Patriotism: As I see it.
Yesterday, my country, India celebrated its fifty-ninth year of independence. I didn’t remember that number, a radio-jockey on AIR mentioned that on Sunday, worth listening were his attempts at striking a conversation with the callers; who were clearly more interested in telling this guy how nice his voice was than what they felt about the fifty ninth independence day. Mind you it was an English show, so it is not uneducated and seemingly less modern we are talking about, but the ones who fluently speak English.
Though these national days are events of reflection; people expressing love for their country and going ga-ga over its growth rate; while others merely point to the economic, social, political fracas this country is embroiled in. Or to study the significance of independence. This post does not discuss this, for they have been much thoroughly argued, debated and inspected; by more eloquent and coherent writers.
Patriotism, I have come a long way personally, when I think about my views on it. When I was younger my views were more in sync with the more-so-accepted norms of the society. I have now matured, at least relatively so. My views are no longer a mirror reflecting the very prejudices with which I was nurtured by the society.To save time, I quote from these articles, to which I wholly agree.’It’ in the following citations, refers to ‘patriotism’.
“…It requires us to sacrifice our sense of individuality for the sake of an abstraction called the nation, which determines who and what we are and what we ought to feel and do at various times. Root for the Indian cricket team; be prepared to go to war over Kashmir; take pride in India’s nuclear arsenal; vote in the next elections, even if you believe that all the contestants are crooks. You may find it difficult to square some of these things with your own conscience or private opinion…..”
“…The canons of morality and logic are lost on it. All that is expected of the patriot is blind devotion to an abstract entity called the state or whatever that symbolizes the state. Dissent is always marked out as unpatriotic, the foreign hand at work. Patriotism fuels the nation on the move. In the quiet of patriotism, people become a faceless monolith and willing to believe a thousand lies. Patriotism is not a choice, but an order. By patriotism I mean the welfare of all the people, if I secure it at the hands of my opponent, I should bow down my head to him. For long we have believed that patriotism is a glue that holds the nation together. The nation it may have, but not the people.
Individual and community enterprise is better served by questioning the abstract and dangerous entity called patriotism. Even patriotism will be thus served better….”
This post of mine is more of an introspection. I ask what do patriotism and being proud have in common. What do French planes and Russian tanks on display at a parade have to do with patriotism? I do not know how and what others think, perhaps that would help me in understanding them, provided they themselves know what they are following. For what I have been told, is to treat patriotism as religion. When the rules were formed, one does not know. But one is supposed to follow them and advise others to do the same. The cardinal rule being- Do not ask questions. Merely following prejudices, because everyone does so. I am reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, The Mending Wall.
“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.”
I for one do not understand the significance of flags, anthems and similar concepts. For me patriotism is analogous to, at a micro level to my affiliation and corresponding interest to my school or neighborhood colony. The national anthem akin to my school song. The school emblem similar to my school emblem. That’s it. I am patriotic, if you can call me that just because I have been brought up here, my understanding and closeness results in my affection towards my country.
Tomorrow, if I stay in another country it will be quite like me changing schools. Confused which basket-ball team to support. Both have helped to shape me; the ideals, morals values. The one by its citizens and the surrounding history it possesses and the other by its school teachers, the atmosphere of learning.
If I were to justify patriotism, this is the best rational approach that I found. A detailed discussion of this can be found here.
“Loyalty to the group might have led individuals to take actions that were poorly justified on grounds of self-interest, but helped the group as a whole: this is the analogy with kin altruism”
But then this is the same for my state, school, city and colony. Why does it particular loyalty have to stop at international borders? Why cannot this group be the world as a whole?
Tomorrow if I shift to another country, will I be called less patriotic than my country-men? But why not so when a worker from Assam prefers to work in Delhi, isn’t he betraying his state, his own state folks? I would like to not end my affiliations merely on the basis of lines, demarcations carved out before I was born; on reasons unknown, sometimes even on the interests of a chosen few. If I am branded unpatriotic for questioning the Indian army’s human-rights abuses in Kashmir, then so be it. Neither, do I understand this Sms which I received last morning, reminding me of my independence and my duty to the country:
What is the height of patriotism?
