Thursday, August 15, 2013

Don't celebrate India's Independence day

There is nothing to celebrate about India's Independence day on August 15. August 15 and days before and after it in 1947 were the bloodiest months in India's history with the inter community killings and the partition of India. Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims in Punjab and Bengal were killing each other. People of one village went on a killing spree and killed entire villages of the other religion. Millions of people fled across the border from either side for fear of people of the other religion, leaving behind their homes, jobs and belongings. Many trains crossing the borders with fleeing people arrived at their destination with dead passengers murdered enroute. Many ended up in refugee camps and became beggars. The country was burning on August 15 when it got Independence, and even the borders of the partition had not been announced at that time, because the British would have to deal with the job of protecting people if the partition happened before Independence. They wanted to just get away from India, and had been trying to pull out of India since many years only delayed by the petty little fights between the Congress and the Muslim League failing to arrive at a working solution. Struggle for Independence had been over many years ago. The British did not want to stay in India even if you wanted them to. They had their own problems in their homeland with the world war 2. Our textbooks do the false propaganda as if it was such a victory making the British go away and August 15, 1947 was the pinnacle of achievement. It was not. It was the pinnacle of shame. People's lives were torn apart due to the political games of Nehru and Jinnah. Even Gandhi who is considered to have played a big role in the freedom struggle did not celebrate. There was only tragedy in 1947, so why is everyone hell-bent on celebrating the Independence day, if they had any respect for Gandhi? He is totally ignored. Just stop celebrating this day and get back to work or school or whatever it is you do normally. Remember with sadness the cruelty of partition. The decision to grant India Independence had been taken several years prior to 1947 (have to check what date it was) so if at all you want to honour the freedom fighters, it should be on that day, not on the day of mass murder, suicide, forced conversions, arson, rape and partition.