I was born in 1988. In an independent country. Through the 90s, Independence Day for me was a holiday. If we(millennials) woke up early enough, we would go to the colony ground for flag hoisting. More importantly, we got the mixture+sweet packet. We wished each other “Happy Independence Day” on the day before as we left school. Happier at the thought of a holiday than the idea of being in an independent country.
The independence movement, the freedom struggle, the joys of liberation were restricted for us to just history books. Reading about it made you proud but I doubt we truly understood the value of going from a foreign invader rule to being independent. We were already born in an independent country so it is something we took for granted.
My grandfather was born in 1923. He lived in British ruled India. He saw the freedom struggle first hand. In 1947, once India gained independence, it meant liberation to a generation of people. There was a much-awaited eagerness to live in an independent country. It meant freedom. It meant a lot of things for them. It was a new awakening. Every year henceforth, Aug15th for them was a reminder of the sweet victory. A reminder of what they have today vs what they did not have. For them it was more than a holiday and a sweet packet. They truly understood the idea of Independence Day.
To expect our generation to look at it the same way would be illogical. The Independence struggle is a part of history for us. Just like the Moghul invasion, just like Sivaji, just like the Chola rulers, just like everything else we learnt in history. Obviously, there would be recency bias making us look at it with more emotion and feelings. Hence some of us would feel very proud of it but deep down, it remains a part of history that we were not a part of.
It is for this reason that for our generation, this way of celebration of independence is faulty. Having been already born in an independent country, our comparison cannot be with a time when we were ruled by someone else. It must be with respect to how much we are truly independent with respect to other countries and the progress we are making year after year.
Based on data from the site heritage.com, which measures and ranks countries based on how “free” they are, we can see the progress of India with respect to some other countries who had similar ratings in 2005
| Country | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| India | 54.2 | 52.2 | 53.9 | 54.1 | 54.4 | 53.8 | 54.6 | 54.6 | 55.2 | 55.7 | 54.6 | 56.2 | 52.6 |
| WORLD | 59.6 | 59.9 | 60.1 | 60.2 | 59.5 | 59.4 | 59.7 | 59.5 | 59.6 | 60.3 | 60.4 | 60.7 | 60.9 |
| Pakistan | 53.3 | 57.9 | 57.2 | 55.6 | 57 | 55.2 | 55.1 | 54.7 | 55.1 | 55.2 | 55.6 | 55.9 | 52.8 |
| China | 53.7 | 53.6 | 52 | 53.1 | 53.2 | 51 | 52 | 51.2 | 51.9 | 52.5 | 52.7 | 52 | 57.4 |
India, Pakistan and China had similar scores in 2005. (This is just a sample time frame to understand the idea of independence according to millennials). Our feeling of independence should depend on how well we are doing as a country compared to other similar countries. If in 2005, our ratings match China and Pakistan, then we should aim to get past Pakistan and China by 2020 and aim towards countries which are higher in the ratings ex- Brazil. But as we look at the ratings, while China has gone past both India and Pakistan, both these countries have remained static with respect to the world average. This does not show progress. This does not deserve that much celebration.
So, what is the celebration of independence for a millennial if we as a country are not making progress in all measures and aiming higher? How long can we as a country celebrate the independence as a win against the British that happened 70 years ago? The idea of celebrating it as 68th,69th, 70th is great from a historical perspective but the coming generations will not identify with it. The kid born in 2027 is going to say in 2047, that he cares as much about the British invasion as he does for the Moghul invasion. He will not care about celebrating it. He will point out about our press freedom, about our literacy rates, about our health and seek answers on the progress being made. If in 2047 we are still comparing ourselves with the likes of Pakistan and Bangladesh, what is the use of celebrating “100 years of independence” when it hardly means much for those born recently.
This is not to put a full stop to celebrating the day. Far from it, this should be a day to reflect on us as a country. The day to look at our achievements over the past year. To note down our fallbacks. To create mission statements for the next year and where we aspire to be. The idea of independence must change for us to truly appreciate the day than just look at it as another holiday.
