Allegiance Must Be Fostered, Not Imposed

Gurgaon, India, December 5, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ​“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all”. The incongruity of an Indian diplomat’s child earnestly repeating this pledge, hand-on-heart, at the beginning of every school day was entirely lost on a pigtailed little girl. I was only six years old, after all.

But 44 years later I still remember every word of that little oath. More importantly, the emotion that each of us felt looking at the flag that hung on one side of every classroom is still fresh in my mind. It didn’t matter that my flag is was different; most important was the respect inculcated in us for that areligious symbol of nationhood – that too, by a church-run school.

Just as fascinating for me was the joy with which Americans sang their national anthem. It was like a favourite personal tune, not an official song to be sung formally and solemnly at important occasions. Though there is an officious sounding anthem code, it does not hamper its spirited renditions at major (American) football games, graduations and concerts.

Nearly 240 years of independence has not dimmed America’s enthusiasm for its anthem and evolving flag, but there were fears along the way that patriotism and national feeling were dimming. The evolution of the current pledge – based on the original 1892 oath composed by a Christian socialist pastor – was one of several actions by concerned citizenry to remedy this.

The pledge was also an ancillary to another initiative – the schoolhouse flag movement, whose nationwide goal was obvious. The pledge was meant to draw the children’s’ attention to those newly installed flags, and emphasise their significance. Flags may not have reached every single school then or now, but the pledge is now a part and parcel of Americana.

I firmly believe that because so many American kids literally grow up with the flag around them, their ties to it are more deep-rooted than if it had been thrust upon them only at onerous formal, official events. That is why they wear it on their sleeves and just about everywhere else too, with genuine love and pride all their lives.

By and large, suffice it to say that Americans are pretty much devoted to Old Glory. Yet, there are laws and judgements aplenty to safeguard any American’s right not to say the pledge, sing the anthem, or salute the f lag. Indeed, there is no country to rival the US when it comes to the individual’s right to be different and defy convention, though not the law.

By contrast, culturally ancient India is still a pretty young republic – only in the seventh decade of its latest avatar. So it is natural for the symbols and shibboleths of the republic to be still evolving. And it’s equally natural for Indians to be uncertain – and fractious – about their relationship with new icons like the national flag, the national anthem and the Constitution.

Steel magnate and former MP Naveen Jindal has done yeoman service to bring our flag closer to us Indians. First he fought and won the case on the right of all of us to fly the tricolour instead of just sarkari buildings. And now he is erecting mammoth flags in prominent public spaces nationwide. Maybe he should also consider a schoolhouse flag movement like the one in the US…

Having spent my formative years seeing the Indian flag flying in our embassy’s premises – and on the bonnet of my father’s official car – I can vouch for the importance of that physical proximity in fostering a deep bond. Even three decades later, the tricolour and the national anthem bring a lump to my throat and a strange welling in my eyes. They are a part of me.

Not many Indians have had that benefit of proximity, though Jindal’s actions will remedy that for future generations. But what all sides in the ongoing fracas here over standing for/singing national anthems or literally flying the flag must realise is that allegiance and respect for symbols of nationhood have to evolve and must be fostered- they cannot be imposed.