CHAUVINISM

Every miserable fool … is ready and happy to defend all the faults and follies tooth and nail of the nation to which he belongs…. – Arthur Schopenhauer

Not all nationalist heroes of history may have actually lived. Thus Till Eulenspiegel, William Tell, and Harischandra are essentially names in lore and legend. Another such is a certain Nicholas Chauvin who is believed to have served in Napoleon’s army. He is said to have been wounded again and again until he became disfigured. But his love for country was so intense that he would come to its defense at any cost. He came to symbolize the unqualified attitude of “My country, right or wrong.”

So, in 1845 they coined a word from his name: chauvinism. The word has come to mean zealous attachment to one’s country and culture to the point of being blind to any of its shortcomings.

In its extended sense chauvinism may be seen as comparative and defensive nationalism: pride in one’s heritage with conviction of its superiority to others; nationalism that offers apologetic defense for slavery and caste, for destroying other people’s religious symbols and classical imperialism. The symptoms of chauvinism are clear to external observers, but usually invisible to the victim who suffers from it and his patriotic admirers. A character in a play declares: “I am French, I am Chauvin.”  

As with plants and politics there are different kinds of chauvinism:

Cultural chauvinism: Countless people feel deep in their hearts that on final analysis their own culture is a notch better than what they see in other nations and among other groups. Some have argued that their culture is/was the culmination of all human cultures. A corollary to this is that this should give them a special position of privilege in the human family.

Cultural chauvinism also claims higher-than-others’ level in artistic creativity. Thus one reads:

“… In Italia ci sia il 60% del patrimonio artistico mondiale…”

There is in Italy 60% of the world’s artistic heritage.

Richard Wagner was sure not only of his own superiority as a composer, but also of the superiority of German music and culture vis-a-vis those of other peoples.

In a learned article in The Musical Quarterly (1986) Judith Becker pointed out that among musicologists and music educators “the doctrine that Western European art music is superior to all other musics of the world is a given, a truism.”

One Hindu scholar wrote that “Karnatic music was carefully constructed to represent ‘pure’ Indian, specifically ‘Hindu’ culture that was superior to the materialistic Western culture.”

These are all examples of cultural chauvinism.

Linguistic chauvinism: This involves the belief that one’s own language is better than other languages. The linguistic chauvinist can’t understand that if one spoke esperanto since childhood, that language would sound sweetest to one’s ears. Here are some examples from the Internet, a vehicle which is also used for the propagation of prejudices, misinformation and propaganda:

“French is the best language.”

“Bengalee is one of the most sweetest (sic) language in India as in the world. The way of pronunciation in Bengalee is very sweet.”

“Spanish is the best language! Come on people, it is the most used language…”.

“Sanskrit is the mother of all languages.”

“Japanese is the most beautiful language in the world…”

“… Slavic-Russian has an unquestionable preeminence over all European languages, including Greek.” (Pushkin)

National chauvinism: This is the belief that of all counties one’s own is the best. One may hear statements like the following from national chauvinists:

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt:

Germany, Germany above all else, above all else in the world.

Sáré jahán se acchá Hinusthan hamára:

In the whole world our Hindustan is the best.

Shokol deshé ráni amár jonma-bhúmí

Of all countries the land of my birth is the queen.

Who can deny the exceptionalism of our country!

America, the greatest!

I am proud to be a…..

Religious chauvinism: This proclaims that the only path to the Divine is acceptance of one’s own founder or savior or prophet or cult-personage. Only thus can one obtain salvation, moksha, Heaven, Paradise or whatever. Associated with this is the conviction that people of one’s own religion understand and practice spirituality better than others.

It should be emphasized that nationalist glorification or expressions of faith in one’s religious system without comparing with other nations, or disparaging other faith systems is not chauvinism. Thus, Evangelina Galanes’ song Mi querida España (My dear Spain); Catharine Bates’ America the Beautiful, and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Vandé Mátaram are not chauvinisms. Every tradition has its great poets extolling their land and language. This is good and enriching to a culture.

Another mindset that is sometimes linked to chauvinism is xenophobia. It is the irrational fear of people from other countries and cultures, of people who speak different languages, dress differently, and look different to boot.

In the latter part of the twentieth century some feminists appropriated the word chauvinism to refer to the mean behavior of some men who are convinced that the male of the species is intrinsically superior to the female. For this extended meaning they added a gender and porcine suffix, calling such men male chauvinist-pigs. In truth Chauvin had nothing whatever to do with males or with pigs.

Any expression of chauvinism generally sounds strange and surprising, if not silly and hilarious, to one not of the group.