Today is the 67th independence day of Sri Lanka.
Celebrations are undergoing for the whole day including the state Independence
Day celebration at the capital. While overjoyed Sri Lankans celebrate this
Independent Day, how many of us know the real meaning of Independence. Are we celebrating the Independence on its
broad meaning or just a mere transfer of power from a foreign invader to the
social elite of our country? It is really important to know the answers to
these questions.
The term, independence has a broader meaning. According to
Oxford English Dictionary,
“The condition or quality of being
independent; the fact of not depending on another (with various shades of
meaning: see the adj.); exemption from external control or support; freedom
from subjection, or from the influence of others; individual liberty of thought
or action. Rarely in bad sense: Want of subjection to rightful authority,
insubordination”
Independence is always a controversial topic with divergent
definitions. When analyzing all, we can come to a general idea of independence
as the capacity to act and think on someone’s discretion. Although it is
possible to cage the different notions of independence into the above
definition, in practice, independence means a lot more than individual
discretion. Can independent people act according to their discretion? If not
how can we say that they are independent? Above all how much independence is
independent?
In Sri Lankan context, we say that we gained independence
from the British Empire in 1948. We revere the political and social leaders of
that era as national heroes. Actually what happened in 1948 was the
representatives of the people in Sri Lanka got the sovereign power to enact and
execute laws according to a constitution manifested by the British themselves.
A power transfer is all what we gained at that time but indeed it was the pivotal
moment in the recent Sir Lankan history as the people in Sri Lanka has the
power to govern themselves.
Before the British Empire the Dutch and the Portuguese has
controlled Maritime Provinces of Sri Lanka imposing their will on the subjects
living those areas. Even before that Sri Lanka was subjected to the control of
the South Indian invaders so we can conclude that according to the narrow
concept of recognizing a power-transfer as independence, the people of Sri
Lanka had lost independence occasionally to foreign powers. The written chronicles
of Sri Lankan history start with King Wijaya settling down in the island of
Ceylon which was considered as the beginning of Sinhala nation. There were
communities with advanced economic and social system living at that time. They had
the power to decide the matters of the island according to their discretion.
King Wijaya was the one who ended that so in the perspective of the natives of
Ceylon, their independence was lost. Were those native tribes independent? Was
there a loss of independence or just a power-transfer from one community to
another making the latter the masters of the others while the discretionary
powers of the former getting lost.
The further we think of the endless wars, sharing-hands of
cities and countries the further we get lost in the abyss of the definition of
independence. The concept of independence will definitely be a utopian one if
the free will to do anything we need without the slightest interference from
any entity is incorporated. The above utopian independence actually exists in
the wild at least among the non-social animal species. For example a bear can
freely roam in its territory and invade others’ (of course with severe repercussions).
It can lead a solitary life. Eat, sleep, hunt and mate at his discretion. This privilege
is not for all the animals as the communal animals can’t act on their own. It can
then be clearly seen that no absolute individualistic independence is possible
for most animals including humankind but among many species a collective
independence which was expanding and contracting continuously can be seen.
Sri Lanka, as a nation, enjoys collective independence. It
means the people as a whole can act collectively at their will. It can also be
similar to the sovereignty of the people. Although Sri Lankans, as a nation be
independent from the outside influence at least in theory, is every individual
citizen independent from each other economically, socially and politically? No.
Economic dependency is the cornerstone in human civilization. Even
self-sufficient villages have economic-intra-dependency among its villagers. Modern
economy needs an army of interdependent entities working like fine clockwork to
run the system smoothly. If citizen can do whatever they want, anarchy will
rule and the law of the jungle will prevail in more brutal way than it is
established in the modern society. Independent thinking is a topic for hot
debates. People insist on independent thinking while contributing to
controlling our thinking. What they don’t know is our ideas are based on the
notions what we get from others. A clear independency can’t be found on any of
the so-called independent ideas.
While lot of questions remains, the existing question list
may go on forever. If we want to get totally independent, we need to lead a
self-sufficient solitary life not affected by others. According to Hermann
Hesse, ‘Solitude is independence’. Indeed it is correct but in practice, we
surely can’t live in complete isolation.
The concept of independence is misused everywhere. It is
very important to understand that getting the power to govern a country for its
citizens in really not the total independence. We can’t be independent in this
inter-connected world. Humans don’t need to get independent at all because, it
is against the true nature of the humankind. What we need is a relative level
of privacy in deeds and thoughts. The threshold of privacy may vary from
society to society, country to country so it is really difficult thing to
exactly pinpoint what really it is. As a human, (Most of the homosapien sapiens
around me might have a contrary idea) I don’t believe in independence but a
controlled grant of privacy for man because, the complete independence will
shake the very foundation of human existence.
