Happy Independence Day, India!

@pumpkinjam Yes corruption restricts many things. Fair competition, proper growth and development and economic progress. This is quite interesting that your Dad was born in that very same year. As a side note, many British citizens too supported India's freedom struggle, directly or indirectly.

@pumpkinjam, And thank you so much from our country. I think it's 78th Independence Day - 1948 being the first year. And happy birthday to your dad from me. Anyway, you are right. Minus the corruption, let alone India, but the picture of the entire world would be quite different. But the problem is worldwide. It exists almost everywhere. And as you said, it's volume varies only. In some countries the corruption is huge, and in some countries it is comparatively less. Though a lot of rules and regulations are being made to fight corruption, it is after all the people who make the rules. That's why it's quite easy to break them as well. In our lifetime we aren't going to see corruption free world.

@abhi_bangal Plus the teachings and writings of Modern age thinkers and philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Marx and Frederick Engels inspired Nehru and other leaders in the Freedom struggle. I believe that the handling of partition and later the Kashmir issue did had a lot lacking, but I think the leaders at that time had many constraints as well. Let's not go on unduly criticizing leaders of the past but working on improving the future.

Thank you so much for your lovely wishes You too have a nice day!

@abhi_bangal You're welcome. Thank you very much.

@abhi_bangal Yes and the next few years could be a decisive factor in the longer term future of the country.

@abhi_bangal As of now, India is having a favorable demographic equation. The working age group is rising (between 15 to 45 years of age) and it would rise further for at least next 15 years. Now if this potential is harnessed well, India can have an accelerated and all around growth, potentially leading India to Middle Income Group categorization or beyond in the next 20 years or so. This would come even with obstacles and even some kind of minor wars with neighbors. On the other hand, if appeasement of all forms are followed. Policies of Freebies, neglecting Health and Education sectors are followed, Caste and other discrimination abound, this favorable demography can turn negative and we could in the worse case even have a form of Civil war. So I have an intuition that the next 5 to 7 years are very crucial. So either we succeed together as a nation or we fail. Simple.

You have absolutely hit the nail on its head. There was a lot of struggle to win this freedom. It has come at cost by having to sacrifice the lives of the freedom fighters. We mostly wanted to go the non violence way and that could be one of the reasons that we had lost millions of people to achieve this freedom. And this was one of the powerful ways to achieve what the country's main aim was. Yes, Partition was and will always remain a sad story in the Independence chapter of India. It was that thing that no one wanted but still It all happened. As far as the future is concerned, it now remains to be seen how the younger generation looks forward to it. It's in their hands. And one thing is good that the new generation is gaining a lot of knowledge thanks to the explosion of information and technology. So let's hope we can see some new picture that lies entirely in the hands of the new generation.

@RevivedWarrior Yes and hopefully we would see continuous growth and at a certain point, we would see a big movement against corruption and lawlessness. I can already see some restlessness.