pride vs. hubris

saturday night, before our party at the shack, i had a heated discussion with murarka over frankies.
we were strolling along shivaji park, and the topic came to the movie 'i am legend'. this led to talk about american movies and their 'save the world' themes. this moved to heroics in indian movies, and murarka ignited a fire by saying indians are too cynical of themselves. somehow, someway, this twisted around to nationalism and pride.

my stand was that pride needs a reason, whereas murli thought its too convenient and non committal to be proud of a country only when its doing well.

but what do you think? is not overzealous pride the doctrine behind hindutva? what about jehad? admitted, jehad is about religion, not region, but the simile is intact.
i stated that i am proud of india now, when its growing at 9% and etc etc. would i be less proud if it were growing at 4%? yes, definitely. is that wrong? i don't know....
but how can one be proud of being indian when something like godhra happens? admitted, it was the action of a few and is not to be extrapolated on to the population, but does a similar mindset not exist throughout india? do you not see mini godhras in kashmir, nandigram, bihar, UP, andhra, etc?????
is pride without reason not bordering on hubris and arrogance?

if you're proud for no reason, what motivation is ultimately left to strive for improvement??
or do u think i'm not nationalistic/patriotic enough?
but perhaps this question of what has my country done for me and what i should do for my country is better left to a later blog