Email
Print
ShareSamuel Johnson said that, according to his faithful biographer James Boswell, in 1775. Since and before, this very same feeling has been studied and often condemned by thinkers. The celebrated British war soldier-poet Wilfred Owen -- who died in the war in 1918 at the age of 25 -- wrote these scathing and moving lines: "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.
The Latin phrase means, loosely translated, "it is sweet and good to die for your country".
Rabindranath Tagore was not a fan of rampant nationalism, which many historians have seen as a 19th century European construct which only led to wars. In fact, ironically, it is the nations of Europe which moved into the European Union in an attempt to break down those barriers of nationhood and attempt to become one.
Globalisation has also made more borders irrelevant than anything else in recent history, ably helped by the growth of the Internet. If we are lucky, today's youth will grow up being less bothered about politically-drawn limits and more excited about sharing thoughts and ideas.
Yet, in all of us, this feeling of love for our country exists. Yes, we wear our multiple identities as well but the idea that we belong together as a nation still holds. But we must all define this nationalism for ourselves. A person asked for a character appraisal of an acquaintance the other day, asking if the acquaintance was a "nationalist".
I am unqualified to talk or speculate about other people's idea of nationality, nationhood or nationalism. It would be arrogant to abrogate to myself powers I don't have and moreover, be judgmental about a very personal feeling.
So I know mine and in those I display my own sensibilities and prejudices. I understand that and still, almost without being able to help myself, I continue with them. I know that I cannot accept religion as a basis for nationhood or as a sole national identity.
Therefore countries like Pakistan and Israel are mysteries to me. In fact, religion as your sole or major identity seems only to increase bigotry, hatred, anger and violence. Both Pakistan and Israel are very good examples of the negatives and not very good advertisements for the positives.
Neither would I like to live in such nation nor do I find them admirable. Countries which have had a primary religion historically and where religious practice is not state-enforced are another matter and yet, if one or another religion is stuffed down your throat, it is unpalatable.
But there are other issues too. I am unable to understand what I call "absentee nationalism". That is when you leave one nation for another because of prospects of a better life or because you like it more or any reason at all and then constantly stay rooted in the first nation. What is this dual citizenship? If we are all to have multiple nationalities, why have any at all?
Let us all be citizens of the world. This Indian obsession with the doings and achievements of our once-brethren who now live elsewhere, I cannot understand. I understand even less the great interference which those brethren make in our doings.
There is, however, one type of person whom I will make a value judgment about. It is those who try and split us on various lines as a society and therefore as a nation. They are the ultimate traitors -- those who divide us on religion, on caste, on community, on region, on wealth. Who try and pit us one against the other, who glory in violence, who look for petty gains and not a greater improvement and those who try to fool us on these terms all the time.
Yes, we will and must have disagreements. That makes for vibrancy. Nationhood does not and should not mean homogeneity or singleness of thought. But it can mean that we be allowed to care in our own ways.
Email: b_ranjona@dnaindia.net
