Youth is best defined as that transition period of a person’s life where he

transforms from a dependent child to an independent adult. Due to this

reason,youth cannot be categorised as a fixed age group. It is more fluid in
nature thanother age groups. It is mostly defined in terms of the relationship
betweeneducation and employment. It is referred to a person between the age of
leavingcompulsory education and finding their first job. Though the term youth
cannot bedefined in terms of age, United Nations defines youth as the age
between 15-24years for the purpose of easy understanding and generalisation.
Patriotism, generally speaking is the cultural attachment to one’s homeland
ordevotion to one’s country. The term patriotism can be
defined differently indifferent geographical locations. Though the meanings can
vary across the globe,the term patriotism refers to the concept of nationalism.
Patriotism is the love for one’s country and the desire to make it better.
It iscontrasted with simple nationalism (or jingoism) in that nationalism and
jingoismrepresent a blind loyalty to one's country even when it wrong (an
example would be the people of Nazi Germany).
Patriotism, on the other hand, recognizes when its nation is wrong and fights to
correct the wrong even as it supports

that nation.Patriotism is important in the lives of youth today for several

reasons. One
is because the youth of today will inherit the nation tomorrow. If youth do not b
ecome involved in making our nation better, they may not receive a
nation worthinheriting. Second, the nation built by today's youth will be the
nation they passalong to their own children. If young people today wish their
children to have anAmerica of freedom, the young people of today must protect
and defend thatfreedom by supporting our country's greatness and working to
make her
ever better. Third, the youth of today owe a debt to those of the past who sacrifi
ced,worked hard, and even died to build us a free nation. To keep faith with
those whohave gone before and upon whose toil and sacrifice the nation was
built, youthneed to show patriotism.
Patriotism can be expressed in various ways. The love for one’s country need
not
necessarily be shown by laying down their lives for their motherland, though
thisis regarded as the supreme expression of patriotism. Patriotism can be
expressedin many ways. It can be expressed by being a dutiful citizen, by
paying taxesregularly, to live in peace and harmony with other citizens, obeying
the laws ofthe country and respecting it in every possible way
Patriotism is the great and selfless passion of love for one’s country. To a
Indian patriot his mother and motherland are superior even to
heaven. An Indian Patriotis ever ready to lay down his life in the service of his
country, India. Patriotism isnot mere passive love for the country. A true patriot,
who loves India, is an activeworker. At He works heart and soul for the progress
of his India and countrymen.Patriotism inspires a patriot to rise in revolt and
tight for the freedom of hiscountry. In a free country like India, there are
occasions when one has to sacrifice
one’s personal pleasures and even life for one’s country. A patriot always fights
against the internal and external enemies of his country. The black
marketers, profiteers, criminals and anti-socials are all internal enemies of India.
A trueIndian patriot tries to free his country from all these enemies. He also
must try tomake his India free from poverty, ignorance and superstition. Some
of the most glorious chapters of Indian history have been written as well inthe
blood of patriots. Rana Pratap, Tipoo Sultan, Shivaji, Surya Sen, Netaji,
JatinDas
—
are all great patriots to remember. Their patriotism is different from
false patriotism which is a danger to a nation and civilisation as a whole. A true
patriotloves other countries as his own and wants to live in peace with them. He
does notthink his country to be the best in the world.There is no place of
narrowness in the mind of a true patriot. He thinks himself asa citizen of the
world as a whole.Our youth of the present generation is to be aware of the past
which is gloriousand lauded by the global leaders and historical experts from
many renownedcountries. There is also a challenge that we face in terms of
keeping our connectand integrity intact with the ideologies which are patriotic
in nature. Today, weare living in a highly globalized and urbanized society
which has its reach to theglobal affairs and culture by means of media and other
sophisticated ways. Theyouth of today is not really exposed to the ideologies
that are direct implicationsto the patriotic thinking of national interests and the
spirit of nationalism.The post modern youth of India is being kept under
dilemma by various interestgroups in our society who have a specific opinion
about the culture that is linkedto the patriotic thinking. There is a notion that has
been spread across the urbanand rural areas calling the Indians to Be Indian and
Buy Indian or use
Indian products or stand by the Indian culture in terms of dressing and follow th
e professional path in a very traditional way. The youth in India today may or
maynot be willing to be linked with this notion as this may be totally against the
sense of freedom as they perceive. There can be a balance achieved as far as this
issue is concerned. This is an issue about patriotism and definitely not about the
culture.The youth of our generation is as patriotic as our previous generations.
They wantto see India on the top spot in every field. They have a maximum
exposure to theglobal affairs and the cultures around. They can easily find
acceptance byneutralizing their culture which is not an issue of patriotism, for
instance thedressing sense to meet up with some civilization is not an aberration
to patriotism.Patriotism in our present day context is to preserve the sovereignty
of our countrythrough democracy and free speech to achieve a society that is
fundamentallysound in its basics of civilization. Culture is a subjective issue
that need not be

censored in the name of ‘’being an Indian as ‘against to be an Indian’