What people commonly understand by the term nationalism? What do you think are the limitations of nationalism?
Our true nationality is mankind.
Today nationalism has become an agenda of destruction. Freedom of expression gives no right to destroy any nation. Today nationalism has taken a centre stage. I fail to see what is wrong in saying ‘bharat mata ki jai’, ‘hindustan zindabad’- it is certainly not a religion slogan. And if some sections of our country refer- I would say that they don’t have love for their motherland. Fight against class, caste, race, nations and now we have a new term nationalism intolerance…..is it a topic to debate on??
If one can’t be proud of one’s country and say it openly then there is something really wrong with us, have we forgotten sacrifices made by our armed forces, our ancestors who gave their lives for our motherland and today we are humiliating all of them…Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
But, today nationalism has taken a new turn in our country. Indian political life is rich in ironies. Time for change nationalism has become one of the most important features of global politics as a source of both conflict and stability. We talk about intolerance and nationalism, ask a beggar what nationalism is??? Earlier much of India has been unfired under this slogan nationalism worked as a tool, it inspired people to perform noble deeds. A social reformer, an ideal statesman, the moment there was threat to the nation from an enemy, the patriotic feelings of people aroused. Nationalism united us but now it’s dividing us in the name of right to expression. Right to expression is our right true, I agree but people can be wrong. Laws can be wrong but country cannot be ….we talk about everything that according to us is wrong in the country, but what did we contribute to nation other than our criticism? You want to object people, law made by them but don’t insult a country because of few. “I love my country, not my government” this can be acceptable, do not let selfish men of greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches.
Where we should be talking about developing our country ,its GDP, its economic growth and we here up with another topic nationalism apart from the old term corruption, cause we got something new to discuss ‘India has become an intolerant nation’ we people enjoy hearing something new .People are starving dying, unemployment, crime rate these should be our concerns. If we keep on fighting among ourselves if we’ll keep on fighting with our fellow Indians then how will we be able to face the world and other leading developed powerful countries who are already stronger than us, before talking about internationalism, start talking about nationalism in true sense. It’s our country and let no one define us, we are the youth of today still as strong as Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey, Khudiram Bose. We just need to look around, see what is right and that same energy can be put into a right direction, we just need to clean our hearts and look for true facts and together we can overcome this. After all, we are Indians and the thing which unitized us can unite us once again (nationalism) don’t you think ?
By, Isha Chaudhary – Writer, DU Times
