The celebration of the Independence Day every year is an occasion to remember the people who have stood up to the bullet of the occupier. It is also an occasion to recall the path we had set for ourselves and have trod, as also the achievements we have made during the times of breathing the air of independence.

On the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the 15th August 1947, we join fellow citizens in relishing the legacy of standing up for self-determination and rededicating together for a better today and a new tomorrow.

Between today and this day last year we have reached out to the moons; we have upheld democratic traditions of electing our leaders in different states of the Indian Union; we have strived with resilience to keep the spirit of respecting dissent; and we have sought diligently to hold those in public service to accountability.

We recognise, and confess though, that we are not fully there. We have repeatedly failed each other in upholding our constitutional rights. Contexts of perpetuated discrimination including those relating to caste constructs, gender identities, varied abilities, and sexual orientations, contexts of compelling ethnic conflicts and communal discord, contexts of blaming and shaming religious minorities, contexts of market driven greed and avarice that structuralises poverty and impoverishment, have also contributed to where we are today. We acknowledge that but for these and such contexts We would have been a better People.

May this day wake us up to the fact that what we desire for ourselves must benefit the Least of us All. May the remembrances of the day bring us to greater determination and resolve to stand with those citizens who still yearn for the fruits of Independence, and together stand up as a nation that acknowledges and respects diversity as a means to realise Unity.

God bless India. Jai Hind  !

Rev  Asir Ebenezer
General Secretary, NCCI.

On the occasion of the 74^th Republic day, we join fellow citizens of this great country in greeting each other a year ahead with the virtues of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity available to every individual, household, social group, ethnic community and the whole society.

On this august occasion we acknowledge the wisdom of the drafters of the Constitution which came into force on this day seventy-three years ago as the governing document of the ever emerging vibrant Indian Republic, particularly Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Despite the challenges that it has faced over time we concur with all others who believe that the Indian Constitution remains a largely sufficient document that provides sovereignty and security to all people in the country while affirming space for every expression.

It is our dream that the principles that govern our country as a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic Republic be further strengthened and realised in all spheres of the legislature, judiciary and the administration of the country.

It is our desire that the rights and privileges endowed and guaranteed by the Constitution be affirmed to all the citizens of the country particularly to the distressed communities including the christians, muslims, women, dalits, tribals, adivasis, persons with ‘disabilities’, those with different gender identities and sexual orientations, and the children and youth in all these contexts.

It is toward the realisation of this dream and desire that we as the Churches of the Orthodox and Protestant traditions in the fellowship of the National Council of Churches in India, as well as Christian and Ecumenical Agencies, Organisations and Councils associated with the NCCI, through the power of Jesus our Lord who when singled out braved death on the cross and was raised to life on the third day in the community of the faithful, dedicate our every endeavour to uphold and protect the Constitution at all cost, and to ensure dissemination of the contents of the same for the empowerment of the fellow citizens of the country.

It is our ardent hope and fervent prayer that the priority accorded to the rule of law, based on the primacy of the Constitution that we have given to ourselves, will end prevailing targeted hostilities against Dalits, Adivasis, Christians, Muslims and such other marginalised and vulnerable communities in the country.

Indeed – an empowered citizenry, enlightened on its constitutional rights and responsibilities as well as on its privileges and prerogatives, will surely see the nation through to many more years to come.

Jai Hind!

The country is agog with completing 75 years of journeying as an independent country. We have truly excelled in many spheres despite several odds of evolving and struggling to grow out of a colonial mindset of ‘ruling over subjects’.

We as a people have demonstrated from time to time that the People prevail before power and that power devolves from People.

We celebrate the huge strides we have achieved in the field of science and technology, education and culture, infrastructural development, growing in self-sufficiency in food production and several other sectors.

We celebrate the resilience that we have shown in existing and living in a market driven world with the preeminence of capital and devaluing labour as a means of production.

We celebrate resistance that challenges us to learn from dissent and to carry on together as a People ‘leaving no one behind’.

We celebrate the richness of living with natureevidenced in every ethnic sociological group and tribe that live as human libraries even while moving to live in the ‘cloud’ which for now has become the space in which we live and have our being.

And, as we move on . . .

We need to celebrate living traditions amidst us, particularly in the distressed and suppressed dalit, tribal and adivasi communities, as a source of internal and abiding strength and spirituality for peace and security vis a vis valorizing weaponsand militarization based on perceived threats that stem from othering.

We need to celebrate and hold high the democratic-secular traditions as well as the ideals of participationwhich are now presupposed as people’s mandate in a continuing colonial and totalitarian mindset.

We need to, as conscientious peoples of all faiths, ideologies, ethnicities, varying physical and mental abilities, different generations, gender identities and sexual orientations, celebrate and continue singing the ‘songs of deliverance’- while seeking out and affirming the deliverance of every person, group and community who feel estranged in their own lands and contexts(a suggested deconstructed reading of a possible zionist presupposition of Psalm 137 in The Bible).

We continue to celebrate all thesedaily so that everyone and all of creation will in their ‘very own and this’ lifetime awaken into that ‘heaven of freedom’.

God bless India

Rev. Asir Ebenezer
General Secretary
National Council of Churches in India

(National Council of Churches in India is the ecumenical expression of 14 million Christians of the Protestant and Orthodox Church traditions. The council is a coming together of 76 nationally networked entities including historical Church traditions, Regional Christian Councils, All India Christian Organisations and specialized professional Agencies of Christian ministry in the world, having its presence in all districts of the country in every state)