The Nation

So what is a nation? Why do I call myself an Indian ? How does it form a part of my identity ? Is it my primary identity ?








These are the few primary questions every citizen of India should ask himself. At this time of turbulence when the nation is under seige by anti-national forces from within and outside, this is a question that the state has to take steps to answer from each citizen's perspective.


A nation is defined, geographically, by its boundaries, international boundaries on the political maps, LoCs politically. But this falls far short of a definition of a nation. The biggest problem with a multi ethnic diverse country like India is whether it can devise a national which each and every citizen of the country can identify with. This is essentially the question which forms the essence of nationality. Would he stress his Indianness to override all other differences he has with fellow citizens ? The problems of secessionist movements have to be dealt essentially with this question in addition, of course, military solutions to protect the nation's integrity. The secessionist's crisis is the fact that he is not to identify with his ruling government, which then takes, in his mind, the form of a foreign occupation. He takes upon himself the duty to fight against the 'foreign power' at the behest of his fellow men, with whom he shares a common identity.



The challenge the Indian state finds itself faced with is to devise its multi ethnic identity. It involves a composite process of two faces. One, to inculcate the composite identity in groups that are at the periphery, to make these groups feel part of the fabric of the nation. Second, to make the 'identity group' understand that their identity is to be diluted for the greater cause of the nation, making them aware of the need to be accomadative of a more broad based view of the nation without the tints of chauvinism so exhibited by majority groups. Here, by the term 'identity group', I mean the image that comes to the mind when someone mentions the word 'Indian'. For many Indians, the image could be that of a middle aged man, brown skinned, rusty in disposition, Hindi speaking and hindu. The point of the discourse is that such an image formation is quite dangerous to the integrity of the nation. Would a Kashmiri, a muslim, an Urdu / Kashmiri speaker, quite fair in complexion be able to identify with such an image ? Would a Manipuri, with his mongoloid features, yellow skin and Imar Thar language be able to indentify with an identity ? Or for that matter, a Tamilian, with his dravidian features, and Tamil language be able to identify with this identity ?



The fact of the matter is that, the integrity of the Union is to be protected at all costs, and hence the government has to devise ways of broadening the Indian Identity. Problems of insurgency and sucessionism cannot be solved merely by the iron fist. A long lasting political solution of identity building has to be taken up at the highest level with the highest priority. Marginalised groups should be brought into the mainstream by creative solutions to the problems we are faced with now - 'should be brought into the mainstream' is not a pitch for reservations; Reservations are uncreative solutions for a problems. Reservations can make the majority groups re-emphasize their identity, with greater chauvinism, fuelled by feelings of injustice.


The present wave of political organizations subscribing to extreme ideologies can be traced to the identity crisis being faced by various groups, majority and minority. This surge of extremism, and identity emphasis by both majority and minority groups has to be stopped, if required by military means. But the long lasting solution to this problem is to re-engineer our society to the concept of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse India.

Then everyone would call himself an Indian and long to remain within the borders of his motherland, called India.