Nationalism @young India

Vibha Sharma

What is being an Indian actually mean? What is Indian-ness? Is it hard to describe because it is an abstract concept or is it a palpable emotion unknown to many of us?

iGeneration (or iGen), another name for GenZ, the generation after the Millennials, born around the turn of the 21st century, was born more than 50 years after Independence. As the inevitable passing of time increased the distance from this era, the tales and travails of the freedom struggle and the nightmare called Partition, it is quite natural that the new generation, in their teens and twenties, has pretty much less to be associated with that time. Whether the wounds got healed or became cankerous, is for the historians to analyze but one thing is clear, time does manage to let the dust of eons settle on the past, slowly yet assuredly.

This GenZ opened its eyes to parents working on computers, they toddled their way to a world transitioning from pre-to post-Google era, their growing up sitcoms were Friends and Seinfeld more than any Indian soaps, they listen to Justin Bieber more than Sonu Nigam, they know more about Harry Potter than Bikram-Betal, burger sits better on their palate than dosa. This GenZ is often dubbed as deeply under the influence of the Western culture be it food, clothes, music, movies, TV shows or books. So one wonders, how do they feel connected to India?

19-year-old Siddharth Goyal, a student of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, says, “My idea of Indian-ness is the goose bumps you get at Wagah, the nervousness of an India-Pakistan cricket match, the young rallying around political movements or people or ideas; and the fact that our nation is stronger than governments.”

Delhi-based, 22-year-old Vaishali feels, “It is the feeling of pride whenever we hear the National Anthem. It is about the untiring efforts and countless sacrifices made by each member of the family for one another. It is about the music of bangles and the carefree humming of a woman engrossed in her embroidery. It is about the concept of vasudhaiv-kutumbakam.”

For Ishaan Verma, a computer science student, “Being Indian holds a very spiritual and symbolic meaning. As the world moves towards globalisation and integration, there is always a connect that you feel with your homeland, which is reflected in one’s character.”

It isn’t fair to judge the sense of nationhood on the benchmark that is perhaps not applicable with changing times. Even if the preferences, sensibilities and lifestyles have changed, yet there are innumerable invisible threads that connect us to the piece of land where we take our baby steps and which nurtures us all our lives.

It is where we feel the most comfortable in our own skin, where we get to speak our own language and can expect to be spoken back in the same vernacular, where awkwardness of strangeness disappears by just addressing someone didi or bhaiya, where our own lassi, aampanna and jaljeera give aerated drinks a tough competition and where visit to an Indian store is not an occasion but a routine. These may sound very frivolous and insignificant things but aren’t these the things that our life is made up of?

We may not have represented India on any platform yet whenever we hear our country winning any match whether cricket or hockey, we feel proud; whenever we get to read a path-breaking book written by an Indian author, we feel happy; whenever we see any Indian making his/her mark on worldwide stage, we feel honoured. However, when we watch the news of violence, terrorism and disturbance in our country, we feel pained; whenever we witness lack of civil mannerism we feel guilty; whenever we come to know about the lackadaisical approach of our torchbearers, we feel cheated.

Perhaps the sum total of all this is what India is for us — the sense of belongingness, the feeling of connection and the emotion of being associated with some place very deeply.