Ours is a great nation. Rich cultural heritage, a glorious past, awe-inspiring leaders of past and present, the contemporary generation accomplishing hitherto unknown feats and charging into the future etc. and this makes us proud.
We are proud of our nation; the feeling of nationalism is a part of our DNA, which is an admirable trait especially when it inspires us to roll up our sleeves, clean up the muck (both literal and metaphorical) and contribute to our society positively. Such acts are well rooted in the feeling of nationalism, individuals like Anand Kumar of Super 30 programme, Shashank and Manish Kumar of Farms n Farmers belong to this group along with scores of other unnamed teachers, professors, scientists, civil servants, social workers who gave up lucrative careers and a cushy lifestyle abroad to work for those less advantaged, the unheard and unseen masses; these are the people who have put in their time and effort to clean up the mess the majority only cribs about but does nothing to mend.
But off late we are witnessing a surge in the display of a variety of what is being called nationalism, and it is extremely disturbing- the propensity to verbally abuse and physically assault anyone who does not stand up for the National Anthem in movie halls.
The perpetrators of this particular assault and abuse believe that they are doing the country a great service through their actions. The choice of some to not stand up during the Anthem is being dubbed as an explicit display of unpatriotic feelings and anti-nationalism. But is it really the case?
The Law – The Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971lays down that, “Whoever intentionally prevents the singing of the Indian National Anthem or causes disturbances to any assembly engaged in such singing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.” Nowhere in the legal text does it say that sitting out the Anthem deserves a sound thrashing or even hooting. In fact those who start hooting and beating up people in between the Anthem, they are the ones who actively cause disruption and thus, deserve punitive action to be taken against them.
Standing up for the National Anthem does not ipso facto prove someone’s anti-national feelings; neither does standing for it serve as a guarantee of someone’s patriotism. From our childhood we have been told and taught to stand up in the attention position, during every performance of our National Anthem; it has become the result of a Pavlovian conditioning for many who do it mindlessly. Thus merely standing up during those 52secs and clobbering those unwilling into submission, does not warrant a pat on the back of anyone, rather it deserves criticism for, by doing so these so-called patriots work against multiple other ideals for which our nation stands- to begin with the ideas of democratic choice, freedom and tolerance.
Those who do not wish to conform to the majority’s expression of patriotism might be doing so due to various reasons; reasons which have made them perceive our nation differently. Our nation and its people are not equally treated; there are wide ranging disparities among the states’ and the people belonging to different classes, castes and regions. Cases of targeted violence and injustice are rampant amongst the different social, economical, regional and religious groups, the skewed gender ratio screams of this inequality and discrimination. Minority students are targeted and hurt on a systematic basis, women of any age are under constant security threat, the third gender and those of homosexual orientations are treated as social pariahs, in short substantial sections of the population are made to feel like strangers in their own homes, the perks of being a true Indian national are not made available or accessible to all, yet the demand for displaying one’s patriotism is equally applied to all.
Of course by this I do not mean that all those who belong to the above mentioned categories do not stand up during our National Anthem, what I mean is that not everyone comes from the same background and conditions, and consequently different Indians view India differently and display their ideas of nationalism differently. As long as these displays are limited to their own selves and do not have a negative bearing upon anyone else’s life and/or property, i.e. as long as they are rightfully exercising their democratic right and freedom of difference of opinion, no one else should have the right and social sanction to impede them in their path.
For some, patriotism begins and ends at putting up the photo of our National Flag on a social networking site, flying a kite on 15th of August and standing during our National Anthem, while for others these actions might mean hollow and trivial, as their patriotism look for other expressions. Thus, rather than forcing a disciplined display of nationalism especially where no law is being flouted, these self proclaimed patriots can take a page out of the Father of our Nation, Gandhiji, and show a bit of tolerance to those who choose to remain seated, this way they will truly show some respect to the most cherished of Indian values.
