Patriotism Or Jingoism? Circa February 2019

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937

On the day when people celebrate love, Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir was attacked by a Pakistani-based terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), killing 40 of India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans, and the suicide bomber who was responsible for the attack. 41 people, dead.

Uri: The Surgical Strike, the movie, was a big hit among the audience this year. Released in January, the dramatized version of the 2016 Uri attack and India’s retaliation with a surgical strike, was met with an energized response from the Indian citizens, with everyone screaming “How’s the Josh? High Sir!” at the top of their lungs. Mind you, half of them didn’t even know what the movie was actually about. True incident: a friend of mine actually thought it was some war movie about India and Pakistan.

Roy Lichtenstein, Whaam!, 1963

War. Such a small word. Pulwama attack garnered a lot of response from our beloved nation lovers. We all barrelled down on social media, spewing hate against Pakistan and Muslims, demanding war. One thing that has always baffled me in this country, is that how we tend to see our fellow, minor Muslim community with the glasses of hatred, generalizing them with the category of terrorists. JeM, a terrorist group based in Pakistan was the culprit. Is Pakistan sponsoring these activities? Possibly. I don’t consider myself an expert in the politics of the world. But we, sitting in our comfortable houses and offices, pick up our smartphones and demand war. Against a nuclear country. The root of frustration is justifying: what happened at Pulwama was inhuman. Kashmir and Indian forces at the Line of Control (LoC) have faced uncountable attacks by Muslim terrorist groups. There comes a point when the hit is too far below the belt to be acceptable, and you have to retaliate. Indian Army did that in 2016 with Surgical Strike and this time Indian Air Force retaliated by destroying camps of JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Balakot, Pakistan.

Oh, the jeering and celebration in the air. You could feel the smug satisfaction of every Indian at the news. I love my country, I do. I adore everything it represents, everything it stands for. Every country has its flaws, mine does too, but it doesn’t lessen my love for it. What boils my blood, though, is the behavior of my countrymen. The countrymen who make such a big deal out of a simple India-Pakistan match, who make memes proclaiming “Maybe for our children, Pakistan will just be a myth, a history”, who are spreading the hashtag PKMKB. The level and intensity of the hatred makes me wonder, have we forgotten that above all, we are human? People scoff at me when I make such statements. Human, hah! Trying to maintain our socio-political identity, we have lost our humanity, somewhere along the line.

Staff Sgt. Jamal D. Sutter

Not all Indians are innocent and not all Pakistanis are terrorists. Our people died, we want revenge because we feel violated, threatened, and hurt. That is a part of being human, a natural instinct. But wanting a bloody war against thousands of innocent people, in the name of revenge, isn’t human. Cursing a whole nation, for the treachery and propaganda of a few, isn’t human. What have we become? Pakistan has already retaliated to our attack, by sending their own jets into our territory. What if this continues? What if this actually transforms into a war? We don’t have a single idea what it takes to be a part of a war, just sitting behind our black screens and spitting unfound bullshit. Countries have gone off the world map, because of wars. Blood flows, of enemies and of innocents.

Terrorists who conduct these attacks, in whatever reason suits them, are brainwashed into the violence. We need to be careful of what we intake or think, or the fine line between Nationalism ad Jingoism won’t hold for long. Because then, what will be the difference between them and us?