Freedom — A misunderstanding
A survey by The Indian Express presented that more than 50% of the first rankers in Class 10th & 12th from the years 1996–2015 are either studying abroad or have settled there. According to government data, around 6.5 Lakh students migrate per annum for higher studies or jobs on average. Most of these students are the top rankers/medalists in their colleges. We can also observe an upward trend in the percentage of these students settling outside India. But what is it that is causing the best young brains of our country to prefer leaving their home soil and taking root elsewhere? There is just a straightforward answer — Freedom.
Today’s generation is increasingly independent compared to the previous one, and this trait is all the more prevalent amongst the brightest. The millennials prefer to live in an environment where they make their choices about love, career, etc., without judgment. For example, people from my generation prefer to have a live-in relationship before committing to marriage and we all know how difficult it is for a non-married couple to find a residence in this country, while this is common when you go outside. The above is one of the smallest examples of how freedom is undermined in our country.
Another significant aspect of this problem is the deep-rooted communalistic turmoil that haunts our country. A man in Uttar Pradesh calmly walks with a trophy in his hand, his daughters’ severed head, as if he has done something which is completely fine; beheading his daughter for having a relationship with someone he disapproved. We live in 2021, but our minds are still shackled to the archaic century-old ideas. Ask any of these so-called crusaders, and they’ll boast about our country’s golden heritage and accommodating culture. But these are the same people who will ask your surname to know your caste and then determine their behavior towards you. I have a friend whose parents asked her to choose between the boy she loved and her family due to the different castes they came from, and this is not a one-off incident; it is everyone’s story.
When our forefathers envisioned our country, they dreamt of a leading superpower that will pave a global growth path. They dreamt of an equal and free country where every person can express themselves without being judged or stereotyped. Therefore, they drafted the same into our backbone, as the world’s longest constitution. But they won’t be happy seeing India as it is now. We live in a country wherein — you protest, and you get beaten, you speak up, and you get beaten, you love someone, and you lose your head. If our culture is ‘so-called’ accommodating, then why do we have love jihad still happening across the country, and why is caste even a sticker that one cannot remove. These communal divides create roadblocks in the life of millennials who don’t share these ideologies but are forced to follow them.
If we are a society that cannot retain our intellectual property, we are doing something wrong. If our brightest minds don’t feel comfortable in their own home, we are doing something wrong. Ancient India was the torchbearer for the world. Indian scholars have giving priceless treasures of knowledge to the global society. From Aryabhata’s ZERO to Ayurveda to Trigonometry, India has contributed a lot to this world. And this was possible because we respected our scholars, scientists, intellectuals and gave them the freedom they needed to pursue their dreams. As Ayn Rand famously preaches in her book, Atlas Shrugged, a society that does not provide the much-needed freedom to its intellectual class will witness its brains running away & a society without its intellectuals is a society doomed to fail. And if we cannot stop this ‘brain drain’ from happening, then our vision for India as a superpower will keep on walking away from us.
A free society attracts the best talent for a mutually beneficial economy. But in this country, freedom is misunderstood as a right to mess with the other person’s freedom, and it is high time we put effort towards correctly understanding this word. Freedom of speech, expression, profession, business, love, etc. But this freedom has to be sometimes protected, even from the government who preaches to protect it, and it is us who have to fight for it. It is our battle, and it will eventually be our victory.