Nationalism can gain with more matriotism and less patriotism

Since pre-historic times community formation has been a means for survival of the human species against hostile nature and rival groups. Myths and rituals were invented to strengthen the community linkages emotionally. The natural resources were integrated in most myths and rituals in order to develop culture bonds. Such pre-modern notions and practices developed as patriotism and nationalism over time.  

Ideological-cultural identities preceded the formation of city-states and later the quasi feudal nation-states. These in turn represented a transition to the modern nation-states, but always as artificial constructs. The history of nation building is the history of a procrustean process of forcing an identity upon those in the region who did not initially know or share much in common with the interest groups leading the process. Independence of India was led by the bourgeoisie represented by Birlas, Tatas, etc. The Indian National Congress was a political front. It is symbolic that Gandhi was killed in an ashram funded by the Birlas.

The dark side of this process is that genocide is intimately connected with modernity and few nation states have arisen without exterminating identities that do not fit with the national narrative. A nation-state that has never undergone some form of ethnic cleansing is very rare. The patriotism emphasizes dying for the nation, the matriotism chooses living for society. Matriotism cherishes and values life the way a mother who wishes to protect her children. While militarism is the essence of classical patriotism, the matriotism sees the state as a servant of its citizens, not their master. The matriotic state is, by definition, a welfare state, a state based on service to the community. A matriotic state is not the top-down hierarchical structure like the patriotic state with its impersonal, distant, cool approach. The matriotic state is warm, present, nurturing and personal.

The Matria is a nurturing place, where the homeland is conceived as a mother to its citizens, with a loving support to her children. She raises them, protects them, educates them and prepares them to enter the world. The Matria is not the harsh patria that has dominated the nationalist discourse since the enlightenment and which demands acts of heroism, often achieved primarily through bloodshed and military feats of conquest. The Matria has no place for the patriarchal game of favourite sons. The archetypical mother loves her children equally, encouraging them to explore their potential without prejudice.

The archetype of mother does not need to impose the traditional role as defined under ancient patriarchal notions of a woman’s place. Indeed, that would be quite the opposite of the intention behind the conception of matriotism which is a cultural affirmation of the feminine and maternal across gender lines. Just as  traditional patriotic societies tend to value the archetypically masculine values of competition and hierarchy, the matriotic society emphasizes egalitarian relationships and cooperation.

The ideal of nurturing Matria suits best the welfare state, in a way that respects and accommodates people’s love of place and culture, which celebrates connection to historical communities without conceding to racism,  chauvinism or narrow communalism. Contrary to modern demonization of the caste system, largely due to its fossilization and failure to accompany social progress, in its origins it was in the words of the Indian president and philosopher S. Radhakrishnan a healthy Hindu solution to ethnic cleansing of ever fresh waves of immigrants that sought India as its destination. 

What is viewed now as odious caste discrimination, the philosopher-president described in his Upton lectures at the Manchester College (Oxford) and published as The Hindu View of Life (1927) that it was a Hindu way of respecting the family bonds and dietary habits of the immigrants, something all immigrants cherish and wish to safeguard. For this purpose new castes or subcastes ensured commensality and shunned inter-marriages. As a result the Indian society gained with the competences and skills of the newcomers, and ensured their well-being with the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the caste system. It was a solution embedded in the ancient Hindu consciousness of the earth as one great family, crystallized in the concept of Vasudhaiva kutumbakam. 

Amidst the dynamics of the daily life marked by noisy conflicts which usually become more audible / visible than the silent relations of harmony, we need vision and courage to identify and appreciate continuity amidst change. Whatever the quibbles of dialects and scripts, Goans have continued to cherish their Konkani language or Maim bhas, as an expression of matriotism. That alone nurtures what all Goans see as their base of equality and cultural survival. What Goans need is the inclusiveness of this matriotic treasure by welcoming newcomers, not as bhaile, but as enrichers of Goan heritage and language over time. The self-styled  “niz” or “patriotic” Goans may classify this discourse as the biblical “durus est hic sermo et quis potest eum audire?” [Who can hear this nonsense?] More matriotism, less patriotism could make a difference.

(Teotonio R. de Souza is the founder-director, Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (1979-1994).