why nationalism

Recently when maggi was banned by the government, I came to realise that maggi is such a great nation builder. Nation by definition emphasises on sharedness, commonality etc. this commonality can be of food, culture, game, customs, etc. For example we indians feel the same when a cricket match take place between india and pakistan. similarly we indian feel the same when national anthum is played. So we need something in common between a soldier defending border and a girl about to be born.

Why cannot we say that there are no borders and we are all one and we are all for all. why to create borders for which we shed our blood. such as why scientists cannot produce for every country or why farmer cannot produce for every individual on earth. I mean why there is always this notion of nationalism such as american , pakistani , russian or german.

Taking a functionalist approach i would like to say that we choose nationalism as a way to serve human needs. yes we need nation for commonailty. By this commonality, we can express ourselves better.

Taking my point to interpersonal level. when we talk with each other then the best point to talk is to talk about what is common between us. otherwise, mr x will talk about his daughter and mrs y will talk about her books that too when book and daughter has nothing in common.

When we talk about something in common then we express our feelings and understand the feelings of others. And when it comes to sharing our feelings our family is the best place. because we have spent so much time with our family members that we almost do not need language to express ourselves. this expressing of feeling makes us human.

It is like we have so much to tell but language cannot convey everything so we choose art like painting, music, religion etc. which are beyond nationalism. But how much we talk in art or what about our other feelings which we have no time to express in art. So we need somebody to listen to us. and if others are listening then they require us to listen to them also. and then comes the commonness and sharedness upon which we can express our feeling and can agree upon.

But this is a big world and we have to distinguish between whome to discuss the most. And nationalism can provide best mechanism to share something among so many people that no other mean can provide, especially in present times. As in past religion was such a medium at the mass level.

So now we can understand all the fuss about nationalism created in media nowadays . but in the name of nationalism other means of expression such as religion, regionalism, linguism , feminism, culturalism, etc must not be suppressed. Because they are also means of expression of our feelings.

 Yes, nationalism is needed for people to understand each other i.e. when next time a person from northeast when visit north india they are not discriminated or next time when i pass through chandigarh I am not made to pay traffic challan just because my car is delhi or rajasthan numbered .  Ours is a diverse country with 1.25 billion aspirations. And if they all have to talk with each other then nationalism is only medium (i mean each other ).  let's unleash the power of talking and expressing our feelings.

So if there is no nation then there will be not talking among people from punjab with people from tamil nadu. we are a big country which means we can share our feelings with soo many other people and if we could forge this commonness upon each other then we know a bundle of sticks is far more stronger than individual sticks.

So nationalism provides commonality, which is needed in sharing of feeling, that is an individual necessity and this led to more opportunity and development of the physical and internal world.