According to yourdictionary.com, hypernationalism is defined as the belief in the superiority of one’s nation and of the paramount importance of advancing it. Nowadays, hypernationalism can be seen everywhere. The body which should be neutral is the biggest example of hypernationalism. That body is the media.
The atmosphere in news debates is very charged and confrontational in nature. Except for a few TV programmes, the debates end up in name calling. I might be wrong, but some new anchors nowadays try to impose their ideas on the audience and also try to provoke the public and the participants. Some news anchors have built the idea that if a citizen of India says Bharat Mata ki jai, he is a nationalist. If he does not, then he is an ‘anti-national’. Earlier, debates were organised to make everything clear to the public, but nowadays debate shows end up as shows where people yell. During these debates everyone starts to shout at each other because of which the audience doesn’t get anything meaningful apart from a lot of screaming. In order to have a meaningful debate you need a few participants, but they bring anywhere between 6-10 people on their channels and that makes no sense. Increase in hypernationalism also leads to the brainwashing of the audience.
News channels are so obsessed with TRPs that they have started showing news which are misleading. For example, we can take the incident of the happenings in JNU, when the University’s students union president was arrested on charges of sedition for allegedly raising ‘anti-national’ slogans in the University. Several videos were shown where he was shown to be shouting questionable slogans, but when those videos were tested, they turned out to be doctored. Hypernationalism in the media is also increasing nowadays.
Hypernationalism leads to several big issues like the unrest in Kashmir, the controversy in JNU and many other incidents which have happened in the past. I do think we should be nationalistic, but when things gets hyper it always leads to destruction. The media shouldn’t be partisan. If it is partisan, everything gets vitiated.
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