Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?
The first result when I keyed patriotism in google was, Patriotism is defined as ‘vigorous support for one’s country’. And by this definition, I am not a patriot.
But if there is an India-Pakistan cricket match and India needs 10 runs out of the last over- you could find that I am cheering the Indian team from very near the TV screen. But the same match, if Pakistan needs 10 runs from the last over, I will cheer for the Indian fielders-even mimic them catching the ball at the boundary. If I am sitting in a group that also includes my Pakistani neighbours, I will cheer every time there is a run, for both sides. So that definition of being vigorous, may not work for me. I am vigorous, but never to the point of viciousness. No broken televisions because we lost the World Cup. No blaming match setting because a team underperformed. And I’m definitely not ignoring my friends because their team played well.
Patriotism is a ‘feeling of respect’ for everything that your motherland inspires in you. For me, that includes respect, discipline and the moral obligation to always be secular. India is a land of many religious beliefs and numerous dialects, and this diversity brings with it a unique perspective and understanding of the world. This multiculturalism requires us to abandon self-interest in favour of national interest and helps unite us as one.
I would like to redefine motherland here to include the land where you live as well. Thanks to development and modernisation, the world is indeed a smaller place and often, we are situated in regions not of our origin, but naturalisation. And in such instances, our loyalty should be to the region that has helped us succeed. This does not meant that you ignore your place of origin, it just means you have a wider space to consider as home.
In sociological terms it is what defines an individuals ‘in’ group. We will extend ourselves to fit into this larger group selflessly supporting one another for the greater good. If you could define patriotism by this last sentence, then I am a patriot. I believe that all of us as Indians have to be more tolerant and secular in our outlook, thereby including even those who are in a minority to enable them to succeed. Because in their success lies our success as a nation. If we have learnt anything from our history, it has to be that ‘divide and rule’ will never work in our favour. Every time, we were divided, we lost 50 years to just catch up.
Unfortunately, today, patriotism is a loosely defined term used by political parties to skew elections. Their definitions are designed to sway a majority belief system in a region and this cannot be accepted as a universal definition. In this situation, I am reminded of something my oldest sibling wrote in my slang book many decades ago, ‘Politics is a lot of sh$£’. Don’t overthink it.’ And if I were to be honest, and use this statement as a keystone, then I would reconsider all promises made by political parties as just marketing and sales gimmicks and actually have a clearer picture of what patriotism should really look like.
Try it. Let me know if you are amenable to a more honest discussion on what patriotism should really be. But then again, remember opinions are like a$$holes, everyone has one. How do you know that yours is more important than mine!?
Just a little more 