Colonization, Independence Day and it's aspects

While you are away from your home, it’s obvious for you to miss your country. In such condition, It is generally seen that people display greater deal of patriotism regarding their nation. Exactly same situation was observed last Thursday (October 9, 2014) when Ugandan friends studying in India celebrated their 52nd Independence Day, here in Chittoor-India. The program was organized in the evening and about 20 Ugandans friends were present along with equivalent number of invitees from different countries like: Nepal, Botswana, Laos, Vietnam, Guyana etc. From Nepal it was me and my two friends from Nepal.

While I was seated in the program, to my surprise, I came to find the program very formal, well-planned, and well arranged. Members from the organizing committee were sharing their happiness about Uganda being an Independent country and how a former British colony has progressed rapidly over time. As part of the program, I was asked to share some words on behalf of the friends from representative countries.  For me, I congratulated the organizing committee and the people of the Uganda on the occasion of a happy independence day and wished them a bright future. I also wished that the relation that we shared at personal level to be elevated to the country level as most of the country representative present there (including Nepal) didn’t have bilateral relationship with Uganda. And finally I concluded my speech by thanking them for having me as a part of the program.

While the program was going with much enthusiasm, I began to think about the relevance of celebrating Independence Day. I believe that Independence Day is celebrated to mark the end of oppressive and tyrannical rule of colonizer on a particular country. It also means that the particular colonized country has attained a position to craft its future by itself and the people have rights to be involved in national development with much of human rights.

For a citizen of a county which has never been colonized(Nepal), I began to ponder about celebration of particular day which would make us delighted.  We have lots of national days in Nepal: Democracy day, Republic day, National Unity day, etc.  It’s not that Nepalese are less patriotic but when it comes to celebration of particular day of national day, we aren't that much enthusiastic about it. The prime reason behind this is that, in spite of bringing many changes and successful revolutions in the country, we haven’t been able to develop the nation to according to the desired expectation. As such this is creating frustration among the people and thus they are least bothered to mark such days.

While drafting this piece of opinion, I remember some of my friends repenting about Nepal not being colony of British when British raj was prevailing in its neighboring country India. They also sometime curse Gurkhas forces for stopping British invasion troops from entering Nepal. They reason that had British ruled Nepal, Nepal would have been much more developed that what it is now. While for me I just trash this opinion.

First thing, I am more proud to be citizen of a country which has never been colonized in its history.

Second, colonizers do more harm to the colonized country than benefit them. For example, prior to India being colonized, it had economic growth rate of approx. 24% which was ripped off to 4% when British raj left India.(see this link for reference)  Most of the colonized countries are still poor to this day: Tanzania, Gambia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, etc.  As such it largely depends upon the country, its people and its institutions for the development of a nation, also advocated in the book “ Why Nations Fail: James A. Robinson and Daron Acemool”. We can never expect other country to come to our nation and develop it.