Wearing tri colored condom and raping a Pakistani girl!!! Jai HIND..MrNiN
Patriotism if it means just glossing over the hard truths, having to sing Saare Jahaan Se Accha without counting my thoughts; having to abuse Pakistanis. I am better off without all that. There already is enough of hatred to live with, legalizing some of it under the garb of patriotism is something I do not approve. No, I am not in favor of selling all of India’s armaments and dissolving Indian army, navy and air forces. I would love to do that, to divert those human and natural resources to constructive uses. But this is so because then Mr. Musharraf would simply rule this land or I fear that China will turn India into a colony, and I dread using proxies to access websites.
Perhaps one day the world will be a single entity. Having a hierarchical, democratic government. Perhaps never. Till then one has to do what one feels is best. Several years back, when LTTE was in the news daily, and I got to know about the conflict in Sri Lanka. I simply asked my dad why didn’t the government give them the land. It seemed plain enough for me then. Surely millions of people would like to give away a strip of land for a chance not to bath in blood. Dad didn’t reply for sometime. Perhaps he did not know how to explain it to his ten year old son. Perhaps he himself didn’t know. He did what I think was best. He simply asked would if I would give Kashmir to Pakistan? With the speed of light I replied ‘No’. But this did make me think of the other story of Kashmir. That the terrorists don’t call them terrorists, rather freedom fighters. Of human rights excesses. The media. The text books. All so for being truly Indian. Am I not entitled to know the other side of the story? ‘Terrorism’ ‘Accession’ blah blah. What about human rights, freedom? I am not in favor of donating away Kashmir or Assam; just wish we are all presented unbiased stories. That the process of dialogue is not blurred by the tinted glasses of patriotism, but be guided by the clear stream of reason.
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast”
We live in two different countries, we have fought two wars and a mini-war. We have nukes to frighten off the other away. We lobby internationally to ensure that the other does not have its nationals holding high posts in international bodies.Karanataka and Tamil Nadu fight over Kaveri , even if in the halls of courts.But not wars. Delhi fights with UP over water. States fight. But do not kill. I would love to see a borderless world. Perhaps if we have a sense of global one-ness we would not fight. Of course regional bias and prejudices would exist. The racial hatred would probably still persist, regional entities would form associations. But then Hindus and Muslims fight. Sikhs are the subjects of jokes. And every Bihari thought of as a cattle herder. Inter-state rivalries exist. It is just a hope that it would cease the irrational nationalism we procrastinate to. Helping us to reunite ties. Perhaps at least it shall not bar an Afghani from visiting the Great Canyon, because it is in the USA and he is in Afghanistan and was rejected a tourist visa for the same. Perhaps if we know that our friends, business partners, relatives live all around the world then we may not try to nuke the other to death.
I do not blame the Indian villagers who do not know what country they live in (Do click the link to find surprising statistics). To them it does not matter, neither is it necessary for them to . Especially when one does not know what will one have for the next meal, or even when. Rather than telling them what the national animal is, I would rather teach them how to fish.
I have as much a right to criticize my country as much as I say that I do not like the way my school is not run. I have as much to be ashamed of my country of communal riots, as much as if I see my school’s name for some MMS scandal. I do yell my lungs out with happiness when Dhoni hits the winning six, as much as when my debating team wins in an inter-school debate. This is only natural. But if I have to change my school if I wish to pursue subjects the school does not offer, it’s perfectly alright. But when I work in another country; I am accused of betraying my country, of being an opportunist, of fraternizing with the firangs. Why do you think it is not ethical to do so, who made the rules? And why?
Patriotism hence is irrelevant. If tomorrow I enter politics or form an NGO, it would preferably be in my country, because I have been attached to it, in a sense I do owe it something. I know more about it than what I know about Sri Lanka . It interests it more. Just as you would contest for the elections of the housing society you live in, not the one which is 20 miles from your place.
If I prefer wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt to Kurta-Pyjama, why is it that I am accused of forgetting my sanskriti? The same very ideologists in my history text-books taught me how India absorbed foreign cultures. Hell, our forefathers during the stone-age didn’t wear a lot of clothes. Neither did my foremothers. Mallika, Bips are ya listening? The same brigade will not protest if a Marathi will wear what a tamilian usually wears. It is perfectly normal to change the EPL team one supports; but I will be looked upon as if I have just shampooed my hair with cow-dung (Low-grade Pakistani variety of course) If I cheer the four, which Inzy has so classically hit.
I am betraying my culture and helping the multinational propaganda to stifle Indian economy and turn us into the 51st state of the USA, if I am not drinking Nimbu-paani in place of Pepsi. Why because then the Americans wouldn’t be able to shout that they are losing jobs to another country. No one says anything when the Brits love our curries.
