Nationalism Does More Harm Than Good

Nationalism?

Nationalism is an expression of the love and gratitude that one has for the nation, with people sharing a land, culture, tradition and thoughts. In other words it is the devotion and loyalty to one’s own country which can also take the form of chauvinism.

Hans Kohn beautifully defines nationalism as an idea force that fills the man’s brain and heart with new thoughts and sentiments and drives him to translate his consciousness into deeds of organized action.

Political thinkers, time and again, have drawn correlation between strong feelings of patriotism in a population and likelihood of war. It branches out of the feeling of placing one’s own country above all others in the world, which may encourage violence. Excessive patriotism leads to lesser political participation. It might also create an us vs them mentality.

Nationalism in its extreme form.

Some people have also argued that nationalism in its extreme form, makes censorship acceptable, both by the government and through self censorship, especially to hide inconvenient truths.

Professor Paul Gomberg from Chicago State University, says that Patriotism is like racism, giving examples from Nazi Germany. Some also argues that it encourages atrocities, both to commit as well as to tolerate them.

Nationalism and intellectualism

Coming closer to home in India, we see that according to nationalists taxonomy of the Sangh Parivar, Adivasis, Dalits, left intellectuals, homosexuals, non haters of Pakistan and many others are deemed anti nationals. By the time the NDA finishes its second term, a vast majority of Indians would be anti nationalist. We see that Sangh Parivar is seeking to take control of institutions of higher learning. They never read of individual thinking, for such thoughts would be a powerful counterforce to its philosophy of majoritarianism. The Government and its mentors are seeking to empty the university of all intellectualism.

Well the fact that nationalism does more harm than good depends upon its interpretation, and that to a large extent depends on the citizens.

It’s our decision at the end of the day, to let it do good, or just let It destroy the essence of democracy.