Citizens of a free country

When the light of the Constitution of India dawned on the young Rashmi, who has suffered various types of oppression, she was excited. And she felt empowered by the fact that she was a citizen of free India with equal rights like every other citizen, male or female. India achieved freedom from colonial rule at a great cost and sacrifices. It will indeed take continuous awareness and sacrifice to fulfil the dreams of how our motherland India is governed. The Preamble of our Constitution speaks of values of Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; Equality of status and opportunity; and to promote among them all Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation. Rashmi knows all four values must be held together, even as Ambedkar said, “Liberty cannot be divorced from equality; equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things.” These values are also found in the Bible, and Jesus lived and taught them. Jesus broke the boundaries that exclude people based on traditions, considering the pure and impure. Jesus reached out and touched those considered impure. The human touch of Jesus was symbolic of compassion and acceptance simultaneously, a protest against oppressive boundaries that divide the human community. When Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman, he asked her for a drink; the woman was shocked and brought up racial and gender issues. She considered herself a racial outcast
Jesus reached out in compassion and broke the bondage that keeps human life from flourishing.