Why am I scoffed at if I cannot leave my bed early morning to catch the parade or the PM’s address? Does googling (Ok, I forgot I am not allowed to use google as a verb.). The same, a few hours late make me less patriotic? Or again is it just that you are averse to me using google as it is phoren(Thank god, am not violating trademark issues. Google lawyers have kindly let me use google as a noun but Microsoft Word still does not.)
Under the guise of patriotism, we promise to shave our heads if my country is governed by an Italian born. Asking whether a land of a billion people cannot produce its own leader. What if those one billion cannot, cancer has been around since decades; and the world population of six and a half billion which has been trying hard to find a cure for it still has been unsuccessful. No wonder Lyngdoh called the Indian politicians a malignant cancer.
Personally I don’t give a damn even if Mr. Gates runs this country; as long he respects my rights which the Indian government loves to censor, I do not have to be accountable to the state-machinery than the other way round. Oh, also as he does not force me to buy and install all Microsoft software, that too in original. No, I would like Steve Jobs to rule the country. At least even if I pay for apple software, they will run and perhaps his Independence-day speeches would be more interesting. Though as the recent WWDC suggests, I may be asking a lot on the latter front……….and assures the guy who does not know what country he lives in, at least a meal a day.
If the thought of a foreign national as an Indian PM is as revolting to us as listening to Daler Mehndi on full volume in a bus, then did Bobby Jindal hog the headlines for Governor nominee of a firang country, because he looks better than Laloo? No, this is about how a great this country is.
Sadly, we shall continue to chant how good out country is. How proud we are. But I am proud of being a global citizen. For me all are similar, even if they hold different passports. I was Indian because I was born here. But I choose not to discriminate, or hold allegiance to this country by choice. For I see no difference in the blood between the one who lives indelhi and the one in Mozambique other than the level of toxicity due to air-pollution. But some still wouldn’t understand for,
“Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again,”Good fences make good neighbors.”
August 16th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Nice post man. Pretty well written. I think I agree with most of what you have written here. Unfortunately I think more than half the people won’t.
But its a little long, there is no need to quote articles or what others have said. If need be you can always link them.
August 16th, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I think its a tad too long…. Appreciate your civilly putting that in. But when I did completely write it, and looked at the length of it; somehow just couldn’t butcher it down with the backspace. Have to take care next time.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Yeah, it was a tad too long, but nonetheless, kudos to you!
You might find tens of such, and similar themed articles if you ever rummaged through my archives.I too, very firmly believe [or rather not believe], in the concept of patriotism.
I find it totally absurd to bind myself with one piece of land or people.Here’s what I say to everyone: “God didn’t make earth with countries in it”, and that “I am first a citizen of earth, and then [if at all], I am a citizen of India”.
Personally, I think patriotism is just another formed of humbly glorified, and sometimes, a “subtler”, form of jingoism.
August 17th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Good post, that.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Very well researched and written. Though a suggestion…Putting links in between a post only causes the focus of the reader to waver from what you’ve written, especially if he/she clicks on the link and begins to read its content.
Good job! Though, I have a bittersweet feeling towards the passport post…I was to write about the same experience!
August 18th, 2006 at 2:03 am
Funny. I’ve been reading so many posts about patriotism lately.
Seems, in this age, patriotism is deeply unfashionable. (And who am I to confront that? My culture despises patriotism, because we have too much evidence of the evil it can do within our own history books)
But … 60 years is a very very young country. don’t you find that invigorating? Don’t you feel your generation could change it all? Fulfil the early promise?
August 18th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Arjun, Sumedh (Can I call you this, as I have to either look-up the display name or spell it backwards) : Feels good to know that there are similar-minded individuals.
Tushar: Thanks for the appreciation and the suggestion. But the links, like in many blogs, are given so that if a person is not aware of the story or needs verification of a certain fact; then he or she can look up the same. Normally, people open the links in another window or tabs (Firefox. Highly recommended). So, the flow is normally not disturbed.
Sarsparilla: It is not on the state of affairs of this country that I was commenting on. The zeal to fulfil the early promise; of freedom in the true sense, liberty, equality, etc etc is still there. But why should the goals for me as a person be limited to my country itself?
Furthermore, 60 years is no doubt young when compared to others. But actually it is just 60 years of freedom after being ruled unjustly by others. If it is ancient culture in itself which shapes a country, then this country is as old as any. Look at the ‘progress’ U.S has made, relative to its civilisation.
