PATRIOTISM
W
HAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN? A LOVE FOR YOUR
country, your nation, your homeland? At the risk of getting
all tukde-tukde about it, we can’t really talk about patrio-
tism without splitting a few hairs. We asked a clutch of emi-
nent citizens the question, and they all had very different
answers. Or you could say they all agreed that it depends
on who you are: a filmmaker or an author, a teacher or a sol-
dier, a singer or a diplomat. And though we are all Indians,
perhaps it matters where you are from too: from the North
or the South, from the Capital or the periphery, from Cal-
cutta or Allahabad—Kolkata or Prayagraj. Or Kashmir.
Several of our contributors are at pains to point out that
patriotism is something quite distinct from nationalism.
Something older, subtler and perhaps more authentic. For
others, the nation is the ancient, authentic source of our
identity. Is there a distinction between the topophilia we
feel in our ‘native place’ (or the place we actually live) and
the collective allegiance we share for a national abstrac-
tion? Or is this just a sentimental continuum? Similarly,
parochialism, prejudice and xenophobia shadow the love
of place and seem to scale up or down from the smallest
social unit to a subcontinent.
Indian patriotism has survived all these contradictions
and ironies—sometimes it seems that it thrives on them.
Once upon a time we were exhorted to see a singular per-
son, as the manifestation of India herself. It didn’t last long.
A billion patriots are unlikely to warm to a single slogan.
One more reason to celebrate Independence.Illustration byNILANJAN DAS