Mainstream WeeklyStanding in 2025, i.e. 79 odd years since independence, it seems both perturbing and unsettling to introspect and reflect on where we find ourselves today. What kind of country we envisioned during the stormy freedom struggle, and the present depressive scenario where we have landed. The binary is too stark and disconcerting to acknowledge that it is nowhere near the noble idea of swaraj that Mahatma Gandhi contemplated or the idea of transformation envisaged by the martyrs like Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. Of course, we are now part of a new India but sadly that bears little resemblance to the nation that promised to the posterity. While we have undoubtedly become more ambitious, we seem to have compromised our credibility and the trust that once we eloquently enjoyed. We may have won accolades from mission like Chadrayaan to vaccine diplomacy during Covid-19, but simultaneously, our standing has been demeaned both within and without by conspicuous lack of tolerance, generosity and accountability which are hailed high as foundational normative imperatives. It is, therefore, uphill to reconcile whether this is truly the India that Gandhiji, Aurobindo and the countless freedom fighters and sages like Vivekananda had once dreamt of building.
To truly understand how far we have drifted, we must look back to a defining moment in our history. The day was 8th August 1942, when the clarion call of Quit India movement ignited the nation from the snowcapped Himalayas to the great oceanic tryst of Kanyakumari under the titanic leadership of Gandhi. The air reverberated with the powerful slogan