Jingoism
is an extreme form of patriotism. This is also considered a
blind patriotism. People are often confused with
nationalism, patriotism and jingoism. Patriotic and nationalist people love
their country, and they equally respect other countries. Jingoist people also
seem to love their country simply because they hate others. When people of the
country start loving their country more than necessary, then they start seeing
threat to nationalism in every development activities. Even in Nepal hating
India sentiment is often taken as a nationalist attitude but that is less
patriotic and more jingoist. It’s not uncommon these days to hear someone on
one political spectrum refer to people on the other political spectrum as a
“country haters.” When someone argues differently they instead of addressing
the issue, simply dismiss their criticisms blaming them “country haters.” To
these people, the political landscape in Nepal is composed of two villages, one
populated by patriots, and the other by Nepal haters. There doesn’t seem to be
any room in between, and a patriot seems to be defined as adopting a less than
critical attitude towards one’s country. Although some sense of patriotism is
good and necessary to have, actually
it harms and halts economic development when it crosses the boundary of
patriotism and become jingoism.
What
jingoism is and how it differs from patriotism, is well defined and explained
here in the definition where Jingoism is defined as:
“Jingoistic: The
line between patriotic and jingoistic can sometimes seem vague and confusing.
Both adjectives describe a devotion to one’s country, but jingoistic implies a
fanatical allegiance that goes beyond pride, and often includes aggression
toward other countries. The word jingo, “mindless, gung-ho patriot,” arose from
a popular 1878 song that praised Britain’s warlike stance toward Russia at the
time, and came into American use in the 1890s during the Spanish-American war.”
(Source: –https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/jingoistic)
Although nationalism can’t be exchanged for
other material benefits, actually there is no such harm in nationalism while
conducting development activities unless we let others do whatever and however
they want to do. We can’t get anything unless we are ready to sacrifice
something else. Modernization and urbanization are possible only when we become
ready to lose some natural and rural beauty. Our country Nepal is still
underdeveloped, lots of infrastructural developmental activities are yet to be
done. It is already half a century when we established democracy in the
country. So many countries which were democratized during same period are now
rapidly developing, whereas our situation is still almost same. Our country is
yet to be developed because we are conscious only of nationalism, not of
development activities. Dozens of
developmental mega projects are halted because we see threat to nationalism
while conducting each and every project.
Infrastructures
are necessary foundations to conduct each and every developmental activity.
When we think of development in tourism, we need infrastructures such as road
networks, drinking water and sanitary facilities, communication etc. when we
think of economic development it is not possible unless we address electricity
problem. Education, healthcare, drinking water, sanitation, electricity,
transportation, communications are the area to be developed earlier. When we
talk of providing international level education for our students, then we suddenly
see foreign influence on our education system. When we see foreign influence,
we always see the darker side of it and when we see its darker side we stop it
from happening and that ultimately pushes us backward.
There are lots of examples of development
activities, which are halted in the name of being threat to nationalism. Now we
are undergoing atrociously lengthy load shedding problem, which is happening
because some ten to fifteen years back we halted Upper Tamakoshi hydro-project,
seeing threat to nationalism. We are neither ready to conduct mega projects on
our own nor are ready to welcome foreign investors. We always suspect India
when Indian wants to initiate any business in Nepal and when they propose to
link India and Nepal with railway. Indians think of advantages and see positive
sides of everything so that they are benefitted from open border because they
are selling their products in our territory. But we don’t have time to think of
trade and tourism because we are too busy thinking darker side of open border. If
Chinese government proposes to link Tibet through Kathmandu with railways, we
can’t accept because
we are afraid of Chinese cultural influence. There are so many hydro projects
to be developed, which can’t be developed fully on our own and need foreign
investment. West Seti, upper Karnali, Budhigandaki are some of the mega hydro
projects which are yet to be developed. These projects need foreign investment,
unless we stop chanting jingoist slogan they are never likely to be materialized.
East-west railway and metro rail in Kathmandu is possible when we welcome
foreign investment. African Dangote company is planning to invest on cement, we
have to welcome this company with certain conditions. Not only to this company
but also to each and every company, there should be certain conditions, such as
using domestic raw materials and employment for local people can be made
compulsory.
