Ahmedabad, Jan 8 (PTI) Renowned historian and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand-nephew Sugata Bose on Wednesday said India is falling back into narrow nationalism, which can be defeated with "universalism and cosmopolitanism".

Bose, Gardiner Professor of History at Harvard University, was at MICA Ahmedabad for an interactive session on his latest book, "Asia After Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century".

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Sharing his view on India of 2047, Bose said aggressive nationalism will prevail in the short term.

"My experience might lead me to be somewhat pessimistic, at least in the short term. I think aggressive nationalism is prevailing for the moment," said Bose.

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During the session, a student asked Bose how can India's nationalism be narrow when the India's G20 presidency theme was "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam", which means "the world is one family".

Bose said, "We must not reduce this notion of 'we are residents of the connected world' into simply a shloka. I fear that, at the G20 conference, that was the tendency. And that's the context in which I fear that we are falling back into narrow nationalism".

"I am advocating the concept of colourful cosmopolitanism which can accommodate the more broad-minded forms of patriotism. I don't think we need to give up love for our own homeland or motherland in order to have a cosmopolitan cultural sensibility. That is what we need to aspire for," he said.

He added that universalism and cosmopolitanism are aspirational in good terms.

"They are a prescription for how to battle against the narrow forms of nationalism, which will lead us to dead ends," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)