COME the Independence Day, comes the discussion on patriotism. Some wear it on their sleeve. Literally. The one who is speeding in his car, with the national flag, thinks he is extremely patriotic. The one who salutes the flag, thinks he is the (lot of emphasis) patriot. Not to forget the ones who post their 'selfies', all the while saluting (don't ask how they mix a salute with a selfie, it's all a heady patriotic cocktail). Some ardently dress up to the occasion bringing out their whites, matching them with their greens and saffron, taking abundant care not to insult the national flag, lest someone who presumes to be more patriotic, foists a case on them. Children and of course, teachers, religiously go to school, wait for the chief guest, who for a change might come on time, hoist the flag and speak for a good length of time. It is patriotism for them. The one who is vending the flags on the roads, stitching the flags in their shops for you to hoist or weaving them to specifications are the forgotten lot in the list of patriots. Spare a thought.

Crores of people in our country, wake up early morning. Get ready to go to work. Yes, they wake up, get ready and are off to work. They know the value of health, but are often sad that many of us don't know the value of their labour. As a result, though aware that they should breakfast like a king, they prefer to remain a pauper. Thanks to their labour, the wheels of our economy move. They are unfortunately not aware of the GDP's and GNP's. They only know to work – day-in and day-out, hot, wet or cold. They are always making it in India, but without any recognition. They know only about one value addition, that is VAT, and not of their labour to the economy. Many of them do not like holidays. Not because they do not know how to relax or enjoy. But because that means one day less of earning, which translates into less food to eat and more hunger to bear. So, for them, Independence Day or any other day which is a holiday is the same. It is because of their failure to ‘celebrate’ Independence Day that we should label them as the number one traitors, who are unpatriotic to the country. Forget they create wealth, or the food and goods you use. They are after all, statistics, just numbers to many of us. Crores of workers, crores of hungry, poor and malnourished. Ah, they are also statistics, as they create the GDPs and GNPs, which we can proudly claim as our achievement.

There are people who look at the sky – before, during and after the work. No, no, they are not our modern day IPL stars, who move with stars, dance with stars and thank their stars. They too belong to the IPL, but of a different acronym – the Indian Peasant's Lost Lives. They look at the sky to see if it rains or if it shines. They are afraid of rain and shine. They do not know all the talk of climate change, El Nino effects, etc, etc. They are only concerned with the simple fact – whether it will be adequate and timely rain or not. If the rains are timely and adequate they thank their stars. If it is unseasonal and more than adequate or inadequate, they join the stars. They fear floods, they fear drought. They fear insects, pests and also some kinds of human beings, from whom they take money. Their calendar does not contain a list of holidays. It only contains a statutory warning – be ready to go to the field at any time.

They too are not concerned with independence days and others. They are only concerned whether it is a rainy day or a sunny day. Of course they also keep a watch for the doomsday – the day of reckoning, when it is finally time to harvest. If it fails, they trust the pesticide, though it sometimes fails in ridding their crop of pests they know it can help them rid of another human pest, the moneylender. If they have a fairly decent harvest, they are afraid, because they know that there awaits the monster market, where the blood sucking leeches wait to slowly bleed them to death. They simply love numbers. Not because they can calculate the money they can earn by selling their harvest. But they add to the statistics of peasant suicides. They are not at all patriotic. They are betraying their country by producing food for us to eat. They are betraying the country by dying and relinquishing their duty to produce the food for us to eat. Both the ways, they are at fault. They are also at fault because they are dying due to their mental imbalance or simply put, as they are mad. They are dying because they have love affairs, which did not end happily. They are dying because they are, they are, oh, they are simply lost. It is their weakness that is the cause of their death. So shout some of our patriotic leaders, who hoist the national flag religiously every year.

Then there are some others. This is a section that are not even allowed to be part of statistics. For their work, neither the sun nor the moon is relevant. They are expected to work like a clock, without a stop. They wake up, when you don't know, because you, who go to work early in the morning, are not yet awake at that time. They sleep, after tucking your bed and seeing that you are asleep. They are expected to be perfect in their work. They should hand you, your brush, water, soap, clothes, food and join on time with you to go to work. And heaven forbid, if there are more hands in the family, little or old, it is their duty to attend to them and prepare them either to school or to bed.

In the work, they are as zealous as you are, as hardworking as anyone else on the site. This of course is not acknowledged. How can a 'weakling', 'fairer sex' equal us in work? Forget they wake up early than us, forget they prepare our food, forget they look after the entire household and forget we do not know when they do rest. Simply, they cannot be our equals. So they cannot be paid like us.

They are weak, otherwise why will they bear with all the sexual abuses relating to mother, sister and wife, which we guiltlessly give. They are weak, otherwise why will they bear with all our harassment, ogling, whistling, nudges, pushes, shoves and lust. They are weak, otherwise, why in spite of all these, why do they still stay with us, the beasts.

No, they are not weak. The only thing is they do not have any feelings, except one, that is crying. They do not bother howsoever we abuse, as they do not feel. They do not bother howsoever we harass, ogle, whistle, nudge, push or lust for them, as they do not have any feeling. They are only things, objects, without any feeling. Or, according to some, they secretly crave for all this attention. Otherwise, why will they spend time on their dress, makeup and style. Things and objects or persons without feelings can never be patriotic.

They are not even statistics because we do not count their work or value their work. Forget about work. We do not value their lives. What else explains our efforts to kill them before they are even born? What else explains our efforts to ensure that they work so that their brothers join the school? What else explains our efforts to feed the husbands and brothers before them, so that they can ‘work’.

And they also constitute statistics. We do record infanticides, malnourishment, school enrollment, and child labour. They are also statistics. We find them as numbers in rapes, harassment and other instances of abuse. Surprisingly we do not identify them in their death. Many of us do not know that in our country nearly 18 percent of all suicides are theirs. They die, if they are harassed, if they are abused, if they are raped, if they are victimised, if they are cheated and even if their families lose their livelihood. But these are neither recorded not brought to the attention of the society. Why? Because they do not even exist for us, though the society owes its existence to their labour.

Patriotism cannot be saluting the flag, or giving a historic, lengthy speech, or draping ourselves in the tri-colour. Patriotism means being sensitive to the concerns of the workers, farmers, women, dalits, tribals and other marginalised and underprivileged sections in our society. Patriotism means sparing our time and energies to address their problems and issues, talk with them and explain them the reasons for the injustices they perceive. Patriotism is standing up for them, moving with them and taking them a step forward. Patriotism means starting the efforts to change the system. It means putting an end to this exploitative, unjust system reeking of socio-economic ills. For this, let us Stand up and Start!