Of Patriotism, Pride and Passion

Most countries that have beaten adversity and risen to global positions of stature have been characterised by three virtues in their citizenry - staunch patriotism, national pride and a passion for nation building. Where do we stand? Where do we match up in the Patriotism, Pride and nation building Passion Index, as a country? We need to ponder...

"If we want to make our country rich and powerful, then the first thing to do is to have faith in the country and in ourselves. Those two Japanese students had faith in their country as they believed that the Japanese pencils would become the best in the world some day"

Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the last President of the Soviet Union (USSR) till its dissolution in 1991, has written about an incident in his autobiography, which is very relevant today. While studying in Europe, he used to study along with two Japanese students. The Second World War had just come to an end and Japan had not only been destroyed completely, but was also facing crippling economic sanctions.

Patriotism in practice

During the clashes, these two Japanese students used to take turns writing notes, while the other student would mend the pencil and keep it ready for use. During those days, Japanese pencils used to be of inferior quality, the lead tip of the pencils used to be very brittle and break frequently. Fellow students advised them to start using superior pencils made in England, and not expensive either. There were tears in the eyes of both the students. “If we ourselves do not purchase and use our own product, then who else will do it? We don’t deny that our pencils cannot withstand the quality test today, but soon there will definitely be a day when the whole world will use our Japanese pencils.”

There is of course much to learn from them - patriotism and passion for nation building. If we want to make our country rich and powerful, then the first thing to do is to have faith in the country and in ourselves. Those two Japanese students had faith in their country as they believed that the Japanese pencils would become the best in the world some day. Secondly, we must understand that each of our countrymen have a role to play in nation building. Most of us believe that nation building is the work of the government and its agencies and that we have to only enjoy the fruits. The third requirement for becoming a rich and powerful nation is to not get tempted by cheap products from other countries. Instead we must consume our own products, and that way industries in the country will get an impetus.

The two Japanese students wanted to rebuild their nation and for that its factories were required to be encouraged. “Pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great. Your country becomes great because of your pride for it,” said Idowu Koyenekan.

Trade imbalance

In view of the above discussion about patriotism and passion for nation building as set out by the two Japanese students, let us now proceed examining their position with those of Indians. In today’s world, India cannot remain isolated from global trade. India, like any other country has to import as per its needs, while at the same time maximise its exports. But the issue of patriotism does come into the picture when we are having a huge adverse balance of trade with China, which is our enemy country. In the first nine months of 2022, our trade deficit with China crossed $75 billion. For this period, China’s exports to India rose 31% to $13.97 billion. The trade-deficit of India against China in the last year was $69.38 billion. This shows that our deficit is on a climb. The rising demand for machinery and intermediate goods such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in addition to cheaper consumer products like electronic items are adding to our imports. We have a continued bad time with China on our borders in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, but at the same time our imports from them are increasing. The 1962 war with China still remains fresh in our memory when about 38,000 sq km of our territory was captured and so far there is no sign of return of the same.

Then why are we so large hearted in passing off our money to China in the form of huge adverse trade balance? One reason is that the goods we could have produced ourselves, we outsourced from China merely because of our laziness. APIs are a big example of this, as we used to produce them ourselves earlier, but later stopped. We need APIs for our pharmaceutical industry. The other reason is our mentality of buying cheap products, even if they come from our enemy country. We are not very patriotic in the context of our purchases, unlike the purchase of pencils by the Japanese students.

"Patriotism and belief in your country matter. Countries like South Korea and Japan after its devastation in the World War II developed fast economically because of the three virtues – patriotism, pride and passion for nation building. Even China, which became independent almost at the same time as us, became the second biggest nation financially, as the Chinese respected their traditions and had faith in their country"

Nation’s enemies

India is a very big country; hence it will not be correct to weigh all Indians by one measure. Some Indians may be very passionate to see India as a superpower, while others may derive sadistic pleasure in pulling down the country. We hardly see any Japanese or German or French or any other such national criticising his country, but we see many Indians doing so at international forums. We regularly see Indians writing against India in leading international newspapers. Such incidences bring India down in international ratings. In the Hunger Index, for example, India is below Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and even Pakistan, because of such writings by Indians, when we know that the fact is just the opposite. Many of us feel that by speaking against our own motherland, we will be considered more liberal and more intelligent. Some Indian origin intellectuals in the US have risen high by criticising India and this is particularly true in the Harvard campus. This is sad but true. Do they have any love for their country or the country of their origin? Many Indians though based in India indulge in this shameful behaviour. They stay protected, as India believes in the freedom of speech. There is nothing wrong in speaking against the government, but speaking against the country puts such Indians down in the assumed Patriotism index.

Pay taxes to build nation

Nation building, like building a house, requires money. Many of us Indians believe that money has to be spent by the government and we do not have any role to play. The fact remains that money in the hands of the government comes from taxes that we pay, but sadly only 3% of our population pays income tax. Not paying tax or paying less tax is against nation-building, and thus highly unpatriotic. Compared to many developed nations, we are very low in the tax-GDP ratio.

Some of us do not stop at not paying taxes but stoop even lower by transferring money from this country abroad. Tax havens have been created by intelligent Indians, but the intelligence has been wrongly applied. We have also seen that some Indians acquire citizenships of tax haven countries while sitting on the stolen money of the country. For these Indians, there is no love for the country and they exist only for money.

Pride for what is ours

Belief in your country is the cardinal principle behind love for the motherland. Many of us are genuinely emotional for the country, while many Indians have no such feelings. The latter category of Indians do not have pride for our rich cultural values and our ancient civilisation. For them, India is a backward country and they fancy other countries.

We have forgotten Sanskrit, our ancient language, while it is taught in 14 universities in Germany. Scientific theories contained in our ancient scriptures have been used by Germany and also some other countries for their economic development. Japanese, German, French, Chinese and many other nationals speak in their native tongues but we Indians always try to speak in English at international forums. We feel that we are smart and highly educated speaking in English. This only proves our inferiority complex. Probably, this happened as we were under foreign rule for a long time. We forget that we all belong to Bharat which is a most ancient country and we should be proud of that. Our Patriotism, because of some of us, falls due to the loss of pride in our country.

Learn from others

Patriotism and belief in your country matter. Countries like South Korea and even Japan after its devastation in the World War II developed fast economically because of the three virtues – patriotism, pride and passion for nation building. Even China, which became independent almost at the same time as us, became the second biggest nation financially as the Chinese respected their traditions and had faith in their country. Patriotism is not short frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. We should be inspired by the sacrifices by some amongst us. History that is taught in schools should be about the ultimate sacrifices of our forefathers. Their ultimate patriotism was the reason behind our freedom. Patriotism consists not in waving our flag, but in striving to make our country strong. Today, India is a free country but a lot of things remain to be done. Our patriotic soldiers are keeping vigil on our borders and our other patriotic citizens need to keep vigil within the country.