Are We Independent? : Independence Day Special

Today is the 67^th 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.