Prajasattak Din, as we call it in Marathi; On 26 January, 1950, the constitution of India came into effect and is celebrated as Prajasattak Din (Republic Day) (Praja – people of the country, are the Sattak – decision-makers).
What I remember of 26 January as a child is wintery cold mornings, school ground where we did some kawayat, attended the flag hosting in new/freshly ironed uniforms and ate Lemon candies. While coming back from school, patriotic songs were played on loudspeakers, sites of temporary jalebi and farsan stalls were common.
Relishing jalebi while watching the national celebration in Delhi on Doordarshan followed by the movie Border was a ritual.
My father writes in his autobiography about how he could not attend a Prabhat Feri on one Republic Day when he was 10–11 years old because his uniform was stained with the rust of the old trunk he had kept his uniform under in the hope of getting pressed. His teacher had beaten him out of anger, “Who wears such clothes on Republic Day?”
He just wanted to participate in the celebration of democracy and express his respect towards the nation. But for that, he was supposed to have neat, clean, ironed clothes (I thought the world was driven by visuals and presentability only recently, alas it was the same 60 years ago). But then he made sure his children did not get scolded for pity reasons.
Later, there was no compulsion in college, and hence, I watched Prabhat Feri from the window of our home. Vande Mataram! Bharat Mata Ki Jay! The mornings were filled with the joyous, exciting voices of young children.
As years passed, I moved out of my village to the city and on 26 January became one of the holidays. We were excited only if it came on a Monday or Friday, giving me an extended weekend.
Patriotism doesn’t come from singing the National Anthem, it comes from within, when you do something to change the country, opines @RollyShivhare on what one’s priorities should while participating in a democracy at #DemocracyAdda.
— Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz) October 12, 2018
Am I not proud of my country? Of course, I am. But, do I need to prove my pride? How does one do that? Isn’t pride a feeling that comes naturally? To pay/show off my respect if you are going to play jana-gan-man just before a movie; when my sole purpose of going to the theatre is entertainment, I don’t know how one is supposed to react.
If you are forcing your way of expressing pride on me, I have not signed up for it. And the very constitution that came into effect on this day has given me that right to express my views. I wonder if we still hold to the values of the constitution.
To be very frank, I never understood the preamble until a couple of years back. I am 31 now. Why? It was never asked in exams except maybe the question of when it came into effect. Also, the words sounded like jargon to me. Sovereign, Socialist, Democratic; these words seemed so alien and had never been read before in any text.
Even if they were looked up in a dictionary and meaning written in notebooks, the meaning itself was foreign. Also, I was never taught to learn for myself except to pass the exams. It was only when the discomfort peeped from my window; of Hindu Muslim pogroms, violent attacks on the students for protesting, chances of citizenship being denied to my Muslim friends.
When it reached my neighbourhood, I felt the need to decode it to understand better the people I was working with. So let’s try to understand those difficult words as described in the Oxford dictionary and relate them to the current state of our country.
Sovereign
Adjective:
- (Used about a country) not controlled by any other country; independent.
- Having the highest possible authority.
Are we? We as a country are independent. However, I feel sometimes we are controlled by the market and various other countries economies. For example, the market decides the rates of petrol and oil in my country. It does influence my country. But overall, mota moti, yes, we are independent.
Living in a complex world makes independence complex, influenced by power, which is true for every other country. So yes, we are sovereign.
Socialist
Adjective:
- Adhering to or based on the principles of socialism.
And what is socialism?
Noun:
- A political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
- Policy or practise based on the political and economic theory of socialism.
#THREAD: #BhagatSingh evokes similar respect and admiration across the political spectrum.
114 years after he was born, he remains equally popular.
On his birth anniversary, here are a few glimpses into Bhagat Singh’s life and his vision of a free India.#BhagatSinghJayanti
— Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz) September 27, 2021
If we take the bare minimum understanding, it is about most of the economy owned regulated by the community as a whole. In the case of a democratic country, it can be a government. What are such influencers of the global economy? Coal, railways, airlines, internet; some from the top of my mind. Who owns them in our country?
