e-Nagar

Today we have 5000 years of world history and data of over a 100 countries at our disposal. We can find out what works, what won’t. Find out what is the impact of our actions, what leads to success, what causes failures, and how to increase our effectiveness and get the maximum out of our limited resources in the fastest possible time.

That is why American universities will have center for Foreign studies which track the developments in Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia. Sometimes to concentrate their efforts they will put a country specific center, Like Center of Indian Studies or Center of Chinese Studies. (there are 100s of them all over the world)
Even Peking University of China has a center of Indian Studies (which recently got a 50 Lakh grant from Government of India).

However how many Indian universities have such Counterparts (except JNU). We could learn a lot from China, Japan, Europe or America. Conditions in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, is very similar to what is found in India. We could learn from the SE Asian crisis (Korea, Thailand, Indonesia). Then why not study them?

My mother used to advice me.

A normal man learns from His own mistakes,
A wise man learns from other’s mistakes,
and a fool never learns.

“Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’ is its cult.”
- Erich Fromm

“Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of humanity.”
- Einstein

People often confuse between patriotism and nationalism so let me start with describing how the two are different.

Patriotism is love for ones country, willingness to sacrifice for it but accepting that it has its faults,

Nationalism is the doctrine that your national culture and interests are superior to any other. It believes that the love of ones nation above everything, even our own humanity, above morality, and sometimes above common sense. Nationalism is often disguised as patriotism, or starts out as patriotism. But in reality it is the corruption of that pure word.

Nationalism is an evil. It causes wars, its roots lie in xenophobia and racism. Its a tool of the Fascists which clouds one’s judgment by masquerading its evil actions as ‘Patriotism’. It is the entity that justifies mass slaughter, genocide, violence and crimes against Humanity.

I do not get scared easily, but the word Nationalism and Regionalism sends out a shiver down my spine. If these Nationalistic/ Regionalistic are given a free hand, they will destroy the entire civilization (and maybe even the entire world). They will divide the nation into 26 different nations which will be fighting bloody and expensive battles against each other for generations to come.

This is how they will work:
1) They will make you feel proud about your culture, race, ancestors, history etc.
2) They will boost your self confidence by making you believe that your race is superior than anybody else.
3) They will define what being an Indian, Marathi, Kanatika or Tamil means.

Once they have achieved all the above 3 stages of mental conditioning, the Satan starts revealing itself.
4) They will make you perceive the entire world in black and white. You will see all actions/developments/events as Hindu/non-Hindu, Indian/non-Indian, pro/anti Marathi, Tamil, Telgu, Kanadada etc.
5) They start clouding your judgment. They will make you believe that your culture and identity is under threat. The unpatriotic are plotting and scheming against you. They will make you feel cornered, insecure and provoke you to fight for your existence. A common man that has never hurt even a fly in his life, will pick up arms and start killing/terrorizing all those whom he feels are different.
6) First it starts with isolated incidents, non-physical bouts, but soon the malaise will spread to the entire region. Mobs will roam freely on the streets and cull freely and mercilessly.
7) In this anarchy, the proponent of Nationalism/Regionalism would eliminate all opposition and systematically destroyed the Democracy.
8 ) Then the same person will come forward as a symbol of peace and try to show that he is trying to restore the law and order. In the process, he would come to power. (usually an authoritarian rule)

If you want to know what follows, read Mein Kampf.

Nationalism is an evil. It causes wars, its roots lie in xenophobia and racism. Its a tool of the Fascists which clouds one’s judgment by masquerading its evil actions as ‘Patriotism’, and spreading lies and propaganda. It is the entity that justifies mass slaughter, genocide, violence and crimes against Humanity.

Please don’t let the evil divide your country.

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Also Read my previous article on Cluster of Enclaves.