THE
SPIRIT OF THE INDIAN FLAG
[Abstract : India's nationhood is placed in a novel perspective of
history and forecast]
An animal
lives in the here and the now. The
human animal extends the here to there and yonder – the settlement,
the region and so on. Having
the capacity to recall and to anticipate, the human animal extends
the now to then and forever – Oral history and Oral forecast, written
history and written forecast and so on.
The nation is the modern European contribution to this expansion
of the human horizon – with its political and economic support and
its discursive, stylistic, and symbolic expression. Everybody is now speaking of globalization
– without realizing that India has a lot to teach in this matter to
the rest of the world. Over
many centuries India has evolved its own version of mini-globalization,
something in between the European nation state and the United Nations
(The European Union is but a poor copy of the Indian Union!)
What has been the drive cowards the emergence of the Indian
Union? What has been the underlying spirit that the
Indian Flag symbolizes?
(i)
Fraternity in liberty rather than untrammeled pursuit of individual
happiness.
(ii)
Fraternity through justice rather than justice as equality in mediocrity.
(iii)
Diversity and unity rather than diversity by itself or unity by itself.
(iv)
Panchasheel in relation to the rest of the world rather than any dream
of world hegemones.
Into
that heaven let our country awake!
COLOPHON
This is a note dated 19-06-2004 in response to an appeal from
the Flag Foundation of India (12 Bhikaiji Cama Place, New Delhi –
110 066) for a book and exhibition on the Indian Flag in preparation.
