INDIAN NATIONALISM

“The current usage of the concepts of nationalism and culture in India has acquired some ugly manifestations. It is no more a serious concern about nation or culture, but a rather crude jingoism fed by a populist majoritarian exclusivism. An empowered section, which had remained on the margins of the process of nation building all these years, finds itself catapulted into the mainstream. Rhetorical nationalism has always been a useful tool to polarize people, it has been globally effective and has been used many times with disastrous consequences. 

They have successfully polarized electorates with the fear of the ‘other’, who is projected as an enemy of the nation, of culture, a threat to the nation’s development and even its very existence. Our nationalism today needs an enemy, an object of hate to focus on. It longs for uniformity and hates any deviant behaviour or even questioning its so-called nationalist premise. It abhors diversity of cultures, views, eating habits, dress and even modes of entertainment. This paranoid nationalism, now patronized by the state, is the most lethal weapon being used against many of its citizens.

The ultimate aim of the original ‘right-wing’ nationalism that emerged in already established nation states was to claim the monopoly on patriotism, and thereby brand everyone else as some sort of a traitor. Nationalism is being transformed into theology, where anything critical of this view could be dubbed blasphemous.

They conveniently peddled their own communalism as nationalism while Muslim communalism was dubbed as separatism. However, the fact remains that both of them were and are complementary and indispensable for each other’s survival.”