How old is India?
15 August 2007 @ 12 : 01 amOpen the newspaper or switch on the TV or tune into the radio and you just can't miss the patriotic fervour that is blaring out loud. Be it a "special supplement" with "leader articles" by "eminent personalities" or a "multi-national" opinion poll about the "state of the nation at 60", they are all centred on one theme : India is now 60 years old!
Is India really only 60 years old? For crying out loud, my grandfather is over 60! And what about the martyrs like Tiruppur Kumaran and Bhagat Singh who gave up their lives well before 1947. Were they not Indians? Going even further back in history, what was the nationality of Ashoka, Raja Puru (aka Porus) and Akbar?
Is the end of the Raj The defining moment in our history? Do 190 years of colonisation and the subsequent overthrowing of the colonial power warrant the forgetting of the glorious past that preceded it? Infact, I am sure no country apart from ours does so. Have you ever heard of Egypt, which got its independence from Britain in 1922, claim it's only 85 years old? Or did France begin to exist only after the Third Reich was vanquished?
Is it merely a publicity gimmick by the media? Or have I taken the words "Armchair Critic" too seriously? Food for thought indeed.
But anyway 60 or 5000, Happy Independence Day to all!
1 person has commented
Varsha said :
France came into existence after the women were allowed to vote. How about that? :D
on 18 September 2007 @ 09 : 51 pm
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