In today’s India, patriotism has become theatre. It lives in hashtags, parades and social media displays, vivid, loud and often hollow. It thrives on salutes, flags and slogans, delivered not with sacrifice, but with filters and fervour. Behind this noise, however, lies a quieter and more urgent truth that has been drowned out: our soldiers are missing, our direction is adrift, and our collective conscience has grown dangerously quiet.
This is not an attack on national pride. It is a reckoning with what we have allowed pride to become.
Patriotism, of course, is not confined to the armed forces or the battlefield. It is equally about building lives, paying taxes, respecting the Constitution, helping one’s fellow citizens, participating in democracy, and defending the rule of law. This series does not seek to diminish those forms of service, which are essential to the life of any republic. It focuses instead on one specific dimension of patriotism: military service and geopolitical responsibility, because that dimension now sits at the edge of a global crisis.
Over the course of the week, I will be writing a three-part series, one a day, that traces the contours of that reckoning, across culture, service and international posture. It is not only a critique of performance without purpose, but also a call to rediscover what genuine patriotism should embody: service, sacrifice and moral clarity.
In Article 1, I will explore the widening gap between the symbols of patriotism and the substance behind them. Why do so many celebrate the armed forces (especially those who claim that it is above reproach, above questioning, above even the law at times), yet so few enlist? What does it mean when nationalism becomes voyeuristic, a costume worn for validation rather than a commitment lived through action?
In Article 2, I will delve into the crisis itself: India’s military recruitment shortfalls, the unmet promises of initiatives like Agnipath, and the state’s indifference towards veterans. What does it say about a country that reveres its military in rhetoric but neglects it in reality?
In Article 3, I will zoom out to consider the geopolitical and moral drift. From Nehru’s principle of non-alignment to today’s confused allegiances, India’s loss of moral leadership has left it exposed and encircled. This article will reflect on the aftershocks of a world already destabilised by American and Israeli strikes on Iran, Iran’s retaliation, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza, and a growing constellation of regional flashpoints. Can a nation once guided by the ideals of Gandhi still reclaim its voice for peace?
These are not isolated issues. They are symptoms of a deeper fracture between what we profess and what we practise.
The true test of patriotism is not what one chants in comfort, but what one stands for when it is most difficult to do so. This series is both a reflection and a challenge: to take that test honestly, and to act with the courage that real patriotism demands.
