Patriotism is a noble virtue. The Sanskrit proverb says that your mother and motherland are greater even than heaven. Walter Scott, The English poet, sang —
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said, —
“This is my own, my native land”
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Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned
At home his footsteps he hath turned,
From wandering on a foreign land.
In our country’s distress or danger we should be ready to stand by her, to work for her, to lay down our lives for her, if need be. Has she not like a true mother nursed us. Not to love one’s country is ingratitude and even treachery of the first order. Our country’s past acts as an inspiration; her future our incentive.
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But this should not blind us to the fact that patriotism is not enough. The attitude — “my country, right to wrong” may prove dangerous in the long run. A narrow-minded patriotism is a positive evil, more criminal than the cry of the English Poet (Scott). “Patriotism has become”, said H. G. Wells, “a mere national self assertion.” This brand of patriotism is ultra nationalism that Rabindranath denounced in his lectures on ‘Religion of Man’.
A fanatical patriotism is a perpetual cause of war. And this patriotism flourishes whenever there is war. World War II began with Hitler’s boastful and aggressive patriotism. All wars are born of similar sentiments. George Washington once wrote to a friend, “A great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle (patriotism) alone.” Bernard Shaw said, “You will never have a quiet world till you knock this patriotism out of the human race.”
Patriotism often makes us unfair and ungenerous in our estimate of other people. Every nation, every race has something to do. To dub one nation as superior to others is unjustified. Each nation has something distinctive to contribute to the cultural heritage of the world. It is foolish to humiliate a nation, however small. There was a time when our leaders spoke of India’s message of peace and mission of spiritualising the world. No nation has monopoly of the virtues. Patriotism must be sobered by a proper respect for other people’s culture and capability.
Patriotism is good, but it must not supersede the feeling of universal love for all humanity. It must not make us indifferent to the growing concept of One World. In the past, in the name of patriotism, (that is nothing but national prejudice); untold loss and mischief have been caused. It is something like ‘the last resort of the scoundrel’ who ruins a country in the name of patriotism.
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The fact is that we often mix up patriotism with national vainglory. A true patriot lives for his country, works for it, strives for it, and when necessary, dies for it. His one aim in life is to make his country prosperous, and to safeguard her independence.
The true patriot respects other countries because he respects his own, he must be prepared to learn from them, to help them, to cooperate with them. Then gradually patriotism will be superseded by the cult of universal brotherhood or global kinship of internationalism.