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It was a wintry afternoon. The evening sun had just begun its descent in the western sky even as the bell of the last class of the day rang and a number of high school students walked out of their classrooms noisily at the close of the day.
Picking up her bag, my daughter and I were heading back home, when the clouds gave way to a sudden shower. Running for cover, we ducked under the shelter of a big banyan tree close by. Soon, we found that we were in the company of many other people who had also dashed to the spot to take cover from the rain.
The group got larger. Students, parents and passers-by merged together as a homogeneous group. Some of us exchanged smiles and a few of us began chatting with each other. The young students grumbled about the rules of the school and other little grievances. The adults complained about the stringent laws of the land that offered few choices for the people. The mood was bleak, like the grey sky of the afternoon. There seemed to be a resentment in the tone of all those present, and a feeling of being stifled and of not having enough liberty in life.
Returning home that evening I found myself ruminating on the plight that engulfs common man. I pondered over the fact that despite being in a free land and living as free people, the sense of not enjoying adequate freedom surfaces across different age groups. Young people hanker for more independence, adults long for more choices while older folks long for greater individuality. Across age groups, the feeling of being controlled seemed to be a reality. It was at this point that I attempted to analyse what freedom really entails. Would everyone be better off without any impositions and restrictions? Would giving a person the complete power to do what he or she fancies result in a happier world? Is freedom that simple or straight forward?
Freedom defined
The new millennium has evolved, thanks to some of the choices made by the denizens of yesteryears and perpetuated by the current generation. We have transformed into a world where the environment is dangerously polluted due to the damaged ozone layer, global warming, increased seismic activity, volatile mountains, unpredictable oceans, reducing forest cover and a bunch of other woes that bode dire consequences for the universe and its inhabitants.
Even so, the human race as a whole has never been happier breathing the air of freedom and enjoying their right of liberty. Unlike our forefathers who have tasted and survived to tell the gruesome tales of oppression, discrimination, segregation and slavery, the majority of subsequent generations woke up daily to a free world. While our ancestors had to fight and shed precious blood to be freed from the domineering reign of tyrants, the people who followed were born with liberty gifted to them on a platter. People however, have never felt more discontented.
“We want more freedom,” “Let us have fewer rules,” “Stop putting restrictions,” “Give us more leisure and less work,” is the universal cry from the young to the old alike. What then is real freedom? How do we define independence?
While freedom meant liberation from oppression to our forefathers, today freedom is construed as something beyond mere emancipation. It is gauged as a powerful force that initiates action and propels progression.
As Rohit Kumra, senior software engineer at Amazon aptly puts it, “Freedom is the essence of doing what one wants to do freely! Obviously, there are some caveats to that, but being free gives one the liberty to have a viewpoint and an opinion that matters. It allows a person the freedom from shackles of the mind and from being undermined by a superior authority. It adds responsibility and the free will to carry out actions rising out of one’s mind or intentions.
Freedom allows innovation, invention, and the ability to improve or become better with time! Only a free mind can think in directions that no one has thought upon, since an enslaved one will have an oppressor and will face obstacles and self-created boundaries.”
These sentiments resonate with those of Ankita, a young student at the International institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru who says, “Freedom is wearing what I want without worrying about being judged. It is having the choice to go out at any time of day to any place freely and without having to be fearful of eve-teasing or other dangers. It is being able to demand respect for the person I am and the values that I hold. It is those simple things that many take for granted but I know the value of.”
Freedom is basic to human needs and is perceived as an important factor for a harmonious life. When given spontaneously and used intelligently, it morphs a slave into an emancipated human being and a rebel into a respectable person. It becomes a mighty propellant for an equal and progressive world.
Double-edged sword
The world has come a long way since the days of slavery and the iron rule. The global village with mighty skyscrapers, sleek computers, snazzy gadgets and super-sonic jets, is the product of a free economy offering freedom to its people at the core of its functioning. However doing away with external restraints is believed to be at the root of the chilling truth of the present times. From crime statistics to the death toll on our highways, from drug abuse to sex trafficking and from the weakening of family ties to neglect of the old, a grim world unfolds a distorted understanding of freedom.
Freedom does not mean the power to do what one fancies and should not be construed as liberation from restrictions. Rather it is the maturity to make the right choices with appropriate knowledge. Freedom, in many ways, is a double-edged sword. It bears fruit only when used with caution and understanding. This calls for self-discipline and the need to put the freedom of others on a level playing field. In the words of Bernard Baruch, “In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.”
It is said that “A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do what he likes.” Thus, it is only when liberty is used along with the self-discipline to do the right and consciously to shun the wrong, can freedom bear dividends. When we can restrict ourselves in equal proportion to the freedom we are given, this is real freedom.
A place of honour
Honouring our freedom goes beyond saluting the tricolour once every year on August 15th. Appreciating the freedom we enjoy entails using the freedom wholly, truly and responsibly, which rests entirely on us. By choosing the freedom to think, to grow and to contribute to the freedom of others in society we honour the bravehearts and the heroes who paid the price for our freedom.
Valsala Rajan, a Bengaluru-based Professional and Behavioural Skills trainer, sums up this truth eloquently: “There’s a freedom that we all have which I think we don’t appreciate as much as we ought — the freedom to think. Our own sense of right and wrong, of what is logical and what is not, of what is fair and what is downright unfair — no one stops us from thinking for ourselves! Yet, do we do so? It seems as if we voluntarily give up this freedom as it’s so much easier to let someone else do the thinking for us and get carried along by the current. Thinking for yourself means asking uncomfortable questions sometimes, even when it means being the lone voice in a crowd.”
Give me liberty or give me death — was the slogan of the movement that brought freedom to all. It is up to us to make this priceless gift of freedom a means to a more abundant life!