When are we going to actually do something about the issues we face? It's all good singing about it, crying about it, making posts and signs and going on marches, but when are we actually going to do something. Or is this the extent of the legacy our Shaheeds left us with?
Sure, educate yourself about the past and raise awareness, it's absolutely necessary to. But there is literally no point raising awareness if we not going to do anything with that awareness apart from making more songs and posts... to raise more awareness.
Look, plenty of us are aware enough and want the next steps. Need to start looking into the future and assessing the present accurately using the principles of Itihaas. We are so stuck in the past our focus is limited to it. We trying to walk forwards by only looking backwards.
I'm not saying let's all pick up AKs and start some guerrilla campaign (although it would be fun for a bit, it simply won't work and perhaps even counter-productive). Need to think strategically and put in place long-term solutions. The least we can do is accurately define what we want our end goal to look like in detail. Hence the whole point of the Azadist Manifsto.
Azadism isn't just more Itihaasic Parachar. We have plenty of that, and those things are such important preliminary knowledge before approaching the ideas presented here. Azadism is about what comes next.
Most of the effort I'm seeing from Sikh organisations and influencers today is just raising awareness of our history, and whilst super important, it begs the question:
How much Itihaas are we going to have shoved down out throats before we do something? Unlike others, I don't want to limit our goals to just getting ourselves educated about our history (key word: just).
Many are informed, many perhaps overinformed — but now what? What are you going to do with all that information? We have plenty books on what things
were like, how about what things
should be like? How about applying what we have learnt? How about setting the necessary groundwork for action. This is Azadism's long-term focus. Bunga Azaadi is only one the first steps.