On August 15,
2020 India will be celebrating its 74th year of Independence. On
such an occasion we usually deliberate on what it means to be free, independent
and patriotic. What does it mean to be patriotic? Does it go beyond wearing patriotic
colours or changing the WhatsApp display picture to the Indian flag? It is therefore urgent and crucial, for our
youngsters to introspect and have a true understanding of patriotism, to make
the country a better place for all its citizens.
A few months
earlier, as a concerned citizen, during the period of the Citizenship Amendment
Act (CAA) protest, I forwarded a video by ‘The Quint’, an English and Hindi
Language Indian general news and opinion website, to my Nagpur Post Graduate
College WhatsApp group. The video said that the Prime Minister’s Twitter handle
was used to share a video by
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev as part of the Social Media
push on Citizenship Amendment Act. It said that
Sadhguru’s 22-minute-long video was misleading. I thought that this
video would trigger some healthy discussions on what’s happening in our
country. To my utter surprise, minutes later, one of them replied - “See you
are paid to do this and you have all the time at your disposal to keep on
arguing… when you demean something duly passed by a government which is grandly
elected by citizens, you are holding the Constitution in contempt”. I was
disappointed by the reaction of this classmate, with whom I had spent two long
years in college. Through his reaction, he was insinuating that one ‘must agree
with and wholly support any and all decisions taken by the government’. He was
telling me that I was funded to post such videos and that my patriotism is
questionable.
Patriotism
generally means love for one’s country. Unfortunately, in recent times the
definition of patriotism has changed: to be a patriot, one must display loyalty
to an elected government. This reformulated meaning could be seen as a form of
jingoism, where allegiance is sought for the ruling establishment and not for
the country. Thus, an inconvenient public opinion is perceived as sinister; a
legitimate dissent, a work of traitors and anti-nationals and not the
‘authentic self-expression of real Indians’. Patriotism is being invoked as a
way of shutting down questions.
Questioning government authorities or the army would amount to playing
into the hands of the enemy, therefore it’s best not to ask questions.
Political
parties have taken upon themselves to certify ‘who is a patriot and who is
not’. Patriotism is being used as a vehicle to fight elections. During the last
General elections campaign, some party leaders used pictures of martyred
soldiers to promote their political agenda. This act was condemned by some high
ranking Army, Air Force and Navy officers who wrote to the president urging him
to direct all political parties to refrain from using the military uniforms or
symbols and appropriating their achievements as their own.
In our times,
several ruling governments across the world with a totalitarian right wing
ideology, have distorted the idea of patriotism. They have equated patriotism
as hysterically supporting the military, police and even government sponsored
vigilante mobs.
They have
marketed patriotism, because it helps them to retain power and control. Any one
questioning or disagreeing with the government polices is branded unpatriotic,
even seditionist.
The Real Patriots
In a post
Covid-19 world, the concept of militarized patriotism appears irrelevant and
trivial. Although our armed forces will always occupy pride of place, the real
patriots of today are not the soldiers – rather, the doctors, nurses, para
medics, scientists, researchers, sanitation staff and pharmacists who are
risking their life to keep us safe. They are the new set of heroes and warriors
who are engaging in battle against the invisible virus in every village and
town. This is the kind of patriotism which we need to recognize and change our
politically convenient definition of patriotism.
Can we really
reserve patriotism only for flags, maps and national anthem - symbols of
national identity and the armed forces? No doubt, the men who lay their lives
should definitely be celebrated and decorated. But what about the loss of a
manual scavenger who chokes to death inside a manhole? What about the the poor
tribal who is murdered for fighting against deforestation and defending the
forests from greedy conglomerates? Are the lives of the scavengers and the
Adivasis less valuable than that of soldiers? Is only the soldier more patriotic?
What is real patriotism?
More often
than not, patriotism is misconstrued as hyper-nationalism. However, the two concepts are not just
different but also opposed to each other.
The currently prevalent hyper-nationalism has hatred as its founding stone,
whereas patriotism is based on inclusiveness - an inclusive love for the last
and the least in the society, and a commitment to safeguard the multicultural
and pluri-religious ethos of a nation. The rulers stir up hyper-nationalism for
the sake of scoring brownie points over their political opponents. Promoting
such apparently pseudo and aggressive form of nationalism is a big threat to a
nation’s diversity. Hyper-nationalism is going to create a great divide in
society, which could be irreparable.
The negative
impact of hyper-nationalism was well understood by Rabindranath, the man who
gave us our national anthem. In 1908, in a letter to his friend A M Bose, he
wrote “I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I
live”. Why was he so audacious in making this statement? Probably because of
the danger of reducing patriotism to hating a particular country.
Patriotism is
neither aggressive nationalism nor loyalty to an elected government. Patriotism
is about questioning those in power when they commit excesses. It is about
concern, inclusiveness and preserving diverse existence. Patriotism needs to
build on accepting differences.
Patriotism should be visible in one’s deeds. If you truly care about
your country, it has to be manifested in the way you treat people around you.
Being humane is the first sign of being a good citizen. Patriotism should not
be skin-deep nor something which you wear on your sleeves.
(The writer
is a counsellor and psychotherapist, can be reached at elvissanguem@gmail.com)
