It is a great privilege to address, for the first time, my fellow Indians living within our country and in a hundred corners across the globe, on the 65th anniversary of our independence. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude to the people and their representatives for the honor of this high office, even as I am deeply conscious of the fact that the highest honor in our democracy does not lie in any office, but in being a citizen of India, our motherland. We are all equal children before our mother; and India asks each one of us, in whatsoever role we play in the complex drama of nation building to do our duty with integrity, commitment and unflinching loyalty to the values enshrined in our Constitution.
It is important to remember on Independence Day that in the age of empires freedom was never given; it was taken. It was won by a generation of giants, led by a mighty man of destiny, Mahatma Gandhi, who fought with selfless, unflinching conviction against the mightiest power in history, with a moral force that transformed political thought and whose reverberations echo in great events all around us today. If the rise of European colonization began in 18th century India, then the rallying cry of “Jai Hind!” also signaled its end in 1947. The final call to victory, “Jai Hind!” was given by Subhas Chandra Bose, fondly known to every Indian as “Netaji.” Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sarojini Naidu and many others charted the road map of independent India. These extraordinary men and women sacrificed their todays for our tomorrows. That tomorrow has come, and there is a question we must ask ourselves: Have we honored the great vision of these stalwarts, as a nation and as a society?
I was a toddler when Netaji, as Rashtrapati of the 51st Session of Indian National Congress in Haripura, on the banks of the river Tapti, reminded us “our chief national problems are eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease.” His speech echoed through my home, as it did through millions of others. My father was a freedom fighter and through those long years when freedom seemed an illusion, we were sustained by faith in ourselves, in our leaders, in the strength of non-violence, in the courage of Indians liberated from fear. But we knew then, as we do now, that freedom must mean both bread and dreams.
Netaji and Nehruji believed that India could seize the future by an application of synthesis, samyavada, of what might seem on surface to be implacable opposites. They believed that free India would become, by example, an alternative model for a post-colonial world through economic equity and a social revolution inspired by harmony between communities that had been misled into hostility. Propelled by freedom of faith, gender equality and economic justice for all, India will become a modern nation. Minor blemishes cannot cloak the fact that India is becoming such a modern nation: No faith is in danger in our country, and the continuing commitment to gender equality is one of the great narratives of our times.
I am not a pessimist; for me, the glass is always half full, rather than half empty. I would go to the extent of saying that the glass of modern India is more than half full. Our productive working class; our inspiring farmers, who have lifted a famine-wrecked land to food-surplus status, our imaginative industrialist entrepreneurs, whether in the private or public sector; our intellectuals, our academics and our political class have knit together a modern nation that has leapt, within mere decades, across many centuries in economic growth and progressive social legislation.
We cannot appreciate how far we have traveled until we understand from where we started in 1947. As Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out so often, in his speeches and prose, India was not a poor country when our independence was snatched away. No one, I may add, travels thousands of miles to conquer a poor country. Statistics published by contemporary international scholars are proof for skeptics. In 1750, seven years before the fateful battle of Plassey, India had 24.5 percent of World Manufacturing Output while the United Kingdom had only 1.9 percent. In other words, one in every four goods on the world market was manufactured in India. By 1900, India had been left with only 1.7 percent of World Manufacturing Output and Britain had risen to 18.5 percent. The Western industrial revolution was in its incipient stages in the 18th century, but even in this regard India slipped from 7 to 1 in per capita industrialization in that period, while Britain vaulted from 10 to 100. Between 1900 and 1947 India’s economic growth was an annual average of 1 percent. From such depths we climbed, first, to 3 percent growth, and then took a quantum leap forward. Today, despite two great international crises that rocked the world and some domestic dips, we have posted an average growth rate of more than 8 percent over the last seven years.
Notwithstanding the tremendous pressure of an adverse external environment, our economy today is more resilient and confident. Two decades of steady economic reforms have contributed to improvement in average income and consumption levels in both rural and urban areas. There is new-found dynamism in some of the most backward areas bringing them into national economic mainstream. Yet there are several gaps that need to be bridged. Green revolution has to be extended to the eastern region of our country. Creation of high quality infrastructure has to be fast tracked. Education and health services have to reach the last man at the earliest. Much has been done, a lot more remains to be done.
The monsoon has played truant this year. Large areas of our country are in the grip of drought and some others are devastated by floods. Inflation, particularly food inflation, remains a cause of worry, While our food availability remains healthy, we cannot forget the plight of those who made this possible even in a lean year — our farmers. They have stood by the nation in its need; the nation must stand by them in their distress.
Anger against the bitter pandemic of corruption is legitimate, as is the protest against this plague that is eroding the capability and potential of our nation. There are times when people lose their patience but it cannot become an excuse for an assault on our democratic institutions.
The vigilance on our frontiers has to be matched with vigilance within; we must restore the credibility of those areas of our polity, judiciary, executive and legislature where complacency, exhaustion or malfeasance may have clogged delivery. The people have a right to express their discontent. But we must also understand that legislation cannot be wrenched away from the legislature or justice from the judiciary.
When authority becomes authoritarian, democracy suffers; but when protest becomes endemic, we are flirting with chaos. Democracy is a shared process. We all win or lose together. Democratic temper calls for dignity of behavior and tolerance of contrary views. Parliament will live by its own calendar and rhythm. Sometimes that rhythm sounds a bit atonal; but in a democracy there is always a judgment day, an election. Parliament is the soul of the people, the “Atman” of India. We challenge its rights and duties at our peril. It is a fact of our geopolitical environment that some problems transcend borders. SAARC was created 27 years ago to find solutions through dialogue, and by mutual cooperation create the rapid economic growth that is the only long-term answer to problems like migration and uneven development. SAARC must acquire vigor to fulfill its mandate.
The SAARC should be a major instrument in the common war against terrorists. Great success is possible by international cooperation. All SAARC nations must cooperate to bring to justice those who believe in mayhem against innocents. There is no other way toward peace on the subcontinent.
I am proud of our brave armed forces and our valiant police forces who have done so much at such great personal risk to curb this menace of terrorism. It is their vigilance, which has prevented more havoc. If we sleep in peace it is because they are awake and vigilant in the desolation of desert and mountain and forest; and in the vast loneliness of the seas. I salute their commitment and their patriotism. It is heartening that the armed forces not only guarantee our peace, but also produce medal winners at Olympics. I congratulate all who have done their nation proud at the recently concluded Games, by winning as well as by participating. The number of trophies may not be too large but it is a remarkable improvement upon the last count, Four years later, when I hope to address you again, I am sure, we will celebrate a medals spring.
Peace must be our ideology, progress our horizon.
Jai Hind!
Pranab Mukherjee
President of India
