A BRIEF SUMMARY:
Through this essay, I have thoroughly discussed what I , as an Indian citizen encounter in the society day by day, what are the dimensions to my freedom , whether I am currently ‘free’ with respect to economic, political and personal frontiers.
In the equation to freedom, balance is brought by an equal mixture of external and internal independence. A society is an assemblage of hundreds of thousand individuals and hence it becomes vitally important that every participant of this society takes considerate measures in promoting clear, unbiased and socially beneficial thoughts and actions to garner the health of the overall country at large.
Though we as a country have officially won independence from the colonial British Rule over sixty years ago, the question is, have we actually won it?
As being a representative of the responsible youth of India, I have presented this essay as transparent and as close as it can be to truth hoping that we do not fail in addressing the problems owing to restrictions. Because I believe only if the disease is firstly diagnosed precise, shall we be effective enough in treating it and fixing it.
INTRODUCTION:
The LIFCO dictionary defines the word ‘free’ as ‘not restrained; not bound’. The meaning of this word hence conveys a state of a being where he/she is on his/her own free will to think, act and implement an action independently. But what if it curbs the freedom of another individual or a major part of the society at large? What is its measure? How much freedom is actual freedom and how free am I in this society?
MY ECONOMIC FREEDOM:
As an average middle class Indian woman, I believe I should try to be as ‘economical’ as I should be in my monthly expenditure and make rooms in my average Software job salary for any jolting, sudden hike in onion or petrol prices. I am supposed to be living in a great democratic country where there is a separate Ministry of Finance explicitly meant for mitigating the overall economic burden of a regular Indian citizen. They are supposed to be framing and carrying out various policies all round their tenure with their expertise and experience to make the subjects lead a decent, even if not an extra-ordinary life.
But many a times, I have really found the farmer, a true representative of the major Indian population; go hungry after feeding all the rest of us with his cultivation. What puzzles me so much is, why would he be penny-less at the end of the day when he still had his own piece of land, free electricity from the Government and a great deal of harvested crops?
The answer is simple. We all are today, by one way or the other victims of a policy of special-interest framed by a bad economist yesterday. There is yet another factor that still spawns new economic fallacies everyday; This is the persistent tendency of men to only see the immediate consequences of a given policy or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group, but in all other groups as well [1]. The result of one bad economic policy has a cascading effect on other policies too. It so happens that this ends up in converging a lot of money at one group/party/people and the rest with not even fundamental essentials. Any policy, that fails to meet the basic demands of even a single citizen living in the remotest corner of the country, is subject to be dropped immediately. But in reality, that never happens. The government tries to appoint another special committee to ‘research’ and investigate the fallacy of the policy in spite of the well-displayed wide negative impacts of it in the society. A huge number of hungry farmers and their families would have expired before the committee comes up to even acknowledge the erroneous portions. Then, appealing to the Courts to revise it or replace it will take yet another few years. And when the verdict (which may/may not be in favour of the affected) is passed, people would have very well learnt to adopt and live along with the unjust rule. I still vividly remember farmers at Tanjore, the rice-bowl of Tamil Nadu, setting traps for field mice to survive until the next morning. This happened not so long ago.
Even about a few months back, about 90% hotels stopped using onions (the key ingredient of Indian cooking) in their daily dishes. When a local cultivator was cross-questioned about this, he said that he had no idea why this was happening as he had been giving away onions for the same rates as usual. A very famous official from the Central Government said that even the shockingly increased price of onions did not stop its sale. Of course, it did not. But were buyers the same? No. The top business-men and celebrities had no idea of the impact suffered by a common man. One great mystery is, the cultivator had not increased the rate of onions sold to the whole-sale traders. The retailers did not hide the ‘not hide-worthy enough’ onions (Onions unlike rice decay after just a few days. So there is no point in hiding). Then, who / what were responsible? None of the prevailing reasons seem reasonable enough to appreciate the cause. If a particular state government had as much money as to extravagantly spend more than a hundred crores on a conference, why not use the same to pay a part of the petrol price on a per-liter basis to have atleast temporarily alleviated the miseries of drivers by profession and working men & women who need to travel 40 kms or extra to earn their daily bread? Why I am talking about the petrol hike is because I am very convinced that this had been the prime reason for the hike in onion prices.
