Where is the pride in taking Pride?

I moved into my new apartment at a relatively posh Muslim locality in Ahmedabad a few months back. While I am not very sociable and generally don’t expect to get cosy with the neighbourhood, I have found most residents to be quite decent. While almost half of more than 400 hundred flats remain unoccupied, those moving in are trying to foster a healthy relationship among themselves and doing their bit to make the place a little better for living. In a bid to overcome the little differences on certain issues, some people try to pacify the situation by expressing metaphors like “Proud to be a Member of the Society” (I am refraining from naming the Society for obvious reasons). This sparked a thought in me on what people are actually taking pride about? Their obvious intention is to develop a shared vision and a common ground for a joyful and peaceful co-existence. However the kind of skeptic I am, I sometimes feel that such metaphors turn out to be traps. Traps of deriving pride from certain ideas which we care least about; traps which push the individuals, nations and civilizations in loving some abstracts while creating an indifference to many things around them. If we carefully study the human history, the mankind has been plundered to wars and reckless killings by this very pride which people take in their ethnic identities, religious identities and national identities. The rich Indian philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (The whole world is a family) or the Islamic traditions of Universal Brotherhood tend to get lost when such identities try to assert themselves. While none can deny the utility of wearing the identities which help people to extract warmth from their fellow beings, but the overdose has a potential threat of relegating us to the lowest depths. The depths, which bring pain and misery to the mankind. What explains a man hating someone whom he has never met just because he happens to have a different nationality? What are the reasons for a man following a certain faith being looked upon as a lesser mortal from his fellow beings? Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him famously quoted in his last Hajj sermon for not claiming superiority or taking pride on the basis of race, caste or creed. He instead termed those as superiors who are better in their conduct and are God fearing. And what better way to fear God than to love to his creations. Any pride resulting in looking someone down is a sure shot recipe for disaster. This write up is not at all about catching someone from his collar for taking pride in his being but it is only about making a casual reminder for not missing out on the larger view of loving the people and the world around us. I have got an enough share of hostilities of my friends and foes alike for my opinions and would be the last one in inviting wrath from my “proud” fellow beings for writing such a crude piece. I would conclude this by a line from Annie-Marie Slaughter “The false pride of perennial celebration, of wearing flag label pins while betraying the values that the flag stands for, is like the self-esteem curriculum for toddlers, where everything is praised and no achievement ultimately has meaning.”