A very young friend of mine asked me " What is Patriotism" . And I kept on thinking about it the whole day.
The conclusions. Patriotism is a partisan feeling towards ones ilk. You could be a Bengali Patriot or Indian Patriot. You could, if you so wished, even be a Tamil Patriot or Amdavadi Patriot. The moot point therefore, you have to identify yourself to your belief of a Nation...a geographic / political entity.
Still that doesnt quite describe the feeling.
I personally am a patriot. In the same way that I would, feel badly, if someone spoke ill of my mother, I feel terrible if someone says lousy stuff about India...my chosen subject of passion. I illogically try to find virtue in every grime filled corner of this country. I magnify beyond belief every small achievement of the collective polity. I blame every ill that it suffers on myriad conditions and fate. I am proud to be Indian, even when Children get raped and killed. I am proud to be Indian when people get lynched on the road and when mature grown up people drive on the wrong side. I am proud to be Indian when we send a mission to the moon and make our first neuclear Submarine. I am happy when Amartya Sen wins the Nobel Prize for a life spent in America and when Indophiles like Dalrymple write about our History.
In a nation starved of Heroes...Patriotism is the only Hero that one worships. Its good that the feeling rises above the individual and truly rises as a giant body ....Something like Krishna's Vishwaroop.
That said, I look forward to the day that Nationalism in its present form dies out. The day that the whole world becomes a nation.
That day, patriotism will have a different meaning.
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