From: sherwani@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Naveed Sherwani)
Subject: Re: Nationalism....
Summary: The word anti-national is meaningless.
Keywords: pakistani flag hoisting in India
Organization: Western Michigan Univ. Comp. Sci. Dept.
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:26:12 GMT

In article <1er35iINNmgh@tamsun.tamu.edu>, gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal) writes:
> Naveed,
> 
> While international integration may be an ideal goal that may be
> hoped to be achieved in the future, flag hoisting of another 
> country does not serve that purpose. It's a downright anti-national 
> act that seeks to break up a countries boundaries not for the 
> purpose of merging international boundaries but to carve out new 
> ones out of the old one. One cannot ignore such incidents as being 
> of no consequence since flag-hoisting, though a trivial action in
> itself, is indicative of a much more significant factor i.e., in 
> the mean time while international integration has not been achieved,
> would a person help out his country when in need ? I know that many 
> of us would like to see it as not "U Pakistani, Me Indian" but as 
> both of us belonging to the human race. But while the differences 
> exist, can we allow them to be destructive to our own identity ? 
> Given the long standing animosity between our two countries, 
> flag-hoisting of the other country can only be construed as a 
> destructive attempt. Now, if those persons had hoisted the flag 
> of say Finland or Maldives, then I am sure it would have been seen
> from a different angle. 
> 
> regards,
> --   
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> _____/ _____/ __/   __/ __/ ______/ | \___|  
> E-mail - gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu       |   /   All Std. Disclaimers apply.

Gopal Jee:

 My claim is very simple. The word ANTI-NATIONAL is going to become
very meaningless very soon. I pointed to some of the reasons in my
earlier post. 

Tomorrow, a person writes a song, which resembles Pakistani National
anthem, should we ban it ? Is that an ANTI-NATIONAL act ? 
Day after tomorrow, french satellite using direct broadcast plays
national anthem of pakistan all over India. Should we go to war with
France over it ? Is that an ANTI-NATIONAL act ? 
The point is,  very soon all boundaries will dis-appear or they will
be made meaningless. 
Consider the example of one country banning Salman's Rushdie' book today. We 
can scan it and make it available to everybody on internet. What
meaning it will have on banning such things ?  
If you ban people from waving a flag (any flag), it will get
more attention then it deserves, and it will de-rail all the discussion
about hormony and friendship between two countries.

 We are all the same people. I claim, I am an Indian, my parents were born
in India (obviously there was no Pakistan then). I was born in 
Pakistan, but does that make me Pakistani. Using American terminology,
I would be an Indian-Pakistani.  I consider both
people to be same. Both of them are immature enough, that they cannot 
live with their differences, I hope they will grow up one day.
 
 As a Pakistani, suppose, I help an Indian set up an industry and
that industry help Indian economy grow, then is that  an ANTI-NATIONAL
act from Pakistan's point of view ?
 Thru my posts, if I educate a few Indians about some subject, so thay
are better than some Pakistanis, then is that  an ANTI-NATIONAL
act from Pakistan's point of view ?

 Gopal Jee, you have helped many Pakistani's to see better, that includes me, 
on many issues, are you an ANTI-INDIAN ?  

 WHERE DO WE DRAW THE LINE ?

 All of us need a lesson in growing up. As  little kids, we have been taught
a lot of things. One among them is pride in our countries and that we
should be willing to die for it. I think it is time that we wake up
and challenge some of our training. I have already challenged the
concept that India is Pakistan's enemy. Thru email response that I have
got, it is quite clear that many Pakistanis and Indians agree with
me. I think, older generation has handed us a lot of garbage about the
two countries. We, the young generation, need to re-examine the
situation and find similarlities between the two people, rather than
their differences.

 I think nationalism WAS a good idea, however,  the future is in 
planetism. It is quite clear that nationalism sets up one people
against other. It focuses on differences of different people, which
is destructive.  

 As a whole, the entire human race is going thru a growing up period.
Nationalism is a growing pain. Just like kids going  thru an teenage.

regards,

-Naveed