Every year, we celebrate our independence day to remember our freedom struggles and to commemorate our freedom. However, is our country truly free? Have we actually attained freedom?
We were all once ruled by the foreigners; they enslaved us and there were certain individuals all around the nation who refused to obey to their commands. Many of them refused to submit to the oppression and they awakened the masses. And after many such years of struggles and sacrifices, when we all came together and stood as one, we won the battle and the foreigners left our country. And so, we believe we have attained our freedom and we believe our country is independent.
But have we ever thought about why the foreigners enslaved us, how long they ruled us, what they plundered from us, what they imposed on us, how they changed our lives, and why and when they granted our freedom?
Didn’t they enslave us to loot our country’s natural resources? Didn’t they rule us just to exploit the wealth of our country through the labor of our people?
And weren’t many of their infrastructural developments that were advertised as development projects and disguised in the purpose of serving us, actually planned to serve the foreigners so that they could loot our resources conveniently, continuously and swiftly? Weren’t we all taxed to compensate the cost of governing, so that we could be controlled to work for their needs?
Didn’t they assess our huge population as a massive market opportunity? Didn’t they cultivate foreign and white fascination within our minds so that they could make continuous profits by selling us the goods made with our resources and labour?
Didn’t they purposefully impose their agricultural methodologies as modern agriculture and their medical treatments as scientific medicine so that the superior narratives would support their business motives? Didn’t they cultivate an inferior mentality towards our traditional medical systems just because they were actually limiting their profits?
Wasn’t education just a comfortable tool for them to impose their language on us, for them to implant their viewpoints in our minds? And weren’t we all educated just enough to acquire the knowledge and skills required to fulfill their wishes and work for their motives and commands?
Weren’t job opportunities created just to carry out the works they wanted to accomplish? Didn’t they provide jobs, promotions and prizes only to those among us who thought, behaved and worked like them? And didn’t they empower the very few among us just to implement their orders and commands?

After our Independence, have we all walked away from the influences imposed on us by the foreigners? Have we freed our minds from the perspectives the foreigners forced on us? Have we re-developed the pride we had for our beliefs, cultures and lifestyles? Have they returned everything that was stolen from us, or anything that was stolen from us? Or at least, have they stopped looting us?
Isn’t it true that all of our natural resources are being plundered even today? Aren’t they still abusing our resources via our labour after so many years of independence? Isn’t it true that the majority of development projects being planned and implemented today indirectly assist them in conveniently and rapidly plundering our resources and labour? Even today, aren’t our taxes mainly spent on our governance rather for our benefits?
Aren’t we still living with a craze for the English language? Aren’t we all still fascinated towards the English lifestyle? Isn’t our country still the largest marketplace in the world? Don’t we still hold the opinions forced on us against our traditional agricultural practices? And don’t we all follow the so-called modern agriculture that exists only to profit the businesses? Don’t we still feel irrational about our medical knowledge that helped us to stay healthy and don’t we all still believe the profit-oriented English medicine as the only scientific medical system?
Aren’t we all still educated in their language and in the scientific viewpoints? Aren’t we all still learning just the knowledge and skills necessary to work for them? Even now, aren’t we all working to fulfill their wishes directly or indirectly? And isn’t it true that our powers are used only to follow the orders from our higher authorities?
Didn’t the foreigners grant us freedom only after accomplishing everything they have planned; only after training our generations to continue doing everything they were doing and only after changing our minds to work for them?
Is being governed and controlled the by our fellow countrymen in the same way the British were governing us, called Freedom? Is travelling in the same footsteps the British influenced us to travel called Freedom?
If not, aren’t we all made to believe that we are free when we actually are not free?
Do we celebrate our Independence Day because we are free? Or, is the Independence Day celebrated to make us believe that we are free by emotionally manipulating us with the freedom struggles, sacrifices and the so-called victory?
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