During my early high-school days, I started coming across advice & instructions on patriotism, typically like these :
"you should never make fun of your country"
" your country is like your mother. Remember that’s why it is addressed as mother-land"
"should be proud of being an Indian"
I never cross questioned against the elders who gave these advice .
However, within myself, I started pondering: if I were born in / belonged to a different country, I would still be given the same advice as above, except that the country-name would be different. So, its just a basic expectation that one shouldn’t deride ones own country, and every country has its own reasons the citizens should be proud about belonging there.
For example, two men belonging to countries that are bitter enemies (Ind-Pak, US-Rus, Jap-Chn ) would be ‘proud’ of their respective countries, just because they were born on that side of the boundary.
This thought is fresh in my mind even today. Somehow I stop myself from extending this to matters of Religion, although it is tempting to do so .
Today, after 20+ years of my first encounter with this thought, I come across this succint quote :
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it" – George Bernard Shaw
Wow, Ranga !
