Patriotism

I have a couple of friends who bitch about 'Patriotism' (literally, just a couple of them). They think it's cool. I mean they wouldn't do that if they thought otherwise, right. But, I do think otherwise. It's not cool to me. Patriotism is essential because "you" and "I" exist ! Let me explain. Let me try to knock some sense of patriotism into this couple of people.

You can't come and slap one the way you like. There are boundaries...at all levels! You can't come and love one the way you like. There are boundaries! At all levels.

Patriotism according to me, is nothing but the feeling of owning up oneself, enabling one to protect oneself...one's space. Just that the "self" here is an extended space now. It's one's country. It's just a bigger self. There is a "self" at every level.

Oh yeah, I know "Vasudhaika Kutumbam". The world is one, why not! But even within a family, even between parents and children, between siblings, between a couple, between lovers, there are boundaries. There's something called 'personal space' and we ought to respect that.

When the British colonized India and transferred resources from here with their self-interests at the heart of it all, with no concern whatsoever about the people here, of course they behaved like the "other". There's no oneness. Of course, I get it they left us with English and "some" Education and maybe some roots for democracy. But, at a time when the whole world was moving towards democracy, do you think India would have been left behind? When the time had come for enlightenment, for democracy, for being free from the clutches of the "other", would India have been left behind?

Of course the country was unified. Of course centuries of ignorance, caste system, aristocracy, feudalism...everything came under spotlight...Of course Scientific thinking started taking shape. Technology..Railways...many things started taking shape. But do we owe that all to British? English and Education - hum pe kuch ehsaan nahin tha! It's just a byproduct of centuries of colonizing a place. Some "good" happens as a result.

Let's look at the other side of the coin. Let's start from the "self" again. You are required to slog the whole day, but some other owner makes money out of your hard work and gives you pennies. Would that be ok to you? Somebody encroaches your land, digs gold, digs minerals, makes money out of it and you are asked to pay tax for it in return*...all because you didn't know how to dig gold and minerals from your own land. Would you like that? Your neighbour encroaches into your land, just so that their living space is bigger, would you be ok with that?

*That's what India had to do; Pay tariffs in return despite losing its raw material and resources.

How then patriotism seems funny to you? To me, it's so intrinsic. If you have a self...a self in the right place, then patriotism comes naturally IMO. You want yourself to win. You don't want the other to win. It's as simple as that.

I know, everybody is selfish. I had written about this in my blog earlier. And I don't mind repeating it. Even a martyr is selfish. Because they are looking at an accomplishment, a fame, a virtue...to own it up all. But that selfishness is different. That doesn't harm anybody. Rather helps. It's a responsibility very few would like to own up. But selfishness that cuts into others' lives, being apathetic to the feelings and needs of the other, is not mere selfishness. It's exploitation and abuse.

"Dogs* and Indians are not allowed inside" - If that sentence did not stir one up at that time, then either they did not have a self or it was numb, sleeping. Or they did not have self-respect. Period.

(Of course, no disrespect whatsoever to dogs.)