Pseudo Patriotism

This takes me back to about 14 years. We have this inter-house debate in school on the topic “Is India a developed nation? “. I have to put up a case for “NO” which is not that difficult. No doubt India is a great country and I am proud to be its citizen. But in reality we have a long way to go before we can call ourselves that.

Despite of having put a good case and leaving my opponents very little margin to prove me wrong, I lost out. Reason - simple enough the votes were in favor of my opponent as no one wanted to sound unpatriotic by agreeing with me!

And from that day onwards I have always wondered - do we stand by what is right or by what we feel is “politically correct” or is it a herd mentality?

Take the recent case of Sania – Mallik wedding controversy. Why do some of our political leaders feel disappointed that Sania chose a non Indian person to marry? Or are they really that concerned he is a non Indian or is it that he is a Pakistani? Why are they upset that she would be settling in Dubai? Why does Bal Thackeray question her patriotism? Why is she is being asked silly questions who would she support in an Indo-Pak match? And it’s not only the Indians but so are the Pakistanis wanting her to represent Pakistan in tennis.

So the question is - does patriotism means marrying your countryman? (What about the Indian pledge that we took in school – All Indians are my brothers and sisters?). Is it patriotism to only support your country’s team? What about may the best team win? Is it patriotism not to allow Pakistani’s in IPL? Is it patriotism to pack all Pakistani artists out of our country?

So what are we to do? Do we cave in to prove that we are loyal or do we stand our ground and stand by truth? It’s a very difficult thing to do, Sometimes I wonder would there have been lesser Nazis if Germans did not cave in to Hitler’s call of supreme race patriotism? Would there have been lesser terrorists if people did not question their faith? Would there have been lesser wars/ battles within countries, within different states of the same country, within different religions, within different sects of the same religion? Why do we have to go to such drastic lengths just to prove that we belong?

Oh and this just struck me! What if Sania had married a North Indian and moved to Mumbai and took up a spot of Marathi Manoos in tennis, what would Raj Thackeray have to say to that?