Not that the 1920-22 movement bought us freedom but it did bring a change in the way world looked at us...
We are a discontented India now alright (in pockets based on our own convenience) but we are more selfish with a lot more public apathy than we were before. During one of those rare conversations on politics my wife said Freedom actually meant equal opportunity for the people of the state to do what they wanted (Food, Health, Education, Business). She learnt it from her father. Being in Tamilnadu (one of the states in India), I used to believe that as I grew up I was never denied my freedom. But is it the same for everyone around the country. How different would it be for me if I were in Dandewada / Koraput or Sopore? But how many of us who have the freedom think of those without.
But then when incidents like that of Perumal Murugans happens in your own peace loving state, be ready to face the music one day at your own home I tell myself and near and dear ones.
I am an eternal optimist and I am eager to look forward to a time when I will find a society that is more inclusive, that shows more empathy and listens to one another with patience, and speaks without fear. I am looking forward for my daughter and her generation to shape it. And in that effort I hope I can atleast shape, and instill the required humane values in her.
I pray (as a rationalist) borrowing words from Rabindranth Tagore:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father,
let my country awake.