WHAT IS PATRIOTISM

ANOTHER ARTICLE BY Rishabh Srivastava -

THE NATION celebrating its 62nd Independence Day. India’s struggle for Independence is a saga of those thousands of men, women and even children who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the nation. And so by celebrating Independence Day, a homage is paid to all those who fought to bring Independence to our country. But gone are the days when every Indian citizen valued the importance of this great day. Time has eroded those sentiments and now we observe this day just like any other day or a holiday. Children are forced to go to schools to attend the flag hoisting ceremony by making attendance compulsory. Children seems to have no feeling for this day and the same can be said for the adults in our country also.

The Oxford dictionary defines patriotism as devoted love, support, and defence of one’s country; national loyalty. But the word patriotism cannot be restricted and is very subjective in nature. One need not play cricket matches or fight wars to express their feeling of patriotism. Our emotions run high when India thrashes Pakistan in any sports or when a businessman of Indian origin, staying abroad, makes it big in the world. We feel so much patriotic when a lady of Indian origin (who has hardly been in India) goes into space. The episode of Sunita Williams and consequent celebrations in India clearly exhibit to what extent we are obsessed with the Western culture.

The youth of the country while studying only thinks of moving out to America or United Kingdom and settle abroad and earn money for the foreign nation. They give reason that there is no infrastructure in our country, there are hardly any avenues, scope to make it big and fulfill one’s ambition. This might be true, but isn’t it our responsibility to facilitate such an environment in our country? APJ Abdul Kalam has mentioned in his book ’Wings of Fire’ that “never think of the scope, work hard to create that scope.” Kalam rejected several offers from abroad and stayed in this country and contributed to making India a nuclear power. That is the resolve of a real patriotic person.

The problem is that we are so much obsessed with foreign labels. This is really a dangerous trend. We are losing our own identity in the process. We have no interest in our history, culture and our country’s growth. We are aping Western countries, leaving behind our nation. But we are very selective while aping as well. Why is it so? The whole of America and UK come out on the road to celebrate their Independence Day. The whole nation stands by their armed forces not only during war times, but during any crisis. They share the success and failure of their country together. They dream of taking their nation to new heights. Do you feel same for India?

There is so much negative thoughts about India in one’s mind and quite often we just don’t want to discuss or talk about it. There was a very famous dialogue in the movie Rang De Basanti, which said “koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usse perfect banana padta hai” (no nation is perfect, it has to be made perfect). And who’s responsibility is it to make it perfect? Do you expect someone else to improve the scenario of your nation and when that happens you will happily return to your nation to contribute to the development. Right?

Author Shiv Khera said that if we are not part of the solution, then we are the problem. Our country has made advancements in almost all sectors but there is still greater distance to cover. There are some problems that are still unattended and we need to work on that. A nation does not become great with slogans. It becomes great when its citizens do great things. We just don’t want to fight the injustice and battle for our integrity. We need to change ourself and drive this nation forward. We need to be a part of the system and bring some positive changes.

Politics is not a dirty game, it’s just that there are dirty players. That’s all. If you say that you don’t promote wrong things and you are neutral then that is paradox. If you don’t oppose injustice and crime then you are certainly encouraging it. The vision of Independent India became a reality when our freedom fighters came together and fought the imperialists, which was initially considered impossible.

India is not the only country with problems but is certainly amongst the few that does not throw up the solution. As a responsible citizen, we need to provide the solutions.

There is so much an individual can contribute towards the progress of our nation. We need to improve the tone of our social and economic life through improved work ethics and environmental behaviour. Let us rally behind our flag, let us love our country with all its faults, let us work to improve it with all our strength, let us defend it with all our resources, let us hand it on to the coming generations better than what it was when we received it. Let us try to build a nation, which our freedom fighters dreamt of. That will be the real tribute to them!
Remember one thing- the country is our mother and we have to be responsible enough to say that I am going to take care of her.

JAI HIND!!!!!!!!!!!!