When I was a small child, the National Anthem would bring tears to my eyes. There is something grand about the music as the crescendo approaches. I was too young to understand what ‘patriotism’ meant, but before the ‘Jaya hey’, I would be blubbering.
Yet – and follow me closely here – I wouldn’t expect the Supreme Court to insist that every Indian citizen must weep when he hears the National Anthem. Patriotism, like intelligence, but unlike milk, cannot be force fed. Of course, we will stand respectfully on a Sunday morning when, still half asleep, we find ourselves in a movie theatre, but we will remain just as patriotic as we were on Saturday and will continue to be on Monday. After all, as the politician might say, they also serve who only stand and wait - for the movie to begin.
“Can’t you stand for just 52 seconds?” the politician has asked, as if the issue were purely physical and the objection merely about rearranging our body profiles. Ironically, he has reduced the National Anthem to a ritual with this question. And there is no ‘little pain for much gain’ argument here. If all the hours spent by the average Indian citizen waiting in government offices, standing in queues to withdraw his own money from banks, waiting for VIP processions to pass before he can cross the road were to be added up and divided by 52 seconds, he would have huge ‘standing credit’ on that side of the ledger. But of course, that is no argument for a rethink on the issue.
Ever since the ruling, citizens, doubtless in an effort to show their patriotism, have been suggesting other occasions which must start with a National Anthem (and even end with one): before the child gets onto the merry-go-round in a public park, before you board an aircraft, before every wedding, between the scores of 99 and 100 in every cricket match, before sitting down to dinner, when you put your card into the ATM machine (if we ever get to that stage again), before starting the car or taking the dog for a walk. The Constitutional muezzin should call the patriots to pay obeisance to the National Anthem every morning before sunrise.
In one swift move, the Supreme Court has shifted the national discourse from freedom of speech to Freedom of Sitting in a Movie Theatre Before a Salman Khan or Tom Hanks Movie.
“This wallowing in individually perceived notion of freedom must go,” the land’s highest court has ruled, meaning we ought not to like vanilla ice cream if the SC decides it is more patriotic to have chocolate or that we should not wear our left shoes first when it says right is might.
As a patriot, however, I have decided that I shall stand when the national animal passes, when the national sport is being played, when the national bird flies overhead, and when I drive past the offices of National Semiconductor or National Panasonic.
Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu
