All Indians are my brothers and sisters.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied culture….\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Come again, so why do we need to be proud of our rich and varied culture?? Why should we \u2013 born in the 21st<\/sup> century AD of this supposedly 14 billion year old earth \u2013 be proud of a culture that evolved and snaked its way through 75000 years? (I use the word snaked because slowly and slyly \u2018our culture\u2019 has insidiously seeped into this century and like a serpent \u2018our culture\u2019 has a venomous tongue, and lashes out at anyone and anything for supposed impudence in the name of \u2018morality\u2019) So why should we swell our chests in pride for \u2018accident of birth\u2019?? Just because we were born in this geographic location, for no permutations or combinations that we calculated or manipulated, why on earth should we be smug about things that happened here at some point in time?? Is it the sense of belonging, the remote lineage purportedly \u2018passed via blood\u2019 that makes us think it is our prerogative to be proud? In that case are we proud of having a genetic predisposition for excessive hair fall, or excessive sweating? Or for inheriting a \u2018fat gene\u2019 which makes it compulsory to add on an extra inch of baby fat with every bite of Big Mac? If not, then why this? It so happened that we were born in this part of the world, but why should we be proud of it? I fail to grasp the grounds for it.. May be because to inculcate the concept of patriotism, we have always been asked to BE proud from childhood itself (brainwashed? reminds me of the Nazis!) and hence we are. And we never really gave a second thought to it.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you know you are of a particular nationality because your forefathers ended up in that geographical location and adapted to the place due to lack of birth control measures and other past times they populated the area? In short, you are Indian because your forefathers decided to have some fun and stay here before they started using passports\u201d.<\/em> Come to think of it, is that reason enough to be proud of something? No personal effort of yours chipped in, and just because your nomadic great great grandfathers grew too cozy in their beanbags and were too lazy to pack up n\u2019 leave from where they roamed off to!<\/p>\n The fact is if patriotism is kept under a microscope, at a grass-root level it is nothing but the basis of segregation. Demarcating what is \u2018mine\u2019 and what is \u2018yours\u2019. Bifurcating \u2018us\u2019 into \u2018you\u2019 and \u2018me\u2019. And don\u2019t you think that thought right there is what has caused the whole world to wield weapons against each other. For no apparent reason at all, everyone wants a piece of the earth for themselves, to claim their own \u2013 forgetting the fact that the whole earth itself is our own. That feeling has been imbibed to such a deep dark point inside of us, that we don\u2019t mind getting downright bloody and gory to grab it. Is a piece of land which you are definitely not going to spirit away in your backpack when you die, worth dying itself? (And who knows in next life you might even be born on the other side and fight the same war!! \u2013 From another school of thought) So isn\u2019t this feeling of pride and patriotism on some levels selfishness itself, and hence the harbinger of the world\u2019s doom? I bet many would have a million arguments against what I said. Yes, I do agree that patriotism is an admirable thought, when you are pitted against opposing forces that are out to vanquish you. But I keep thinking of a different realm, a different possibility \u2013 what if no child was foddered with the idea of patriotism and pride, what if no factions sprouted up because of that, what if everyone desired the good fortune of the other as much as they wish for themselves, what if you were able to transcend from the feelings of possession, what if every living being was your compatriot, what if you were a human first rather than an Indian, a German or a Palestinian… \u2013 may be the world would have been a brighter place and a safer haven to dwell in.<\/strong><\/p>\nA few spot on, quirky lines a dear friend with similar thoughts shared about patriotism comes to my mind now \u2013<\/h3>\n
And on this Independence Day, I\u2019m not going to say \u201cJai Hind\u201d.. Instead, I\u2019m going with \u201cVasudhaiva Kutumbakam\u201d<\/h3>\n
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