Questioning another's patriotism on social media doesn't qualify you as a nationalist

And once again it’s time for many of us to exhume and ritually embellish that jaded, dilapidated emotion called patriotism. It’s time for us to forward trite WhatsApp messages and inform ourselves about what we (hopefully) already know — we honour January 26 because India officially adopted the Constitution on this day in 1950.

Many lawmakers (who with impunity) digress from our national principles will lecture us that the Constitution is supreme and is the guiding force of our nation. They will even dare to advise us to lead a meaningful life of liberty, peace and prosperity.

It will give some of us hope and make us feel good. It will create an illusion that as Indians, we are progressive and truly understand the meaning of democracy and debate. That little illusion gets shattered when we log onto the social media, particularly Twitter.

Like a hapless child caught in a riot, as we wade through the abuses, slurs and cuss words, reality dawns upon us — that as a people we are intellectually anaemic. One will notice with horror and amusement in equal measure that many Twitter handles that contain “nationalist” in the bio are the ones that are most vile and divisive. Some of these handles are surprisingly based abroad and it is their wont to dub anyone in disagreement with them an anti-national.We almost agree that irony died a long time ago. And then we realise that irony was actually slaughtered in a riot!

In this day of globalisation, many of our families and friends live abroad and yet are proud to call themselves Indians. And rightly so because patriotism, like other forms of love cannot be confined by boundaries. A nation is not the mere territory, government or administration. It would be apt to recall the words of the famous Telugu poet, Gurazada Appa Rao who said: “Desam Ante Matti Kadoi Desam Ante Manushuloi,” which loosely translates to: A nation is not a lump of soil, rather it is her people.

It is the people that constitute a nation. People like you and me. Hence the greatness of any nation is deeply rooted in the quality of its citizens. Today should be a day of introspection for us as individuals and communities, so that we align our endeavours with those of the ideals of the constitution. We must all strive to be ambassadors of the idea of India. An India that is strong, secular, rational, compassionate and peaceful.

We must all be aware of our duties as citizens and so we must spend a few minutes today to read and internalise the Fundamental Duties of an Indian citizen. An ignorant, abusive, misogynistic, regressive and xenophobic citizenry is a hindrance to India’s progress and unity. As good citizens, we must abjure any practice that makes us weak. Calling each other anti-nationals would only fracture our society further.

The "nationalist" handles that harp on national security being paramount might do well to understand that in the modern world, psychological warfare is real and that the enemies of India seek to exploit our differences to break us up. The "nationalists" are playing into the hands of agencies that want to convert our diversity into differences.

We should take a pledge to improve the quality of public discourse and should we disagree with one another, we should refrain from abuse or questioning each others’ patriotism. We must understand that patriotism is love for our country and not hatred for any other. Many a time, ill-educated people would argue that fundamental duties are more important than rights, as thoughthe two are mutually exclusive. Often, when we do not perform our duties, we deny someone’s rights.

The best expression of patriotism is not in BOLD NATIONALIST bios, but in humbly performing our duties as citizens. Every single day. If you are already aware of the fundamental duties, spread the word and urge every citizen to be aware of them and follow them. If you have not heard of them yet, look them up in part IV of our Constitution.

India can be strong only when she has an enlightened citizenry. Let not our patriotism be pinioned to hatred, ignorance and prejudice. While we cannot change the entire society, we can change ourselves. Let’s individually and collectively play our parts to make India great. Let’s start today. Let’s start now!

Also read: I'm your friend, I love Modi. Bharat Mata ki Jai