32 INDIATODAY AUGUST 19, 2019
die for—asinHorace’sfamousutterance,whichWilfredOwen
mockedinhisbitterWorldWarOnepoem—Dulceetdecorum
est, propatriamori.Owen’spoemisanunblinkingdescription
of asoldierchokingtodeathinamustardgasattack,andends
withabitterlyironicreferencetoHorace:itissweetandbeauti-
ful todieforone’scountry.
Themorbiditythatshadowsloveinevocationsof
“patriotism”—“thesandsofthedesertaresoddenred,andwhat
haveIdonefortheeEngland,myEngland”—issubstitutedby
ratherdifferentemotionswhenweentertheterritoryof“na-
tionalism”.Here,insteadoftheloveforparticularthingsthat
informspatriotism,nationalismischaracterisedbytheemotion
of pride—prideinasomewhatabstractnotionofthe“nation”.
And,equallysignificantly,insteadofthe“dying”thatseemsto
shadowpatriotism,nationalismissomethingthatoneiswill-
ing,andperhapsrequired,tokillfor.Patriotismis,essentially,
defensive,conservative;nationalismis,ofitsverynature,ag-
gressiveandaggrandising.
T
hereisasetofHinditermsthatcaptures,rather
beautifully,theargumentthatIamtryingto
makehere.Thus,ourbesttermforthe“nation”
innationalismisrashtra—and,forme,thehard,
syncopatedconsonants—shtr—tellmeallthatI
needtoknowabouttheemotionsatplaythere.Thetermthat
carriesthesenseofcountryis“desh”—butthatfinal“sh”still
soundstoodistant—anditisthefolk“des”thatseemsattuned
to thenecessaryintimacyofpatriotism.KishoriAmonkar’s
“aavomhaarodes”wouldbeallwrongwithaterminal“desh”.
AndthereisabeautifulragathatIcallDes—thoughIhave
hearditcalledDesh,too.IwaitwithdreadforwhatRagaRash-
tra willsoundlike—drums,certainly.Massedvoices,chanting
slogans.Andsundrysounds—bonesbeingbroken,fleshpulped
withironrods....Verypost-romantic.
Typically,inthiskindofcontext,peopleinvoke“theideaof
India”—whichis,variously,affirmed,endangered,eulogised,
traduced.However,inlightofthelexicaldistinctionthatIam
tryingtoexplore,Iproposethatweworkthrough“thefeelingof
India”instead.Iexpectthatverysoonwewillencounterthelocal
affinitiesthatgivepatriotismtheircharacteristicemotionaltone.
Thus,the“India”Ifeelpatrioticaboutisinextricablyboundto
the specificityofmylocationintheheartland—withitschaotic
heterogeneityanditsdeepcosmopolitanculture,producedby
the settlingtogetherofdiversepeoplesoverthemillennia—qafile
baste gaye, Hindostan banta gaya. There is the
crush of humanity that assembles every winter, as
if by instinct, on the banks of the river. But there
is also the hot summer wind—the loo—against
which one huddles behind reed chiks—which
filter the harsh summer light, and are associated
with the snatched romantic moments of deeply
conservative societies. There is also the paradoxi-
cal privacy of the mango orchard, the amraaee—
and the delicately erotic allure of the world
conjured in the music of the poorvi ang—the light
showers of saawan, the jhoolas: barsan laagi
kaari badariya / bagiyan mein jhoole pare....
Of course, the gardens are only an ever-distant
memory now, but this is the “India” that informs
my patriotism. But I suspect that the emotional
and visual content of the patriotisms of different
people—people from different parts of the coun-
try—will each be unique. And that is fine.
Nationalism, on the other hand, cannot, by
its very nature, accommodate this heterogene-
ity—and the attempt to fold it into some trium-
phant singularity—“New India”—must inevita-
bly entail violence. I hear sounds of the Rashtra
Raga starting up—it sounds like the stamp of
boots, entering the Valley—but meanwhile, the
image of the angry Hanuman that has sprouted
on a million car windows is future enough for
me. The image of Bharat Mata has undergone a
fascinating evolution, all the way from the fragile
maiden of the Abanindranath Tagore painting
to the flag-waving warrior-maiden image of the
Hindutva imaginary. I fear that the visual ana-
logue of the “India”, no longer Bharat, that we see
bellowing all around us—angry fists, pumping
the air—might no longer be containable within
any imagination of the “feminine”. Might I sug-
gest, in all humility, that our culture provides
us with a possible solution in the figure of the
Ardhanarishwara—an androgynous divinity
that is, after all, uniquely Indian?Alok Rai was a professor of English
at the Delhi UniversityTHE‘INDIA’ I FEEL PATRIOTIC ABOUT IS
INEXTRICABLY BOUND TO ITS CHAOTIC
HETEROGENEITY, PRODUCED BY THE
SETTLING TOGETHER OF DIVERSE
PEOPLES OVER THE MILLENNIA—QAFILE
BASTE GAYE, HINDOSTAN BANTA GAYA