FREEDOM – THE OXYGEN OF LIFE
As India celebrates the 75th year of Independence, we the citizens of country, need to be indebted to the freedom fighters for their sanctimonious sacrifices that allows us to enjoy our freedom and liberty. The freedom and liberty, although used synonymously, differ from each other as liberty is linked to the institutions and political parties while freedom is not bound to either of these and can work for or against them. Freedom is an essence that we inherit from birth and as we grow and understand it better, we realise that it enables the whole humanity to achieve its unlimited potential without being beset by forced directives and imagined constraints. Freedom is not something tangible, which can be limited to the confines of a Constitution. It is a feeling, a feeling to act, speak and express one’s own identity without any fear, favour or any form of self-censorship.
The rich cultural, philosophical and democratic heritage of our nation has enabled us to understand that freedom not only means the right to survive, thrive and multiply but also the right to claim an equal share of resources of nature and the collective of human knowledge, power and enterprise. Freedom, thus, means the equal right of negotiation to stake claim to survive, thrive and prosper. However, unfortunately, as each one of us starts with unequal opportunities, few get the major share of these resources and others get the minor share leading on to the further inequality and subsequently deprivation of the already limited resources to the ones who need them most. This gap between the two has markedly widened over time and it seems that the freedom for most of the humans have got limited to the right to live for survival only.
Although as a nation we have progressed after independence, yet at an individual level we do not enjoy the same freedom on economic, societal and/or cultural front. The whooping 70% of the population own only 7% of the total national wealth and 1% of super-rich own almost 60% of the total wealth signifying the fact that economic divide still exists in our society and only few have an economic freedom and liberty while most are still economically backward and detesting for survival. To narrow the gap between rich and poor and making possible an economic freedom for all, overhauling in major economic policies is the need of an hour. The edifice of the cultural fabric of the society is also unevenly distributed and needs to be annihilated, if not changed, in an Ambedkerian sense. The target of this renaissance should be to destroy the culture of castes and embrace a culture of castelessness so that each one of us is placed equally in the society.
Freedom is also about having the right to be different, to ask questions and seek answers, to let humans own the unquenchable quest to know more than is known and to speculate and experiment keeping in mind the welfare of all beings. It isn’t something we wait for somebody to give us like providing the free bus fares, giving free electricity, free metro passes and making declarations at the time of elections to lure voters. It is what we earn and then defend it passionately even if it means to argue against and obtain a change of law despite having a sanction of the majority vote. This seems hard, but this is all we can live by.
Freedom is a metaphor that defines our meaningful existence and gives us an ability to express ourselves fearlessly without allowing the miscreants to muffle or silence the voices of dissent. It also means the freedom to challenge non state actors, and not getting into trouble for calling a spade a spade. As long as we are silenced by those whose voices are louder than ours, we are not free. The day the feeblest voice manages to make itself heard is the day we may consider ourselves to be free at all.
Freedom makes dreaming possible and enables us to accept and let go of imaginary boundaries that have often dictated the lives of most of us. It allows us to break through the chains and shackles of whims and fantasies and gives the liberty to live life the way one wants to. However, at the same time it obliges every free person to free another and concurs the sense of responsibility so to act in the larger interest of society and the nation. Freedom without the due responsibility is akin to servitude and therefore in total misalignment with the very essence of liberty. In short, it is all about “Live and Let Live” and those who deny freedom to others don’t deserve freedom for themselves.
Dr. Pawan Suri
Chief cardiologist
SGL SuperSpeciality Hospital
Jalandhar, Punjab
Email: psuricardio@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment