In the absence of a young iconic figure, the country's youth has lost touch with the martyrs and the exhilarating sense of freedom they wrought.
After the 1983 World Cup and 1999 Kargil War the only event that created a spark of patriotism was the Oscar going to AR Rahman for
Jai Ho.
In the absence of a young iconic figure, the country's youth has lost touch with the martyrs and the exhilarating sense of freedom they wrought. This is a general lamentation that is only partly true, says TN Ramakrishna, founder of Rashtra Gaurava Samrakshan Parishath, which avows to rekindle patriotism in the youth.
"Fusion fashion they may wear and brash they may be, but India's young are not wholly unpatriotic. They are not exposed to the untutored history of our freedom struggle and the sacrifices our fathers made," says Ramakrishna who had the blueblood patriotism bequeathed to him by his freedom fighter father, Narayan Shastri.
The Parishat has — to draw the youth back to Indian ethos — taken to novel ways of reigniting national spirit. It has brought out, besides numerous reading material, a pictorial presentation of our great revolutionaries in alphabetic order. A colourful desktop calendar is another. Both have been financially supported by an array of commercial institutions in Bangalore.
To establish scholarships and awards in the name of revolutionary freedom fighters, publish literature unveiling the unselfish and brave sons who scripted our freedom, debates, dialogues and lectures in educational institutions and via the internet are some other steps the Parishat plans from this August 15.
Karnataka has some 8,000 surviving freedom fighters. They do get a pension, but how many kids can recite the names of at least 10 top freedom fighters from Karnataka? A handful. How many remember Sachindranatha Sanyal, the founder of the Hindustan Republican Army? Revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Azad, Subhas Bose and supreme warriors like Jhansi Rani and Shivaji have received only a cursory mention in our educational agenda.
"We can't blame the children if they exhibit unabashed dandyism; the fault lies with us," says Ramakrishna in a self-deprecating tenor. "Take it as a penance for not telling our children about our roots," he says while arranging the sepia-toned pictures of the past at his home in Mahalakshmi Layout.
Ramakrishna, 42, quit his banking job and decided to devote his time to a task nobody seems to want to undertake today. If patriotism, like charity, begins at home, he has realised how ill-informed our youth are of the country's past.
"When I talk of the lives our great men gave up for us to live in freedom, my wife keeps silent, my seven-year-old daughter yawns, but to my good fortune, they do get my drift and do not violently oppose. It's my experience born out of numerous dialogues with students that they express awe for revolutionaries like Netaji, Azad, Tilak, Bhagat Singh. They also say they want to reassess the roles of some leaders, which many not be music to the ears of the politicians of today," smiles the patriot.
"We are not giving them necessary input before asking them to produce output," he says batting for the youth. "It is time we queried with John F Kennedy: Ask not what the country has done for you, ask what you can do for the country."
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