Nationalism….what is it really?

Before ..when we were growing up

While I was growing up, I was born in 1962, every improvement in India was judged by it’s equivalent in the Developed World. The term Third World Country was something that was thrust upon those of us who lived in India. Later, the people who coined such terms placed us a kinder category – Developing Countries. Wow, we could now say that we had moved up. I did not realise then, that this was merely equal to how Multi National Banks designated people as Vice Presidents. When my eyes opened I realised that the term Vice President in a Company did not mean much. It was a designation created to make people feel that they had moved up and were important. Get what I mean? Developing Countries were no different from Third World Countries in reality.

Most of us, who had some sibling or relative abroad, would, on their descending into the native land, be ready with many things to show how India had progressed, since their last touchdown in India. When I showed the Road on National Highway 47 , just before Shertallai, where the contractors had used plastic waste to tar the road, I would get a shake of the head and a mild nod of appreciation. Good Motorcycles were powerful and did not make much sound ( I had not seen the Harley Davidson till then), so when souped up Yezdi bikes were flaunted, they were dismissed. Every small improvement in India was a proud moment for us. Yet, it never passed muster with the Non Resident Indian or Foreigner ( one who had given up the Indian Passport as soon as a Developed Country offered its Nationality).

I never stopped being proud of what we achieved in India. I was cut to the quick when insults were thrown at India. When our fast bowlers were called all sorts of names from Military Medium bowlers to Medium Pacers I cried out for a day, when I saw against an Indian bowler, the category Fast on display. Roads, Engineering, Space Research, Education, politics, sports the list was endless, we wanted to be good. We stayed on in India and fought hard to get better. Every small success kept us going.

I thoroughly loved India. I dreamed of an India where we had things that could be called ‘World Class’ – other than the famous quartet of spinners and Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath. Yes, our Space program was doing amazing stuff. Our scientists too. Suddenly we had enough grain, we began to eradicate various diseases that plagued our people. Every achievement was lauded by us.

As I grew up..

Winning the 1983 World Cup, I believe, was one of the turning points for India. It actually meant more to our psyche than we understand. Suddenly, we could compete on the world stage . Winning the Champions Trophy in Australia, after that, made it even better.

In 1991, when Manmohan Singh pledged our gold and saved us from economic disaster, we cringed . Later, when the gold was brought back, earlier than expected ,a good feeling came upon us. Economic liberalization was the greatest government act in modern India. We knew that we had to compete with the outside world and suddenly we began to get goods mainly made abroad but assembled here. Then we had production in India with at least 60% material sourced locally. Then, the IT sector started to flourish.

Suddenly, we were beginning to get recognized as people who had something to offer the world which they did not have. Small things happened. We began to communicate with others outside our country on more equal terms. The pride at our achievements started to increase.

International brands jostled with each other to come in to India. We suddenly did not need the handouts from our visiting foreigners. I went to work in Oman and remember telling a dyed in the wool racist, who was my boss, that the old Indian, he had in mind, was gone. I challenged the management to either remove the Brit as my Boss or send me back to India. They did the former. Luckily for me the Omani’s I worked for, were wonderful people and in general people in Oman were great. I was told how disappointed they were that India was not standing up as a power, where they believed we should have been. I did not know that in Oman and in other countries the Indian Rupee was used till the mid 1960’s.

The Information Technology (IT) sector really ramped up our standing in the world. Suddenly, only India had the solution to the great Y2K problem.

Power of the credit card

This is often underestimated. When we went abroad, we had so many restrictions on Foreign Exchange, that we again became hostage to the foreign host. Once we were allowed to use the card ( outside of India and Nepal) we walked with our head held a bit higher. We went in to shops in any part of the world and bought things we wanted. We even paid for meals and took our hosts out.

Now, you might say – what’s so important about all this. It was important. It removed the stigma of ‘Poor India’, for a short while. It made us proud that we were on the world stage. At least, we could buy what we wanted despite being Indian, from India.

The modern era

The Internet broke world barriers. Our children were seeing and doing things at the same time as their international brethren. Suddenly a world language sprung up. When youngsters from outside India came over our kids spoke to them and acted with the confidence we never had. Our roads were still a part of what we ( those born before the 80’s) wanted to show the world – our kids didn’t care. To them it was – take us as we are. If you do not like it here, leave.

Those who left India for foreign shores began to return. There was a sense that India was a place to be in. Yet, not one of us was asked to prove our nationalism in all the years, till now. We did not have to use terms that we did not need to. We did not need to buy national flags to prove our pride in India. Every Indian living in India knew that his fellow resident was proud of what we were.

The very fact that we were in India was enough for anyone to understand our pride in this great country. To our good luck we began to dominate world cricket. It was a Marwari Indian, Jagmohan Dalmia, who showed the world that we were winners. He understood the language and power of money. Later, a much reviled Lalit Modi, with the IPL, showed us that the international players were happy to be in India, because of the money actually. We gave them more wealth than what Kerry Packer did in the 1980’s. Shane Warne did not need to bring Baked Beans from Down Under, while playing in India.

Our grounds, our airports, our educational institutions, our work places, our space program, our nuclear program – everything screamed of a nation that had arrived. We did not need to prove to our fellow citizens that we were proud of our country. We supported Prime Minister Vajpayee when we conducted our second nuclear test. Damn the West, was what we said. Kargill was a shock, but we won. That was important.

Economically we were growing at an amazing pace. The 2007 / 2008 ‘Lehmann Brothers’ world economic collapse did not hit India as badly as it did the rest of the world. We showed that we could stand up and be counted. During that time world leaders queued up to get advise from India on how to manage the crisis.

Yet, we knew we had a long way to go. We were corrupt, we were inefficient, we had crumbling infrastructure alongside modern excellent work we had done. We were still dependent on many things we did not have. However, we were growing.

Now

If I do not change the Display Picture on my WhatsApp chat ( WhatsApp is not an Indian App) to the National Flag, somehow I am told that I am not proud of being Indian!!! If I do not put up a polyester Indian flag outside my residence, sold to me by the Government, my love for India is being questioned. If I do not use words that I never had to use while I worked for and stayed all these decades in India, do I not love India? I am confused. Isn’t it better if I followed the rules of the country, paid my dues, worked hard, stopped at red light signals on the road when no one was looking? Isn’t it better to do my civic duty than mouth platitudes on one day and then go back to breaking almost all the rules, on the 16th of August?

It’s just a ramble I know , but try to understand my passion for my country in what I achieved along with millions of others. We do not need to get aid from anyone when we have a national crisis, we are self sufficient in many things. Yet, there is a long way to go. There is grinding poverty, there is unemployment, low levels of education, manual scavenging. Our infrastructure needs to improve. We have a lot to achieve to ensure that we, are a country ,that can be greatly proud of ourselves. That is not going to be achieved without hard work and passion each and every day. Just shouting slogans and proving your nationalism through tokenism, is not going to get you to the top.

We must be proud of our Country, our heroes, ourselves, our flag and our diversity. Every language and dialect is important to the idea of India. We must love our neighbours and we must be good citizens. It should come to us naturally. That is what I believe. Do not force things down people’s throats, they will not digest it, but will choke and vomit it out. India is greater than that.

Jai Hind.