1) Most farmers quit farming and move to urban areas to rise in economical standards. Firstly one has to realize that the age-old occupation of the Indian nation had been diminishing because of the lack of appreciation, financial aid and subsidies that it deserved from the government.
2) This automatically resulted in lesser production of onions( all other cash crops , food crops too)
3) The whole-sale traders, to meet the ever-growing demand, had to purchase onions from the Northern states or import onions.
4) Transporting the same from other corners of the country, especially when petrol prices have increased five times continuously means they should pay extra to the transporters.
5) How do they compensate this extra charge? Charge the retailers.
6) What would the poor retailers do? Charge the consumer.
7) What would a poor consumer do? Shut up and buy or stop cooking with onions.
This is a perfect example for how the cascading effect of one bad policy affects another. This is the “economic freedom” (pun-intended) that an average citizen of India currently enjoys.
When it comes to me, I am an under graduate Engineer who is aspiring to do an MS at an American University and plan to come back to India for improvising and serving Indian Electrical board. Hailing from an average middle class family, I have come to realize of one hard-to-swallow truth. As I did a lot of researching on available scholarships for a meritorious candidate, I came to understand that Indian Government has not too many easily available schemes promoting higher education at International Universities. The only feasible option left is a bank-loan. Another thing I learnt is that USA, unlike India has hundreds of promising scholarships to the native students and encourages young, inventive minds by creating a very easy, see-through neutral network to aid them financially. A report from HappySchools blog tells that more than 70 million $ every year in the US goes unused under scholarship aids and grants.
So, right from simply buying a kilogram of onion to the extent of realizing my educational dreams, Am I economically free in this set-up? No. I am hand-cuffed by the bad economist and the careless Government.
MY POLITICAL FREEDOM:
“Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
-Winston Churchill
India is the largest democracies of today’s world. Democracy is now the wave of the future, as more and more nations adopt democratic systems. This is a development to be welcomed. However the word democracy did not always have positive connotations. ‘Democracy’ comes from the ancient Greek, ‘rule by the people’, and they used the term as a system to be avoided. Democracy was contrasted with monarchy (rule by one), oligarchy (rule by a few) and aristocracy (rule by the best)[2].
However ‘democracy’ has the following three defects according to the Greek people.
1) The majority could use their power to oppress the minority.
2) The people could easily be swept along by a wave of ‘emotion’ and ‘passion’; and not by reason.
3) The people might be motivated by their own special interests at the ‘expense’ of the society as a whole.
If all the decisions are taken by the collective majority which acquires power through false promises and inspiring election manifesto, that again is not a free or liberal democracy. It is indeed a TOTALITARIAN DEMOCARCY to use J.D.Talmon’s words.
Political freedom is always open to abuse by political leaders. In response to Plato’s call for rule by wisdom of philosophical guardians, Aristotle is said to have asked the following question:
“Who will guard the guardians?”. This question requires a deep contemplatory reflection. This is exactly today’s scenario. India is divided internally into tens of religions, hundreds of cultures, thousands of castes and millions of racial discrimination activities. This is the main reason for why ‘special-interest’ policies come up in huge numbers favoring the members of the same group to which the man in power belongs to. Every function superadded to those already exercised by the government, causes its influence over hopes and fears to be more widely diffused, and converts, more and more, the active and ambitious part of the public into hangers-on of the government, or of some party which aims at becoming the government[3]. By stirring up the emotions of an angry mob (irritated by the previous Government’s overall inefficiency), politicians quickly gain fame, power and huge money. Shakespeare in his classic Julius Caesar has rightly understood this and makes Antony speak,
“In every wound of Caesar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny” - for he knew the angry mob is always at the side of the last speaker. Though there are more than ten famous political parties and a hundred more minor parties in India, the political leaders have continuously only been the greatest exploiters of the country. Disappointed by one party, people have no other choice but to select another one sooner or later. The sad part of the story is that it is an open book secret that everyone here knows no party here completely acts like it is supposed to act. So when it comes to voting, the only choice with which the people are left with is to select between the bank-robber and a pick-pocket.
