Freedom of the mind

I was born ten years after Independence and grew up in remote tribal areas of Orissa, places where there was no water or electricity at home. I did not even go to school until I was eight. But Independence Day was and remains a day I look forward to. Unlike on any other day, before the first light of the sun had dawned, the DPRO (district public relations officer) jeep would go round the sleepy place playing the Ram Dhun. It was a magical moment. We would rush to the parade ground. Some district functionary would come to unfurl the national flag. That imagery is still vivid in my mind -- all eyes would be on the flag as it unfurled, the flowers would fall and the national anthem would be played. Police pigeons would be released, and the flutter of the pigeons’ wings could be heard all over the grounds. ‘Independence’ did not need to be explained to us as the pigeons disappeared just as the last notes of the national anthem were being played.

Year after year, it was the same routine. But even today, when I think of that experience, it gives me goosebumps. I don’t feel the same way about my birthday or my wedding anniversary, or even my children’s birthdays. I will gladly trade any of those for that one day. As children, we did not have formal education to understand nationhood, what the Constitution meant, or the electoral process. But the idea of ‘Freedom’ as an uplifting moral virtue – as against a right to be exercised against each other – didn’t have to be explained.

I am 55 now, and the last ten years have been traumatic as a citizen. It has been a spiritual struggle. Even then, August 15 remains all that it meant to me as a child. I refuse to give that up. Even if you crush me under the road-roller of current day politics, I want to die with that dream, that imagery, the ability to still hear the pigeons flutter, and the national anthem.

To me, there are three kinds of freedom – political, economic, and freedom of the mind. Political freedom is freedom from somebody else. That was delivered in 1947. Until well into the 1980s, we were not economically free. Manmohan Singh as Finance minister had to send out plane-loads of gold so that we could get an IMF loan 20 years ago. Imagine pawning your mother’s jewellery so that you can eat. From there to where we are today, we have earned economic freedom. But even economic freedom is partly freedom from external forces and partly from our internal constraints.

From now on, the journey is not about political or economic freedom. It will be about freedom of the mind. From the Lokpal issue to Ramdev, from General V.K. Singh to Yeddyurappa – this entire thing basically shows that the mind is not free. Unlike political or economic freedom, this freedom of the mind is from forces within us. Dealing with an external enemy is easier – there’s somebody to blame. It is monumentally difficult dealing with your own self – the CBI judge who was willing to take Rs. Six crore was dealing with himself; the generals in the Adarsh scam were dealing with themselves.

(As told to S. Raghotham)

Subroto Bagchi is Chairman, MindTree Ltd

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