On Aug. 15, India enters its 75th year of independence. Seventy-five years is a long span in the life of an individual. But it’s not all that much in the life of a nation. The anniversary, however, invites us to take stock of ourselves as Indians and, like the jurist Nani Palkhiwala, to ask ourselves: Is self-rule always better than good rule? What have we gained in these last decades? What did we lose?