Modern Indian History

After shedding 190 years of colonial subjugation, India became an independent country on 14-15 August, 1947. It was freedom because

Directions: Answer the given question based on the following passage:

At midnight on 14- 15 August, 1947, India shed 190 years of colonial subjugation and became an independent country. In the Durbar Hall of what was to re-christened Rashtrapati Bhawan, Nehru announced India’s tryst with destiny. But only hours later, Indians realized that they had been administered a poisoned pill. Independence came with Partition, and the partition turned out to be a surgical operation without anaesthesia. In Punjab and Bengal the line of separation followed the borders not even of districts but of tehsils. The new lines divided families, separated buyers from sellers and sundered friendships that had endured for generations. People felt betrayed for no one had been consulted; no one had been warned and no one was given a chance to express second thoughts or to reconsider their choice. Partition came with the finality of a hammer blow. Without hope of reprieve, all that people were left with was their anger. And they vented it on the ‘other community’ whom they blamed for their suffering.
What followed has become one of the darker chapters of human history. Millions died. Many millions more were forced to leave their homes and start a new life as destitute in another nation. No two countries were so benighted at birth. It was almost as if in parting the British had done their best to ensure that these independent nations would fail. But India did not fail. Today it is possible to look back and say that India has not only survived but has, in a modest way, flourished.
Borrowing from Amartya Sen, we can justifiably claim that we have successfully made the voyage from independence to freedom. In his thought provoking work Development as Freedom Sen argues that freedom is at once the ultimate goal of all social and economic arrangements and the most efficient means of realizing general welfare. The key to this is ever-widening range of choice. It is the widening capacity to choose—an abode, a place of education, a profession and a way of life—that gives meaning to freedom. It also gives meaning to the very notion of development.
Today there are hosts of statistics that demonstrate our modest yet substantial success. Indians live two and a half times longer than they did at independence; they eat on an average a third more than they did and their diet has become infinitely more varied; they are on an average seven times better off than they were in 1947; and the proportion of Indians below the poverty line has fallen from more than half to less than a quarter. But these capture only the lesser part of our achievement. The more important part is the quiet, virtually unnoticed revolution that has occurred in our thinking.