Patriotism in India's Youth

THE NATION celebrating its 63rd Independence Day. India’s struggle for Independence is a saga of those thousands of men, women and even children who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the nation. And so by celebrating Independence Day, a homage is paid to all those who fought to bring Independence to our country. But gone are the days when every Indian citizen valued the importance of this great day. Time has eroded those sentiments and now we observe this day just like any other day or a holiday. Children are forced to go to schools to attend the flag hoisting ceremony by making attendance compulsory. Children seems to have no feeling for this day and the same can be said for the adults in our country also.
The Oxford dictionary defines patriotism as devoted love, support, and defence of one’s country; national loyalty. But the word patriotism cannot be restricted and is very subjective in nature. One need not play cricket matches or fight wars to express their feeling of patriotism. Our emotions run high when India thrashes Pakistan in any sports or when a businessman of Indian origin, staying abroad, makes it big in the world. We feel so much patriotic when a lady of Indian origin (who has hardly been in India) goes into space. The episode of Sunita Williams and consequent celebrations in India clearly exhibit to what extent we are obsessed with the Western culture.
The youth of the country while studying only thinks of moving out to America or United Kingdom and settle abroad and earn money for the foreign nation. They give reason that there is no infrastructure in our country, there are hardly any avenues, scope to make it big and fulfill one’s ambition. This might be true, but isn’t it our responsibility to facilitate such an environment in our country? APJ Abdul Kalam has mentioned in his book ’Wings of Fire’ that “never think of the scope, work hard to create that scope.” Kalam rejected several offers from abroad and stayed in this country and