NLSIU Celebrates 78th Independence Day | August 15, 2024

The NLSIU community came together to celebrate our 78th Independence Day on Thursday, August 15, 2024. The tricolour was hoisted by Ms. Chandrama, a member of the housekeeping staff, accompanied by the University’s Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sudhir Krishnaswamy, and Registrar Prof. N S Nigam.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Nigam said:

“Yeats, in his poem, ‘Second Coming’, said that the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. My takeaway from this was that, we are no longer independent if we are driven by our worst fears, and we want to lash out at others. And that’s a negative part of it. The positive part of it is that if you truly want to be independent, we must have the courage of our convictions. In the moral and ethical field, it’s important to have convictions. Not just deeply felt, but deeply thought out…

On this Independence Day, the leaders of the freedom struggle were also fiercely independent in a personal sense. We want to be inspired by these leaders not only by their actions but also in the manner in which they conducted themselves. We really have an obligation to work hard at our convictions, to seek out alternatives to our arguments, and to weed out misleading or mistaken facts that have a bearing on our decision making. This responsibility is even more so the case today in the current tech and social media-driven world where fake news can be generated quickly and to great effect.”

Reflecting on her personal experience, NLS Faculty Sahana Ramesh said:

“My middle and high school and university years gave way to a far better understanding of the Indian struggle for freedom, the founding principles of our nation, and the need to imbibe these as we celebrate each year of Indian independence. Terms like democracy, secularism, unity, and equality started gaining importance in my daily life. I began to see Independence Day celebrations as occasions to celebrate these values, but also as a constant reminder that they must be reflected in our day to day life. Today, as I stand here as a trained lawyer and as a faculty member at NLS, I’m appreciative of the privileges that I have been able to enjoy because of the struggles of our forefathers. But I’m also cognizant of the fact that we must ask ourselves what we as individuals and as an institution can do, as India progresses.”

Gallery