50 INDIATODAY AUGUST 19, 2019
sung to empower ourselves, tostrengthenhumanrightsand
challenge any power structurethatdiminishesusaspeople.
Patriotism is subversive; the subverterofthefeudal,theuncar-
ing, the power-hungry and thedictatorial.Itdoesnotservethe
state and hence must, at all times,upholdthehighesthuman
qualities. Only when the countrylistensandlearnsfromthe
patriot does
it remain alive.
Patriotism was not a majoritarianimposition;itwasacaring
song for all, especially for thosewhosesongsarenotheard.The
nation-state had and has verylittletodowiththispatriotism.
When an entire people came togetherandstoodtogetherfor
self-determination, they knewthatthecausewashuman,not
Indian. But like all idealisms,thistoosoonvanishedintothe
shadows of community and religion.Patriotismbecomesjingo-
istic the moment it loses its selflessnature,whenitchampions
ownership, othering and criminalisesthosewhoarevulnerable.
W
hat aboutthatlinewecallourborder,that
which determinesoursovereignty?Isn’t
patriotismvouchingforthatpoliticalline,
protectingitsconvolutedshapeacross
mountains,rivers,seasandforests?In2010,
just after the civil war had endedinSriLanka,Iperformedin
Colombo in the memory of NeelanTiruchelvam,theTamillaw-
yer, politician and academic whowasassassinatedbytheLTTE.
He was a patriot who fought untiltheveryendfordialogueand
process, and listened to every voice.Forthatconcert,Irendered
a song written by a Tamil poetaboutwhomverylittleisknown—
Tara Bharati. He asks in his song:
Has any country stolen a riverbecauseitflowedacross
the border?
Has anyone arrested the windbecauseitcrossedthefence?
Have the border walls ever stoppedtheraincloudsfrom
coming down the hills after rainingonthetownsabove?
Do we accuse a tree on the borderofencroachmentandcutits
roots because it drew water fromtheneighbouringcountry?
At the end, he asks peopletoawakentothespiritofsharing.
Patriotism sprouts from this freedom,thesharingofhumanval-
ues. A bond that expands intoalargerpoliticalconstructionthat
we call country but can never bestoppedbybarriersorsteeples.
The lines that we draw on a map are just markers
of this coming together amongst one set of people.
It does not mark the position of the outsider.
Patriotism, therefore, cannot be reduced to a real-
estate business of acquiring or safeguarding land
and neither is it about international contractual
agreements. Patriotism cannot and should not be
bound by the idea of the nation. The nation needs
patriots and not the other way round. Patriots
must have the courage to name their own country
as the perpetrator if that is the truth. Patriotism
takes only the side of the just, not a nation-state.
Mythology and history, too, contribute to the
collapse of patriotism. No democratic country
came into being from vacuum, and this means
it carries within social, religious and political
practices the splendours and the grotesqueness
of the pre-democratic times. Bundled deep inside
those bedtime stories and lullabies are identity
markers that soon turn into tools of discrimina-
tion. When people are today called anti-Hindu
and anti-Indian, the accuser is, in one stroke,
collapsing socio-religious identity and faithful-
ness to the nation-state. In that masterstroke, he
rekindles the ruptures of the past and narrows
our Indian-ness to specific colours, symbols and
rituals. When that happens, even a beautiful song
of belonging turns violent. When the German
national anthem was rendered with gusto by Ger-
man supremacists under Adolf Hitler, it was an
unpatriotic, unmusical, inhuman act. Patriotism
loses its selflessness and morphs into a flag-wav-
ing, anthem-singing drill.
The patriot challenges culture, religion and
any social practice that is undemocratic. No saint,
elder, writer, painter, sculptor, philosopher or
singer is beyond the enquiry. The word of god is not
exempt from questioning and neither is the atheist
or rationalist absolute. The patriot is an artist,
a citizen, a sensitive human being who cares for
people and all that we treasure as this planet.T.M. Krishna is a vocalist and authorPATRIOTISM CANNOT BE REDUCEDTOA
REAL-ESTATE BUSINESS OF ACQUIRINGOR
SAFEGUARDING LAND. PATRIOTISM CANNOT
BE BOUND BY THE IDEA OF THE NATION.
PATRIOTS MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO
NAME THEIR OWN COUNTRY AS THE
PERPETRATOR IF THAT IS THE TRUTH