The deep perils of cricket nationalism Editorial : Economic Times , March 6, 2014 Harm was done to Indian nationalism by the management of a private university at Meerut, which packed off a group of Kashmiri students for cheering Pakistan instead of India in the Asia Cup cricket match. The act privileged a view of nationalism as a monochrome expression of unvarying and uniform loyalty from all sections regardless of their own context, history and degree of integration into the so-called national mainstream. When people of Indian origin in Britain, loyal and proud citizens of their adopted land, cheer India in a cricket match against England, xenophobic far right groups target them — to the dismay of Indians back home, including, presumably, the outraged nationalists in Meerut. Many Kashmiris see their land as an occupied place, retained by brute force alone. Behaviour such as in Meerut only serves to strengthen this feeling, rather than to reduce any degree of alienation. Backing the wrong team in a contest between nations is, often, a form of protest, against real and imagined offences against the concerned group. To suppress that protest is to add to grievances, not to attenuate them. Kashmiris could well turn around and ask, how come no Kashmiri has ever played for the Indian team, if Kashmir is indeed an integral part of India? The Hindu-Hindi-Hindustani construction of Indian nationalism is just a form of chauvinism that excludes very many Indians. Rather, Indian nationalism can only be conceived, in the spirit of liberal democracy that informs the Constitution, as celebration of an ongoing, multi-paced union of chunks of humanity that are diverse in regional, linguistic, religious, ethnic and cultural terms, through a process of sharing of rights, responsibilities and resources. Forced cheering is not celebration.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 08:50:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015