India Today – August 19, 2019

AUGUST 19, 2019 INDIA TODAY 39

threat? Is it different from being patriotic? I believe there is an
essential difference. Nationalism is devotion to your own even
to the sometimes detriment of another. Patriotism is striving to
uphold the honour and respect of one’s country even in the face
of pain and deprivation. The nationalism we have seen of late in
India seems premised on the alleged lack of it amongst others.
To hate, ridicule and denigrate other Indians to claim national-
ist fervour is the worst betrayal of a nation made up of people of
myriad faiths and feelings.
Anger and disgust about being let down are understandable
as long as there is consensus about expected conduct. An im-
position of unilateral expectations cannot be an acceptable test
of patriotism. But, sadly, that is becoming too prevalent in our
lives. Whatever happened to the oft-repeated words ascribed to
Voltaire: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it’?

India’s national landscape, going back

to 1857 and the first battles of the Indepen-

dence movement, is replete with patri-

otic fervour. The strains of ‘Aao bachchon

tumhe dikhayen jhanki Hindustan ki, iss

mitti se tilak karo ye dharti hai balidaan

ki’ or ‘Saare jahan se achha Hindostan

hamara’ were staples of our childhood. The

stories of Ashfaqullah and Bhagat Singh,

Maulana Azad and Sarojini Naidu, Khan

Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Vinoba Bhave,

and thousands of freedom fighters light up

the firmament of our collective memory.

The poetry of Bahadur Shah Zafar and

Mirza Ghalib continues to inspire modern

hearts and minds. Think of Partition, the

sad consequence of Independence and

you will find for each Jinnah and Liaquat

Ali, thousands of Zakir Husains and Sir

Syed Ahmed Khans. Yet narrow-minded

bigots seek certificates of allegiance to the

nation from compatriots who chose India

over calls of faith and family. The names

of martyrs and sufferers—innumerable

amongst them Muslims—remain etched

in stone in every town and village of India

and as much in the hearts of men and

women. There cannot be a greater insult to

the Indian psyche and betrayal of its con-

sciousness than to question the Indianness

of an Indian.

Suddenly, as every visible attribute of

a Muslim’s public personality, less so other

minorities, gets challenged and jingoism

gets into the political driving seat, the

community is being watched for conspicu-

ous signs of patriotism. If that was not

bad enough, unreasonable standards of

patriotism are being introduced into the

public discourse. Disagreement is promptly

branded as disloyalty. We might not be

alone in this—the world was witness to the

spectacle of US President Donald Trump

berating the ethnic background of Democ-

ratic Party Congresswomen who oppose

his brand of politics. Fortunately for India,

we have an enormous army of liberal Indi-

ans of all hues and religions who speak

Illustration by RAJ VERMA