Freedom is not merely freedom from foreign rule, but freedom from the inner bondage of fear, superstition, caste, ritual, blind tradition, and disregard for facts and knowledge. IndiaтАЩs long subjugation cannot be explained only by external invasions; internal weaknesses also played a role. Even after political independence, dependence in knowledge, science, technology, and innovation remains. Independence Day must therefore inspire celebration, vigilance, and self-examination.
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Originally published in The Pioneer on 14 August '26
Today is the fifteenth of August. The tricolour is up on every gate and lapel, the anthem will play in the schools by mid-morning, and from the panchayat to the Red Fort, the speeches are already written. The feeling is real; a people has every right to mark the day it stopped being ruled.
And yet, even in the middle of this, one question tends to get buried every year, and it is worth raising precisely on this day.
India, or any other country in the world, at the moment of its founding, what is its condition, free or subjugated? Look closer. Take a single human being. What is his default, freedom or captivity? No human being is born anyone's slave. Nobody is born into bondage; it is always put on afterwards. And no one was ever taught to want freedom; that wanting is already in place at birth.
