Come Independance Day and we love to come together and sing Vande Mataram and Jana Gana Mana. "We are ONE irrespective of caste,creed or religion or region etc etc etc."
But I sense that this is a time when we want to come together by getting rid of our identity as being a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian.
Religion does not define me.
We want to rid ourselves of our identity as a Tamilian or Kannadiga or Bengali or Kashmiri.
It isn't region or language that defines my patriotism (Subramanya Bharathi: You should have written patriotic poetry in a language everyone understands!)
We definitely want to rid oursleves of our identity as a Dalit or Brahmin or Kshatriya or Baniya.
Caste is a complete No-No.
It does not matter that I am an engineer or doctor or lawyer or artiste or sculptor.
All professions recognise that August 15th is a holiday.
I may be a mother or father or grandmother or aunt or cousin.
It is "I" that matters. Not my identity in my family (no chocolates at flag hoisting for the diabetic grandma anyway).
We are so busy being patriotic by getting rid of everything that defines us the other 364 days of the year (OK barring Gandhi Jayanthi and Republic Day). I would rather celebrate that we are harmonious in sharing sevvaiyan on Id, playing with colours on Holi, waiting for that yummy Christmas cake your friend's mother bakes every year, the lassi from Bobby's Dhaba at the Gurudwara. Because in this celebration, we recognise and acknowledge everything that makes us what we are. It is in these moments that that we truly wish one another good. It is on these festive days that there is no pretension of being alike. Because we are not alike. If we can ever celebrate an Independance Day by coming together and celebrating our differences, when knowing and acknowledging our identities as varied as they may be is not frowned upon, when we are not embarrassed by our religion or caste or profession, then patriotism may not need to be a word that is relegated to civics text books and August 15th.
But I sense that this is a time when we want to come together by getting rid of our identity as being a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian.
Religion does not define me.
We want to rid ourselves of our identity as a Tamilian or Kannadiga or Bengali or Kashmiri.
It isn't region or language that defines my patriotism (Subramanya Bharathi: You should have written patriotic poetry in a language everyone understands!)
We definitely want to rid oursleves of our identity as a Dalit or Brahmin or Kshatriya or Baniya.
Caste is a complete No-No.
It does not matter that I am an engineer or doctor or lawyer or artiste or sculptor.
All professions recognise that August 15th is a holiday.
I may be a mother or father or grandmother or aunt or cousin.
It is "I" that matters. Not my identity in my family (no chocolates at flag hoisting for the diabetic grandma anyway).
We are so busy being patriotic by getting rid of everything that defines us the other 364 days of the year (OK barring Gandhi Jayanthi and Republic Day). I would rather celebrate that we are harmonious in sharing sevvaiyan on Id, playing with colours on Holi, waiting for that yummy Christmas cake your friend's mother bakes every year, the lassi from Bobby's Dhaba at the Gurudwara. Because in this celebration, we recognise and acknowledge everything that makes us what we are. It is in these moments that that we truly wish one another good. It is on these festive days that there is no pretension of being alike. Because we are not alike. If we can ever celebrate an Independance Day by coming together and celebrating our differences, when knowing and acknowledging our identities as varied as they may be is not frowned upon, when we are not embarrassed by our religion or caste or profession, then patriotism may not need to be a word that is relegated to civics text books and August 15th.
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