Nation based Identity

It's a highly polarized world we live in. There is a clear divide between supporters of the regime and those who oppose it, in a very broad sense. The supporters vs the opposers divide is not endemic to one nation but is a common feature among several nations, be it US, Brazil, or India. The paradoxical thing is that the supporter vs opposer identity has overthrown the national identity of individuals. Earlier people foremost identified themselves as well as each other with their national identity and then covered up all other identities under terms of political, ideological, or cultural differences. Nation identity is something that unites people despite the numerous differences they have. United people are strong and can assert a lot of things. The common national identity was an important component of freedom movement and nationalism in India. However, the order of identity seems to be changing. This has occurred along with the rise of nationalist parties all over the world. Nationalist parties capitalize on the national identity of people just like caste, ethnicity or other identity-based parties capitalize on their specific identity. I personally have never liked identity-based politics and much been in favor of issue-based politics. While other smaller identities are may prove useful for local elections, for a country-wide election appealing to national identity proves very useful. Parties or leaders around the world united its supporters under common national identity, but at the same time tried to erode away the identity of opponents. Now what has happened over time is that the supporter vs opponents identity grew stronger than the common national identity that exited earlier despite the political differences or several other differences. This new identity took its own stronger form. The supporter identity now tries to subsume the national identity within it trying to statch away the national identity from the opponents. This is clearly visible when leaders call that their opponents are working against national welfare and blame the opponents for the ills in the nation. The degree of truth in these claims is little. Establishing truth and impartial arguments is even more difficult in the age of ‘fake news’.

The end result of this polarization is the creation of a new fault line. The erosion of common national identity has divided people and pitted citizens against citizens. I remember a scene from the movie ‘Chak de India’, where the coach asks the players to forget their region-based identity and adopt a common-nation identity. Currently, people foremost identify themselves as well as others with the supporters vs opposer identity and then with other identities. With such a divide no one but we people are the losers. In my opinion, the order of identity should be foremost of humanity- despite national differences a human is no different from others, next comes national identity. Ideally, no more broad identity should be there, but practically because they do exist, should be just accommodated as the difference of belief, faith, and opinion. I hope people around the globe would come together on important issues like climate change which is a threat to humanity itself. People under the common identity of nation can together work for the development and welfare of its citizens and hence the nation.