I have littered the ideas which I am posting here in various posts of mine. Nonetheless, will assimilate and vent out once to have done my duty as the citizen of India.

In heated conversations, I invariably end up accusing the pseudo nationalism that impulsively flickers in Indians on the 15th of August and the 26th of January, without sustaining the pride or the concern incessantly. True nationalism is when the individual performs his actions keeping national interest in mind, and as unheard as this notion might seem is in fact what “nationalism” is.

Chai nationalism
A variant of Indian nationalism is the chai-nationalism; the great debates, discussions and solutions to salvage India are rigorously discussed, some of it assimilated and most of it dismissed by the end of the chai. While this is necessary in a true democracy (not necessarily with chai, but people discussing politics), yet again it is perceived as the execution of the responsibilities of the citizens.

Class nationalism
A subtle facet of nationalism that most of the urban youth exhibit these days is the “class based nationalism”. No issue is seen in the national paradigm – “Reservations in seats affect me, so it is bad”,” Protests cause traffic jams, so it is bad”, “Poor are poor because they didn’t work hard – survival of the fittest”, “Autowalas demand more- they are greedy”, “Trucks can’t go on strike – it is atrocious” etc. These myopic and personal exhibitions of concern painted with social concern are getting ubiquitous, for, more or less the media too feeds this trash. Any issue must be analysed with its pros and cons, and with the nationalist perspective, of course not the individualistic perspective, i.e. if one is speaking of being a nationalist.
It doesn’t take altruism, simply empathy, to be able to understand the story from the other side.

Facebook nationalism
Well, a detailed post specific about this I wrote in an article I called “Totem revolutions“.
Facebook has hindered in more ways than many see its hindrances transparently – I will argue that it has made a majority of our netizens complacent about their civic responsibilities. A status update, a picture posted, and like on another post deem to the execution of social responsibility.
While using these newer means to propagate ideas is much needed, stopping at the same point is perilous. It creates nothing more than a trending topic on Twitter and data mining for Facebook.

NGO Nationalism
Non-Government Organisations and the corporate responsibility version of doing one’s small bit to the betterment of the society is yet another popular ideas of modern nationalism. Over the weekends, and weekdays via the mail threads to contemplate the future of India is wonderful – SEZ’s everywhere, disinvestment everywhere, privitisation of everything. This attitude breeds a whole apolitical population who do not ever think of cleansing the system but only of bypassing it.

Foreign nationalism
And this is one of the most ridiculous manifestations. The twenty first century brain drain led a whole “smart” portion of our population settle down in various foreign countries and the nationalism emanating from them is ludicrous. “And that’s why India will always be this way”, “Come see how things work here”, and more bleating on these lines. Huff,I don’t want to be harsh, but the word running in my head is “cowards”, “escapists”- well, I said it, oops.

So, my responsibility has been executed for today. Will go post it online and feel satisfied about the nationalism I have shown!

PS: I strongly believe that political activism and elevating the mass conscience together, or only a benevolent dictatorship will what will salvage us from our pathetic state.