A Journey Unfinished

India@75 has much to celebrate but the full range of freedoms available to elites eludes most

- Raghuram Rajan

 It is 75 years since India became free of British rule. There is certainly much to celebrate. Anniversaries, however, are also times to take stock, to set the course for the next few decades. What more do we have to do to be truly independent, to be truly free?

The Partition riots that accompanied independence were a monumental tragedy that indelibly marked our birth as a nation. It was not clear then that India would survive as a country, let alone a democratic one, whether the peoples of our various states would feel a sense of national unity and purpose that overcame the religious, caste, language and socioeconomic identities that differentiated them. Most citizens were poor and illiterate, unequal economically and socially. Political freedom was most valued by the elite, who could slip into the roles vacated by the colonial administration.

Yet, against all odds, India has survived as a unified democratic country. That remarkable achievement owes much to our early leaders, who put in place democratic practices and made them into traditions.