I woke up this morning in a mood more sombre than celebratory. What are we truly celebrating? Today, the struggles for India’s freedom are a fading memory kept alive by selective recounting on social media—a contested history with new heroes and villains prompted by a reappraisal of our colonial past and instigated or motivated forgetting that allows space for narratives more aligned with the prevailing dominant political persuasions.

As we gathered in our apartment complex this morning for flag-hoisting, patriotic songs and customary speeches, the thought uppermost was how easily the hard-fought freedoms can be frittered away. Is our freedom and independence a mere historical fact or an abiding reality that we hold as precious and invested in, barricaded from malign actors and influences?

I went over how much I take for granted, and for which I am grateful—that I may acquire and fulfill wants, for the roof over my head, to eat the food I like, to wear the clothes I feel good in, to profess my faith, to express, to question, to move around, to pursue opportunity, to access healthcare, to mingle freely…

How has all this been possible? Is this what freedom is? Who are denied the very same elements I take for granted? How secure are our freedoms? What are the guarantees? Such ruminations led me on to think:

• We are not free until we are all free of poverty
• We are not free until we are all able to access healthcare
• We are not free until we step out of our delusions and ignorance
• We are not free until we challenge our beliefs and assumptions
• We are not free until we open ourselves to all voices and the voiceless
• We are not free until we guarantee dignity in all encounters
• We are not free until we stop condoning violence
• We are not free until we stop waging war for peace
• We are not free until we stop being slaves to conspicuous consumption
• We are not free until we stop imposing our will and way of life on another
• We are not free until we look our fears in the mirror and not be paralysed
• We are not free until we stop aping the West
• We are not free until we embrace our history and know its varied versions

The tensions between our urge for freedom and the reality of interdependence is an ongoing saga. Splitting volition (and freedom of choice/action) and responsibility creates the illusion of freedom for one, and the experience of oppression for the other.

I believe our freedoms are increasingly under threat from our inability or unwillingness to value and engage with differences. We are being led to think that unity is synonymous with uniformity, and this becomes a justification for a waves of oppression under the pretext of ‘One nation, one ___’. Our diverse and rich colours are sought to be reduced to just one colour. More broadly, privileging some faiths, classes, languages, texts, regions, etc., at the expense of others fractures the polity and becomes a breeding ground for new bases of domination, intolerance and hate. We risk becoming a hate-filled society, easily combustible, or in any case, a country of deep fissures and steady decay if we don’t add the ability to acknowledge, value and leverage our differences for the collective good. Our eternal vigilance against the onslaught of disinformation and propaganda (spread mostly through social media and viral WhatsApp content) is a requisite to safeguard freedoms.

Our freedoms are assured and lasting only when we raise our voices against falsehoods, oppression, inequities, injustice and violence everywhere. We can make a start in our own societies and neighbourhoods.

Our freedoms are sustainable only when we stop the assault on nature, and remembering that the conquest and violence against nature is an attack on ourselves, for we are a part of and not apart from it.

Image: Diwakar Kaza