It is 9 August 2024! It is a day pregnant with meaning and will hopefully, always continue to be so! There are some significant anniversaries today and plenty to learn from them! In 1942, Mahatma Gandhi and several of our other Indian freedom fighters launched the ‘Quit India Movement’ which brought India her independence. That very day, Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) was killed by the Nazis in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. In 1945, three days after the horrible atomic bombing on Hiroshima, Nagasaki was also destroyed by another deadly atomic bomb. On ‘World Indigenous Peoples Day’ we remember our Adivasi sisters and brothers and their relentless struggle for identity, dignity and justice! Jai Adivasi! If there is one word that becomes the common denominator for the day is the word ‘Freedom’! The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’!
‘Freedom’! It was a loud, unequivocal clarion call given by Mahatma Gandhi! On 8 August, 1942, at the Bombay session of All India Congress Committee, he introduced the resolution to start a ‘Quit India Movement’. The resolution was unanimously passed at that historic meeting. Later, Gandhi gave a fiery speech at Mumbai's Gowalia Tank Maidan (today known as ‘August Kranti Maidan’) which marked the launch of the Quit India Movement. He said, "there is a mantra, a short one that I give you. You imprint it in your heart and let every breath of yours give an expression to it. The mantra is ‘do or die’. We shall either be free or die in the attempt.”. The next day, on 9 August, the ‘kranti’ had begun; thousands were out on the streets vociferously demanding that the British should leave India immediately and unconditionally! Most of the leaders, who belonged to all strata of society, were arrested (unfortunately, a similar reality is taking place in India today!). On expected lines, the ‘sanghis’ who belonged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) [founded in 1925] were conspicuous by their absence! None of them wanted the British to leave. There is plenty of historical evidence, to show how they pandered to and ‘toed’ the line of their British masters. These are the same people who have seized power and rule the country today with their brand of fascism The people of India cry out in one voice to these anti-national fascists and those who are attempting to destroy the sanctity of the Constitution of the country, to stop terrorising the nation or to ‘quit India’ (many of their kith and kin, have no qualms of conscience leaving India , to study and to even settle permanently abroad; many Gujaratis are indulging in illegal and insidious ways, with human traffickers, to reach foreign shores) so that the real patriotic citizens who truly love the country may enjoy their ‘Freedom’! The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’!
‘Freedom’! That’s what epitomised a woman like Edith Stein. She was a brilliant German philosopher, born on 12 October 1891, in an orthodox Jewish family. In her early years, she was an agnostic: a seeker of the truth! Although Edith Stein had been brought up religiously by her Jewish mother, at the age of 14 she “had consciously and deliberately stopped praying”. She wanted to rely exclusively on herself and was determined to assert her freedom in making decisions about her life. At the end of a long journey, she came to a path-breaking realization: only those who commit themselves to the love of Christ become truly free! This woman had to face the challenges of a radically changing century; just like the times we live in today. Her experience is an example to us. Finally, in 1922, at the age of 30, in full freedom, she embraces Catholicism; twelve years later; she imitated Saint Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She campaigned publicly on issues relating to women’s rights and education and against Nazism. Stein is known primarily for her phenomenological work on empathy, affectivity and philosophical anthropology. In 1942, she was arrested by the Nazis from her Carmelite Monastery in the Netherlands, taken by a cattle train to the concentration camp in Auschwitz and killed in the gas chamber on 9, August 1942! Today, she is revered as a Saint, of the Catholic Church, but by millions more! The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’!
‘Freedom’! A cry of suffering that can be heard from Nagasaki even today. In 1945, on that fateful 9 August, three days after Hiroshima was razed to the ground with the terrible nuclear bomb, the port city of Nagasaki met with exactly the same inhuman tragedy! It was not on the original list of cities, that were meant to be bombed by the US and their allies. It was apparently a last-minute inclusion. Being a shipbuilding centre, it was the industry intended for destruction. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 (exact figures are impossible, the blast having obliterated bodies and disintegrated records). The pain, the suffering, the destruction and the death will forever remain etched in human memory. The nuclear bomb had to be abhorred. Japan soon surrendered unconditionally. World War II ended some weeks later and the world said “Never Again!” Today, we continue to have hate and violence everywhere: in Ukraine and Gaza; the threat of war looms large over Lebanon and other parts of the Middle-East! The military-industrial complex continues to profit with these wars. Our world desperately yearns for non-violence, love and peace. The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’!
‘Freedom’! that’s what the world’s indigenous peoples have been celebrating all their lives. Today, the ‘International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples’. The theme this year is ‘Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact’. Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact are the best protectors of the forest. Where their collective rights to lands and territories are protected, the forests thrive, alongside their societies. Sadly, in India, whilst there is plenty of lip-service are Adivasis are not given their legitimate rights and freedom. Their forests are being taking away from them. The late Jesuit Fr. Stan Swamy (who was institutionally murdered whilst being incarcerated on 5 July 2021) accompanied the Adivasis in their relentless struggle for identity and dignity, for the jal, jungle aur jameen. All this is systematically denied to them, by the mining mafia, the powerful other vested interests. The tribals of Manipur (particularly the Kuki -Zo people) have been facing violence, displacement and hostilities since May 2023. The Adivasis are the original inhabitants of the land, the forests and what they demand today are their legitimate rights to live in a society based on justice, equality and fraternity and in ‘Freedom’! The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’!
The Ninth of August spells ‘Freedom’! Something which became a reality for the people of India on 15 August 1947. Sadly, as we move towards the completion of yet another year since Independence Day, today (9 August) needs to be a motivating factor to one and all to work whole-heartedly for an India (and a world) which commits itself to a society which is more inclusive, secular and pluralistic and based on truth, justice, liberty, equality, dignity and fraternity of all! A freedom which is able to internalise and actualise the motto of our nation ‘Satyameva Jayate’!
Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is an internationally renowned human rights, justice, reconciliation and peace activist/writer. You can get in touch with him at cedricprakash@gmail.com.
