On Patriotism Vs Jingoism and My Job as a Storyteller

Patriotism of jingoism is a crime. Because you are misleading the masses. It’s not human. You are being cruel with the masses when you get into jingoism. So, for instance, if I want a clean country, and I’m in the administration, why should I make a big campaign about it? I can do it quietly also. Okay, I am not a quiet person, I am an extrovert, and I want to make a band baaja baarat about it. I will do that, but at least, I should do that job. A clean country means that we need to have systems of disposing garbage and recycling it. But I didn’t see any red, green or blue garbage cans come up all over the country. I have not seen garbage collections improve either. With a country of our strength and resources, if you really want a clean country, you can clean it up in six months to a year, if you go on a war footing.For me, jingoism of patriotism is more harmful than no patriotism. You might as well stay quiet, not do anything for your country than be jingoistic about it. Raising slogans, and trying to thump your chest, it’s been happening for too long. And it’s taken us nowhere. It’s just as if we keep staring at the same black hole all the time. And we keep coming back to square one, and talk about aisa hi hai, aisa hi hota hai. Having said that, on the other side of the spectrum, the half glass full, we have more positive thinkers, and more positive energy, and we have to marvel how this country works. It’s not a miracle that it works. There are systems in place. There are people in the administration, in the police service, in the army, in politics, in business and in normal walks of life, who really want it to work and are making it work. I have come across some amazing people, and every day I come across such people, whether there is a bus conductor, a sweeper or an IAS officer, people for whom giving up is not an option. It’s not a way of life. They accept the whole corruption and the red-tapism as a part of the problem, as a disease, and how it needs to be solved. And they will spend their lives doing that. These people have a very fulfilling life. I have seen them sleep well and eat well. They are healthy and they don’t have a stupid frown on their face as if they are constipated, or as if they’ve laid an egg. They are like cool guys. They have found their rhythm in life, for which they could have been in any country, they could have been Indians or Americans, or they could have been Russians.The thing which I have never understood, in fact, hate about patriotism is to put down another country. So, hating Pakistan is not Indian patriotism. Raging war on Pakistan does not mean you are a patriotic Indian. That means you are stupid. You cannot solve a problem in today’s day and age through discussion and against the table, and you keep blaming. One hand alone cannot make the clap sound. Somebody has to read world press to understand what’s going on, somebody needs to understand the Kashmir problem, to understand where we have screwed it up, and how we can resolve it. It’s not that we are totally at fault or somebody else is totally at fault. Being pawns in the cold war for decades to the recent innocent killings in Muzaffarnagar, we need to educate everybody.When I made Rang De Basanti, it was born out of deep anguish. It didn’t come about because we just wanted to make a film. Everything in RDB was inspired from life, and it was reel life emulating real life. And once the film was released, real life started emulating reel life which I think is a very interesting effect of socio-political cinema on society. As a filmmaker, I have to do my job. I can’t be worried about if other people are getting insecure with something in the film. After all, I am a storyteller, and I’ve to tell a story.(As told to Ranjib Mazumder)

BECOME A MEMBER

On Patriotism Vs Jingoism and My Job as a Storyteller

The filmmaker behind ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ on why chest thumping jingoism is of no good

Read Latest News and Breaking News at The Quint, browse for more from opinion

Topics: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Rang De Basanti patriotism