The Freedoms That Don’t Make It Onto the Tricolor Posters
Every Independence Day, we celebrate freedom from colonial rule. But over the decades, our understanding of freedom has grown beyond what independence meant in 1947. Today, it can also mean whether a woman feels safe walking home late from work, whether social background affects opportunity, whether a wheelchair user can enter a classroom, or whether someone can make deeply personal choices about their own life.
It is worth asking what freedom looks like now. Not to diminish what was won in 1947, but to look at how the idea itself has expanded, and where it is still evolving.
What Did “Freedom” Mean in 1947 — and How Has It Grown?
In 1947, freedom had one overwhelming meaning: self-rule. India could govern itself, choose its representatives, write its own Constitution and determine its own future. That itself was an extraordinary achievement.
When the Constitution came into force in 1950, it established fundamental rights including equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion and protection against discrimination, among others. Over the decades, laws, court judgments and public conversations have continued to shape how these rights are understood and experienced.
Each generation has, in its own way, added another question to the idea of independence: freedom from whom, freedom to do what, and how equally that freedom can be exercised.
The Freedoms We Rarely Put on Posters
Take women’s participation in public life. In 2023, Parliament passed the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, providing for the reservation of one-third of seats in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women, subject to the implementation provisions laid down in the amendment. It marks an important step towards greater political representation.
But freedom is not experienced only through laws or representation. It can also show up in smaller, everyday ways: feeling safe while travelling home, being able to work without restrictions imposed by family or society, or making decisions about education, career and marriage.
Disability offers another example of the difference between rights on paper and how easily they can be exercised in daily life. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 strengthened legal protections relating to equality, education, employment and accessibility for persons with disabilities.
Yet something as basic as entering a building can still depend on whether there is a usable ramp or lift. Public transport may technically be available, but not always accessible. A child may have the right to attend a school, while the physical design of that school can still determine whether they can move through it independently.
Caste is another area where India’s legal framework made a clear break from the past. Article 17 of the Constitution abolished untouchability, while other constitutional provisions prohibit discrimination and provide safeguards for historically disadvantaged communities. These protections have shaped access to education, employment and public life across generations, even as caste continues to influence people’s experiences in different parts of the country.
For LGBTQ+ Indians too, the legal landscape has changed significantly within a relatively short period. In 2018, the Supreme Court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code so that consensual sexual relations between adults could no longer be criminalised under it. The provision itself dated back to colonial rule.
In 2023, the Supreme Court declined to recognise a legal right to same-sex marriage under the existing framework, while affirming the dignity and rights of LGBTQ+ people and leaving questions around changes to marriage law to Parliament.
These are large legal developments. But some freedoms are much quieter. They can be as simple as feeling comfortable sitting with someone you love in a public place, choosing when or whom to marry, deciding where to live, or being able to participate in society without constantly having to negotiate barriers that others may never notice.
So, How Has Our Idea of Freedom Expanded?
Perhaps what connects all of these examples is that freedom in India began as a massive national achievement and has gradually acquired many more personal meanings.
Independence gave the country the ability to govern itself. The decades since have brought continuing conversations about what that freedom should allow individuals to do within the country: participate, speak, move, choose, work, study and live with dignity.
The answer has never been completely fixed. Laws change, social attitudes change, and each generation finds new ways to question what freedom should include.
A Warm Note to End On
None of this takes away from the significance of Independence Day. The freedom won in 1947 created the foundation on which these later conversations became possible.
India has travelled a long way since then, through constitutional protections, new laws, court judgments and changing social attitudes. At the same time, the experience of freedom is not identical for everyone, and some rights are easier to exercise in practice than others.
Perhaps Independence Day can hold both ideas comfortably: pride in a freedom that was won, and curiosity about how that freedom continues to expand.
The flag that goes up every August represents a historic moment. It can also remind us that the meaning of freedom has never stopped growing.
