On 77th anniversary of independence, we are the fifth largest economy, possess one of the largest military forces, are world’s second largest cement producer, have been able to land a space craft on Moon and are world’s largest milk producer, it would therefore be worthwhile to travel back through the years which led us to freedom and to this stage.
Obviously, British must not have left us like this in a prosperous state, in 1947 and we would have grown slowly but surely.
Some may still cynically dismiss our present achievements, pointing to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia and of course China, as far as per capita income is concerned. But for a country, which in 1947 was amongst the poorest nations of the world, to have reached this milestone in 70 odd years is something we should be proud of.
Surely, this has not happened in just 10 years, it has been a long journey of 78 years, in which we saw rise of, Leftist movements leading to unionism and mass strikes, Naxalite violence, protests against capitalism leading to Nationalisaton of Banks and airlines, the rise of divisive forces that led to numerous separatist movements, Swadeshi cry leading to campaigns against foreign companies/investments and winding up of some foreign investments/companies and so on, but we kept moving forward, negotiating these hurdles - sometimes nudging these forces and sometimes assimilating them and have successfully reached this present state.
On this occasion we must travel back and examine how difficult was the road that we travelled and explore ourselves as to how true this famous Hindi song has turned out to be:
HUM LAAYE HAIN TOOFAN SEY KISHTI NIKAL KEY IS DESH KO RAKHNA MEREY BACCHON SAMBHAAL KEY.
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