REIMAGINING SWARAJYA

IT HAS TAKEN OUR NATION 7 DECADES TO TURN BACK TO ITS ROOTS AND RECOGNISE HER GENIUS. FROM 2014 ONWARDS, WE SEE A FRESH PURSUIT OF ‘SWA-RAJ’ IN EVERY ASPECT OF PUBLIC LIFE AND GOVERNANCE. BHARAT IS CHANGING RAPIDLY TO PURSUE THE GOAL SHE IS DESTINED FOR, AS MAHARSHI AUROBINDO HAD PREDICTED, THAT OF BEING THE VISHWA GURU

- RATAN SHARDA

If we go back a little from the current history of the freedom struggle against the British, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the first one to talk about ‘Swaraj’— “Hindavi swarajya vhawe hi Shrinchi Ichihara”—That our motherland becomes a nation ruled by our own, is God’s own will—was the goal he set for his motley group of warriors, a goal that ultimately saw the setting up of the great Maratha empire that ruled from Attock to Cuttack, till we were enslaved again by the British. If he had wished, Shivaji could have lived a comfortable life as a subedar ruling his subjects under the suzerainty of the Mughals, but that would not be swaraj. So, he chose a difficult path of struggle all his life. The fire for swaraj in the hearts of Bharatiyas was never dimmed. New documents coming to light now show us from Kerala to Punjab, from Assam to Maharashtra, to deep forests where our tribal brethren lived, the spark never died down. It was not a quest for self-rule under the overlordship of either Mughals or later British; it was a quest for self-rule based on our eternal values and traditions. It is clear that freedom fighters of every hue—revolutionaries to non-violent—were clear that they wanted ‘swaraj’.