2 weeks ago
India's 80th Independence Day: Sen and Chaterji reflect on freedom
India just turned 80 years old as a free country.
Two famous actors who were born just before India became independent remember what freedom means to them.
Aparna Sen grew up hearing real stories about the freedom struggle from her family.
Her grandfather spun yarn on a spinning wheel called a charkha and wore simple khadi clothes.
Her father gave her a book about India's history so she would understand how hard freedom was to win.
Aparna remembers the sounds of her city, Calcutta, like temple bells, church bells, the azaan and conch shells.
She hopes young people grow up in an India that is kind, open and welcoming to everyone.
Dhritiman Chaterji was a tiny baby when India became free, and he learned about it from stories and school rituals.
He now worries that India has become less free, and he wants people to work for a fairer society.
Both of them believe freedom is not something you get once and keep forever — you have to keep looking after it.
India is marking its 80th Independence Day on August 15, 2026.
Actress-filmmaker Aparna Sen, speaking from Santiniketan, recalls a childhood shaped by the freedom movement through family, books, cinema and khadi-wearing relatives.
Sen's father, Chidananda Dasgupta, co-founded the Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray in 1947 and gave Sen an inscribed copy of The Discovery of India.
Actor Dhritiman Chaterji, in his 80s, describes India's present as 'very dark, repressive, authoritarian' and calls for 'another independence.'
Sen hopes for a less narrow-minded, diverse, secular and educated India citing Kerala's literacy model; Chaterji hopes for 'an equitable, just, socialist society.'
- Who
- Veteran actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen, speaking from Santiniketan, and veteran actor Dhritiman Chaterji, speaking from Goa — both born about two years before India's Independence.
- What
- Personal reflections on India's 80th Independence Day, covering family memories of the freedom struggle, changes in cinema and culture, and contrasting views on whether democracy and freedom have eroded since 1947.
- Where
- India — with memories centred on Calcutta; Sen spoke from Santiniketan and Chaterji from Goa.
- When
- August 15, 2026, marking 80 years since India gained Independence on August 15, 1947.
- Why
- To mark the 80th anniversary and explore what Independence and freedom mean to different generations of Indians.
Critical view of today's India
National celebration and early optimism
State of democracy
Critical view of today's India
Chaterji says democratic values began to erode after the early decades and that India now has a 'nominal parliamentary democracy,' calling the present 'very dark, repressive, authoritarian.'
National celebration and early optimism
The article notes the 1940s-1960s carried a spirit of hope, with public institutions, Five-Year Plans, railways and steel plants giving the sense that the country was moving forward, and that the democratic system remains in place.
Generational outlook
Critical view of today's India
Chaterji says his generation grew up alongside people who lived through the freedom struggle, so 1947 was a lived memory; he fears something fundamental has been lost along the way.
National celebration and early optimism
Sen says she has 'great respect for Gen Alpha and Gen Z,' seeing less majoritarianism and more gender fluidity among them than among baby boomers and some millennials.
Is freedom secure?
Critical view of today's India
Chaterji argues citizens only feel they help decide the country's destiny between elections and warns freedom, once won, 'is not necessarily freedom forever'; he calls for 'another independence.'
National celebration and early optimism
Sen sees 1947 not as a finished chapter but as the beginning of an ongoing conversation about freedom, expressing hope for an India that is accepting, diverse and secular.
Key facts
- Event
- India's 80th Independence Day (August 15, 2026)
- Independence date
- August 15, 1947
- Aparna Sen
- Veteran actress and filmmaker, born two years before 1947; interviewed from Santiniketan
- Dhritiman Chaterji
- Veteran actor in his 80s, born two years before 1947; interviewed from Goa
- Sen's directorial debut
- 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), produced by Shashi Kapoor
- Chaterji's acting debut
- Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi (1970)
- Sen's hopes for India
- Less narrow-minded, accepting, diverse and secular, with large-scale primary education
- Chaterji's self-description
- Democratic socialist, hoping for an equitable, just, socialist society
Quotes
Dhritiman Chatterjee
Veteran Indian actor and advocate of democratic socialism
““Baba gifted me The Discovery of India…you will never really know what it means, he inscribed on the fly leaf.””
telegraphindia.com
““I think that in our country we are going through very dark times.””
telegraphindia.com
Sources
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