GRAVITY WEEKLY REFLECTION

He has the right to vote, but suffered from Mass voter deletions. Is he truly free?

Citizens who are free in an independent nation

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

He is free because he has the right to vote. He has the right to choose his representative. He is free because he lives in a democratic, independent nation. But is he free when the corruptness of the nation takes away his rights, his freedom to choose and vote, when he was bribed, or his name was deleted from the voter registration list?

Is he free when he has his voter ID in his hands, and it is now invalid on the Day of the election?

A girl is free; she has the right to education. But is she truly free when her Father doesn’t believe in education and wants her to get married? She fights with the family and goes to school. But the School has no trained teachers to teach her. The school has no financial support for the infrastructure.

A young boy wants to be an engineer. He is entitled to free education until he is 14 years old, but his Father is poor. He works in a factory. The Worker has 2 more children, and it’s hard to survive on his daily wages, so the children also work in the factory. Is the boy still free to go to school?

A woman comes home late at night after a long Day at work. On her way back home, she is rapped in the Bus. Is she free? Can she even think she is safe? Who guarantees her safety?

A mother doesn’t allow her girl to wear shorts. She says it’s dangerous. Why are the people in the nation turning dangerous? What are their values? Are they not educated on protecting a woman instead of molesting her? Respecting a woman instead of abusing her. Why are dangerous people more than the safe people?

We eat fruits, vegetables, seeds, and grains. A farmer who grows them lives a simple life and works hard in the fields. A life that is so unpredictable. He is in debt but not educated enough to learn about the policies on how the government can help. Unable to seek help from any sources, he decides it’s better if he ends his life instead. Is he free? Is he truly free to live a life not under the constant stress of his loans, farming costs, or the weather? Does he get the financial security he deserves?

What is freedom?

To speak, act, and make decisions without any limitations or interference from anyone. To do whatever your heart desires.

Everyone has a different definition of Freedom. This is just mine.

For a little child, freedom lets him touch, feel, or eat anything he wants.

For a kid in school, freedom is not doing homework when he doesn’t want to, but going to play instead.

For a woman who wants to get married, freedom lets her choose her life partner herself.

We think that a particular family is orthodox, and it doesn’t allow the girls to go out at night. But it’s not just about this one particular family, who is taking away freedom.

Freedom is taken away slowly, so that you don’t even realize and accept it as the way of life.

It’s taken layer by layer, just like the complexity and nuance of this topic.

As Sourojit Das said, “We are not in Chains, we are often in Patterns.”

We say we are not a part of politics, we are not interested in political stuff. But it’s the politics that make us who we are. It controls us. And we run from it, but we are a part of it.

I don’t know how I can define freedom in a nation. Because it just cannot be defined in a few lines. Freedom has its history, past, present, and future.

Freedom is vast and deeply complex.

Independence and Freedom can look alike but are different from one another. You may be independent, know how to manage your household, and have financial stability, but it doesn’t come with total freedom.

For example, you are earning in a firm, but you don’t have the freedom to work as you like. You have to keep in mind what the Boss wants, what the colleague says, and how the Rules are.

On a closing note,

A few words by Nelson Mandela

“Freedom without civility, freedom without the ability to live in peace, was not true freedom at all.”

This reflection is shared as part of The Gravity Weekly Reflection, with thanks to

Smriti Pathak Supriya Parvathi J Monika Mahadev ShubhamAgrawal Ravinimbus

Thank you Sourojit Das for tagging me 😊

Some friends I would love to read from

Kavitha Gowthaman Lalindra Katarina B. Praveen Dr. Abhinav Majumder Golam Mohiuddin Turtie Harshit Larry Kim Zulqarnain Rishita Sharma💗