Author: Aditya Vishnu Parashar, III year of BA in political science from Maharaja chhatrasal bundelkhand University (MCBU),Sagar, M.P
The word NATIONALISM is not new, we have been hearing cries for freedom of the nation from a long time back. Our freedom fighters encouraged us to stand for the cause of the nation and fight for the freedom of our nation which was envisaged as “Our birthright”, till independence it was clear that overthrowing British raj to free ourselves from their control is “Nationalism”, but over time politicians and other influential personalities have used this term in a manner to serve their purpose. Nationalism is a thread which ties a nation together but recent propagandas have changed its meaning to “a line which divides the citizens”. The word Nationalism has lost its meaning to “Propaganda-ism”
Pseudo-nationalism refers to fake nationalism which most of the citizen in our country are adhered to and carries fake pride without knowing the essence of nationalism for which thousands of our freedom fighter laid their life without a furrow on their forehead, for them nationalism was to serve the nation without any self-centred motives, which the current generation has forgotten.
In India, people rarely know how to become nationalist but they know all the dynamics of how to declare someone “Anti-nationalist” which makes them feel as true Nationalist in their mind. It’s funny how abusing China and Pakistan marks us with the label of “patriotic and nationalist Indian'' meanwhile criticizing our government for its failure is an action against our very own nation. Actually the problem lies its origin in the stems of poverty and illiteracy as after 7 decades of independence our country still find itself in the clutches of ignorance and illiteracy, education is still a dream for the underprivileged class in our country and without proper education they find themselves unable to make sound decision for themselves which in turns restricts them to directly participate in decision making process of our country and follows someone blindfolded who adjudicates for these underprivileged without consensus and this hinders the growth of nation as the natives are busy discussing “war with Pakistan” having no knowledge about foreign policy of our nation and the ideals for which our country outshines among 195 nations in this world, also we can find every illiterate as an expert on foreign relations with Pakistan because that’s where the idea of nationalism of these citizens find its birth and grave, hypothetically if we remove any enemy state of our country from the world map then there itself the idea of nationalism of these pseudo-nationalist will get terminated. We know in this era, war cannot be waged under the umbrella of nuclear weapons especially when our country promotes peace and has a “no first use policy” and therefore we should stop affixing our nationalism with declaring wars against our neighbouring countries and showcasing it on Facebook and Twitter. As Umberto Eco said “National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same”Our nationalism is mixing with the feeling of hatred which will destroy our culture and so our nation and thus we should rise above the feeling of hate and jealousy towards a community or a nation leaving no space for pseudo-nationalist to fit in and expand in our glorious country.
Everyone finds their ways to showcase their love towards their country and we should be thankful for our nation that it has made our job easy by taking a step to define patriotism and nationalism by adding a list of fundamental duties in our constitution by 42nd amendment act in 1976 which included some duties like paying taxes, to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom, to abide by the constitution and its ideals, etc. but obviously, these are tough to be followed by pseudo-nationalist as these duties requires responsibilities towards our nation and feeling of love and peace towards every citizen, community, religion and other nations which may not be a feasible idea for our politicians, news media and other personalities and organizations who get their food cooked on the flames of “hatred among communities and nations”
It’s high time we understand the real motives and fake propagandas of organizations and our leaders, Indians have a quality to get swayed away by the loud cries for nation and interestingly this Indian quality is very effectively exhausted by our political leaders to cover up their faults in different ways like recently we are being morally persuaded to buy indigenous goods rather than equipping our local industries with enough technologies and making them substantially competitive in the world market which was the main goal after LPG reforms but sadly even after being 5th largest economy in the world India still ranks 43rd in world competitive index as we still rely on the moral persuasion of Indians by tickling the nationalist emotions in them rather improving national infrastructures of our country, and as Darwin theory stated “survival of the fittest” so neither the corporates left this no ball free hit as we daily hear phrases like deshkanamak , deshkatel ,deshkaaatabharatkipehchaan nor the film makers left this golden opportunity to make a film with a pinch of content and a bunch of nationalist spices to sell a so called national commercial product and the tickets of a national film respectively, and according to our pseudo-nationalists buying these products and watching these latest films makes them a true nationalist among the anti-nationalist who buys value for money products and how can we forget the pseudo-nationalists who mob lynches anyone who doesn’t stand for “Vandemataram” without knowing the meaning of our national song whose very line says “Mother, I bow to thee!” and the essence of the song which personifies the beauty of this country.
With all that being said and done, this article can never be concluded without the words of one of the greatest men of this era Albert Einstein who said “Nationalism is an infantile thing. It is the measles of mankind. Nationalism is nothing more than an idealistic rationalization for militarism and aggression”
Nationalism can only rest on the pillars of peace and harmony along with brotherhood as it is enriched in our Indian constitution.
And true Indian nationalism can only be conveyed in the words of Mahatma Gandhi as he wrote in a book titled “All Men Are Brother” it reads “Indian nationalism is not exclusive, nor aggressive, nor destructive”.