Tricolour hoisted in flooded Assam school is the defining image of Independence Day 2017
No high-octane claims to nationalism or patriotism, no frills or thrills, no clutter or cacophony - just a flag pole in the middle of a flooded school courtyard. This spectacularly sombre but captivating image depicting human perseverance and sentiments in the middle of hardships, the love of one's country in the most unselfish manner - this is certainly the defining image of Independence Day, 2017.
Independence Day in pictures: How a flooded Assam is honouring 70 years of freedomhttps://t.co/rg9kqCTzGD pic.twitter.com/vKWIsTZUGm
— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 15, 2017
This image is of a school in Assam's Dhubri, which unfurled the national flag despite the school precincts flooded with waist-deep water. This Hindustan Times photo of Naskara Lower Primary School in Dhuburi, Assam, where four teachers and a few students pay their tributes to the tricolour and mark Independence Day 2017 - is undoubtedly what would stay with us for a long time to come.
The 71st Independence Day was marked and Jana Gana Mana was sung, braving the inundated courtyards and class rooms. This is a brilliant demonstration of how federalism really works, and how, despite the unfair treatment by the Centre, the so-called margins don't feel any less patriotic or nationalistic when it comes to the idea of India.
Though it's the BJP government in both Assam and in the Centre, the lower reaches of the state had been flooded for weeks now, displacing thousands. But a state that is not election-bound is as good as forgotten in our cynical everyday political theatre. Only when a searing image like this one tears apart thick carpet of complacency do we wake up to the daily injustice that's borne with a smile.
But unfurling the tricolour in a flooded school is really what happens quietly in every corner of India, where tiny beats and little hearts flutter in every school to remember our freedom struggle. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers hoisted thd Tricolour with great fanfare, with blaring TV cameras, these quiet displays of simplicity and low-key patriotism are what that ultimately form the glue holding the nation together.
The HT photographer, Joydev Roy, captures this elegant everydayness of nationalism. The report says:
“'Yesterday in a meeting, we four teachers decided to organise the programme,' said Rahman, an assistant teacher at the school. 'We couldn’t do much due to the flooding. We sang the national anthem and Vande Mataram. Since, small children can’t be in water for long, we dispersed the assembly early,' Rahman said."
All the hoopla around anthems and songs pale into insignificance at this simple display of essential harmony. Contrast this with the concocted attempts by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to unfurl the tricolour on his own in a school in Palakaad, Kerala, despite orders that only elected officials would be entitled to do so.
Kerala: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat unfurled the national flag in Palakkad school pic.twitter.com/vDK8xn9V20
— ANI (@ANI) August 15, 2017
The RSS, which misquoted the Flag Code for five decades and didn't acknowledge the Indian national flag, is now resorting to techniques of seeming civil disobedience to lay claims to nationalism. What a contrast the leaders of our national politics make when compared to the ordinary Indians making this day special in their little ways.
Flag war in Kerala: RSS chief #MohanBhagwat restrained from hoisting flagFor more videos click at- https://t.co/NounxnP7mg #ITVideo pic.twitter.com/ytbRlNYFLG
— India Today (@IndiaToday) August 15, 2017
True nationalism doesn't need to beat its own drum, or TV cameras to lay claim to its superiority.
But who'll explain that to our national leaders?