The Irony called Nationalism

Our sense of patriotism is weird and some what unpleasant. It’s not about the love for your country,rather about how hard you hate Pakistan. I would say we shouldn’t be patriotic instead we must be matriarchal since we call India, Mother. Politics is muddled with religion, casteism and racism. They have no principle. Patriotism is measured in hatred and not in Love. Nationalists have no sense of nationalism. Here, nation is equated with religion and religion poison everything it touches. In this 21^st century where religion should be a personal thing rather than a collective representation, people still lingers on the values and morals elaborated by the religion for a group of people, when people used to live as a closed unit with minimum contact with other groups. Everything is global, we are living in the age of globalisation.

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Recently some lawyer in Karnataka state, hit the court with a sedition case against a film actress, who just openly commented

"Pakistan is a good country, not hell. People are just like us. They treated us very well while attending the SAARC meet. Manohar Parrikar's comment is not true."

Anybody in their good sense can see that she was just expressing her view. In one way or other every argument or a comment would contradict some other view. If you can’t distinguish between hurting of sentiments and difference in expression of views, then democracy is lost.

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But the biggest irony is, nationalism is just a persona behind which some interested parties try to establish their vested interests and agendas. Their nationalism creeps in with issues associated with religion, like gods, religious festivals, temples, masjids, churches etc. To them every festival is a religious issue and they equate culture with a particular religion. Their love for country is conditional. They just can’t love unconditionally. They don’t see a starving child in the footpath, they are blind to people who are homeless. Their patriotism is limited to Pakistan and Kashmir. Their Patriotism is defined by the hatred, not by Love. They preach Voting vigorously, but forget to insist on the duties of a citizen towards our fellow citizens. Daily preaching of patriotism is not an option to those who call themselves nationalists. When a poor man from Odissa, Dana Majhi, carried his deceased wife’s body 10kms from hospital over his shoulder with his crying daughter beside, only because he can’t afford a hospital ambulance, we didn’t see any patriotic attempt to tackle such a shameful event. May be because it is common in our country, it loses it aura to demand any kind of approach. It was a perfect situation to show our patriotism and nationalism, but there were no uproar. Everyone just aired condolences and that’s it.

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Nationalism is built on paranoia. Here it is not about national identity it has become religious identity. Nation is always an ethnic-cultural group,especially a country like India. Nationalism comes with the feeling of belonging. If we can’t make our own people feel that way, how are we going to move forward as a country.

The bloodsucking Yakshi

When I was a kid, April and May fell in the list of my favourite months. Not because it's going to rain and there would be mud all around, but those are the months my cousins would be here at our family house, in our hometown in Kerala. Those are the memories I would cherish forever. My grand-mother has 5 offsprings, 4 boys and a girl. My father is the second eldest of five. Then, he was the only one staying in Kerala and everyone else was in different parts of India, a Pan-India Family one could say. We were all present, it's like Parliament, shouting, laughing, scolding children, people everywhere, busy doing their chores. An outsider entering the home can still go unnoticed. Life was less complicated then. We were just ........just ourselves. Everyone you valued dearly is with you. It's like, the world has shrunken to a square block of bricks and mortar. Now it's all feel like a fairy-tale, one of the best things about joint-family. We are all tired of day's...

Youth and Politics

Our political system is crippling and burdened with over aged hypocrites. I honestly believe our politics need a revamp. Don’t you think present is ruled and governed by the ghosts of past. There is big difference in past and present social values. Don’t get me wrong, when i colloquially put it as older people coz you might think i am some kind of Nazi. When i say older, i meant our over-the-hill politicians, you can say they have experience and all, but right now what we need most is not experienced minds but bold minds who can accept the change happening around and those who are willing to break free from the old traditional format. The average age of our Parliament is over 60 years. How many leaders are there in our parliament who are not from a well-off and don’t have a criminal background. Most of our politicians and executives for that matter are sycophants. Being rhetoric and sycophancy are the trademarks of most of our statesmen. This sycophantic behaviour de...

From a socialist point of view

"the private and individual is altogether banished from life and things which are by nature private, such as eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and in some way see and hear and act in common, and all men express praise and fell joy and sorrow on the same occasions" - Plato, The Republic That was the seed which grew into a big tree which considered as the ancestor of Communism or socialism (of course there is difference in Communism and socialism) or simply, you could say a classless society, where people share all their property. ...

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