Our Freedoms: Essays and Stories from India's Best Writers

by Nilanjana Roy

At the end of the day, a constitution is, of course, a document – nothing more. It is neither self-enforcing nor self-executing. If freedom is not practised in society – in our structures and our institutions – the Constitution’s promises will remain promises only. But even in such times, words matter: they matter because they reflect an alternative vision of society, and tell us that the reality need not be a permanent one. If an alternative can be imagined – with words – then it is an alternative that can be created. And also – as I have tried to show in this essay – these words anchor us to our past, to the traditions of freedom and equality that we are heir to. They tell us that we are not alone. They give us a treasure trove of resources to draw upon, and the knowledge that in far more difficult circumstances, Indians (like us) drew upon the language of freedom to shape a different world. And above all else, they tell us that – in the words of the Kenyan poet Christopher Okigbo – the quest for freedom has always been a ‘thirsting for sunlight’: that freedom is a destination that may be impossible to reach, but that the path must be walked nonetheless.