Nationalism is based on the premise that loyalty and devotion to the country are supreme and it surpasses the individual or group interests. It is one of the most powerful tools to keep people united specially in a country like India that has linguistically and culturally multiple religious and social groups. The early twentieth-century national movement is proof of the power of nationalism when nationalistic fervour was aroused among the people to overthrow the colonial rule.
The power of nationalism is not very easy to use in this modern, politically conscious and intelligible society. That is why many parts of the world have witnessed the emergence of neo-nationalism of a sort which hinges on issues of anti-elitist populist rhetoric, an anti-immigration policy of closing borders, economic protectionism, restoring society to an imagined past glory and nation-first.
In India, the present dispensation has been able to arouse neo-nationalism to an extent by symbols of sovereignty such as hoisting of the lofty national flag at institutions and places of mass-gathering, and recitation of the national anthem at cinema halls. Another important tool used by the state in recent times has been invoking the threat of terrorism linking it to neighboring Pakistan. The political leadership of today very well understands that people can gravitate together on the issue of threat to national existence. So they have been steered to imagine their diametrically opposite relations to Pakistan with whom the common men per se have no direct interaction. As they are enthused to the idea of an imaginary enemy, it becomes easier to arouse nationalism among the heterogeneous citizens.
It is a crucial moment for the party in power as the Lok Sabha elections are around the corner. The promises it made in 2014 to the people of India have not been fulfilled in a short period of five years. There have been many signs of progress in the form of massive road construction, Ganga rejuvenation, toilets in rural areas and cleanliness of cities. But there are some downsides as well. The corruption in everyday form is still rampant, inflation is growing and so is the fuel prices. The employment scenario is very disappointing with very little job opportunities for the young who have the overwhelming desire to do something for a modern lifestyle. There are dangers of negative implications of the demographic dividend that India has. The society is in turmoils with the life of cattle becoming more valuable than humans. The even graver danger is the atmosphere of fear among intelligentsia who have now been preferring to remain silently uncritical to the policies of the state. In nutshell, the government has been forced to come up with an alternative strategy to regain power in 2019. Pulwama came at the nick of time when all the television channels had started discussing the shrinking BJP seats in the scenario of grand alliances against the party in all the provinces.
The ruling party did not want to lose this opportune moment. Even before the opposition could blame the government for the security breach and ever-increasing number of deaths of Indian armed and paramilitary forces over the last few years, the party in power began calling it as an attack on Indian sovereignty. There is no turning back from the enthusing of nationalistic fervour with successful air strikes in the neighboring territory. The coming back of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman from the clutches of Pakistan army is also being projected as a diplomatic victory of the government. But public memory tends to be very short because electronic media and social media today are very buoyant and influential. They go on breaking the new news over and over again in the most ostentatious manner possible, and people pick up on that. Our previous data of information is overwritten by new ones. It would be interesting to see if the government is able to sustain this feeling of neo-nationalism among the people till the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking History 
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