A colleague of mine, during a casual conversation said “I am not a nationalist, I am a patriot!” This pushed me into thinking as to what exactly was he talking about. I think the simple answer was that my colleague loved his country as she is but he was not ready to believe in a definition people ascribed to her. Patriotism and nationalism are two sides of the same coin. Patriotism is an emotion whereas nationalism is a concept or an idea. Patriotism has ‘love and affection’ and nationalism has ‘pride and honour’ as the dominant component. Patriotism is unconditional while nationalism has conditions attached to it. Patriotism believes in uniqueness of the nation while nationalism flaunts its supremacy! Your friends, family, landscape, rivers, mountains, childhood, memories, school, dreams form inherent part of love for your country (patriotism) and is essentially a natural process of growing up! Nationalism does not come naturally as it is an idea defined by someone else and you are expected to conform to it. Nationalism can be invented but patriotism cannot be. Patriotism does not demand any particular form of behaviour or beliefs but nationalism does! Some enemy or adversary is probably implicit in nationalism but not so in patriotism. The goosebumps and tears you get while listening to your national anthem before a match in a stadium is part of patriotism but the heady emotions of winning a match against Pakistan has predominant nationalism written all over it! A patriot is ready to die for his country but a nationalist takes pride in killing for his country. Nationalism needs to be defined, spelled, explained, told and written about. Patriotism is to be felt, perceived and experienced because it flows naturally from the heart. Nationalism is constructed in brain and is artificially attached to the heart. The difference between patriotism and nationalism is simple - a patriot loves his country and is proud of it for what it is or does whereas a nationalist loves his country and is proud of his country no matter what it is or does! Patriotism breeds responsibility while nationalism breeds arrogance! Let’s be patriots! That’s enough….
(The writer is senior cardiologist).