A great Indian leader Bal Gangadhar Tilka said, “Freedom is my birth right and I shall have it.” Yes, freedom is a right. Nobody likes to live in slavery. Everybody likes to live a free and independent life. Restrictions and bonds are liked by none. Even birds and animals like to live in a free atmosphere. If you put a bird in a cage, it will lose its salt of life. Here is a story of a princess and a bird which tells that even the birds have a strong desire for freedom.
Image Source: static.tumblr.com/180ed0758d380ef301334122b3a08fd6/ql6pjtl/YAGmwlysn/tumblr_static_freedom_title_wordweb.jpg
The Story
Once there lived a beautiful princess. She was very fond of birds, every morning a little bird used to come to her palace and sing for her. The princess was very happy to see the lovely bird and listen to its music. The bird visited the palace daily and the princess waited eagerly for its visit every day. She was almost in love with the bird. She wished that the bird should keep company with her all the day.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
One day the princess put the bird in a golden cage and served it the best type of food. But the bird felt sad. It did not sing and eat anything. In spite of the best food the bird began to grow weak day by day. It did not sing as before. One day the princess asked the bird the reason for all this. The bird said, “I want to be set free.”
The kind princess set the bird free. The bird flew happily to its freedom. The next morning the bird was back again with its usual song. The story tells us that even the birds do not want to live in captivity, however well they are fed. This shows us the importance of freedom.
Even your pet dog or cat does not want to be fettered in chains. Man is born free. He does not want to be kept in prison. He loves to lead a free and independent life. This is the reason why our freedom fighters fought bravely, suffered heavily and even faced death for the sake of freedom of our country. They preferred death than to a life of slavery. This is the important they gave to freedom or liberty.
Freedom means liberty. It is the right or power to do as one pleases. It is freedom to act as one like. The French got freedom after the French Revolution. The Americans got freedom in 1875 after the American War of Independence. The Negroes in America got freedom when slavery was abolished. Russians got freedom in 1917 after the Great Russian Revolution. We had no freedom when India was under the foreign rule. It was a life of slavery. India got independence on 15th August 1947 and we became a free nation.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
There are various types of freedom. Political freedom means the freedom from foreign domination. It empowers a nation to form the government of it sown people and to govern them independently. Freedom of religion means that an individual is free to practice, profess or propagate any religious rites according to his religion. Individual freedom means those freedoms which are necessary for an individual to improve and develop himself. One cannot feel happy without individual freedom. Economic freedom is the most important aspect of freedom.
Every country allows certain types of rights or freedom to its citizens. Indian Constitution has given certain rights and freedom to Indian citizens. These rights cannot be denied to us. These are known as fundamental rights. Some of these rights are freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, right to equality, right to justice, freedom of forming association and freedom of living or settling anywhere in the country.
These rights and freedom are not absolute. There are certain limitations to it. We can enjy our rights and freedom only if they do not infringe the rights and freedom of others. These restrictions are necessary to safe guard our right of freedom of speech. Similarly the freedom of living or settling anywhere in India does not permit us to build our house right in the middle of the road or on public or private land. This implies that there are certain limitations or restrictions to our rights. Our freedom or rights are not absolute. We cannot do anything whether right or wrong at our will. If there are no limitations to our freedom, it will become a rule of the judge. The strong would do as they like and the others will be at their mercy. The people will behave like animals.
We need liberty or freedom to develop, improve and grow to the fullest extent. It is not possible for us to enjoy absolute freedom. There must be some reasonable restrictions on our freedom in order to allow others to enjoy their rights and freedom. The limitations are a necessary safeguard for our freedom so that we may enjoy our freedom and allow others to enjoy theirs. Unlimited freedom is a dangerous thing. It will bring about confusion and ruin our freedom.