India has lost the meaning of nationalism

In common parlance, nationalism stands for love and respect for one’s homeland. Usually, nationalism and patriotism go hand in hand, but in the case of India, it is completely different. Nationalism has got a complete new meaning.

Some leaders argue that it should be connected with one’s national heritage, and that too, has a religious connotation to it. in the past, statesmen ruled the roost by teaching people the essential Indian values of life based on tolerance and most importantly, the respect for other religions.

However, recently nationalism is associated with old religious principles that go against what was taught by Swami Vivekananda, one of the most respected Indian scholars and spiritual teacher. He stood for secularism, which according to him was not merely tolerating other religions, but to consider them all as true as well. He believed that only such a society could bring durable peace, harmony and amity among the countrymen, irrespective of the religion that they belong to.

India is a melting pot of various cultures and religions and out of these, different cultural patterns came out and that is the “modern” India that we see today.

However, much water has flowed since these great leaders left us and the nation now stands at crossroads defending its once glorious culture against the modern winds of change. There is no doubt that the cultural roots are connected with ancient Hindu traditions and culture. However, with time, India became the centre of a new kind of culture and civilisation — a mixture of the main elements of each and every religion.

With that in mind, we have a common value system that is based on accepted principles of the different religious as well as social segments and groups. But to have a single value system based on one single religion would harm the amity and unity of the country in the long run.

Considering the circumstances today, it is vital that leaders look back at the secularist principles taught by Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru and reinforce them.

— The reader is an Indian writer based in Kerala, India