80 Years of Independence: The freedom we earned, the future we must protect

Eighty long years of the country being independent – the right to choose its own destiny, to choose its own path – of growth, development, polity and social wellbeing – a free body and a free mind & soul (or is it still WIP?). In the words of Tagore: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.”

On this occasion of the 80th Independence Day, I thought of connecting with two generations – one that has seen the past 79 Independence Days (Mrs Kokilaben Shah, 87, MA Economics, ex-academician at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad) and the other, an 11-year-old boy who may possibly see 80 more Independence Days (Siddhant Ghosh, Class VI student at Birla High School, Kolkata). One reminisces about how the past 80 years have been, how Independence Day was celebrated while she was in school, and the changing value system of society. As for Siddhant, he may still be too young to talk about the next 80 years, but he is quite articulate about what independence means to him. The Now Generation – he wants to exercise choices and make little decisions in his day-to-day life. For him, “digital privacy” is high on the list of priorities for independence, as he tests the boundaries of the online rules set by his parents!

Is Independence Day just marked as one day on the calendar? A celebration for some, a chhutti for students, catching up with friends and relatives and socialising for others, or perhaps lazing around and sleeping through the day for many high-pressure professionals.

Or is it a day when one should remember and rekindle the memories of what independence has given the nation and its citizens? Today, we are enjoying the benefits of independence that came with it – 80 years of being an independent nation. The value of independence has manifested itself across the spectrum. Most often mentioned is the “Freedom of Expression” – the magnetic pull of Jantar Mantar for undertaking protest marches against any injustice or wrongdoing by the state. That right has been earned by both citizens and lawmakers alike. Once, during a conversation with Mrs Indira Gandhi sometime in the late sixties, Vajpayee ji reportedly said: “You have the numbers, so you are in power and you can make rules. But we in the Opposition have the ‘power of voice’. We can comment on what we believe is not in the interest of the country or its citizens.”

A nation ruled by foreign powers for most of the last 1,000 years should evaluate the political, strategic and economic value of independence. The political and strategic value is quite visible and is often talked about. And now, after eight decades, it is being taken for granted. The deliverables under these tenets have become “must-haves” or “mandatory” under the charter of the citizenship contract between the state and its people. Any deviation would be challenged in a court of law, debated in Parliament or state Assemblies, or, at the maximum level of dissonance, lead to Jantar Mantar.

The economic value accrued to the nation and its citizens through this “independence” – both gains and costs – doesn’t get articulated often, nor is the economic value lost during the last millennium discussed in great detail. The impact of being independent on economic and social development, and the scores on these indices, which have multiplied many times over, do not get quantified. The space industry, IT powerhouse, FinTech/India Stack, nuclear capability, industrial manufacturing base, infrastructure – power, roads and ports – food security and disease control (eradication of polio and smallpox) are some of the most visible ones.

Pre-Independence, the railway network in India was about 58,000 km. In 80 years, it has grown to approximately 75,000 km – a moderate increase. The ruling power built an extensive railway network for ease of troop movement. The development of other social and economic projects was of little interest to them because these were unlikely to deliver any strategic benefit for controlling the land. The cost of a train ticket between Kolkata and Mumbai was Rs 1,400 then. Imagine if railway travel had remained at such a high cost. Would the huge inter-city migration of the population – working-class people, students, etc. – have been possible? The objective back then was not for the common man to move around. Today, Indian Railways carries more than one crore people across the country every day. Imagine the socio-economic gain from just this one factor.

All the developments across socially and economically relevant factors have happened post-Independence. Would they have happened at a similar speed and scale in a foreign-ruled country? Independence has generated huge economic gains for its citizens. And it also costs a lot to protect this independence. The military budget can be quantified over the years and decades, but how do you measure the value of lives lost in war? The scenes on television screens towards the end of the previous century, of 500-plus body bags arriving from the heights of Kargil, are well etched in memory. And there were 1971, 1965 and 1962. Add to that the 50 years of disturbances across the Red Zones, which consumed almost one-third of the country's landmass, plus the militancy in J&K. That’s the immeasurable price our soldiers in uniform pay so that the rest of the 140 crore people can sleep peacefully in their homes every night.

The young generation of the country, who may celebrate the next 80 years of Independence Day, should look at the “idea of independence” from a holistic perspective – the benefits they can enjoy today and would continue to enjoy because of the grind the nation has gone through in the last 80 years. They should also look at how they will take it forward for the next 80 years to preserve and sustain independence – especially economic and intellectual capital.

In the previous millennium, the nation had a 25% share of global GDP for most of that period, at least until the mid-1700s. Then, in the last 200 years, it lost almost all of it, and by 1947, it was down to a low single digit of 3%. This value erosion, coupled with the reported transfer of $35 trillion of its wealth to Great Britain, broke the back of its commerce and trade and rendered master craftsmen and skilled workers out of work.

And here lies a great lesson for today’s young generation to ponder and create solutions around. We all talk about the 21st century as the age of AI, knowledge and technology. The country with the biggest share of the knowledge economy, IPRs and technological know-how is weaponising every toolkit it has to create barriers and stifle the growth of other nations. Without preserving strategic independence, how will India protect its intellectual capital? We should look back at history to learn lessons about the cost of economic loss through the destruction of intellectual capital.

Nalanda, about 1,000 years ago, was the biggest global hub of knowledge – more than one lakh scholars and lakhs and lakhs of books and manuscripts. Have we ever tried to measure the impact of this knowledge-economy powerhouse? And Nalanda wasn’t the only one… There were dozens of such great “Centres of Excellence” spread across the nation.

Is there any process to measure the quantum of economic value added through this knowledge economy? Nalanda and centres like it were destroyed through foreign invasions. Imagine if this knowledge economy powerhouse had continued in India – the kind of economic impact it would have had on India’s position in the global power equation. If that treasure of knowledge had survived and flourished for the next 500… 700… 1,000 years, maybe India would not have seen foreign rule at all. Maybe India would have continued to have a 25% share of global GDP even today!

It was not just the destruction of Nalanda; it was the robbing of India of its knowledge leadership for a millennium – 1,000 years of growth, prosperity and global leadership.

On this occasion of the 80th year of Independence of our beloved Bharat Mata, millennials and post-millennials should look at the manifestation of independence differently. Their grandparents and previous generations got physical independence for the nation. They need to look at the “independence of mind” and “cognitive power” and focus on preserving our “knowledge assets & capabilities”.

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.