The recent controversy around someone refusing to shout “Bharat Mata ki Jai” reminded me of an incident sometime back, when a family was reportedly harassed in a theater because they did not stand up for the national anthem. It is bad enough to have a legal requirement to play the national anthem at every screening, and it is absolutely outrageous for people to gang up on someone for not standing up for the unsolicited recital. Even if we discount their unenforceability, the sheer lack of sense in rules that would require people to stand in attention every time the national anthem is played, or salute the national flag wherever it is displayed, is astounding! If all citizens were to obey such a rule in letter and spirit, then criminals from burglars to terrorists will have a good time operating uninterrupted, under the protection of national anthem playing in the background. This would have been funny, if it were not for so many people having an exaggerated sense of the significance of these national symbols.

Even though the scenario of robbers using the national anthem as a cover for their operation was brought out in jest, let’s explore that hypothetical situation a little more in order to understand the relative importance of two competing ideals that are at stake. Assume, that the national anthem is being played, and the life, liberty or dignity of a fellow citizen is being threatened when you and many others are present and in a position to help that hapless fellow. Which would be a greater duty? Protecting your fellow citizen, or showing respect to the national anthem by standing in attention? To me, the answer is very clear, because the national anthem is only a symbol of the nation, while every citizen is the nation personified. No mother would care for her photograph more than for the happiness of her children. This is why I think it is perfectly fine to burn copies of constitution to warm oneself in a winter if need be, or tear the flag and use it as a bandage to stop the bleeding of a dying man. In each of these cases, we are not disrespecting the nation, we are only defending her true nature at the expense of expendable symbols.

Flags, anthems, songs, slogans, these are all symbols. It is natural for us to love and respect these symbols because we associate these with the nation that we love and respect. However, there is no point in forcing the love for these symbols on anyone. In fact, even the love for nation cannot be forced on people. In my opinion, as long as people are law abiding and do their work without causing any trouble to the nation, it doesn’t matter if they don’t feel any special love for the country. Farmers who feed us, doctors who heal us, engineers and laborers who build our infrastructure and make life easier for us, they are doing their part for the nation whether or not they salute the flag, sing national anthem, or shout slogans. On the other hand, those who flout laws of the land and cause trouble to fellow citizens are enemies of the nation, regardless of how how loudly they shout slogans.

If we may digress slightly, it is interesting to note that this applies to religions and their followers as well. As far as my understanding goes, those who are dearest to God are not the ones who try the hardest to spread their religion, or build the biggest monuments to their Gods, or play the loudest music from places of worship. Rather, it is those who follow the tenets of love and compassion as laid down in their scriptures and love others as their own, who are truly near and dear to God.

As observed in a previous article on the JNU sedition episode, those who attempt to jeopardize the rule of law, try to disrupt the unity of our nation, challenge its sovereignty, threaten its integrity should be surely be punished according to the laws in place. As a society, we must also ostracize those who seek to sow seeds of disunion by creating waves of anti-national sentiments. However, we cannot go about hunting down every single person who has not explicitly declared their loyalty to the nation. That would result in a needless, endless witch-hunt, and is not what Indian culture stands for.

Indian culture, much of what has come to be identified the Hindu religion, has always stood for freedom in thought and action. While other religions may insist that you follow certain customs or respect certain symbols, Indian culture does not make any such compulsion. It does not dictate that you have to go to temple, or read specific texts, nor does it forbid you from following the tenets of a foreign religion if it can help elevate your life to a higher plane. All that it asks is for you to seek your own goal, find your own path, and stand by it. This is what the name Bharat (passion for light/knowledge/truth) denotes, and this ideal is at the heart of what it means to be Indian.

Enforcing any level of patriotic observance goes against the spirit of this Indian-ness and can do our nation only harm. By dictating such rules, we threaten the socio-cultural entity that is India – the uninterrupted civilization that has withstood the test of time for millenniums, assimilated the good from all cultures that it came into contact with, constantly evolved and enriched itself while never compromising on its core value of being open to differences and maintaining an unwavering commitment to Truth. It is of no good to defend the symbols of the political entity that we call India, which has been around for flickering moment in this grand scale of our existence, at the expense of the open, accommodating culture that is the soul of our nation.

Finally, nationalism is only one step in the expansion of one’s consciousness. As with other identities, if we give it too much importance, it will hinder our growth. It would be a mistake to make our nationalism focused on fear or hatred towards others. India’s roots are spiritual, our culture is spiritual, and spirituality is the unbreakable cord that binds this vast landmass and its diverse people into a harmonious whole. Our nationalism also has to transcend physical symbols and emerge as a blaze of spirituality that shines not just for us, but for the whole world.