"Who lives if India dies? Who dies if India lives ?" Prime minister Pundit Nehru had quoted once. The whole sentence epitomizes the deepest patriotic feelings, especially the second half. But don't you think there has been a lot of change in the notion of patriotism since then ? Well it may be because of globalization, lesser moral uprightness (You can debate on this ! ), terrorism , liberalization, vested interest of various countries in other nations and various other things. In fact today patriotism has to defend itself or rather has to assert itself against chauvinism , extremism , separatism and even terrorism .
Over the years we have started taking a more liberal stand (may be only outwardly!), and terms like 'true patriotic' have acquired a kind of slightly derogatory connotations, You never know when someone will start portraying you as a separatist or chauvinist. The other development which has happened mostly after post liberalization in developing countries is the vested interest of nations in trade and economic policies of other countries , which has led to more and more globalization and this in one way or other has unclenched the once rigid patriotic feeling (though truly justified , Come on we won freedom only because of all those ! ) but as a downstream consequence we somehow have become a blind eye for our mother land and patriotism. And not to any surprise of us nationalistic feelings sometimes even are portrayed as ridiculous.
Though the intentions weren't any sinister behind these developments but increased individuality and chances of success (and survival !) as compared to the time of colonialism when there was a prevailing notion of country first , have somehow shunned us from patriotism.
But on a positive side the other development which has happened very recently is that a feeling of patriotism is again getting re-instilled and people are realizing that -to tackle terrorism they have to forgo self interests of theirs and have to do away with aloofness. Though it's good and better than total aloofness , it's still more like seeking your interest and good in welfare of country than thinking of country's good first and sacrificing yours interests even ! Who dies if India (or any country ) lives still has few takers (very very few in fact )and it seems to be a concept of golden past now.
Over the years we have started taking a more liberal stand (may be only outwardly!), and terms like 'true patriotic' have acquired a kind of slightly derogatory connotations, You never know when someone will start portraying you as a separatist or chauvinist. The other development which has happened mostly after post liberalization in developing countries is the vested interest of nations in trade and economic policies of other countries , which has led to more and more globalization and this in one way or other has unclenched the once rigid patriotic feeling (though truly justified , Come on we won freedom only because of all those ! ) but as a downstream consequence we somehow have become a blind eye for our mother land and patriotism. And not to any surprise of us nationalistic feelings sometimes even are portrayed as ridiculous.
Though the intentions weren't any sinister behind these developments but increased individuality and chances of success (and survival !) as compared to the time of colonialism when there was a prevailing notion of country first , have somehow shunned us from patriotism.
But on a positive side the other development which has happened very recently is that a feeling of patriotism is again getting re-instilled and people are realizing that -to tackle terrorism they have to forgo self interests of theirs and have to do away with aloofness. Though it's good and better than total aloofness , it's still more like seeking your interest and good in welfare of country than thinking of country's good first and sacrificing yours interests even ! Who dies if India (or any country ) lives still has few takers (very very few in fact )and it seems to be a concept of golden past now.
This change should be welcomed i think. as the anti patritotic like terrorism has changed the change in patritic feelings is irresistable. We can say that the outfit of feeling has changed but still people think of their country in some way or other, which i feel is enough for india to survive.
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