It is only when India has acquired the ability to design, fabricate and erect its own plants without foreign assistance that it will have become a truly advanced and industrialised country.---- Jawaharlal NehruOur ‘Make in India’ initiative is not intended for only manufacturing for the domestic market or import substitution. It is as much about making world-class products and services for the whole globe.------ Narendra ModiIn the first flush of Independence, swadeshi (self-reliance) was as much a buzzword as were self-sufficiency, development and control (of resources).India’s first prime minister pursued a mixed economy where basic industries — energy, power, metals, coal, electricity, telecom — would remain under state control, and the sole purview of the public sector undertakings.A quarter of a century after liberalisation, those (in)famous “temples of modern India” still exist — many in a wretched state — but the bar of self-reliance has been reset to a significantly higher level. Nation-building via industrialisation is still at the heart of the development model, but with differences.India is now aiming to become a global manufacturing hub in which both domestic and multinationals corporations will make their products within the country.It is self-reliance and self-sufficiency, with plenty of help from foreign direct investment which, in the current dispensation, is clearly a lesser evil than imports — as long as it works for India and is done, to put it simply if a bit tritely, with love for India.So if giant steel factories in Rourkela, Bhilai and Duragpur were symbols of India’s quest for self-reliance and industrialisation post-Independence, the post-reforms era of nation-building is more nuanced and, of course, with fewer altruistic motives: the nation should prosper but so should all stakeholders (owners, investors, employees, consumers).Against that backdrop, it perhaps isn’t surprising to see an array of Indian businesses donning the nationalistic colours in various shades. A few are palpably brash about their nationalism, like Patanjali Ayurved , which would cock a snook at foreign corporations and foreign money.Others are more subtle. A company might dedicate its brand to the country, like Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani just did with the telecom venture Jio . For yet others, patriotism is a good positioning platform in a landscape in which wearing one’s nationalism on one’s sleeve is par for the course.There’s no guarantee that such positioning will work, though. “There is a thumb rule. The sadder the product, the greater is the chance of companies using such appeals to sell,” says Partha Sinha, vice chairman and managing director for ad agency McCann in India.His views will not win him many fans in India today, but Sinha says he always tries to dissuade clients from using nationalism as a strategy.Yet, when yoga guru Ramdev declares “Patanjali is patriotism”, he may actually be able to pull it off. That’s because his company, which swears by an array of products steeped in tradition (from chayawanprash to digestives) and MNC-like consumer goods with a swadeshi tinge (oats, noodles, toothpaste), is posturing as a combative rival to multinationals like Hindustan Unilever and Colgate.This clearly requires a sound consumer base (which it has — Ramdev claims he has 10 crore yoga disciples); deep pockets (which it seems to have); and a charismatic “leader” cum effective brand ambassador.All these put Patanjali in a pretty unique position. It also makes business-nationalism fashionable again. It gets Patanjali fans like Monika Jain, a 32-year-old homemaker in Delhi, who shifted her loyalties to Patanjali three years back. From the toilet to her kitchen and bedroom, Jain has stuffed every corner of her house with Patanjali products. But Jain told ET Magazine that for long she had nursed a gripe. She wanted Ramdev to openly take on the multinationals.Her wish was fulfilled on Independence Day when Patanjali launched a series of radio and print advertisement targeting MNCs. Ramdev told ET Magazine: “It was long overdue. But this time I have taken them head-on.”Patanjali was not the only business that spoke up on Independence Day on the subject of India. Paytm , the Vijay Shekhar Sharma- and Alibaba promoted online payments and ecommerce company, launched a campaign for a corruption-free India.It has been doing bits and pieces campaigns around nationalistic themes for a while now, including setting up a fund for soldiers and Indian Army’s war widows. “Emotional appeal helps communicate our vision of a cashless nation,” says Sonia Dhawan, a spokesperson for Paytm. It fits well into today’s definition of Indianness. Being fuelled by foreign funds is fine — Chinese ecommerce major Alibaba owns at least 40% of Paytm and has brought in the bulk of $728 million funding it has got so far — as long as your heart beats for the nation.That’s the position Indian app-based taxi service company Ola took in its battle with global Goliath Uber in the Karnataka High Court over bike-taxis. In its affidavit before the court, and afterwards in blog posts, Ola’s chief operating officer Pranay Jivrajka stressed on the company’s Indian roots and pointed out that Uber was a multinational entity.He insisted that funding or shareholding structures — Ola has global shareholders like SoftBank of Japan, Tiger Global and Matrix Partners — did not matter in determining a brand’s nationality.What Ramdev is doing with his FMCG products today, ITC Ltd has been doing for a while now, challenging multinationals operating in