NEWS ANALYSIS: Exhibitionist Patriotism

By Kartik Lokhande

It was August 15^th, the Independence Day of the country. It was an occasion for celebration. Hearts filled with pride, children proudly wearing badges bearing shape of India’s map, people thronging ‘happening venues’ to raise slogans loudly and wave as big a flag as possible to prove that their pride was greater than that of others, and such scenes were visible throughout the country. At a traffic signal where vehicles were waiting for the signal to turn green, a van with a national flag mounted atop came blowing horn and youngsters in it shouting ‘Bharat Mata ki Jay’, and zoomed past, jumping the signal that was still red. This scene, too, must have been noticed by countless many across the country.

This, is sad reality of the day. No doubt, every Indian should celebrate Independence Day. No doubt, people must wave flags, hoist those, raise slogans, sing patriotic songs, roam around. But, one must not have any doubt in mind that all these things should add to the nation’s dignity and respect. One must not have any doubt that all these acts should not result in disrespecting the ideals that our forefathers stood for while fighting for India’s independence from foreign rules time and again. One must not hold the impression that all these acts are being performed on this day only to ‘exhibit’ patriotism. But, every Independence Day, one notices that the ‘exhibitionist’ patriotism is on the rise and ideals that form the concept of patriotism are being relegated to books.

A bunch of youths in a four-wheeler raising slogans in hoarse voices and waving national flag, and jumping traffic signal is just one example of this exhibitionist patriotism. There are many other examples one finds these days. There are youngsters, who make it a point to colour their faces with three colours in the Indian national flag, and consume beer to ‘celebrate’ Independence Day. There are people, who ride motorcycles and perform stunts, violating all traffic rules of the land. There are people, who manufacture and purchase, paper and plastic flags for Independence Day and abandon those in any corner of respective city or town or village, at the end of the ‘celebrations’. There are people, who make the most of the ‘holiday’, by skipping flag hoisting just to go to some ‘happening’ place and chill out, asking children not to go to schools or colleges ‘for just flag hoisting and national anthem’.

And, there are people who get back to work the day after Independence Day celebrations with their routine of telling lies, cheating fellow countrymen, abusing elders, disrespecting national anthem by not standing up properly while it is being played, violating laws of the land, dumping garbage anywhere and everywhere, disrespecting the national icons, putting children to labour, taking or giving bribe to get their work done, and every kind of nefarious and undesirable act. More painful is the fact that ‘we, the people’ do not mind hurling abuses at ‘the system’ and ‘the country’ for being what it is. While doing so, ‘we, the people’ forget that we have made ‘the system’ and ‘the country’ what it is.

Of course, there are people for whom Independence Day is not the only occasion to celebrate the idea of a great nation like India. But, what comes to the notice is the exhibitionist patriotism. The exhibitionism is finely linked to consumerism. For, on this day, national flags are sold. Many of these flags – paper or plastic or cloth – do not even meet the dimensions. But, who checks? Who cares? Even the plastic or fibre badges of Indian map do not conform to the original map. They are twisted versions of Indian map. In most badges, one or the other part of the country’s map is distorted. Sadly, those are worn by people to exhibit their pride for the country. Are we so blinded by our phony patriotism that we do not care for respecting the nation’s geographical identity?

But, who thinks about it? Countless people ‘celebrate’ Independence Day with only exhibitionism and consumerism in their heart and mind, which they prefer to call patriotism. They take this opportunity to create an opportunity to upload pictures on social networking sites and sound like individuals committed truly to national good. However, their acts the very next day, are not in line with nationalist ideals. Probably, they carry the national flag and raise slogans like ‘Bharat Mata ki Jay’ or ‘Vande Mataram’ as an atonement for a year of violations of this or that rule or law of the land.

Will India rise to the position of a super-power or global leader with such shallow, insensitive, exhibitionist, phony patriotism? No. India will rise to that position only with true, not exhibitionist, commitment to nation-building and character-building. India will rise to that position only with people having enough courage to do right things and saying a firm ‘No’ to wrongs. India will rise to that position when we follow the ideals of our forefathers who fought for the Independence, to realise their dream of an ideal nation. For that purpose, we need to shun exhibitionist patriotism and contribute significantly to nation’s progress by giving our best, whichever field we are in.

To put it in the words of Robert G Ingersoll, “He loves his country best who strives to make it best.”

So, will there be change by the next Independence Day? 

(17-08-15)