Colonization of different sorts

Free INDIA!

Are we free? Do we breathe in free air? Does out action, our thoughts, our behavior reflect this ultimate feeling of a being? Did we really get freedom on 15 August 1947?

Surely we did, didn't we? Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the tricolor. The British left our soil; we had our own government. We had our own say in every matter that concerned us, the world head us as Indians not as residents in some British colony. Everywhere we saw Indians, not a fellow slave; everywhere we saw Indian industry not a sweat factory churning money to keep the British economy going. Certainly we did.

No we didn’t get freedom on that day and even today we are not free. We got freedom in a limited way, as limited as the face value of the word freedom. We are still under foreign dominance. Though this dominance is not as obvious and conspicuous as it used to be during the days of the Britishers. It’s now subtler, unnoticed.

Do we not realize it, or have we turned a blind eye to it? In fact we have not seen it.

I call it social and economic colonization.

We all, almost all if not all (there are 65.38% of literates), know our national language, know their respective mother tongue. But even then we prefer to converse in a foreign Language. Not that I’m against conversing in this global language one which bridges the gap between linguistically distant people, but that we converse in English every now and then even when the other person knows the national language or the common mother tongue. No doubt language is just a means of communication but why can’t it be the national language or mother tongue.
A subtler sign of social serfdom. Colonization of different sorts.

We have still not come out from highs or should I say lows of seeing that white color on our skin. Don’t we see people of white skin getting a preference for something very trivial? Don’t we prefer a fairer lady for our wife? Doesn’t the fairer one walking by make more heads turn? Our color is brown, but then why aren’t we proud of the color billions of our fellow countrymen share? Those firangi apply all kinds to sun lotions and sit for days in the sun to get tanned. When those friangis do so much to get that shade of brown why are we so shy of it?
A subtler sign of social serfdom. Colonization of different sorts.

Wherever we see we find sign boards for Lee, Levis, Pepe et al.. We feel pride in wearing Loius Phillipe. We feel pride in having a Rolex on our wrist. But we feel shy of wearing khadi, we feel shy of wearing HMT watches.
A subtler sign of economical serfdom. Colonization of different sorts.

Everywhere we see Coca-Cola and Pepsi. If somebody asks us to name a company we think of GE, Microsoft and somewhere towards the end of knowledge queue we hit upon Infosys and Wipro.

Everywhere we see these modern day instruments, tools of colonization and dominance.

A subtler mode of serfdom. Colonization of different sorts.