Popcorn Nationalism vs Humane Nationalism

Radhika Tanwar (20) is shot dead in Delhi. We see the perpetrator of the murder in the newspapers. We see protest marches brought out for the safety of women and girls.

Any rape, any murder in the city. We see the criminals.

Tarmetla, Chattisgarh. Hurre (20) is picked up by Indian government employed armed forces to the Chintalnar police station, stripped and sexually assaulted. But we donot see the perpetrators of the crime. May we request the government of the world’s largest democracy to disclose the names and pictures of security personals and policemen involved in crime?

The most unfortunate thing is the unconsciousness of the Great Indian middle class towards the pathos, the concerns, the anguish, the rape of honour and subjugation of the dignity of the oppressed sections of the sub-continent.

Sadly, the PM of India Manmohan Singh and all the ministers and bureaucrats are busy with a cricket match and dinner party. No one has bothered to empathise with the barbaric incidents in India’s hinterlands. The barbaric activities of the army and police might move an Aruna Shanbaug, but not the politicians and chaps moving in red-lights. There is nothing to expect from politicians and their corporate sponsors. As for the central bureaucracy, it abounds in towtowing, ‘once-upon-a-time’ book-worms, none of whom dare say, “The emperor is naked.”

What we see among the Indian educated, middle-class during a cricket match is the best example of ‘Popcorn Nationalism’. In this breed of ‘patriotism’, people sit on the couches and equate love for the country India (as demarcated by the British rulers and remote-controlled by the Nehru dynasty for the last 63 years) with the shouts for runs. This category of nationalism is safest for a government voted on cash and run covertly by corporate interests. What is dangerous for the government of India and the business tycoons is the spirit of ‘Humane Nationalism’, the champions of which are the likes of Binayak Sen. This involves working for the subjugated, giving them voice instead of shouting for millionaire cricketers. And this variety of nationalism is something which the corrupt and greedy fear, as it goes against their interests and threaten their profit-making schemes. Apart from being a rising ‘superpower’, India has become a nation without conscience.

By: Pallavi Barua, Sumaya Qadri