During the past few weeks, India has been arguing nationalism. What began with a debate on sloganeering by few students in a reputed university in Delhi has now stooped to a point where we are asking whether some would proudly shout the praise of ‘mother’ India.
However much some may deny, an idea that defines India exists, and this idea is not merely circumscribed by its boundaries and traditions. The ancient culture of the land feeds into its everyday life. The Indian history from 1857, through the early nationalism of late nineteenth century, until the independence movement largely set the stage for the nature of an Indian nation state. The events on the eve of independence may have tempted some to revisit the concepts of Indian nationalism but the wisdom of constituent assembly resisted reactionary ideas.
Denying that the constitution proposes an idea of India, that the founding fathers envisioned a philosophical existence for the nation, is a willful disregard for an incredible independence movement and its protagonists.
That a nation of large diversities need not necessarily search for commonalities, but can rather celebrate the differences is a thoroughly modern idea. That we could mock, stereotype people from another part of the country, often not understand their language and traditions and yet celebrate the same national icons is an idea of great influence. Like every idea, this theorising of India is debatable, but refusing to acknowledge that this thought helped sustain a young nation is an intellectual fraud.
The romanticised unity in diversity , the sarangi of ustad Bismilla Khan, our syncretic classical music, are all chapters from the idea of India. It is a nation that identifies differences but cultivates a habit of being influenced by traditions and transforming them to its own. This is the idea of India which the naysayers of unity in diversity are challenging. For once, just for once go back and feel the magic of ‘ Mile sur mera tumhara’, this is what the idea of India stands for. And, That is exactly what is threatened by the binaries of India first.
The Bottomlines 