Tone down the Hyper-Patriotism

There are some topics which holds us Indians together like religion, cricket, movies and our adoration for the country. The last one arguably has the most profound bearing on building a sense of nationhood among all citizens. A sense of affinity and identity needs to be demonstrated in some form which ideally should be something more than our mundane daily realities of life.

One ideal that has the ability to arouse the collective passions in unison is patriotism. In order to realise this in its most spectacular form, the valorisation of those people who protect the frontiers of our nation instantly becomes the benchmark for measuring one's admiration for the same.

"Silence, soldier is sleeping", reads the memorial of a soldier who sacrificed his everything to usher in peace for us. It is this supreme sense of dedication, patriotism and sacrifice that make the Armed Forces the most respected service in the world.

The army is a passion, not a profession for they never lower their guard, in peace or war. And that explains why it is written on their graves, "When you go home tell them of us, we gave our today for your tomorrow". A grateful nation never ignores the sacrifices made by them and their families. While that statement is true, it has also become some sort of lip service by those indulging in hyper-patriotism.

Over the years, the Indian Army has managed to carve a niche for itself by successfully projecting an image emblematic of extreme bravery and heroism. What follows is a rhapsodised reception given to the saviours of the country couched in the feeling of great respect. Acknowledging their hardships of an increasingly unpredictable life on the borders has almost turned into a yardstick to measure one's devotedness and enchantment for the nation.

As we show a benign allegiance for this grand romanticising, especially at a time when a neat linearity of the Army-patriotism-nation is drawn, we need to be cautious of a few things.

Being fully mindful of their valiant sacrifices over the years, there is a need in my opinion to rethink the conjunction of Army and nation which we normally see through our lens of hyper-patriotism. The damage what certain sections of our society and vested interests do is to give fodder for a mindless jingoism seeped in virtually revering these men for their work.

It seldom remains merely "work" as used in our everyday parlance but something which suddenly acquires a mass devotion for their superhuman attributes. The general tedious nature of "work" makes a dramatic transformation to a glamorous "duty" which leads us to being nothing but spellbound.

This glorification of the Army has unfortunately become the dominant narrative in epitomising the highest levels of struggle while serving the country.

Such trivialisations take us miles away from certain basic, obvious facts of the nature of the job in the Army. Firstly, we fail to recognise that an Army man is a public servant just as other public servants of the country. Be it manual scavengers, railway workers and many others who work for the government, live a strenuous life where the nature of their jobs is equally hazardous and full of hardships and sufferings.

Equal dignity and respect, regardless of the nature of the work for all is what is needed at the earliest. Like the Army officers who unfortunately lose their lives while protecting the country, these other public servants have equally lost their lives on an unimaginable scale.

The reason for this single-minded applause for the Army is that they getting "killed" by someone else happens to be the enemy of your nation. On the other hand, the lives lost in a variety of public services is conveniently deemed as a natural death which is more often than not attributed to their own incompetence.

The possibility of the lack of efforts on the part of the state to provide any succour in terms of medication and health insurance gets deliberately pushed under the carpet. The life lost by an Army man is by getting "killed" and thereby becoming a "martyr"; the life loss of a fanatic espousing ultra-nationalist feelings gets termed as an "assassination" but a life loss of an ordinary public servant is only seen as a "death caused through unforeseen circumstances".

The prospect of there being a genuine case of an "institutional murder" is loathed upon. It is this segregation of the Army on one side and public servants on the other that has fuelled a needless discord who practically should be treated on the same pedestal through the prism of public service to the country.

Just because an alien force shoots down an officer on the border doesn't mean that his public service becomes much superior. In fact, that is exactly what the service demands as the incidents of border skirmishes are a fairly routine activity.

Without belittling their extraordinary service, we should all make concerted efforts on our part to keep the jingoistic elements in check. We should simultaneously keep in mind the plethora of arduous public service done every day which fails to attract the shallow gaze of our much touted vigilant media.

Let’s dwell on religion a bit. It is an individual’s prerogative to practise his/her religion as long as it doesn’t impose itself to another person following another faith. Therefore Dharma is not just religion. In fact, it is not just law either but idealised duty. It is a combination of morality, law and religion. It is more like an idealised, self-controlled order. Dharma signifies the eternal law which maintains the world.

From a Hindu standpoint, the central expectation of dharma is that each Hindu would strive to do the right thing at the right time. Article 51A of the constitution, which lists our fundamental duties, clearly states that it is the duty or dharma of each citizen to uphold the noble ideals that inspired our freedom struggle, abide by the constitutional ideals and promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all people transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities, and to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture. Anyone who tries to negate these values and denies the presentation of diversities is in violation of Hindu dharma as well as constitutional dharma.

Likewise, the Prophet of Islam too is believed to have said that loving one’s country is a part of faith. He is also reported to have said that loving one’s country is half of what constitutes religion. While most followers of all religions are good people, each religion has people who deviate from the fundamental tenets of their religions. For such deviants, their religions cannot and should not be blamed, be it Hinduism, Islam or any other.

Rabindranath Tagore too in his letter to A.M. Bose in 1908 wrote that “patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter. I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live”. In conclusion religion is not a barometer to depict level of patriotism in an individual. An honest practitioner will serve as a unifier of people and one with malicious intent will always be the cause of conflict.

Continuing further, to be complicit in this ostentatious performance of patriotism propounded by a few blinkered nationalists tarnishes the image of both the Army as well as the nation.

Therefore it is important to have a balanced perspective of all professions. Any job that is embraced by passion will always provide joy and when rendered with integrity, character and sense of purpose will offer fulfilment. That is true epiphany.