A soft opening for Russia's Patriot Park, 2015. Wikicommons/Government-ru. Some rights reserved.Something strange is happening in Indian universities. A few days ago, the Ministry for Human Resources called for ‘patriotic rock music’ to be performed at the nation’s campuses. In July, the Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, one of the country’s largest, asked that a tank be displayed on site to spark ‘patriotic inspiration’ in students. A recently-passed law requires all state-funded universities to fly the national flag ‘to evoke nationalistic sentiments.’ And in March this year, students protesting the ABVP, the country’s powerful right-wing student association, were branded ‘anti-national’ traitors and pelted with stones.
The Indian government, under their Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is aggressively pushing a programme of ‘patriotic education’ upon the country. What we see happening in higher education is just part of their plan to raise a generation of highly patriotic citizens. In schools, the government hopes to introduce mandatory singing of the national anthem, compulsory hoisting of the country’s flag, a greater focus on the lives of national heroes, and even military lessons, in order to ‘instil patriotism and nationalism in the curriculum.’ As the head of Veterans India ominously declared in July this year: ‘We will create a situation where people will love the nation. And if they don’t, we will force them to love it.’ “People will love the nation. And if they don’t, we will force them to love it.”
Young Army Initiatives
Patriotic education is by no means unique to India. In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has explicitly stated that ‘love of country’ should be a goal of education. Likewise, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for China’s education system to be infused with ‘patriotic spirit.’ In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte is currently pushing through (as ‘urgent’) a law that would force all sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds to take part in military training, ‘to instil nationalism, patriotism and discipline among the Filipino youth.’
