Things were fragile for a few hours after the game. Some elements on this side of the border posed the questions about India losing to Pakistan, and a Hindu losing to a Muslim. There was gloating along these lines by some across the border. The fact that much has happened only a week of the Independence days of two countries (August 14 and 15) perhaps served to whip up such sentiments.

But, soon enough, emerged two silver lining —the mothers of athletes, Razia Parveen and Saroj Devi—who undid the spurious animosities in simple sentences. Reporters interviewed the two women about their sons’ successes after the game and asked the obvious question: How do you feel about who your son competed against?

Both woman had the same answer about their son’s respective rivals. “He is like my son. I wish him well”. Through their responses, the women showed a community charged with hyper-nationalism the origins of the word “community”—which is to have something in common. They have underlined the meaning of sportsmanship which is reflected in the camaraderie displayed by two athletes on the podium finish.

These events point to a already political proscenium, which has its roots in the fight for freedom from a common imperial oppressor and the subsequently mapping of frail boundaries that cannot fully contain overlapping tendencies. They prod us to question how borders are imagined and how cultures cross over.

The similarity we see in a person from another community or religion, practicing life differently. The others look like us, use the same spices in food but cook them differently; they procure same fabric but wear their cloth differently; adhere to the same values but implement them differently; and think same thoughts but speak differently.

Communities, and by, extensions, nations, are imaged on foundations of standard antiquity. A unified past that ties everything together. Any departure from this practice of standardization leads to the otherness of a person. Empathy is a virtue we extend to commonness.

A case in point in the character of Subodh Malaonkar (played by Asutosh Rana), the Right wing leader in Mahesh Bhatt’s phenomenal film Zakhm (1998) who stresses on abiding by the rituals of a community, even if the deceased wanted the last rites done differently. He says: “our lives are not entirely ours — We also have to live according to what people expect of us”.

In his seminal work — Imagined; Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (1983) — Irish political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson outlined the thoughts that gave rise to the concept of nationalism. He points out how modern notions of nationalism emerged when religious philosophies declined. In the new world, pamphlets and manifestos replaced religious scriptures, but they rendered a similar effect, which was to limit the individual from crossing over, giving rise to confusion in exercises of belonging and identity. (IPA Service)