When I was confused with Patriotism and Nationalism By Rishab Verma

When I was confused with Patriotism and Nationalism

By Rishab Verma

"Patriotism is when the love of your own people comes first, and nationalism is when hate people other than your own comes first."

This is a famous quote by former French President Charles De Gaulle. And I read it another day in an old newspaper I've found under that and it got me into quite deep thinking. But I was interested.

As republic day is coming I've got into quite patriotic thinking lately. I was curious to know more about nationalism and patriotism. I wondered what did that mean. And after a bit of research, I got to a conclusion.
Nationalism means you're zealous in your support of your government and advocate your military in forcing your views on other countries. But patriotism is a quite different important thing. Patriotism is not about subjugation, violence or dominance. Rather it's about being proud of the ideals of your nations.

I've heard these words quite a long time. But as always I was wrong, it was quite different. For a long time, I thought it was synonyms. But actually, after researching a bit I found out that they are in fact antonyms.

Youth or the teenage (age between15-25)is a very interesting age in anyone's life. In that time people tend to slit into distinctive mentality. Some of us join the army and become very patriotic, and some try to idealize passivism. And from the sociological standpoint, it's a very first moment in your life when opinions of about serious issues begin to form rifts between people who might have shared similar values as children.

In my teenage years, I had very liberal views on patriotism. But now it has changed. I am actually quite ashamed of my ignorance and now I am man enough to admit my faults. That time I was naive and misinformed thought I knew it all. But I was wrong. I foolishly thought 'patriotism' was a bad thing.

My earlier thoughts were that we should be proud of humanity and people, not pleading for legions of nations and flag. When I was young I used to hold an idea that we were human beings and we should identify as humans. But later the years I admit I was so wrong. Patriotism doesn't diminish the ideals of humanity. Patriotism means caring about your neighbors. Patriotism honors a collective brotherhood and sisterhood of citizens who live together upon their land and support and defend one another.
Another day our manager wrote a blog about the Forgotten or rather say ignored soldiers of Siachen. and it literally opened my eye. I wonder how patriotic they were!! They are the perfect citizens of a nation. Defending the countrymen so selflessly that they don't really care about their own well being. And it inspired me too.

And my friends that were my set of thoughts which I consider is "Patriotic" or maybe not. I don't know, as I have quite limited knowledge about these things.

So, now it's time for me to 'sign out' from Digital Decatron. To see more posts like this you can visit our main page and our Facebook. Till then Jai Hind. 

Rishab Verma