EXCLUSIVE NATIONALISM

The other day I was passing by the street and a standing truck has this quote written on its back, “Mera Bharat Mahaan” (India is great) and almost immediately I burst into laughter , because at present the entire national media is debating what is nationalism? and who is a nationalist? ,well by convention this truck driver is , roaming around India with the quote written on the back of his truck.Unfortunately , I didn’t have the opportunity to have a chat with the “Nationalist” because he was in deep slumber after a hard day at work and I didn’t find it appropriate to wake him up.

When I think of it , nationalism is the felling of love that binds people together to perform shared duties and in the process give them certain rights and privileges, the convention ones nationality is defined by the place of birth or the nationality of ones parents. This convention worked fine at least in most cases , but then religion and ethnicity started playing a role. The odd reference of referring a Muslim as a Pakistani , a north eastern as a “ChinKi” became a commonplace , so much so that government had to make law to stop the practice¹.

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first. ~ Charles de Gaulle

The JNU incident where students raised anti-India and  “Pro Afzal²” slogans brings forths some crucial points. First , the manner in which the Indian media pounced on the issue, it seemed there was nothing else to cover , every week one incident is picked up and covered fanatically , and then dropped, first it covered the Pathankot attack and presently it’s the JNU incident , in between Make In India , Jat agitation and Pampore attacks acts as a interlude. The Pampore incident would have escaped our  attention had the two bravehearts Capt. Tushar Mahajan  and Capt. Pawan Kumar not martyered.

Secondly, should a sensible discussion not followed the sloganeering ? There was  little attempt to understand why the slogans were raised. Almost immediately political parties jumped to take potshot at one another.The institution was turned into a battleground , sanity lost its way to bitterness from both sides.The rule of law was undermined when lawyers attacked Kanhaiya Kumar in the court. Judiciary lost its voice to the public out pour of outrage both for and against the students

The outcome of the event was sentiments prevailed and voice of reason was muted. The Kashmir issue has been a contentious issue for India since ages , and there are voices across India who support the separatists and we have to live with it, until the issue is mutually and amicably resolved but taking extreme stands will only aggravate the issue. As for nationalism , it doesn’t have one fixed definition a soldier is a nationalist in the sense he defend the nation , a farmer feeds the country , a software engineer bring revenue to the nation , an industrial worker manufactures product for use both internally and globally. We must all accept our role in the nation and work towards making India a great nation , we must acknowledge dissent and reason it out rather than subjugating it.

1.  Calling NE people chinki will land you in jail

2. Afzal Guru was convicted by SC for attack on Indian parliament, and was given life penalty.