On August 15, 1947, India freed itself from the British colonial yoke after a long fight and in tragic circumstances since the Partition of the Indian subcontinent, which preceded independence, caused millions of deaths. Today is a time for celebrations and reckoning in New Delhi. The magazine India Today, close to the current power, commissioned an opinion poll to find out what the Indians think of their country today. Result: a shower of praise for the Prime Minister.
“India has been through multiple crises and continues to be in dire straits on many fronts, but [la] personal popularity [de Narendra Modi] remains intact. It is apparently insulated against shock by an unquantifiable element that can only be described as an aura.”
The disunited opposition and the charisma of Narendra Modi would therefore make us forget inflation, community tensions and the initial mismanagement of the Covid.
In Calcutta, the daily The Telegraph is much more critical. In his columns, the historian and writer Ramachandra Guha evokes “a free nation, but an enslaved people”. According to him, India is no longer even just a formal democracy because “Parliament, the press, the civil service, etc., have become so inefficient or so corrupt that they offer little or no check on the excesses of the ruling party. In recent years, the Indian state has become much more ruthless in its crackdown on dissent […] The Indians are less than politically free, and far less than socially free.”
“Seventy-five years after the departure of the British from these shores, our society remains deeply hierarchical. In 1950, the Indian Constitution banned discrimination based on caste and sex, but they continue with great force […] Perhaps most disturbing of all is the demonization of Indian Muslims in word and practice.”
Furthermore, corruption is rampant while unemployment is very high. For Ramachandra Guha, there is a gap between India’s “promise and potential”.
Rather than take stock of the failures since 1947, the magazine Down to Earthlargely devoted to ecological and social issues, decided to look at ten villages and districts across India “where people have worked to radically improve their lot through better solutions for drinking water and sanitation”. In the same vein, the weekly news Outlook gave the floor to “ordinary people who have chosen the spirit of freedom to break chains and give strength to others”.
Among the Indians honoured, Swagat Thorat, who translates popular novels and short stories from Marathi and Hindi into Braille, Olga Vaz, singer from Goa known for her sarcastic anti-government texts, or Aqsa Shaikh, doctor and activist trans. Highlighting their backgrounds is also a way for the media, whose freedom is increasingly threatened, not to leave the celebrations of independence in power. A way to exercise a little more independence so hard-won.