Mutiny

"Aa-za-di" (freedom)..The hindi song from A.R.Rahman's 2005 composition for the Bollywood movie "Bose..the forgotten hero" plays in the background. The words, echo the setiments of millions of Indians fighting for independence from the British Raj. I can sense the pain, agony, the faith and the confidence of the people in the freedom movement.

I wonder what is the motivation for people who fight against colonization, slavery, ignorance, censorship, women rights, racial equality and religious prosecution. What was the renaissance, the industrial revolution, fight against aparthied all about? Can't we hear the echo of freedom struggle there?

Freedom: What is freedom? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to a nation? What does freedom mean to you?

* It is defined as the absence of necessity, coercion (force), or constraint in choice or action. I believe it is the ability to express one's state of mind.It can take various forms, be it social freedom, economic freedom, freedom from repression, freedom to live!

* credits: www.m-w.com

Is freedom a right or a privilege?

I guess it is somewhere in between. Why would we have prisons to punish those who take freedom literally? As mentioned in my earlier post, freedom has various degrees over which it is expressed. It is hard to imagine, but humans were free in the most crudest sense possible. He was free to roam around this earth without fear of boundaries, had the freedom to set up a home where he choose, had the freedom to express pleasure and discomfort as pleased, had the freedom to pursue what he choose to do.

So what has changed since then we got civilized?? Populations of humans over time got clustered. Civilizations are now divided based on races, nationalities and ethinic groups. Each nation has its own set of rules that define its entity as a state. One would assume, that humans would also divide the concept of freedom equally. That doesn't seem to be the case everytime we see an uprising, everytime we see a victim, everytime we argued with our parents, everytime we were victimized. It was as though what we thought was our right was now presented to us as an privilege.

This was just the news around the world today....

A drowning boy struggled against mom says lawyer in the Andrea Yates trial, Tamils in Srilanka fight for their struggle, Clashes broke out in East Timor again,Kuwaitis have begun voting in the first poll in which women are allowed to cast ballots and stand as candidates, In the united states, constitutional amendment to ban flag burning was one of the issues in the senate today.

A boy struggled to live, tamils in srilanka and people of east timor fight for land and equality, Women in kuwait want the freedom to be treated equal, In the united states, people want to decide what to do with the flag of the country they own allegiance to. Which of these struggles was a right and what is a privilege? Who has the authority to decide?

Is there a freedom fighter within each one of us, I ask? I sit here fuzzified.....