Is 15th August just a holiday?

As teachers we are the ones who teach our students the importance of national festivals but it is important to do a cross check whether our students and ofcourse we are fulfilling our duty by celebrating such days or do we really value the importance of such days.

15th August 1947 was a great day but 15th August2008,does it mean the same or its not same

There is huge gap between what we practice and what we preach.

Inorder to make my idea clearer I present the following information and then invite my fellow teachers and students to express their views.

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again."
Jawahar Lal Nehru

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Preamble
WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a _1[SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC] and to secure to all its citizens:
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity;
and to promote among them all
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the _2[unity and integrity of the Nation];
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO OURSELVES THIS CONSTITUTION.


The Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties are sections of the Constitution of India that prescribe the fundamental obligations of the State° to its citizens and the duties of the citizens to the State. These sections comprise a constitutional bill of rights and guidelines for government policy-making and the behaviour and conduct of citizens. These sections are considered vital elements of the constitution, which was developed between 1947 and 1949 by the Constituent Assembly of India.
The Fundamental Rights are defined as the basic human rights of all citizens. These rights, defined in Part III of the Constitution, apply irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed or gender. They are enforceable by the courts, subject to specific restrictions.
The Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines for the framing of laws by the government. These provisions—set out in Part IV of the Constitution—are not enforceable by the courts, but the principles on which they are based are fundamental guidelines for governance that the State is expected to apply in framing and passing laws.
The Fundamental Duties are defined as the moral obligations of all citizens to help promote a spirit of patriotism and to uphold the unity of India. These duties—set out in Part IV–A of the constitution—concern individuals and the nation. Like the Directive Principles, they are not legally enforceable.


FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

The Fundamental Rights embodied in the Indian constitution acts as a guarante that all Indian citizens can and will lead their lifes in peace as long as they live in Indian democracy. These civil liberties take precedence over any other law of the land. They include individual rights common to most liberal democracies, such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, freedom of religion, and the right to constitutional remedies for the protection of civil rights such as habeas corpus.

In addition, the Fundamental Rights for Indians are aimed at overturning the inequities of past social practices. They have also been used to in sucessfully abolishing the "untouchability"; prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth; and forbid trafficking in human beings and also the forced labor. They go beyond conventional civil liberties in protecting cultural and educational rights of minorities by ensuring that minorities may preserve their distinctive languages and establish and administer their own education institutions.

Originally, the right to property was also included in the Fundamental Rights; however, the Forty-fourth Amendment, passed in 1978, revised the status of property rights by stating that "No person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law." Freedom of speech and expression, generally interpreted to include freedom of the press, can be limited "in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence"

Here we have defined the six fundamental rights as per the constitution of India:-

1. Right to Equality
2. Right to Particular Freedom
3. Cultural and Educational Rights
4. Right to Freedom of Religion
5. Right Against Exploitation and
6. Right to Constitutional Remedies


FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES

These Fundamental rights have been provided at the cost of some fundamental duties. These are considered as the duties that must be and should be performed by every citizen of India. These fundamental duties are defined as:

It shall be the duty of every citizens of India: -
• To abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the National Flag and the National Anthem;
• To cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom;
• To uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;
• To defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;
• To promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;
• To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;
• To protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;
• To develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;
• To safeguard public property and to abjure violence;
• To strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement.


India’s Freedom Struggle

The term "Indian independence movement" is diffuse, incorporating various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both Nonviolent and Militant philosophy and involved a wide spectrum of Indian political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British Colonial Authority as well as other colonial administrations in the Indian subcontinent. The initial resistance to the movement can be traced back to the very beginnings of Colonial Expansion in Karnataka by the Portuguese in the 16th century and by the British East India Company in Northern India, in the middle and late 1700s. The mainstream movement from the latter part of the 1800s was increasingly led by the Indian National Congress with prominent moderate leaders seeking only their basic rights to appear for civil services examinations and more rights, economic in nature, for the people of the soil. They used moderate methods of prayer, petition and the press(3p's). Beginning of early 1900s saw a more radical approach towards political independence proposed by leaders as the Lal Bal Pal and Sri Aurobindo. Militant nationalism also emerged in the first decades, culminating in the failed Indo-German Pact and Ghadar Conspiracy during the World War I. The end of the war saw the Congress adopt the policies of nonviolent agitation and civil disobedience led by Mahatma Gandhi. Other leaders, such as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, later came to adopt a military approach to the movement. The World War II period saw the peak of the movements like INA movement led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from East Asia and Quit India movement.
India remained a Dominion of The Crown till 26 January 1950, when it adopted its Constitution to proclaim itself a Republic. Pakistan proclaimed itself a Republic in 1956 but faced a number of internal power struggles that has seen suspensions of democracy. In 1971, the Pakistani Civil War culminating in the 1971 War saw the splintering-off of East Pakistan into the nation of Bangladesh.
The independence movement also served as a major catalyst for similar movements in other parts of the world, leading to the eventual disintegration and dismantling of the British Empire and its replacement with the Commonwealth of Nations. Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent resistance inspired the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the quest for democracy in Myanmar led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the African National Congress's struggle against apartheid in South Africa led by Nelson Mandela. However not all these leaders adhered to Gandhi's strict principle of nonviolence and nonresistance



Above information mainly deals with India’s freedom struggle and final achievement of rights and duties.
Getting right to rule ourselves according to our wish was achieved,but now after such great work done by our freedom fighters have we become complacent?
Do we really value our past?
I have observed Independence day is a day when we can relax,meet our relatives ,sleep,play with our children.Even thinking about India looks distant ,being a teacher I feel we can really do some great work to change this attitude and we should spend atleast an hour by doing something good for the country on that day like-Planting a tree,teaching an uneducated person, picking the waste lying nearby………the list is long………Kindly comment