I know the title itself is very mysterious. Let me make it clear in starting itself. By various "ism" I mean various ideologies that surround us and in many cases puzzles us. It includes 20th century buzz words - socialism, communism , nationalism etc. as well as recent-often-heard word: Feminism. May be the core of every ideology is somewhat clearly spelled , but there are so many connotations and modifications to each that it puzzles a common man deeply to find out what is actually correct.
I choose to pen down my thoughts on 2 very "hot ism" these days : Nationalism and Feminism. I will not divulge into defining these , I will just share my experiences and leanings about these two. Let me start with Nationalism.
The very first thing I want to say about Nationalism is that its not patriotism. Although both describe relationship between an individual and nation but there lays wide range of difference. The most apt difference has been described by Sydney Harris
In very layman language I will tell a story often told by my husband. Assume an Indian , say Arun go to another country He go to buy mangoes there. By looking at the mangoes Arun says " We have got better variety mangoes in India." The seller took it on his (or his country's) pride and said " these are the best variety in world and I challenge you India's can be no better" The seller was arguing all the time in-spite of his no knowledge about the variety of mangoes in world, which country has best variety etc. A passing by person, say X(i), hear the conversation. He talks to Arun and request him to accompany him. X(i) takes him to a near by shop, buy the best variety mango for him and handover to Arun. Instead of asking for money he ask for his forgiveness to the ignorance of the seller. Also he request Arun to courier some best variety mango seeds to him so that he can also try cultivating them here so that even his country can become the best.
Here comes the difference between a nationalist and a patriot. In this story, seller was a nationalist because he considers his country best. On other hand X(i) is a patriot because he is aspiring to make his country best. X(i) took responsibility to work for his country. Responsibility is what I consider, separates the thin line between patriotism and nationalism. I also consider that most people, especially Indians, are afraid of taking responsibilities. And this is the reason people slip into blanket of nationalism to show their love for country.
We shy from taking responsibility to improve our education system , we shy from taking responsibility to create an equal society , we shy from taking responsibility to at-least create one world class level university or research center. What can be more sad that we even shy from taking responsibility of changing mindset of our son, brother, father or husband to shed them of patriarchy.
The day we will start taking responsibility, we will start looking at ways to improve our current positions. The day we will start looking at ways, we will open ourselves to others, The day we will start opening to others , we will start respecting diversity and they day we start respecting diversity, we will become true Indians. We will together strive to be patriots then. I guess on that day we will not like someone calling us just nationalists. We would like to be recognized as patriots.
Love is a great , Love for nation is honorable. But always remember love is antithetic to hate and as law of nature goes, two antithetic feelings can't coexist. So love for our country can't coexist with hate for other countries, love for our nation can't coexist with hate for our countrymen. If you find somewhere in past (or present), where love and hate coexisted, believe me that was not love. That was madness taking nations to wars and communities to riots. Such wars and riots produced no success. Only losses were there and the worst sufferer was humanism.
With Humanism we land up to third "ism" and also my favorite one. Out of all "ism" the one which has never changed its form and importance is humanism. Humanism is the belief that all human beings are good by nature and only circumstances make them bad, its the belief that all human beings are equal and must be loved for being born as human being. It transgress all divisions and is much above the talks of politics, self interest, protectionism etc. It just teaches one thing - open you arms for every human being. We all must practice humanism and then I believe patriotism, nationalism etc will be automatically taken care of.
Jai Hind
I choose to pen down my thoughts on 2 very "hot ism" these days : Nationalism and Feminism. I will not divulge into defining these , I will just share my experiences and leanings about these two. Let me start with Nationalism.
The very first thing I want to say about Nationalism is that its not patriotism. Although both describe relationship between an individual and nation but there lays wide range of difference. The most apt difference has been described by Sydney Harris
In very layman language I will tell a story often told by my husband. Assume an Indian , say Arun go to another country He go to buy mangoes there. By looking at the mangoes Arun says " We have got better variety mangoes in India." The seller took it on his (or his country's) pride and said " these are the best variety in world and I challenge you India's can be no better" The seller was arguing all the time in-spite of his no knowledge about the variety of mangoes in world, which country has best variety etc. A passing by person, say X(i), hear the conversation. He talks to Arun and request him to accompany him. X(i) takes him to a near by shop, buy the best variety mango for him and handover to Arun. Instead of asking for money he ask for his forgiveness to the ignorance of the seller. Also he request Arun to courier some best variety mango seeds to him so that he can also try cultivating them here so that even his country can become the best.
Here comes the difference between a nationalist and a patriot. In this story, seller was a nationalist because he considers his country best. On other hand X(i) is a patriot because he is aspiring to make his country best. X(i) took responsibility to work for his country. Responsibility is what I consider, separates the thin line between patriotism and nationalism. I also consider that most people, especially Indians, are afraid of taking responsibilities. And this is the reason people slip into blanket of nationalism to show their love for country.
We shy from taking responsibility to improve our education system , we shy from taking responsibility to create an equal society , we shy from taking responsibility to at-least create one world class level university or research center. What can be more sad that we even shy from taking responsibility of changing mindset of our son, brother, father or husband to shed them of patriarchy.
The day we will start taking responsibility, we will start looking at ways to improve our current positions. The day we will start looking at ways, we will open ourselves to others, The day we will start opening to others , we will start respecting diversity and they day we start respecting diversity, we will become true Indians. We will together strive to be patriots then. I guess on that day we will not like someone calling us just nationalists. We would like to be recognized as patriots.
Love is a great , Love for nation is honorable. But always remember love is antithetic to hate and as law of nature goes, two antithetic feelings can't coexist. So love for our country can't coexist with hate for other countries, love for our nation can't coexist with hate for our countrymen. If you find somewhere in past (or present), where love and hate coexisted, believe me that was not love. That was madness taking nations to wars and communities to riots. Such wars and riots produced no success. Only losses were there and the worst sufferer was humanism.
With Humanism we land up to third "ism" and also my favorite one. Out of all "ism" the one which has never changed its form and importance is humanism. Humanism is the belief that all human beings are good by nature and only circumstances make them bad, its the belief that all human beings are equal and must be loved for being born as human being. It transgress all divisions and is much above the talks of politics, self interest, protectionism etc. It just teaches one thing - open you arms for every human being. We all must practice humanism and then I believe patriotism, nationalism etc will be automatically taken care of.
Jai Hind
