India at 60

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The predominant note, as any discerning reader will observe, is one of cautious optimism for the future. The first fine careless rapture of August 1947 has sobered down with the exercise of responsibility in conditions to have survived which is itself a triumph. We have had too many things to do. And we have tried to do too many things at a time. Trained capacity has not matched with ambition. Power went to the head of too many who had done little to generate it but who swarmed to it as flies to sugar. The sharing of responsibility is a spiritual process for which men much devoutly prepare themselves. The greatest lack that Swaraj has revealed is that behind the brilliant band of patriots who under the Mahatma's lead won freedom there has been built up practically no second line of defence, no phalanx of younger statesmen to whom the torch could be handed without a flicker and in whose hands it might be trusted to burn as bright as ever. For Republican India it is as necessary, as it was for India struggling to be free, to keep the crusading spirit alive. Only the crusade must be turned against the enemy within.

These words from editorial that ran in The Hindu on the day India declared itself as a Republic, are as relevant today, the 60th Independence day, as in the past, if not more!