My Nation My Pride

My Independence Day Speech At School

This article covers the brief history of our past, our struggle for freedom, a few heroes who put their life on the line for freedom, our rise to greatness post the Independence and the future possibilities of ours not just being a Great Nation but the Greatest Nation on this planet.

 
The read time is 10 minutes and I hope my thoughts will echo with yours since we all love our nation equally well.
 
We have always been a great culture, one that is guided by the teachings from our epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata, one that is comprised of peace loving people, one that is open to scientific progress and one that believes in the happiness for the entire world. We have for long been a set of truth seekers that wanted humanity to find a way for a happy living. As such, our way of life is all about peace and harmony.

 
There was a time in history when our land was comprised of many smaller countries. Although the shape of the map kept changing, what remained constant was our outlook about life.

We always contributed to the world, let it be with the "Zero" as the foundation of mathematics, or with the "Infinite" as the doorway to understanding The Universe.

 
There is a saying that the start of History was never documented and the document of history never ends. I would like to discuss the period of history that laid the foundation for us to become the great nation that we are today.
 
We were always a rich country, a country made up of many countries. It was our spices that attracted the world, so much so that gold and silver started pouring in. Our wealth attracted the European businessmen. The Portuguese, French and the British came for trade, built alliances with the smaller Kingdoms, offered them military assistance, created the infighting and seized the power. Slowly, the British, with the power of gunpowder, gained hold of the larger Kingdoms and progressed towards absolute control. Over a period of time we were colonized and became the hardworking wealth generators for these foreign forces in our own country.

 
But, not everyone agreed to bow down. A great woman rose to the occasion during the rebellion of 1857. She did not want the British to decide who holds power in our land. She proclaimed “We fight for independence, if we are victorious we will enjoy the fruits of victory, if defeated and killed on our field of Battle, we shall surely earn Eternal Glory and Salvation”. She valiantly fought them till her last breath on the battlefield. Although Jhansi Lakshmi Bai did not win the battle, she won eternal Glory, as she was the one to instill the idea of Independence among the people of our country.

 
This desire for freedom has been expressed by many great freedom fighters, both in words and action, in either peaceful or rebellious ways. Alluri Sitaramaraju moved from peaceful protesting to war against the British, as he thought "They are more likely to understand violence than peace". He said “Freedom is not to beg for, but has to be attained by expending blood". He declared Independence for the entire region where he lived. He also insisted that the British Law must not be followed and neither their taxes be paid. He made an army of rebels, primarily consisting of the oppressed tribals in that area, attacked the British Police Stations and confiscated their weapons. He valiantly fought the British army and inflicted six times as much damage to them in the battle. Unable to tackle him, thinking that they would suffer significant damage at war with him, the British called him for negotiations, tied him to a tree and shot him dead. Alluri remained a great inspiration for many more freedom fighters that followed later, as they say "Greatness Never Dies".

 
The idea of freedom was time and again carried forward by one or the other. A 15 year old boy, who rebelled against the British was punished with 15 whiplashes. After that incident, he declared that he is free for life from foreign rule and named himself Azad. He resolved to fight the British and vowed that he would never be caught again in his life. He stuck to the promise on both fronts, Chandrasekhar Azad fearlessly fought the British and also remained uncaught alive, as he saved the last bullet for himself.

 
Freedom, they say is not a one time achievement but a sustained requirement for life. No matter the ideologies of attaining it were different, but the goal for every freedom fighter remained the same, which was Independence. Mahatma Gandhi, led a peaceful and non violent movement against the British and we attained our Independence on 15th August 1947. It was a great moment of joy for all of us. Of all the freedom fights in the history of mankind till then, our Independence was the only one that was attained peacefully. It also gave India an identity of a peaceful country and to our people, a recognition as peace lovers, who want to live and let live.

 
The goal of freedom had been achieved, but building a nation was the next significant priority. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was instrumental in bringing all the smaller States together. He believed that India should be a land with one continuous map, so as to eliminate the possibility of any further infighting. This perhaps, is an idea of great importance which led us to become the strong Nation that we are today.

 
We progressed from strength to strength ever since. In the 73 years of freedom, we placed ourselves among the top three in the world in terms of Gold Reserves, Railways, Electricity Production, Steel Production, Coal Production, Mobile Phone Use and Television Broadcast.

 
Nature blessed us with the right climatic conditions for farming and we are the number one in producing many crops. We are also the largest producers of milk in the world and the number one in creative fields like film production and cinema admissions. We also have the world’s largest active Military Troops.

 
We are the second largest population on earth, one in every seven humans on this planet is an Indian. Population growth too, is a symbol of progress, since the society as a whole is thriving.

 
There is an Indian in every great organization of the world. Our very own school has nurtured a few of the finest Leaders, who steered their Companies to be among the best in the world. Thanks to our education system, we are excelling in information technology and are the prime resource for the entire world. Our space exploration has reached so far as Mars.

 
We did well in Sports too. In 1983, we beat the British in their own country, at a game that they invented and went on to win the Cricket World Cup. The highest run maker on this planet is also ours, the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar. Time and again, we have excelled in various Sports. From a population consisting of a majority of impoverished and undernourished people, we transformed ourselves to the strong people that we are today, all in 73 years. Thanks to the availability of nutritious diet, the day is not far when every gold podium in each sport will belong to us.

 
We, as a country, have a bright future. I see our nation can pave the path for the world, towards a better life, a life that includes democratic freedom, religious and cultural freedom, freedom of speech and expression. With our scientific progress, we contribute to the world and show them the way to freedom to abundant food, freedom to great health and freedom for a happier living.

 
In the near future, everything we need will be made locally, right from every grain of food that we eat, to every vaccine that we need, from every microprocessor that we use, to every byte of digital data that we store, making our independence absolute and true to its meaning.
 
My heart fills with pride every time I think of my nation and our contribution to the world. Ours is a wonderful country. Jai Hind.