NATIONALITY

I was watching a very close cricket match between India and Bangladesh. Both sides had almost equal winning chances. When an Indian player hit a four or a six I had the wish to jump up and down like many young Indian fans in the ground. And when an Indian wicket fell I felt despondent and looked nervously towards the score sheet. Just the opposite happened among the rival fans. Bangladeshi supporters looked depressed when a four was scored by an Indian player and found their voices and legs to celebrate the fall of every Indian wicket. Eventually India won the match and I felt happy and went to sleep with a contented mind. Bangladeshi fans looked morose.

The point is I was feeling one with the Indian team. The team did not include a single Bengali player and I supported them wholeheartedly. I did not care about the difference in so many things between the players who were playing for India and myself. The Bangladesh team consisted solely of Bengali players. I am a Bengali and did not feel empathy towards all those Bengalis because they were of another nationality although in language and culture I was far closer to them. And even now I feel quite right about that. I am and will be a supporter of Indian team whenever it plays against Bangladesh or any other cricketing nation.

Only a thought sprung to my mind. What if I was born a hundred miles or less towards the east in Pabna or some other district of Bangladesh? The whole scenario would have been opposite. I would have been jumping up and down with every Bangladesh victory and dispirited at every loss. Most probably I would have been a Muslim by religion because although it is not a religion one gets by virtue of being born in a Muslim family (as in the case of a Hindu) I would have got indoctrinated into becoming a Muslim by the family in quite a young age. Not many Muslims are Muslims because they judge for themselves whether it is best or not but gets along with the family traditions. Very few change their religion in their adult life taking their own judgemental decision. Yet as a born Hindu I feel sometimes antagonistic towards or superior to Muslims or even Christian or Jews because accidentally I was born Hindu at Howrah district of West Bengal within India. Yes accident! I could be born in Bangladesh or in Philippines or in Zimbabwe or in some other planet. Everything would have been different then. I mean I did not choose to be born in India. The atoms of my body were born in imploding supernovae many thousands or millions light years away from earth. They floated for millions of years in cosmos and somehow coagulated in to my DNAs in my genes. And I was given birth eventually by my parents in Earth (instead of some other unknown planet). Had my parents were accidentally in Pakistan I would have, most probably, a different view towards Kashmir issue or many other issues for that matter. I would have been a staunch supporter of Pakistan team no matter whatever the difference between me and the players. I would have even cheered for a Hindu if he were in Pakistan team (like one leg spinner whose name I cannot remember now) and did well against India. Had I been born in some African nation I would have found most of them acceptable looking instead of ugly as I find them now.

Our nationalities are accidental. Yet we all feel terribly patriotic so much so that we can even kill or do worse to people of other nations without batting an eyelid if we feel they are antagonistic towards our nation (this statement is valid for all nationalities). If I am an American I will drop two atomic bombs in Japan and kill thousands of innocent children at one go. If I am German I will kill Slavs and Jews in gas chambers.  Not only nationality. Nationalities in many occasions are bound with religion. So if I am a Sunni I will not only kill Hindus and Christians but also Shias or Ahmadias. I will not consider that  I am actually accidentally born Sunni and not a Shia or a Hindu or an Ahmadia. But this is true for a Shia or a Hindu or an Ahmadia also. Hatred is intricately bound with nationality and organised religion.

Patriotism makes us so blind that we do most hateful things without any moral hiccups. We can kill other innocent people by committing suicide and making a bomb blast. We do not think our nationalities are totally accidental and my right may be wrong for the other.

A point to ponder upon.