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The nationalism conversation you never had (but it's never too late either)

Let me open with: Between the two—being Indian or being from your home town, what are you (if one had to be right and the other wrong)? The catch: One is true, automatically making the other one false. In my case, it will be Am I Indian, or am I Bengalurian? Chances are that the one that's true will have to be I am Bengalurian. Being Bengalurian first makes me Indian as much as being from Dusseldorf or Reykjavik doesn't, and being from Pune, Delhi, or any place in today's India makes someone else Indian. If you're still confused, get your probability calculators out and figure that one out. 

That the case, being Indian has to, therefore, be a sum total of being a Bengalurian, Dilliwalla, Kolkatan, <every single Indian place with people>...n.  This exhaustive list incorporates every element of life including food, lifestyle, religion, social values etc. that each of these people live by, even those that don't make the common majority of what that collectively involves. It is also, more importantly, a bottom up structure implying what India is, rather than telling us what we should be - essentially a non-interfering model. It's impossible to not be Indian if India is where you're from and you live as you please, unless you are being a general nuisance or causing a fall of law and order. There's nothing you specifically have to do to earn the tag. It's simply everything you are.

Overtime, we've turned it around. When our strength should be respecting uncommon differences, we've established mainstream, ignoring them. The larger, louder majority gets to define and regulate cultural rights and wrongs especially with respect to language and nationalism. A true idea of India serves each one of us. Now, the lesser different among us must serve this strange idea of India. It doesn't really add up and become relatable, if it doesn't really represent you. 

Nation pride is merely a habit. All the home dynamics play out there exactly as it does at home. It is also an economic construct, a necessary one so it can sustain a country. It should not be understood beyond this. Your country may or may not be the best country in the world. It will not be everyone else's to love as much their own countries. You can call it out its ills for what they are without intending for it to look bad when your only other option is to let it be as bad as it is. 

The nationalism model you follow must not be a blindfold that doesn't let you reason. There is nothing sacred about nation and country that you should not ever be able to question. The fears of those who reject this idea are unfounded. They refuse to recognise the uncommon differences of those to whom else their country is home. Their solace should be that home is home and it becomes a way of life that is meant to make, build and benefit us, which it doesn't always. Questioning removes the oppression - making it a good thing. As matter of fact, nationalism should be self questioning and critical. That's how your national heroes aren't turned into god men and your ideas into sacred idols.

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