After watching all the drama, turmoil in the recent past that indicates the worst political crises from which the country is passing through nowadays, a question is raised in every patriotic Pakistani that why nationalism is not created in the people of homeland.
The main question is what is nationalism. If we try to find out the answer of the question from the books, then, we will discover the most authentic definition of nationalism in the Encyclopedia Britannica as follows: “Nationalism, ideology based on the premise that the individual’s loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests”. This description is only for the intellectuals.
But in simple and short worlds nationalism is the matter in which the whole nation thinks about the betterment of the country and fellow countrymen.
Pakistan is the unfortunate country where no one considers that the country is more important than personal interests, but here each and every action of the almost entire nation, from top to bottom, reflects contrary to that as no one here is thinking about Pakistan, but everyone is trying its best to fulfil its own personal interests.
In the past General Pervaiz Musharraf gave the slogan ‘Pakistan comes first’ to the nation, which depicts nationalism to some extent. This catchphrase was very attractive looking but it proved only lip-service because he failed to present any practical toil as a precedent before the people. The action always speaks louder than words so it could not create an impact on the people so that they could think about adopting nationalism.
The lack of nationalism is reflected in our day to day behavior. We see everywhere that except for a few people, no one is sincere to the country but everyone is preferring its own causes rather than the national interest.
This is due to the nonexistence of nationalism that if we buy a flowerpot for our home , then we would keep it safe , we would color it and plant some fine-looking saplings in it. But on the other hand if we go to a public park and we see the same flowerpot there, we would kick it without pondering that this was also purchased with the money of our taxes. It does not make any difference to us whether it breaks into pieces.
Due to the absence of nationalism, the Pakistanis people are not bonded as a nation in every field of life, rather our attitude is like a crowd. We act on mob psychology. If one of us would go wrong, everyone would follow him without thinking of its positive and negative effects like a horde of sheep. The recent protest that was made on the arrest of PTI’s leader Imran Khan, divulges the real picture of the same attitude.
An old saying that is well famed about Pakistan is that “before 1947 a nation was searching for a country, but now a country is finding a nation” is very much true as far as the nationalism is concerned.
Right from the beginning the educational institutes did not tell us what nationalism is and what it values in the lives of the nations. Like the education system, the media also failed to craft the nationalism in the people of Pakistan. This is the very reason that the young generation of the country is totally unaware about nationalism.
Now it is high time that the government, educational organizations, writers, intellectuals and media should play their role individually and plan such a line of action that would be helpful in creating nationalism in the whole nation especially in the young generation to save the country’s future.