Introduction: Freedom Struggle for Equality

Striving for equality is a fundamental and ongoing societal pursuit that encompasses various aspects of human existence. It involves the relentless effort to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their background, enjoy equal opportunities, rights, and treatment.

Meaning of Equality: A Simple Look at India’s Freedom Struggle

• Just Society: Equality means creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
• Appreciates Diversity: It recognises and appreciates diversity by ensuring peoples’ differences are valued and that different needs and situations are addressed.

Challenges Faced to Ensure Equality: Freedom Struggle and Equality in India

• Struggle for Equality: Attaining equality is an ongoing endeavor rather than an automatic outcome. 
  • It requires the concerted efforts of individuals’ struggles and proactive governmental measures to transform it into a tangible reality for every citizen of India.
  • Seeking Cultural Equality: Marginalized people struggle, Dalits organized campaigns to gain access to temples. 
    • Women asserted their right to education, on par with men. 
  • Independence Struggle: The struggle for independence from British rule encompassed not only the fight for freedom but also the quest for greater equality by various marginalized groups. 
  • Quest for Equality: Dalits, women, tribals, and peasants battled against the disparities ingrained in their lives.
• Struggle for Economic Equality: Peasants and tribals engaged in battles to liberate themselves from the clutches of moneylenders and exorbitant interest rates.
• Constitutional and Legal Efforts: Upon India’s emergence as a nation in 1947, the leaders remained concerned about existing inequalities. 
  • Acknowledging Discrimination: The framers of the Indian Constitution acknowledged and addressed the historical discrimination and the associated struggles. 
  • Constitutional Emphasis: The makers of the Constitution emphasized the importance of valuing diversity to ensure equality. 
  • Religious Freedom: They believed that individuals should possess the freedom to practice their religion, use their language, observe their festivals, and express themselves freely.
  • Eradicating Untouchability: The eradication of untouchability has been legally mandated, declaring it a crime.
  • Opportunity for All: The principle of equality is the unifying core value for all Indians, encompassing equal rights and opportunities. 
  • Inclusive Opportunities: Individuals are at liberty to choose their occupation, while government positions are accessible to everyone. 
  • Positive Intervention: The Constitution mandates that the government takes specific measures to actualize the right to equality for marginalized communities and the impoverished.
• Secular Nation: The framers of the Constitution emphasized that no single language, religion, or festival should be imposed as obligatory for all. 
  • They underscored the equal treatment of all religions by the government. 

Unity in Diversity: Embracing Differences in the Freedom Struggle

• Unity Amid Differences: The strength of India has perpetually emanated from its diversity. 
• Participation in Freedom Struggle: During British rule, individuals from various cultural, religious, and regional origins united to resist. 
  • The freedom struggle saw participation from diverse backgrounds, collaborating on strategies, enduring imprisonment, and innovatively opposing the British. 
• Turning Differences into Strength: Paradoxically, the British aimed to exploit Indian differences for continued rule, but Indians demonstrated that despite distinctions, unity could prevail in their fight against colonial dominance.
• Expressions of Diversity: Songs and symbols that emerged during the freedom struggle serve as a constant reminder of our country’s rich tradition of respect for diversity. 
  • India’s national anthem, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, is another expression of Unity in Diversity.
  • “Jana Gana Mana” was translated by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore from Bengali to English in February 1919 at Madanapalle in the District of Chittoor.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s Perspective: In his book, The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru says that Indian unity is not something imposed from the outside but rather, “it was something deeper and within its fold, the widest tolerance of belief and custom was practiced and every variety acknowledged and even encouraged.