The government says that railways infrastructure will never be privatised, but it plans to monetise its assets to generate resources to boost growth. They also advocate public-private partnerships. Once a few trains start running privately, I see a threat, a threat of the private sector taking over the public.
Let’s take another example of Banks. Those that are private and those public, ask the customers and they will tell you how much easier/user-friendly and accessible it is to have your account in a private bank than in a public bank. Private banks keep evolving and becoming more efficient customer service providers, whereas public banks seem stagnant.
As per the American dictionary, socialist is any economic or political system based on government ownership and control of important businesses and methods of production. For example, in my country important major businesses like railways, airlines, telephone, etc., are property of private companies. How are we socialist then?
Secular
Adjective:
- Not connected with religious or spiritual matters.
Sounds like a joke. If we were secular, there would never have been so much cry free with every single festival of every religion. When it’s Christmas, they vandalised churches; when it’s Eid, there has been violence; when it’s the festival of democracy (elections), all of politics is played based on your religion.
We are not secular. The CAA does not make us secular but selectively favourable towards some religions and openly discriminatory to others.
Democratic
Adjective:
- Relating to or supporting democracy or its principles.
What is democracy?
Noun:
- A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Yes, we are democratic, with a voter turnout of 67.11% being the highest so far because we don’t care to vote. We know a lot of people migrate for various reasons, but we have not changed our electoral system for it to be accessible to wherever you are. Expecting a daily wage earner to travel spending more than his months’ salary to vote? Excuse me?
And we talk about the democratic process of decision making. There is no discussion even among the people voted to power; forget about common people. Fresh examples are the Farm Bills. Thank you, farmers, for making us realise the real meaning of democracy.
Republic
Noun:
- A country that has an elected government and an elected leader (president).
Yes, as previously stated, elected by a percentage of the population of who themselves are divided in the name of religion, caste, class, gender. The leader is busy buying himself jet planes and changing several suits in a day while 3,000 children die of malnutrition every day.
Justice (Social, Economic And Political)
Jammu and Kashmir, Farmers, Women, Vemula, political prisoners, comedians, etc., everyone is asking for justice. I don’t know where justice is. One case does not represent justice for all. Everyone must get justice. I am unable to see it in the near future, nor have I seen it in the past.
In a society where the upper-class have forgotten their caste so as to fit well in their upper-class society and the upper-caste have zero empathy and fail to understand why there is a need for reservation, the idea of justice is being polluted.
As per the Business Today report, the top 1% of Indians now own 33%of the country’s wealth compared to 31.7% previously. The top 10% own 64.6% of the country’s wealth, up from 63.9%. Is that what justice is? Not for me.
Equality (Of Status And Opportunity)
Sorry, come again? In the private sector, there is no concept of reservation or even diversity or inclusion, so we don’t talk about equality here. Opportunity is given based on MERIT. The definition of merit is almost equal to the definition of privilege and being able to navigate your network.
In the case of gender, there is an added divide along with class and caste. It does matter if I am unmarried or married, if I plan to conceive soon or settle with grown-up kids, if I am okay to adjust and work under pressure beyond working hours.
It’s not illegal here to exhaust yourself working, have no personal life, etc. It is considered a quality. It is what is expected of you to survive in the unequal world we live in.
Fraternity (Assuring Dignity Of The Individual And Unity And Integrity Of The Nation)
Oh man, what heavy words these are. If there were an assurance of dignity, my paternal uncle wouldn’t have changed his surname from Kamble to Sardesai, reiterating that he is NOT from the backward class. Only if there were dignity there wouldn’t have been religious conversions.
It seems we gave ourselves a great constitution, a utopian one. Neither do we understand it, nor do we thrive to abide by it. For people to be patriotic rather than forcing them to kill people of other religions or even expecting and glorifying the deaths on the border, it would be better if they were expected to live with the values of the constitution.
Happy Republic Day!