Freedom is not Free

– Prof. PB Sharma, VC, Amity University Haryana

As the bells of freedom at midnight begin to ring in our ears today on the eve of the Independence Day of our great country, we the people of India, the Bharat, need to remind ourselves of the great sacrifice our freedom fighters and all those who worked day and night to sacrifice their personal and professional accomplishments to achieve this great day, 15th of August 1947 to make Mother India free from foreign rule. It provided a new dawn of freedom for our nation had a great glorious past, and a promise to excel on various fronts of human endeavor as freedom provides an abundance of opportunities to excel. But then as we celebrate the 78th Independence Day tomorrow, we need not forget that “freedom is not free”, it comes with great responsibility and at the cost of self-restraint, self-regulation, and above all accepting the fact that liberty is at a cost. It is this cost of freedom that we need to understand even better and more profusely, now that the India of our dreams is in the making in the vision of Viksit Bharat @ 2047, a vision that has been provided by the Government of India under the visionary Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji.

Impressive Growth and Development as World’s Largest Democracy

We need not also forget that during the last 77 years of freedom, we have made great progress and transformed a country of shortages even in food grains to a country of surplus in respect of food production, taken great strides on industrial fronts to build great industrial prowess that today commands a large market at home and an export capacity of 770.18 billion US dollars in 2022-23. In respect of higher education and research and in science and technology sectors India and its institutions have contributed significantly to the rise of India to a great esteem. The IITs, NITs, AIIMs, IIMs, and a good number of central and state universities including DU, DTU, Anna University, BHU, JMI, and some of the reputed private universities such as BITS Pilani, Amity University, VIT, Manipal, SRM and SASTRA have all created a great pride for Mother India. Our alumni from IITs and reputed universities have undoubtedly earned a great repute both abroad as well as here in India and as such we need to get ourselves further enthused to march forward with courage and confidence and with a deeper insight into the future, now that a new dawn of technology integration, hyper-connectivity and great support coming from AI, ML, and data analytics is available to augment our capabilities of going beyond the limits of knowledge and even crossing the horizons of mindfulness and imagination of man. New India of our dream is undoubtedly in the making and the government of the day has rightly envisioned its pathways of economic prosperity and social transformation that the vision of Viksit Bharat so well articulates.

Time to Redeem Our Pledge made at the Dawns of Freedom

As we celebrate the 78th Independence Day tomorrow, let the words of the first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru also reverberate in our minds and invigorate our souls to submit ourselves to redeem the pledge that we had made at the dawns of freedom from foreign rule for our nation. “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny. Now the time has come when we shall redeem our pledge – not wholly or in full measure – but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom”, said the first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru at the midnight hour of 15th of August 1947. It is this pledge that the nation made to itself, in my opinion, has been substantially but has not yet been fully redeemed.

We have made great progress on economic fronts, industrial development, and in respect of higher education and science and technology advancements but we as a nation have fallen short of creating responsible citizenship, a more equitable society, reducing economic inequality, and minimizing the exodus of population from rural to urban areas. The civic sense also could not be largely developed despite years of education in colleges and universities in India, nor the development that we achieved on economic and industrial fronts save our holy rivers and water bodies from enormous water pollution, from saving our air quality, the Pran Vayu and protecting the goodness of our environment and the discipline on our roads make us all wonder on the great progress that we have made.

All this has happened primarily because of the neglect of the dimension of human behavior and conduct in our national developmental goals. This does not come by teaching and preaching ethics and morals as preaching does not work alone unless supplemented by a compelling environment of compliance to the codes of ethics and professional morals. Today we necessarily require impacting the behavior and creating self-restraint by use of technology and by strict implementation of rules and regulations. Great nations of the world have learned it the hard way, as they realized that development has no meaning unless the people are orderly and realize that the laws are for their well-being and safety. All advanced nations use technology to create both transparency and impact the behavior and conduct of the people.

Democracy is Not Freedom Infinite – It is Liberty at a Cost

We need also to remind ourselves that “democracy is not freedom infinite”, and that freedom is not free, rather it is “freedom at a price”. It is this price of self-discipline, self-regulation, and maintaining the highest levels of personal and professional integrity that we need to pay, often sacrificing our personal interests and comforts to build the great nation of our dreams. Independence Day tomorrow should invoke in us an abiding faith in our ability to create a fair, just, equitable, and society of self-regulation and be the proud partners of co-creating the India of our dream to redeem the pledge that we made at the dawns of freedom on 15th August 1947.

It is not too late as the time is now right and the environment to make up for our behavioral loss is here and now that we have submitted to a new dawn of digitization and transparency ushered by the Government of India under the visionary leadership of our Prime minister Shri Narendra Modiji during the last 10 years. Bold decisions and well-thought reforms such as Digital India, Make in India, Skilling India, Innovation and Startup India, supported by great infrastructure push and investment in research and expanding quality education (23 IITs, 26 IIITs, 26 AIIMs, and 21 IIMs today) all demonstrate the firm resolve of the government of the day to develop India as Viksit Bharat of our dream on pathways of economic prosperity, social transformation and environmental sustainability supported by well qualified and skilled manpower and by path-breaking scientific research and game-changing technology innovations.

Time to Remember Great Sacrifice Made by Our Leaders and Our Martyrs

On the eve of the 78th Independence Day let us pay our greatest respect and homage to our great leaders, Mahatma Gandhiji, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Veer Savarkar Ji, and our martyrs Pandit Chandra Shekar Azad, Sardar Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Shri Asfaq Ullah Khan who sacrificed their lives for winning for us the freedom that we rejoice today. Let us also remember the great scientists and technologists who built India in the post-independence era, these include great scientists, the founder of Bhava Atomic Research Center Dr. Homi Bhava, founder of ISRO Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, great engineers and technologists Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesraya and Padma Vibhushan Er. Ajudhia Nath Khosla, who led the team to build Bhakra Nangal, and Hira Kund Hydropower Dams, the father of Green Revolution Bharat Ratna Dr NS Swaminathan, the father of White(Milk) Revolution Padma Vibhushan Dr Verghese Kurien, the Metro man of India Er. E Sreedharan and many more are the makers of modern India that we have the responsibility to transform as world leaders in sustainable development. Let we the people of India, the Bharat also not forget tomorrow, 15th of August is the birthday of a great freedom fighter, the great philosopher, and one the greatest visionary of the resurgence of India, namely Sri Aurobindo who steered India to freedom from his hermitage in Pondicherry and through his writings on Foundations of Indian Culture, Secret of Vedas and Thoughts on Upanishads reminded all of us and the world community that India is a spiritual civilization founded on the principles of peace and oneness of diversity so well enshrined in our Sanatan Vedic Heritage.

The Call for Action

The call for action requires us to give our very best with a spirit of service and sacrifice and submit to the calls of self-regulation, and righteous conduct, give our very best unconditionally to the cause of work excellence and service to the society and the nation, shoulder a great sense of responsibility to be partners in progress with the government of India to make our great nation once again a world leader and a champion of peace, harmony, and development and make Mother India proud of its people, the descendants of a great Vedic Sanatan Sanskriti that invokes an abiding faith in Satyamev Jayate, Loka Samasta Sukhina Bhavantu and above all Vasudhiav Kutumbakam.

About the Author:
Prof PB Sharma is an eminent academician and currently is the Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram. He has been the founder Vice Chancellor of DTU and RGPV, former Professor of IIT Delhi, and Past President of AIU.