By\u00a0 Dr. Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi<\/span><\/h2>\n

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• Saturday, 16 May 2015 00:00<\/span><\/li>\n
• Much discussion has been on these two contentious notions of\u00a0\u00a0 Nationalism and Patriotism, ever since the nation states came into being as a political arrangement. End of Cold War which dissolved the old \u2018political allegiances and alliances\u2019 exacerbated by the impacting trends of globalization, created new security scars especially for smaller states. The infamous 9\/11atrocities paved the way for a new world (dis) order as Huntingtonian axiom of a clash of civilizations, even though the author disagrees with him on some aspects.Wikipedia defines Nationalism as \u201ca belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with, or becoming attached to, one’s nation. Nationalism involves national identity, by contrast with the related construct of patriotism, which involves the social conditioning and personal behaviors that support a state’s decisions and actions\u201d(see. under nationalism). Interestingly, patriotism is noted as a \u2018construct of Nationalism\u2019 which I dispute, though linked but remains beyond it.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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  \nNationalist Base<\/strong><\/span>
  \nI want to argue differently from the\u00a0 Wikipedian explanation\u00a0 on Nationalism. All nationalists may be patriots, but not necessarily all patriots are nationalists, because to be patriotic is to be deeply care for all within one\u2019s own terrain of existence and seeking\u00a0 welfare of one\u2019s own and beyond the demarcated boarders. It was Westphilian sovereignty in 1648 that led to the creation of the current notion of nation states and perhaps was then a model towards peace and stability. The natural sense of territoriality that humans share with animals was further legitimized as a civilized form of living within civic norms and ethical prudence for Europe. This created in some sense PAX EUROPA (peaceful time) until the Third Reich\u2019s triumphalistic rise of\u00a0 Nationalism and patriotism sandwiched by Hitler and his Fascist regime that bulldozed the Westphilian treaty by making notion of nation state as sublimely super state, and its ethnic superiority over the rest. To be patriotic was a battle of pride, as depicted in the mega Hollywood movie, The Patriot (Colombia Pictures, 2000) where Benjamin Martin\u2019s (Mel Gibson) patriotism has hardly any nationalism even though the plot is created within the American Revolution in 1776. Grippingly, it was the 17th\u00a0 century European nationalism (post Westphalia) that led the American civil war (18th cc.) on the basis of what it means to be a nation\/state that arguably filtered into the independence movements. <\/span>
  \nMost countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America had been under imperialist rule. By the end of the Second World War, within about 25 years of all under the foreign rule had become sovereign nations and the rest that remained, became free during the next few years. Nationalism was a tool against the oppressor- the occupier. The Japanese fought and ousted the British, the French and the Dutch in the region. \u2018Think like an Indian, eat like an Indian and dress like an Indian\u2019 was India\u2019s slogan for its own Nationalism and de facto led the British to \u2018quit India\u2019. <\/span>
  \nPolitical landscape<\/strong> <\/span>
  \nCan one be a patriot without being nationalist? According to the 18th century English poet Samuel Johnson,\u201cPatriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel\u201d. However, we are not sure what he meant by a patriot in his context. We read that he was an Anglican and a Tory supporter among his many life-time achievement in the field of English literature. <\/span>
  \nPatriotism is a kind of love\u00a0 devotion to one\u2019s country and for all what it has been to one\u2019s well-being, a cultural attachment. Especially now portrayed by those who have migrated from their place of origin do display a sense of patriotism as part of their identity formation in the adopted land. Patriotism cannot be levelled against the \u2018other\u2019 because its very subtext creates a sense about the \u2018self\u2019 in relation to the \u2018other\u2019. This \u2018other\u2019 is not a problem to be patriotic or about one\u2019s love and devotion to one\u2019s country. Whereas, nationalism contains in modern community praxis that the \u2018other\u2019 that does not subscribe to the self\u2019s agenda could be a potential threat or in fact an intrusive subject. Hence, when Nationalism is politicized then it could take an ugly social modus operandi hitherto unknown within a specific community setting. <\/span>
  \nNationalism and Patriotism could be made true bed fellows as they could mutually share certain aspirations politically lucrative and achievable. Sri Lanka\u2019s political landscape has vivid moments where patriotism (deshapremaya) and unpatriotism (deshadroohi) have been in various political scenarios. Bhikkhu Labuduwe Siridhamma called J R Jayewerdena a deshadroohiya, his temple was barb wired, he was made house bound. The JVP was once called Deshadroohin. Most recently, some members of the current regime called that those who would not vote for the 19th amendment would be Deshadroohin. It\u2019s a very strong word in Sinhala than in English (unpatriotic). However, a distinction must be made that love of and devotion to a country – patriotism is commendable if such embraces that which is even unfamiliar. Nationalism can be an ugly product if it excludes \u2018the other\u2019 because one cannot bear the difference out there. Sri Lanka can socially progress, the challenges are obvious but not too many to face upto.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

  – See more at: http:\/\/www.nation.lk\/edition\/insight\/item\/40740-nationalism-and-patriotism-a-withering-line.html#sthash.f4K6DIY7.dpuf<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By\u00a0 Dr. Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi Saturday, 16 May 2015 00:00 Much discussion has been on these two contentious notions of\u00a0\u00a0 Nationalism and Patriotism, ever since the nation states came into being as a political arrangement. End […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hettiviththi.lk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}