Independence!!! Really???

I am not sure what exactly people think of independence or being independent. Whenever I think about independence, whether it is a country or an individual, it means the same, the definition shouldn’t change at a 50,000 ft level. Till before 2 years, the idea of independence was very abstract for me. However, there has been good amount of clarity in what it actually means, now. But as I was thinking about the long weekend for this Independence Day, it suddenly struck me that India’s independence is hardly different from mine and yours.

There are many definitions about being independent, the most naive one being that people need not depend on others. It is very tough to digest this definition. How many of us would have told – “I am independent, I don’t need his/her help”. How true is that?? Slowly, I have understood the real meaning of that line; it means – “I am independent, I don’t need his/her help, there are others too”. This realisation shook me slightly, but I have accepted it as the truth.

Consider my country India, for instance – What did she achieve post Independence? She never learnt to live on her own; she never learnt to sustain everything by herself; she never learnt to live in isolation. But she got the independence for taking her own decisions, independence to decide her own course of development, independence of spoiling herself too. She would have been almost dead economically, if Dr.Manmohan Singh hadn’t opened the collaboration doors in 1991. Off-course we didn’t make the best use of it, but that step was most probably the only alternative to come out of the debt we were in then.

That’s more or less, what an independent individual also does by being independent. Just think what you can achieve just by yourself in this era of globalisation. Nothing!!! The help you receive might be from your parents, friends, colleagues, etc., but you definitely require it. It is just that you decide whom to ask and whom not to. You can change your preferences based on the situation you are.


So Independence is not living by yourself, but deciding on whom you can depend and whom you cannot. And that’s exactly the reason for which the whole concept of society evolved amongst us. However, being human and independent doesn’t just stop at deciding whom to depend and whom not to, but being thankful for the same, irrespective of whether you chose to ask him/her again or not. After all that’s the core of being human – Gratitude!!! Never lose it.


Happy Real Independence Day!!!