India completes its 70 years of independence and has the ambition to establish itself as a global power. This search for power is based on a perception of national greatness as a society, as a culture, and also, as a market.[1]Though the term national is not defined in the Indian Constitution, some great personalities have put forward their views on the concept of national.
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'The Modern India'
According to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, one of the greatest leaders our nation ever had a ’Nation” requires four things. Firstly land or people, secondly a collective will for a corporate life, thirdly a constitution but which can far more appropriately be called Dharma and the fourthly an ideal of life. The synthesis of all these four is called a Nation. As an individual is made up of body, minds intelligence and soul, a nation is made up of the country, will, Dharma and ideal. The name Bharat denotes a nation which is a practical and natural organization that is stable, strong and self-reliant. The national personality keeps a nation alive. Dharma is the repository of the nation’s soul. If Dharma is destroyed, the nation perishes. Anyone who abandons Dharma betrays the nation.[2]
Mahatma Gandhi’s views on the concept of national and Swami Vivekananda were quite similar, they both propounded that one has to expand one’s views from selfish individual motives to national and global motives to become a vikasitha vyakthithwa which means a highly developed individual. Thus protecting nature, nonexploitation of natural resources for selfish needs become a goal of a person who has achieved vikasitha vyakthithwa. For Mahatma Gandhi, a citizen’s duty was also to have a dissenting voice against injustice for which sometimes he has to set aside his individual rights, and primarily the core value was non-violence. An enlightened citizen, according to Vivekananda, is a person whose heart bleeds for the poor, underprivileged, downtrodden and his aim is to earnestly desire to remove the suffering of others.
`Rabindranath Tagore’s idea of national was broad-minded and inclusive which envisaged unity. B.R.Ambedkar viewed the concept of national as something which is consciousness of its kind and aware of its ties of kinship. In Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s concept of national, there is a high sense of nationalism and patriotism. He talks about individual liberty conforming with the provisions of the Constitution, social integration and political mobilization. In the course of great freedom fighter and educationist Madan Mohan Malviya own convocation address in 1929 when he retired from the university, the Bharat Ratna awardee said, “You must always be prepared to do the duty that your country may demand of you. Love your countrymen and promote unity among them. A large spirit of toleration and forbearance and a larger spirit of loving service is demanded of you.”
The feeling of national or being national is a social, national, global responsibility naturally flowing from the freedom of expression and activity of being a citizen. Every other nation has a pride in being the citizens of that geographic area and being the successors of a heritage.
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The modern Educated Indian alone has not developed that pride in the citizenship of being an Indian When someone points out that heritage, the so-called intellectual, scientific educated Indian immediately throws a jargon word at that individual- of being a communal Hindu, so that that person is either silenced or marginalized from all serious discussions pertaining to the national welfare. Such a sad state of affairs has happened only in India.
