An Indian based in Australia Who felt disturbed when he saw fellow Indians not standing for the Indian national anthem during the film Dangal.
Mohit Pandit, a research scholar based in Melbourne Australia went to see Dangal with great excitement. Movie was good but right around the end of the movie when the India National Anthem is played; Mohit was the first person to stand immediately. Looking at him, other 3-4 young Indians stood in respect. It was the first day, a prime show of the movie and was house full- A full-house of all those who never bothered to stand in respect of "Rashtra Gaan", he recalls. A few people even shouted at him from back to sit down.
Mohit was very disturbed with this behavior of these fellow Indians and what broke his heart was a response from a father to his son. A 10-12-year-old son asked his father that why are these people standing. To which the father responded don't worry about them, they are just a few morons! Mohit says he was emotionally hurt and felt insulted about everything that was happening at that very particular moment.
“I couldn't sleep the whole night, my nerves were bursting with anger and heart full of emotions enough to shake my identity as Indian. I asked myself that night, what can I do about this? I knew I can't change the world but do I want to die with that guilt in my heart that I didn't do anything?”
Mohit called his close friends the very next day and told about the incident. Everyone was disheartened but then he decided to form a campaign #standforthenation #standforyourself. The campaign film has real people from various professional backgrounds from a Doctor to a Fashion Designer with a common thread that weaves them together; they are all Indians and are proud of standing for national anthem no matter what.
He claims that the purpose of this campaign is to spread the awareness and let the young Indians know what standing for the Indian national anthem means.
“Often we find ourselves in the social setting where we find it awkward to stand for our national customs and that is precisely the point that not to feel shy because standing for national anthem will not make your stature small. In fact, people around will respect you for the true spirit in you.”
He explains that years back in school, his basketball coach uses to make players sweep the entire court with a broom before they could start practicing, and his idea was simple, if you play on the court it is yours and there should be no hesitation in cleaning or honouring something that belongs to you.
Mohit says he applied the same principle here, “why should I hesitate to respect the National anthem that belongs to me, it describes me and my heritage, and I am part of it by every nano-particle. Then why hesitate? He questions that one of the most important parts is to know and understand how we communicate this cultural cult to the next generations.“
He says it's the responsibility of parents as well as community organizations to communicate and explain through an established mechanism. It needs to be explained, how the beautiful words written by Rabindranath Tagore weave and amalgamate our personal identities with the identity of the nation above and beyond all boundaries of caste, religion, and state.
