https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Patriotism-for-Dummies/192659
The *tiranga* in this 1955 photograph isn’t quite visible, but it flew boldly in the hearts and minds of all four men who are beaming with pride just below. Second from left is Morarji Desai, the doughty freedom fighter and Chief Minister of Bombay State, which – prior to division in 1960 - spanned across most of present-day Maharashtra plus Gujarat and parts of what is now Karnataka. At his right elbow is William Xavier Mascarenhas of Porvorim and early-20th-century Poona (now Pune), the chief engineer of the state, who had just delivered up the Sachivalaya - now called Mantralaya - where they are all standing on the roof, after hoisting its flag for the very first time. Mascarenhas was my maternal grandfather, and so this Sunday column begins unusually personally. That is because the topic is patriotism, and I’m intimately aware how he – and indeed the entire generation of nation-builders to which he belonged – never believed in public chest-thumping about their patriotic sentiments. Thus, over long decades of dedicated service to India, during which he also built the National Defense Academy in Khadakwasla and served as the Chairman of the first Planning Board for his beloved homeland of Goa, my grandfather never wavered from Mahatma Gandhi’s dictum: “my patriotism is not an exclusive thing. It is all embracing and I should reject that patriotism which sought to mount upon the distress or the exploitation of others.” Gandhi was perfectly explicit in *Young India*: “My mission is not merely brotherhood of Indian humanity. My mission is not merely freedom of India, though today it undoubtedly engrosses practically the whole of my life and the whole of my time. But through realization of freedom of India I hope to realize and carry on the mission of brotherhood of man. The conception of my patriotism is nothing if it is not always, in every case without exception, consistent with the broadest good of humanity at large. I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such beings as crawl on earth. I want, if I don't give you a shock, to realize identity with even the crawling things upon earth, because we claim common descent from the same God, and that being so, all life in whatever form it appears must be essentially one.” Those visionary words were written almost 100 years ago in 1929. Now, on the 75th anniversary of “freedom at midnight”, the original nation-builders inheritance is the *Har Ghar Tiranga* campaign, described at amritmahotsav.nic.in as “under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage people to bring the Tiranga home and to hoist it to mark the 75th year of India’s independence. Our relationship with the flag has always been more formal and institutional than personal. Bringing the flag home collectively as a nation in the 75th year of independence thus becomes symbolic of not only an act of personal connection to the Tiranga but also an embodiment of our commitment to nation-building. The idea behind the initiative is to invoke the feeling of patriotism in the hearts of the people and to promote awareness about the Indian National Flag.” It's not too difficult to figure out what “the father of the nation” would think of this novel twist on “nation-building” (where Uttar Pradesh alone has pledged to spend an astonishing 40 crore rupees on flags), especially considering it has been accompanied by an unconscionable dilution of the original code to allow polyester flags instead of the previously mandated – and Gandhi’s deeply cherished – khadi. But far more troubling still is the imposition of cheap jingoism in the guise of patriotism, and the very high likelihood it will be weaponized to violence. It's true that hasn’t happened yet – let’s wait until after the 15th to breathe easy – but it’s already quite breath-taking to watch every villainous rogue in public office (not to mention all other fields) race to flaunt the sacred tricolour on social media, as though it’s going to absolve them of their crimes. They’re a perfect illustration of why the great 18th century intellectual Samuel Johnson once wrote in disgust: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” The last time this pot was stirred was the 2016 Supreme Court order to play the national anthem in all cinemas before each screening “for the love of the motherland”. Even then, Justice Chandrachud pointed out the glaring inconsistencies: “You don’t have to stand up at a cinema hall to be perceived as patriotic. [Besides] the relevant Article 51A of the constitution also requires citizens to develop scientific temper, humanism, spirit of enquiry – are we [the Supreme Court] supposed to enforce all this? Next thing will be that people should not wear t-shirts and shorts to movies because it will amount to disrespect to the National Anthem. Where do we stop this moral policing?” At the height of that pointless imbroglio, Goa shot to national attention due to the vicious assault on Chorao-based poet and disability activist Salil Chaturvedi at the Panjim multiplex. This gentlest of souls, and son of a career officer in the Indian Air Force who has himself represented India in wheelchair tennis at the Australian Open, was obviously unable to rise from his seat when the national anthem was played, but the loudly singing couple behind him refused to understand, and instead severely beat him. That was patriotism, for them. Earlier this week, Chaturvedi told me that “the insistence of playing the national anthem in cinema halls took an ableist dimension as disabled persons were heckled or assaulted in multiple instances. We implored the courts to at least make it mandatory to have an announcement noting that persons with disabilities would not be able to stand for the anthem, so people should be sensitive to such possibilities, but nothing much resulted. So, instead of getting improved access to a public space (most cinema halls are still not accessible to persons on a wheelchair), our exclusion was rudely driven home. If anything, many disabled persons are now shy of going to cinema haglls in case some fool gets over-zealous for the country and hits out.” What about *Har Ghar Tiranga*? Chaturvedi says, “there’s a saying in Hindi: *Munh me Ram, bagal mein **churri* (Ram is in the speech, but there’s a dagger in the cloak). The current frenzy around the flag seems like that to me. If we examine it logically, and assume every Indian puts up the national flag, and is therefore certifiably patriotic, at the very least it tells us that patriotic Indians are also murderers, thieves, swindlers, tax-evaders, fraudsters, bigots, bribe-taking corrupt officials, and many worse things. I’d much rather see every Indian having a ghar in the first place. For a nation where above 60% of the population lives on less than two hundred rupees a day, this seems like so much of a diversion from the real task of building an equitable nation. Besides, demanding patriotism is like insisting that someone loves you. Is that how it works? And is your patriotism greater if you have a larger flag? I suspect that this overuse of the much-loved tiranga will transform it into something of a lowest common denominator rather than the highest common factor.”