What is with all this Indian flags waving in many whatsapp profiles? Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull once said in an interview “I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon, out of every SUV, every little Midwestern house in some residential area. It’s easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism, Flag waving aint gonna do it.” I think many Americans misunderstood that quote, and the music of Jethro Tull got banned in many places just because of that sentiment by Ian Anderson. I hope what I say do not offend anyone here; but I am disturbed by Indian flag waving that I am seeing. To me, in many instances, it just looks like a quick, insincere fix to establish an attachment to our country I know that for certain individuals and in certain situations, flag waving is appropriate and quite nice and extremely symbolic of the patriotism it can convey. If I were to win a medal at some game, especially an International one, waving a flag is appropriate. So I do respect our flag. I need to be rhetorical about this, just to ensure that that point is very clear and I am not misunderstood But I can easily see scoundrels who have no real interest in the upliftment of our country and what she stands for; and what she has stood for all through history ... I have even seen many such people trying to gain respectability by simply showing a flag and do nothing much else I am quite patriotic being an Indian and I know that I am proud of having Indian thought processes. But I surely am not going to express that by waving our flag and leaving it at that I know the difference between Nationalism and Patriotism. Nationalism is about establishing borders and being proud because of being within that. I think that is too narrow a goal and hardly uplifts anyone. I believe Nationalism in such complex times is too poor a substitute for patriotism Being patriotic is about taking your values irrespective of borders, being proud of who you are and what you stand for, without wanting to compare yourself with anyone else or become defensive or put down anyone else. When you are a patriotic Indian, you have a burning desire to communicate and put into action what the Indian value system taught you -- you simply have to create and propagate value the Indian way and not just wave flags. And you can surely be an Indian, irrespective of your geographical location If you quietly reflect on this: Indian thought has fiercely defended the need to exist across boundaries; but time and again I find people not really understanding that too much We have the Indian mythology of Narasimha which amply demonstrates that the challenges posed by placing things and thoughts into pre-defined slots are best fought and won at the boundaries We have the Indian law of the included middle, where Buddha sits smiling in the centre and said both the opposing parties in any one line of thought is right in some form. There is no hard no in Indian thought -- but shades of gray and a lot of optimism. Again, no firm boundaries I see in Hindu religion, a very realistic mix of complex traits instead of the completely black evil and the fully white good. Indian Gods have all sorts of human frailties such as jealousy and anger, along with numerous good ones. There are quite a lot of intricate stories on how they managed to contain the negatives and still became worthy of being a God -- again, the lesson is: no clear blacks and whites. No clear boundaries. There is no firm boundary in Indian mythology, to wave a flag from If any, this is the time the world really needs true Indian thought. We are living in a time of internecine wars and fratricide. I believe, only Indian thought can now bring peace and calm to the world. Unfortunately, I have seen even professionals slotting people into convenient slots and labels. Surely, Indian thought can get corrupted if this is not understood well For example; I have seen doctors, trying to treat patients using the narrow confines of medicines to treat a medical condition -- and after having treated a patient in such a manner, such doctors assume that the patient is now very normal. They cannot understand that a medicine is only one part of the treatment, and one need to cross boundaries and also uplift the spiritual and emotional and even personal needs of the patient. They simply forget the holistic of the person -- safeguarding the holistic has always been the hallmark of Indian thought I am not impressed by such flag waving doctors who want to confine themselves only to their subject and their medicines I have seen architects who do not understand to go beyond the confines of the requirements of their design. They do not cross over into areas such as sustainability, energy consciousness and so on. If they had done that, it would uplift not just the people directly involved in the said project; but others too -- in fact the entire world needs such an holistic approach to design. So I am not impressed by such flag waving Indian architects who do not understand the areas where their responsibilities ought to take them This rant can of course go on to many other examples. To balance this, I have seen quite a lot of very good examples of being a true patriotic Indian -- too numerous to list here -- and often from the simplest of people in our society If all this flag waving is a build up to our Independence day on Aug 15, I feel that it could be better spent on figuring out ways on promoting true Indian thought
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:44:46 +0000
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