India’s national anthem just became a handy bludgeon to extract some full-on desh bhakti from people. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Jana Gana Mana must be played before the screening of films at theatres across the country and that people must stand while it is being played to accord it due respect.
The apex court bench, comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Amitava Roy, also said that all the doors should be shut at this time so that no disturbance takes place.
Keeping the theatre doors locked has an added advantage: It prevents anyone from slinking off while this exhibition of collective patriotism plays out. It also gives a whole new twist to the phrase “captive audience”.
In truth, the Supreme Court ruling is remarkable because it is a stunning example of judicial overreach. According to the Indian Constitution, respect for the national flag and the national anthem are fundamental duties — they are not enforced by law or decree. More disturbingly, the ruling might legitimise the corrosive debate on nationalism versus anti-nationalism that has roiled India’s social and cultural space in recent months. It opens up one more front where liberal voices, who may plead for individual liberties, will be shouted down for not acting in “national interest”.
The national flag and the national anthem are proud emblems of our nation. And there is no doubt that they ought to be honoured and cherished. As a child one remembers standing up and singing Jana Gana Mana with gusto when it played after a film show along with the tri-colour fluttering gaily on the screen. Most people did stand up. But it is unlikely that anyone would have been lynched if they had not.
The question is, in a mature democracy — and after 69 years India must consider itself to be one — should we be coerced into showing our love for our country? Should the extent to which we genuflect before the national flag, the national anthem, or the soldier fighting on the border, become tests of our patriotism?
In October this year, a differently-abled moviegoer in Panaji was beaten up because he continued to sit while Jana Gana Mana was being played. Last year, members of a family at a Mumbai theatre (Maharashtra and Goa are two states where the national anthem is currently played in movie halls) were heckled and driven out because they too did not stand up.
Hence, ugly vigilantism to get people to show reverence to the national anthem is rampant already. Now with a Supreme Court diktat to back them, one wonders to what lengths nationalist zealots might go to extract their pound of patriotism.
Ironically, Jana Gana Mana, the lyric Rabindranath Tagore wrote in 1911, has had a fraught history when it comes to patriotism. Critics say that Tagore wrote it to celebrate the visit of George V to Calcutta, and that the word “adhinayaka” actually referred to the British monarch.
Nothing could be further from the truth. As Tagore, who returned his knighthood after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, said in his letters on at least two occasions, the very idea that he would do so was foolish. The song was, and continues to be, a celebration of India’s “god of destiny” — bharata bhagya vidhata — and its pluralism.
And the great humanist that he was, Tagore would probably have recoiled in horror if told that his anthem was being used as a stick to beat people into demonstrations of patriotism.
Interestingly, the urge to punish those who “dishonour” national emblems is cropping up in other parts of the world as well. This week US President-elect Donald Trump, a racist plutocrat who rode to victory on a right-wing, nationalist agenda, said that anyone burning the American flag ought to be jailed or should lose their citizenship. This despite the fact that under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, flag-burning may be regarded as a legitimate form of protest.
Mr Trump’s declaration immediately led to protesters setting fire to some flags in defiance. But the point is that liberal constitutional protections — whether for flag-burning in the US or against coercive patriotism in India — are beginning to look shaky before the virulent tide of nationalism sweeping through much of the world today.
India has always had its share of people who are quick to take umbrage at any perceived slight to the national flag or the national anthem. In 2008, tennis star Sania Mirza infuriated chronic nit-pickers when she allegedly sat with her feet pointing towards the tri-colour. When Amitabh Bachchan gave a masterful rendition of Jana Gana Mana at Eden Gardens at the World Cup T-20 final between India and Pakistan in March this year, someone filed a police complaint, saying that he had dishonoured the anthem by taking too long to sing it.
One tended to dismiss such people as fanatics and cranks earlier.
Unfortunately, they may be on their way to being mainstreamed now. In the new normal of punitive patriotism, nationalism is no longer (as Samuel Johnson said) the last refuge of scoundrels. It could well be their first port of call.
Every week, Eye Culture features writers with an entertaining critical take on art, music, dance, film and sport
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