Are extreme nationalists patriots too?

The month of August takes me back in time. Being brought up in an Indian Sikh family, preparations for the Independence Day began right from the start of August. With a lot of gusto, my brother used to curate the best kites and thread from the Red Fort’s Kite Bazaar in Delhi.

Patriotic movies during this period were a mainstay at our place. From Richard Attenborough’s, ‘Gandhi’, to Ketan Mehta’s, ‘Sardar’, our entire family remained glued to the television for hours. However, our all time favorite remained and continues to be, Rajkumar Santoshi’s, ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’. What confused me though was my parents attitude towards Bhagat Singh. In my waking memory, there have been countless occasions when they made me and my brother understand the importance of never cutting or trimming hair on our body. They stressed on the sanctity of this practice and told us how it symbolized paying regards to the sacrifices of our Sikh Gurus. But then why didn’t they even flinch when in the movie Bhagat Singh cuts his hair to escape the claws of the British?

Well, the reason is seemingly simple yet it isn’t. Bhagat Singh is looked upon with great reverence not just by the Sikhs but by Indians in general. He put his nation before himself. That’s why my parents are able to digest the fact of him cutting his hair despite being a Sikh without batting an eyelid. They understand that he let go off his personal preferences in lieu of attaining freedom for India. This school of thought works well when one sees all this in retrospect. But wasn’t Bhagat Singh considered an extreme nationalist during the Indian freedom struggle? How are extreme nationalists in today’s era any different from him then? Many would argue that they aren’t!

Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) was the political organization which Bhagat Singh and leaders like Chandrashekhar Azad were affiliated to. This organization was a mere instrument for its members to drag the British out of our country. Almost every member happily preferred being hanged over indulging in acts which just benefited HSRA and not their freedom crusade. For them HSRA was a means to the end. That’s where these Indian revolutionaries are different from the so called modern day “nationalists”.

The patriotism of the modern day nationalists is connected to a political organization or agenda. They go ahead with their business of spreading lies and hate under the garb of patriotism. Moral policing is their way of life and they love spilling the same animosity among their fellow countrymen. They might be flying kites too on 15th August, Independence Day, every year. But they never can and never will understand the true meaning of Independence.

Related posts:

It is a lot of hard work, but the payoff is enormous. To give some context, I previously spent about two years teaching English as. a Second Language (ESL) in Thailand, and then another five years…

The board room at the West Fairbanks District 110 building was filled to capacity and then some. School Board President Randall Gardiner was sure it was the most attended school board meeting in his…

Personal electric and hybrid vehicles have been on the U.S. market for quite some time. For the most part, they have been leveraged as an alternative tool for personal mobility. Some environmental…