Though the election commission of India had laid strict rules against the bribing for votes by political parties prior to election and had also propagated the message that it is unethical and immoral to sell the voting right to the parties, people were not free to follow either. First of all, if a man were to sell his right for a few hundred rupee notes- that itself in essence explains what kind of economical fix he has been locked up in. Secondly, if he listens to the Election Commission and refrains from selling his vote, leave alone his economic constraints, the local party under propaganda would not let him be ‘free’; Everybody knows the emotional trauma that he has to undergo to finally accept the money and escape the ‘wrath’ of the contestant party members. If he accepts the money, the opposition party under its preying eyes would at any moment, lock him up in jail with the help of enough and more video footages
When I, for instance, as an educated youth of India try to identify the fallacies of the existing government and question the same government, I can assuredly say that my voice will never be heard, in the first place, leave alone the drastic after-effects of my boldness. If this democracy stands by the definition of the great President, Abraham Lincoln, which says it “is a government of the people, by the people and for the people”; why would one representative from the common ‘people’ clime be suppressed and subdued never to rise again? This government has been following many unnecessary rules framed by yester century politicians who failed to look beyond the horizon and save the future community at large. For instance, does the disparity in cut-off marks between special reserved communities and others really benefit the back-driven? No. It only brings in more detest towards the entire set up and hatred among two friends (one with a low cut-off but with caste reservation and one with meritorious marks but no other policy for backup).
If I say I express an interest in becoming a political leader with mere qualifications, a compassionate heart for the oppressed and honesty, willingness to serve the overall state or country and no hot cash to ‘invest’ or support from a major political party, even a small child would laugh at me. That explains right from being a mere citizen to the extent of trying to be the first citizen, Am I politically free?
Definitely Not.
MY PERSONAL FREEDOM:
Though my personal freedom is majorly attributed to my personal approach to life, I would say, practically to effect a wholesome package of personal freedom, my economic and political freedom are the deciding factors. In a country where I am unable to follow my educational dreams owing to restraints in financial independence; In a country where I am unable to even refrain from selling my vote or contest in the elections without putting at stake the safety of my family and friends; In a country where I cannot go alone at night for a long walk(owing to loopholes in the law and order), what will be the status of my personal freedom?
Ofcourse, I can be happy by following a few yogic techniques and detaching myself from the so-called “worldly activities”. Because at the least measure, that is the only freedom that is safely accessible to me. But is this for what I was educated? Is this the reason why I tried making that ‘an education for life’ other than ‘an education for mere living’?. And infact, only to put this point well.. I chose to discuss about my economic and political freedom beforehand.
SOLUTIONS:
As we know that one’s political, economic and personal freedom is always interdependent and co-existent, and that man is a social being, I propose the following solutions to suggest a positive change in the existing set-up:
1) The government should re-assess , reframe and if necessary replace old disjoint rules by new ones to ensure that law and order and particularly ‘equality’ is maintained in all strata of the society.
2) Civil society is the result of the spontaneous human actions of free people. It requires that government get out of the way of people’s endeavours and leave them free to associate with one another. It is easier for the moral fabric of society to be destroyed than it is for it to be carefully built up and passed down through the generations. There can be no doubt that freedom will not last long unless that task is begun. That means that the people must be free, in their economic affairs, in their religious activities and in their family lives [4]. And it is a ‘civil society’ that can ultimately be a ‘free society’.
3) “Where the mind is free
And the knowledge is…”
- Rabindranath Tagore has rightly said that positive thoughts from a free and clear mind is the pre-requisite for a free society.
Parapsychologists and Metaphysicists all over the world have now developed an understanding of the power of the subconscious mind. They have enough evidences to state and prove that a strong belief rooted in one’s subconscious mind has unparalleled power to manifest the very cause that created it. If the truth be so, instead of lamenting about the negatives of the existing set-up of the country, positive and active participation of people to help reshape it better is also greatly expected. It is the attitude of ‘worrying more about the less’ that has caused the great differences in the society of rich and poor today. Hence the first step towards a free society is a shift from this weakening thought chain.
REFERENCES:
[1] ‘Economics In One Lesson’ by Henry Hazlitt
[2]& [4] ‘Principles For A Free Society’ by Dr.Nigel Ashford
[3]‘On Liberty’ by John Stuart Mill
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