Although, sense of nationalism is
good and each individual should think of it, yet thinking only of nationalism
makes us jingoist. We should obviously have patriotic feeling, but extreme
sense of patriotism is jingoism and chauvinism. The best examples of countries
which are developing rapidly and also considering nationalism are Singapore and
Thailand, we should get lesson from these countries. They are rapidly
developing because they welcome foreign investment. Only three decades back
both of these countries were almost equal to Nepal in many developmental
aspects, but now we even can’t imagine where they are and where we are. Why
they are developing and we are not? The key reason is, they adopt open foreign
policy and we adopt close policy. They use foreign investment to develop their
country but we neither can do ourselves nor welcome foreigners. Singapore was a
desert, when some forty five years it was separated from Malaysia. But now it
is changed into green city and business hub of Asia. It is a transit point of
western business tycoons to trade in Asia. Thailand is even geographically
similar to Nepal, but it attract more than ten million tourists each year
whereas Nepal half million. They (Singapore
and Thailand ) also think of nationalism, but they never stop developing the
country in the name of nationalism, and that is what we did and are doing. These successful East Asian countries
achieved rapid, sustained, and equitable growth mainly through state led and
market friendly strategies. The private sector was the engine of growth but the
state was in the driver’s seat. (Bhattachan 17 )
Now
let’s think that actually why we Nepali are so much conscious of nationalism
and less conscious of economic development? Why do we see only the darker sides
of development don’t care its brighter sides of development? The most influential reason behind it is
panchayat regime. During panchayat era the state deliberately imposed the over
nationalist consciousness on people. People who have power now were students
then and when they were students they were taught blindly on nationalism. Issue
of nationalism during panchayat regime was raised not because they loved
country but to sustain monarchy and its active power. To love one’s own country
was to love monarchy and eulogize this ‘royal institution’. While going through these lines some people
may suspect this author as an anti-nationalist, and those people perhaps will
ask me whether we can damn care nationalist issue while developing. No
definitely not. We should care nationality, but what I mean is, in this era of
globalization we can’t be hardcore nationalist. We should not take foreign
investment and foreign peoples’ arrival as a threat to nationality. Of course there are some darker sides of
foreign investment too. It is likely that local people can’t compete with
foreigners in business. If that is the case the state should only welcome huge
investment and only let foreigners to conduct mega factories. The state also
can subsidize local businesses and can lower tax for them. If even now we think
nationalism as we used to perceive it during panchayat, then we are no longer
in age of globalization. We should again think of successful East Asian
countries which are developing because they follow open diplomatic relation and
our Nepal which is yet underdeveloped because of close diplomatic and foreign relation.
Love of one's nation and love of being a citizen of one's
nation is fine, unless and until it causes hatred of some other nation or
peoples, or such love is blind to any and all shortcomings of that nation and
of those citizens. If one is so enamored
of their citizenship or country that they ignore the faults of that country or
feel the need to advocate aggression or assert dominance to prove the value of
their homeland, then it becomes a bad, malignant thing. In our context, to love
our country is not other than creating anti-Indian sentiments. There is no
point in criticizing other countries like India, China, or The United States.
Of course, there is some point of attack, but we should not have so much
orthodox view of nationality. If some foreign people gather around our locality, or provide some aids to local people then we
afraid of them thinking that they are going to spoil our country. Of course
there might be some personal and political interest behind such aid but we
should focus on its brighter sides unless the aid is more harmful than being
beneficial. If India become ready to generate 5000 megawatt electricity from
rivers like Karnali or Gandaki, and become ready to leave around 40 %
electricity over here then that will be enough for us for more than a decade.
These sorts of megaprojects are to be done by Indian, Chinese or other
multinational companies, in such condition domestic business houses too can
collaborate with them. Developmental activities also can be done on boot
system, multinational companies will develop infrastructures, will get
advantages for some years then the state will get its ownership.
In
conclusion, developmental activities are the foundation of economic prosperity,
and this can be achieved only when we stop halting economic development in the
name of threat to nationalism. Accepting the fact that our country Nepal is
facing atrociously lengthy load shedding, and other infrastructural and
developmental problem, we should now think of developments which none can stop
for their personal and political benefits. Nationalism is the issue people most
often raise, when they talk of stopping developmental activities. We should
differentiate whether there is indeed a threat to nationalism or that is just
taken for granted. Developments are to be the agenda of each political party,
not considering their political benefits.
So what we should do is not to create barrier for developments in the
name of this and that problem. We should
not be too jingoist or too orthodox nationalist to undermine developments, because
developments are foundation toward peace and prosperity, and nationalism become
stronger when the country become developed.
Work cited
·
Bhattachan, Krishna b. and Chaitanya
Mishra. Developmental Practices in Nepal. kathmandu: Modern Printing Press.1997.
·
Khatri, Raju. Hami Kina Garib vayau. Kathmandu.
Nepal jaces. 2007.print.
·
Pradhan, Radhes. Industrialization in
Nepal. n.p. 1997. Kathmandu.
·
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/jingoistic
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