By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,
In this era of globalization when national boundaries are said to be crumbling, or at least getting weak, it was the drive to earn some fast buck, rather than political compulsion, which helped whip up nationalism of a different sort. No this can not be called as ‘sporting’ nationalism as this adjective stands for all the good gestures whereas the one created in the last week of the recently concluded World Cup has some ugly facets too.
Winning World Cup and celebrating it is one point and we all, as a nation, are proud of it. But in this euphoria we must not overlook the role the media, especially the electronic one, played in calling for Lanka Dahan or going for Maha-Yudh or Maha-jang or Mahabharat––or may be Jehad in Pakistani media. Those who claim to be the responsible flagbearers of the Fourth Estate of the Indian democracy outperformed the cultural nationalist brigades in the politics. In fact the likes of Shahnawaz Husain and Lal Krishna Advani were more busy claiming that Zaheer Khan, Yusuf Pathan and Monaf Patel are from Gujarat. Perhaps they wanted to convey that the three are there not because of their performance but because of Narendra Modi not knowing that Zaheer and even Yusuf’s younger brother Irfan, made their entry into the world of cricket even before the advent of Modi in that state.
With no Hitler––or his admirers in power anywhere––we managed to create a scene which has some resemblance with the 1936 Berlin Olympic days when sports was used to settle all the political scores. Those in Press, instead of ignoring the stupidity of some individuals, went on to further aggravate the situation by giving fantastic headlines. The media barons laughed all the way to banks simply because India had to overcome two countries of the sub-continent with whom the country has a history of somewhat strained relationship. Those in the world of advertisement would have been much more poorer if India had to play England, Australia or New Zealand in the semi-final or final. Our celebration would have been much less grand had we defeated any White nation to grab the Cup as in that case we might not have been able to create a war-like hysteria just to mint some quick money.
A victory over England in the final would never have reminded us of the atrocities the British committed in 1857 or even in the much recent period though we were thrown back to the mythical war with Lanka sometime in the pre-historic era. Those running our shows in the world of advertisement know their limitations. After all nobody of ‘Indian origin’ living in Sri Lanka or Pakistan can dream of supporting India in any match against those two countries. But if you are of ‘Indian origin’ and living in England for decades, there is little problem in applauding Sachin or Sehwag or rooting for Indian victory in Lords or Leeds even if the former colonial masters have the likes of Solanki, Bopara, Monty Panesar or Nasir Husain in their rank. In the United States you can be American citizen of Indian origin even if you organize and celebrate India Day Parade on the eve of August 15.
Nationalism whipped up in the name of any game have less to do with patriotism and more to do with some ulterior motive. No Babur Ki Aulad slogan would be ever raised when a football team of essentially Muslim Uzbekistan would come and clash with India––Babur was originally an Uzbek. No televised yagya or dua would be performed to defeat Saudi Arabia in any sporting event, even though we know that this is the place from where Islam spread to the entire world. And there would be no witch-hunting of players or team management either in India or Pakistan if anyone of them lose hockey match––not to speak of football, kabaddi, billiards etc. Till a couple of decades ago hockey matches between the two used to generate some passion, but that was not of the scale of cricket now. Thus the issue is not between Hindu and Muslim or Hindu and Buddhist as it is sometimes being made out.
The ad-men and -women of today have made us believe that cricket and cinema are now two main religions of India. But then why use these two new religions, especially cricket, to divide people by using ancient symbols of victory. Have not they learned from the past.