August 20th, 2006 at 7:07 am
aaargh.well.call me whatever.lol.
February 15th, 2007 at 10:17 am
A very well written post. I am not as good a writer as you are but I would surely like to put my point across. We should understand that different individuals will define Patriotism differently. As a citizen of a country, we have all right to criticize our country but on the other hand a patriot will surely do something to ensure things should improve. Only criticizing won’t help. We should be ashamed of this country for communal riots, and MMS scandal, but we should also question ourselves if we have done anything to educate people to avoid these things.
Those who accuse you of forgetting your sanskriti when you prefer wearing Jeans and a T-Shirt to a Kurta-Pyjama are not patriots. You are definitely not betryaing your culture when you drink Pepsi in place of Nimbu Paani (You have all right to care about your own health). But avoiding both things and using alternatives like Nimbu pani and Pyjama (by large mass) will certainly boost the economy and enable those 13% to recognise Tricolour and 18% to know the name of their country which you refered as per the survey of IBN Live. These 13% and 18% people are not GLOBAL Citizens and rely on the state to feed them.
I think the defination of Patriotism you know is completely wrong. The defination of patriotism displayed seems to be from a dictionary of a politician wants to achieve his motivc by any means.
If you seriously feel Indian government loves to censor your rights, if you seriously feel that level of toxicity due to air-pollution in delhi is high, if you are seriously hurt when you quote “If the thought of a foreign national ….”. I would like to know from a global citizen what are YOU doing about it. Why we (so called educated people) sit and watch News channels instead of going to polling booths and vote.
I would really feel offended if Mr Gates have to come to India to run this govt when we have highly educated, capable and intelligent people who can write an amazing blog and convince people. We should understand that Patriotism is a way of living which encourages us to make this country a better place to live. It is not about Pepsi or Jeans and Shirts, but avoiding both things and using alternatives like Nimbu pani and Pyjama (by large mass) will certainly boost the economy and enable those 13% to recognise Tricolour and 18% to know the name of their country which you refered as per the survey of IBN Live.
I must say I am a Proudindian who whould surely like to make this world a better place to live, but I will have to start from my own motherland.
February 15th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I really appreciate your effort in replying to my post. What I have stressed throughout the post is that why should I give preferential treatment to the people of my country, what have the others done that I do not drink or eat their products? I understand that Khadi would probably benefit the poor, but what about every other product. Should I choose only ‘Indian’ products even if they are sub-standard? What if a Chinese company is providing me cheaper and better product, are Chinese farmers not poor or human?
I do try to change things in whichever form I can, I just turned eighteen and I have applied for my voter id card.
The percentage which requires the ’state’ to fill them are not global citizens because of divisions into countries. If the world were one ‘country’ perhaps people from other countries and probably richer countries would help them more easily, than caring about their selfish interests; to the extent of even going to fight with them.
I am an Indian too and I have no particular regrets about it. But I will not distinguish between a Pakistani and an Indian. Ofcourse I will start from my motherland as you said and as I had mentioned in my post that
” I have been brought up here, my understanding and closeness results in my affection towards my country.”
But this does not mean that I will differentiate on the basis of nationality in any form, for instance needing a visa to enter India from Sri Lanka.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for the reply. You are absolutely right, it is about bringing about positive change in the world, since we are more familiar with our own country, culture, people I think we should start from here. Patriotism is not about distinguishing between pakistani or an indian, I strongly condemn those who would bullshit pakistan in the name of patriostism. Practically it is not possible to change the whole world. try starting from a small place (be it in china, nepal or pakistan) and be loyal towards your goal(patriotism) and ensure you work for benefit of that small place. I think this defination of Patriotism makes more sense. What’s your take???
February 16th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Yeah quite right. Agree. But then I am sorry that this definition is not generally regarded to be the one of ‘patriotism’. Also when it does come to the point of ‘patriotism’ most people try to be illogical (I am not saying that is you) and have their own fanciful views hence I prefer to detach myself from this very concept.
What does your blog which is about to be setup deal with?
February 17th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Definitely enlightening……… Though a difficult read…….. Thanx to its length……
February 17th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
I am creating a website named proudindians.org and would like to promote this definition of patriotism. I would like to create a group of like minded people who can come together for the development of this country. I am currently starting email@proudindians.org. My blog is just a temporary page to my upcoming website.
August 15th, 2007 at 5:04 am
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