (NCG), then the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN), and further the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and finally, the several factions of NSCN that exist today in 2022. The only consequences of all these political struggles are the never-ending peace talks while peace has remained as elusive as ever.
In such an environment, freedom and independence are, to use a Shakespearean expression ‘...[A] tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing’. If we look back into history, nation-states and countries are a recent construct of the West. The peripheries that are conveniently homogenised as India’s Northeast, for instance, are living in their own time zones. Talk about politics and freedom, and the most vocal arguments will come from irredentists, who claim ownership of land and territory that are, in contrast, an indispensable element of a modern nation-state independent of existing governments. The worst part is the fact that India has been using these fault lines between different ethnic groups to keep the natives occupied while they conveniently issue diktats from New Delhi. The only difference is in how the present regime, unlike those in the last few decades, has put on the shoes of a big brother seriously, when all it wants is to retain and regain more territories and establish a Hindu State though that is too far-fetched at times. This is clearly evident from the idea of Akhand Bharat that the regime is basing their philosophy of governance and administration on. They must know it better how Pakistan is ever going to become a subsidiary of a Hindu-hegemonic Bhāratavarṣa.
To reiterate, the Muslims and Britishers had successfully consolidated the present-day India, and then with a little help from Indian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century. However, a time as long as a century in human society is too insubstantial to build a nation-state completely. And nothing can illustrate better than the example of India in 2022. Seventy-five years of independence is no more than a scam but with which politicians would appeal to the emotions of the public, which by the way, they know clearly that: One, they do not have to make any commitments; and Two, their source of motivation is their sole pursuit of power and the promise the power gives them tangibly; while they also clearly see that the majority of the public is a mere follower.
Coming back to this significant day, it is a special occasion for India this year. It’s the diamond jubilee of independence. What can be used as an example of hollow politics are the symbols. These are important to build a culture, society and a nation no doubt; but at the end of the day, these are just going to be merely symbols. In this context, the government of India has been spearheading the national Elixir of Freedom fest (Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav that is scheduled from 12 March 2021 to 15 August 2023) and one of its campaigns include the hoisting of the Indian tricolour at every home. It is a bit cringe-worthy but nothing can be more surreal than this. In contradiction, the campaigns are only going to create a literal mess in our public spaces with all those plastics, banners, empty promises and unnecessary gatherings. Again, the politicians will still do it because that helps keeping people in line.
A society would be much better, regardless of the countries and nations, if the public understands the intentions of the ruling class. The proliferation of democratic ideas even in a single nation-state in the last seven decades after the triumph of decolonisation does not mean that all its citizens would enjoy equal rights by default. You do not have to go far if you live in India to observe this phenomenon. Just watch the drama in the alienated peripheries, which is sometimes tragic, other times comical and some other times too absurd. Well, everything is as well not spick and span in the Mainland owing to authoritarianism and right-wing politics these days. On one hand, the regime is reimagining and working its fingers to the bone to change the national images (with the Central Vista Project, recreation of the aggressive Ashoka emblem, various structural and institutional changes and whatnot). Some observers, on the other hand, are arguing to an extent that the 50th Independence Day was more meaningful because of getting the first ROIs from economic liberalisation in that decade, and equally the ideals of civic nationalism that guide the country in those days.
To conclude, if you need visuals to help you see things clearer, you’re most welcome to our college; though it is only a personal invite. The overenthusiastic glorification of the day apparent from the series of activities and campus that has been completely decked up, might help you get some creative ideas. Then, after the circus, you can perhaps go to the other side of India and see its reality over the last 75 years of independence.
—Concluded.
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