Are We National?

When we talk of being national, we mean to measure our love for our country. Let us peep into ourselves and find out whether we really love our country. Each state that makes up the country, has its own and old culture. This is why the people of each State owe allegiance to their State before they owe anything to the country. Doing this, they seem to forget that, the state that they call theirs, belongs to India and has no significance of its own. Each integral state, they forget is a part of India and cannot exist on its own without India. It is for all to understand that it is India that is an entity in the sequence of the world, and not any individual state.

What Nationalism or a feeling of love for the Nation can do, can be well ascertained when we study our National Movement for Independence. This is the most glorious example of India a National which is called the Golden Age of India’s Nationalism, and a Golden Chapter in Indian History. Besides this great saga of events of an Era, India has never before or after depicted the same spirit of Nationalism, and least of all we find it in the present day scenario. It is obvious that we lack the spirit of nationalism because if we had the spirit. India would not have been such an easy target for multitudes of invaders in the past. Even the Muslim and British regimes in India could be a reality in India because we lacked the inherent discipline and feeling of oneness among ourselves and love for the country.

As far as the present scenario is concerned, even when we have entered the 21st Century we still have no love or loyalty for our nation. If there was love for the motherland, so many Indians would not go and settle in foreign lands, just because there they are more comfortable. If we were really loyal to the nation we would learn from other countries, come back, and improve our own.

A very glaring example for us to learn from is that of what the British did in India. They came here, ruled over us, and in the process made their own country richer with our riches but they never left their country to settle here. On the other hand, we, not having any love for our own country, allowed them to do what they wanted to, because we were never proud of our nation country and in the bargain, the British looted all that we had, and then went back home. This is what love for one’s country is all about. We see a large brain drain to the West because they are good paymasters and their working conditions are congenial. They can take the reins in their hands, and create the congeniality and economy here. This would help in the prosperity and progress of their country also. But, they prefer to go and settle in foreign lands because obviously, they have only love for themselves. Their own prosperity and the love for the country have no place in their sentiments.

We would do better in trying to help in the march ahead of our own country to progress rather than just ourselves. This happens because of a lack of feeling called nationalism, within us. What we could have achieved if we had the blood of nationalists like the one who gave us the gift of independence. That was just once, yes, just once when Indians showed their unity to become one and that we love our country. This shows that we do have an inherent or built-in oneness among people which has come out to stand the tests of time. This feeling is lying dormant somewhere within us, and we just need an energizer or a leader like Gandhi Ji, who could steer us together.

We have no national feeling; we take no pride in being Indians, which goes to depict the extent of bankruptcy of nationalism in us Indians. We have completely lost our identity and got merged with the West. India is known the entire world over by its own heritage, and if we lose that, we will lose our identity in the community of nations. We should rise up from being just residents of states and realize ourselves as residents of India. Only if we do this we may have a rich breed of nationalists. If we had a feeling of Nationalism our politicians would happily serve the teeming millions, instead of building empires for themselves.

Thus, it is so sad for us that this lack of one sentiment in us is ruining us and uprooting all that was the best in us. Vow to give it up.