The display of patriotism is over for now. Bundles of plastic tricolors sold across cities have been returned to their god owns where they will be gathering dust before being pulled out again on Republic Day. The phenomenon of people buying the national flag for Independence Day and Republic Day is of recent origin. It reflects a smart manufacturer's ability to spot a good business.

So is affixing the tricolor on our car dashboards or keeping the tiny plastic flags fluttering in all kinds of places for a limited period making us more patriotic than before? In the course of the emergence of this trend, a court case was won which gave Indians their right to display the national flag any time of the year without violating any law, but that verdict has not led to the omnipresence of the tricolor through the year. In fact, the episodic display of our national flag has not even led to an awareness of why we celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. If such was the case, people would politically challenge those politicians and their parties who make a song and dance about hoisting the flag even while giving scant respect to the Constitution.

The growing public display of patriotism has the danger of casting those who don’t sport the tricolor on the two special days of the republic as an unpatriotic lot. What makes the situation more worrying is that groups with an eye on returns for investments are fostering such an endorsement of patriotism. Beyond the display of the flags there is no other demand being made on the people, as the act is considered sufficient contribution to the nation. And here’s the paradox. Unless the trend is checked, symbolic patriotism is going to end up as just another fad resulting in depoliticizing the people even more.

Patriotism means different things to different people. The form of expressing this sentiment also varies dramatically. While the political definition of patriotism may be subjective matter, in terms of 'apolitical patriotism' the situation is not all that intangible. Take the national outpouring for the victims of terrorism. From daily wage earners to corporate leaders, people have contributed in an unprecedented manner. This suggests that the people continue to love -for that is what it boils down to -the country and the people living in it.

India’s emergence as a modern nation owes greatly to the mass popularity of the patriotic sentiment. Having reached a situation where a certain process that appeared unstoppable, there is need to ensure that the logic of the electoral process does not result in the return of divisive jingoism becoming once again official state policy. India might be a modern Nation-State, but it is surely not a country of recent origin. Unfortunately, this awareness has been slowly and systematically targeted by our collective sense of history being wiped away. Any nation which does not have an understanding of its history, its politics, its cultures and its people is on its way to becoming a nation of social and political pygmies.