‘Overhaul’ of criminal code, renaming in tune with BJP political refrain: ‘Need to abandon ghulami mindset’

On August 15 last year, Modi had announced five pledges (“panch pran”), which included a call for “100 per cent freedom from slavery”. “We have to make India a developed nation in the next 25 years… Ghulami ki mansikata ko tilaanjali deni hogi (The colonial mindset has to be abandoned),” he had said.

“In no part of our existence, not even in the deepest corners of our mind or habits should there be any ounce of slavery. It should be nipped there itself. We have to liberate ourselves from the slavery mindset which is visible in innumerable things within and around us,” he had said.

“How long will the world continue to give certificates to us? How long will we live on the certificates of the world? Shall we not set our own standards? Can a country of 130 crore not make an effort to exceed its standards,” he had said.

A month later, while inaugurating the Kartavya Path on September 8, Modi underlined the message: “Kingsway or Rajpath, the symbol of slavery, has become a matter of history from today, has been erased forever. Today, a new history has been created in the form of Kartavya Path. I congratulate all the countrymen for the freedom from yet another identity of slavery in this ‘Amrit Kaal’ of independence.”

“Today, a huge statue of our national leader Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has also been installed near India Gate. At the time of slavery, there was a statue of the representative of the British Raj (King George V),” he had said.

Even on May 28 this year, while inaugurating the new Parliament Building, Modi had said: “There was a time when India was counted among the most prosperous and splendid nations of the world… But hundreds of years of slavery took away this pride from us… New India of 21st century, India full of high spirit, is leaving behind that colonial mindset.”

In its effort to get rid of the “colonial mindset”, the Modi government has made several changes — some conspicuous, and others subtle. The construction of the National War Memorial (NWM) and merger of flames of Amar Jawan Jyoti and NWM; renaming of some islands in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; merger of the Railway Budget with the annual Union Budget; revival of literary works banned during British rule; renaming of roads (including Race Course Road to Lok Kalyan Marg); replacing the Finance Minister’s briefcase for the Budget to the “bahi khata”; emphasis on education in the mother tongue are all portrayed as efforts in this direction.

The government also got a new Naval Ensign and introduced some changes in the Beating the Retreat ceremony, including tunes like ‘Hind ki Sena’ and ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’ and Indian musical instruments like sitar, santoor and tabla.

In the last eight years, the government has also repealed over 1,500 archaic laws, most of which were remnants of the British era. “In this Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal, new laws should be made by abolishing the laws which have been going on from the time of slavery,” Modi had said earlier.

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