Lesson about Soft Nationalism from the movie Swades

This form of patriotism is harder because it requires patience, humility, and effort.

It is often said that a heightened sense of nationalism hides fundamental problems in a country, or it is used as a tool to hide fundamental problems, inefficiencies, and incompetence. Probably from my perspective, this was seen mostly in Hollywood movies, but I don’t think that it has that much effect on the educated population.

Unfortunately, today nationalism is very loud and looks like every country is affected by it or maybe the nationalists are more active on social media, or everyone wants to prove that they are better than the other, feed their ego while forgetting about social indicators and development within their own country. We just have to better than our enemy.

Nationalism marches, shouts, draws sharp lines and demands declarations of loyalty. In many places, it has become less about love for one’s country and more about proving who belongs and who does not.

But there’s another kind of nationalism, quieter, deeper, and far more enduring. This article is about that, I would like to call it soft nationalism rather than patriotism (in my head, I kind of separate the two).

Swades reminds us of that forgotten idea, it is a movie from 2004, when the world was much saner in my opinion, although at the time we felt the world had gone to the dogs.

Ashuthosh Gowariker’s Swades is not a patriotic film in the conventional sense. There are no chest-thumping speeches, no demonized enemies, no grand victories. Yet, few films leave you with a stronger sense of belonging to the idea of a nation. This is because Swades speaks the language of soft nationalism.

The patriot who doesn’t shout

Mohan Bhargava, played by Shah Rukh Khan, is not introduced as a hero. He is a successful professional at NASA, globally mobile, intellectually confident, and emotionally distant from his roots. India, for him, is nostalgia at best, inconvenience at worst.

There is no dramatic awakening, no single speech transforms him, instead change happens slowly, through people, through systems that don’t work, through responsibility that cannot be outsourced.

This is the essence of soft nationalism.

Not loving the nation as an abstraction but engaging with its reality.

Mohan doesn’t return because he is told to, he returns because he realizes that progress without responsibility is hollow.

“Yeh jo Desh hai tera” – Patriotism without permission

Although every song in this movie was top-notch, probably one of the best albums of AR Rahman and Javed Akhtar, this song is the emotional spine of the film; the background music probably digs deep into your soul and instills patriotism even if you don’t have any.

That’s the reason I have always been of the opinion that, in today’s climate, one song like that by ARR in his voice can probably bring everyone together and completely demolish the current atmosphere.

It doesn’t ask you to be proud. It doesn’t demand loyalty. It simply reminds you that belonging is not conditional on perfection.

The song plays when Mohan is not winning but when he is conflicted. It accompanies moments of doubt, discomfort, and moral questioning. This is what makes it powerful. Patriotism does not begin with certainty. It begins with discomfort.

The song suggests something radical in today’s climate, that loving your country does not require you to defend everything about it. If I were to be the head of the country, I would probably play the song on loop to be heard in every corner of India to bring the people together.

Development as Nationalism

One of Swades’ most important ideas is that nation-building is local.

Electricity in a village.

Education for children.

Dignity for those who have been ignored.

When Mohan helps bring electricity to the village, it is not portrayed as a heroic act, it is rather portrayed as a necessary one. The scene is not triumphant, it is practical. The film subtly argues that nationalism is not found in slogans but in systems.

Soft Nationalism asks:

Are institutions working?

Are people Included?

Are the weakest visible?

This form of patriotism is harder because it requires patience, humility, and effort.

The opposite of aggression

Aggressive nationalism thrives on comparison and conflict, whereas soft nationalism thrives on contribution.

Aggressive nationalism asks, “Who is against us?”. Soft nationalism asks, “What is broken, and can I help fix it?”

Swades does not glorify the nation as flawless. It portrays caste divisions, poverty, apathy, and inequality without defensiveness, and yet, it does not descend into cynicism.

The film believes that critique and care can coexist, which is the lesson we urgently need.

Why this matters today?

There is instant outrage, and this seems to be a permanent outrage cycle. Swades feels almost subversive, it suggests that the strongest form of national unity does not come from uniformity of opinion, but from shared responsibility.

The problem is that soft nationalism does not trend well, it doesn’t fit into hashtags, but it builds nations strongly and sustainably.

The film reminds us that a country is not something you inherit, it is something you participate in and sometimes the most patriotic thing you can do is quietly stay, work and care.

Movie highlights

Some of the highlights that I remember are the proposal scene, and I think it is the best ever, mine was something similar, I guess.

The train scene.

The chemistry between the lead actors.

The song, the lyrics, the music.

The pace of the movie and the direction were near perfect. People found it slow when it was released, but it was almost perfect. I don’t know if Ashutosh ever directed another movie, but this probably was the peak for him.

Now, to end it, I wish we had more of this kind of cinema, or at least we could re-release it. I think it deserves multiple watches.