It’s been 73 years since India became an independent nation. Ask a kid around you today. Do they feel free? Do their minds feel free? Do they feel free to voice their thoughts? Do they feel free to be themselves? That’s right, the freedom struggle continues even in 2020.
by Sweta Sarkar
We were wrapping up Independence Day celebrations at school early in the morning when I saw Priya (name changed) sitting on the steps, with no intention of heading home.
Something is always up when students hang around in the school when it’s an early dismissal. I walked up to her and before I could ask, she looked up with genuine confusion all over her face, “Didi, what does freedom mean to you?”
That came out of nowhere but anyway, I always love and encourage good questions. I paused, sat next to her, collecting my thoughts.
“Freedom to me means, having a choice, no boundaries to my thoughts, having a voice, and being heard with no judgments.”
I could see Priya not content with my answer. It seemed like I confused her more.
“What is freedom to you?”, I asked her.
“I don’t know, Didi. I’ve been trying really hard to think of a time when I felt that sense of freedom. I couldn’t, which is why I asked you, whether you are able to feel it or not. ”
She sounded powerless and worried. I decided to spend more time hearing her out. ” So what do you feel, then?”
“I feel suffocated, I am mostly asked to shut up when I try speaking up. I have been only following instructions either from my family or from the teachers in school.
I hate that I have to give respect to my aunt who frequently visits my home, instigates my mother, tells her that allowing me to continue with education is a big mistake and that I would bring shame to the family. I force myself to be nice to her.
Didi, I have been asking for a geometry box from my father for a month now, but yesterday, he got my brother a smartphone. It makes me angry. My brother gets to spend his evenings outside, while I have to wash utensils and prepare dinner for everybody. My brother spends time watching TV after dinner, I am again cleaning dishes, and then by 11 pm, I get to sit and finish my homework.
Last Monday I couldn’t finish my homework at night, English teacher assumed that I was lazy and asked me to leave the class, without hearing me out. Nobody is listening. I do not feel free today or any day Didi.”
I was processing every word she said. I asked her, “How long have you been feeling this way?” She said, without having to think, “Didi, pretty much the last 14 years of my life.”
Priya has been a student at my school for a year. Until now she hasn’t gotten a space to share all of the above out loud with anybody at school.
What’s the point of school, if our students cannot express these complex feelings. This conversation with Priya 5 years ago made me rethink how I want students to feel when they are in school.
But coming back to freedom, it’s been 73 years since India became an independent nation. Ask a kid around you today. Do they feel free? Do their minds feel free? Do they feel free to voice their thoughts? Do they feel free to be themselves? Ask that today and hear what they have to say.
India in its 73rd year of being an independent nation has started to see a wave of forced nationalism, forced patriotism. You don’t think so?
Try asking a question or criticizing the government. There is this sudden urge to teach our kids ‘true patriotism’. But then patriotism is a feeling I have towards my country.
Are we again going to tell children and force them how to feel? Do you teach happiness? Do you teach anger? Do you teach inspiration?
No, as an educator I do not teach these feelings, I create experiences that would help our students to feel all of the above. I am absolutely nobody to tell any child or adult how they should feel, yes but I do get to tell them how they could acknowledge, share, manage, rationalize, and resolve those feelings. That’s my role as an educator or an adult around children.
How can we approach the freedom struggle today
I think we have lost our way in 2020.
What India needs isn’t patriotism. It needs to root itself back to the Indian Constitution. The Constitution was inspired by public participation in the mass movement of the freedom struggle. How are we forgetting that?
This beautiful document gives us the vision for a just and equal society that India deserves and has fought for it. This shouldn’t be reserved for the lawmakers of this country only.
The Constitution of India is for you, me, our children, for all.
We say this a lot, children are the future of this country. Do you truly believe in it? And if you do, what are you doing about it?
If children in the 21st century grow up to be polarised, oppressed members of the society who are compliant to injustice, and become the perpetrators of inequality, it’s going to be on you and me.
Don’t teach them patriotism today, teach them Liberty, Justice, Equality, and Fraternity.
Allow their curiosity to go on a roll, let them ask difficult questions. You might feel attacked, keep your adult ego aside and explore that answer together.
Don’t force your opinions on them. Help them navigate unbiased information so that they can frame their own opinion. Be okay, with them having a different opinion. Don’t shut down channels of communication. Talk more about that difference in opinion.
The world is their classroom, not just their school. The dining table is a classroom. The living space while watching TV is their classroom. The kitchen where they mostly see the female members enter is their classroom. The playground is their classroom.
When you see the world through their desperate learning eyes, you’d know that they are much more just and equal in their mind and soul.
This Independence Day as we celebrate the contributions of the Indian Freedom Movement, let’s also start thinking of the way forward. What is going to be our second freedom struggle movement? On the 100th Independence Day, I’d love to see students like Priya feel a true sense of freedom in our independent country.
Is the path towards a just and an equal country hard? Oh, very!
Is it possible? Yes.
Happy Independence day!!
Sweta Sarkar is an engineer by academics but an educator by profession. She has spent close to a decade working in the development sector, primarily the education space. She is the Co-Founder and School Leader at iTeach Schools, a chain of transformational PPP model schools that provides free access to secondary education to the most under-resourced students in Pune. She strongly believes in the power of voice.
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