Independence Day reads

  1. Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express asks the question in the aftermath of the Gorakhpur incident: Are we, at 70, a nation without common decency, common practicality and basic compassion?
  2. “It is possible to argue that the Indian national movement has been the greatest achievement of the Indian people,” writes Irfan Habib in Outlook. “Like all revolutionary movements it had modest beginnings...”
  3. The IndiaSpend team compares India’s 70 independent years to five other countries in its geographical or economic neighbourhood, looking at everything from life expectancy to forest cover.
  4. “Each man was like a celebratory sweet that day, with a flag rising from his heart. The yoke of slavery was gone. Each one on the street was a free citizen, like the next, and the one next. Pawned for centuries, their self-esteem had been redeemed by Gandhi the Mahatma,” Outlook carries excerpts of Krishna Sobti’s recollections of the very first Independence Day.
  5. Nayanjot Lahiri in Open recounts the story of what Partition meant for India and Pakistan’s connection to the countries’ distant past, at Indus Valley sites on both sides of the newly formed border.
  6. “Idealism and ideology are cousins. In normal times, they check each other’s excesses,” writes Ashis Nandy in Outlook. “But, these are not normal times in India.”
  7. R Sukumar in the Hindustan Times reminds us that India is not just a country of jugaads, and has indeed birthed proper innovations, some of which have found global acceptance.
  8. “If one is to pick a target to blame it should not be Modi and the BJP but the Gandhi family dynasty and its Congress Party that, having successfully led India into independence and beyond, has failed in the past 15 years to adapt to the aspirations of a changing India,” writes John Elliot at Riding the Elephant.
  9. Hirsh Sawhney, in the Times Literary Supplement, puts together a reading list for Partition, one that does not shy away from revealing the true horror and the pathos of that momentous, tragic time in history.
  10. “Cricket is the most frivolous legacy of the partition but it’s also more potent. Money, fame, you can just slaughter the other without resorting to machetes and for years dine out on the stats and replays,” writes Mohammed Hanif in Al Jazeera. “But a citizen who is afraid of being suspected of disloyalty for showing his patriotism? That probably is the true legacy of partition.”

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