India.And just like Paytm, ITC has a huge chunk of foreign ownership (in fact more than 50%). The ITC top management refurbishes its nationalistic credentials at regular intervals. In July 2016, at its annual general meeting, chairman YC Deveshwar spoke about ITC’s Indianness and added that patriotism was its sole inspiration. British tobacco major BAT owns around 30% of ITC but is not a promoter. Indian government controlled entities own another 32%.The spectre of a BAT takeover of the company, although in sleep-mode for more than 20 years now, never really goes away with the current shareholding structure.Sanjiv Puri, ITC’s chief operating officer, told ET Magazine: “The patriotic spirit, embodied in ITC’s ‘India First’ philosophy, finds expression in the company’s relentless efforts to create competitive Indian businesses.”Puri explains how ITC’s research focuses on Indian palates and Indian tastes and develops products that cater to Indian needs, with product development addressing health and nutrition needs of the population as well as genetic and environmental concerns when it comes to personal care products. “ITC has developed insights, products, technologies, processes and trademarks to address the needs and aspirations of the Indian consumer,” adds Puri.So why is the appeal of nationalism so universal that businesses so diverse in their character are adopting it?“Brands are essentially emotional,” says Abraham Koshy, professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.“Patriotism is perhaps the highest form of emotion.” Patriotism has the power to override simpler product or brand benefit claims, he adds. As a counter, strategic design consultant Shombit Sengupta feels such campaigns are just excuses for bad R&D. Since the late 1990s Sengupta worked on a few key branding campaigns with Britannia (“Eat Healthy, Think Better”), Wipro (“Applying Thought”) and Marico. He says: “Only when your R&D does not provide competitive advantage will you go for a patriotism-linked campaign.”Sometimes patriotism becomes a lifeline.For instance, when the joint venture between the Munjals and the Japanese auto major Honda ended in 2010, and Honda launched their bikes in India, Hero MotoCorp, the new avatar of the company of the Munjals, was virtually left in the lurch without the technology backing of Honda, and in fact competing against it.The company was quick to adopt the “desi” tag with all seriousness and patented new, homegrown technology to launch all-Indian designed and developed models, like the Splendor iSmart.A spokesperson from Hero Moto-Corp said the company has played its part in the India growth story. “With presence in 33 countries across Asia, Africa and Central and South America, Hero Moto-Corp has emerged as a truly Indian multinational company since it commenced its solo journey five years ago.”Indianness isn’t always about flag-waving; it’s also about associating with things Indian — and what better than the myriad local languages to build regional emotional connects?Micromax, the biggest home-grown mobile phones brand, recently started airing an emotionally charged advertisement in which a young woman in a ballet class is initially mocked for the Punjabi on her phone, only to be cheered at the end of the performance.Micromax now has phones that can be configured in 12 Indian languages. The company, however, insists that the message in its campaign for the Canvas Unite 4 Series phones is not anti-English.“The campaign is neither against English nor does it promote nationalism,” says Shubhajit Sen, chief marketing officer, Micromax Infomatics. “It is antielitism.”Anti-elitism it is, and does well to taunt the English-educated privileged who are seen to be miles away from desi sanskar.Rajiv Bajaj, CEO of twoand three-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, found a perfect opportunity to pull at the cultural and patriotic heartstrings when his company hit upon the idea of using the scrap from the condemned-tothe-yard INS Vikrant to build a bike and position it as a piece of India.“If the Taj Mahal, Aamir Khan, MS Dhoni and butter chicken can be global Indians, so can Vikrant,” Bajaj told ET earlier this year.Koshy of IIM-A says this is a brilliant approach to impart a potent brand story to the consumer. “Notions of battle, action in high seas, protecting the nation, victory and a host of complex stories that can become genuinely viral are embedded in this decision.”For good measure, actor Aamir Khan, who had received flak from the nationalistic crowd for speaking up during an intolerance debate, chose to buy the bike. According to the company, “Aamir was inspired to buy the V15 when he learnt that this new launch from Bajaj contains metal from India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which played a decisive heroic role in the 1971 India Pakistan war.”There are, of course, dangers in riding on unbridled nationalism. Branding expert Harish Bijoor says: “The ‘in-the-eye’ style of Ramdev’s marketing is combative, and divides the market into two: the nationalist and the internationalist. It also brings in dollops of jingoism.”Adds Sinha of McCann: “In the hands of capitalism, patriotism just becomes another selling proposition. It may work if the brands are doing something genuine for India. In the absence of that, it is simply exploitative.”Yet, the swadeshi brigade led by Patanjali has forced MNCs to react accordingly. Hindustan Unilever, while stressing that it’s been in India for 83 years, has bolstered its ayurvedic and herbal offerings.More recent entrants to India like Amazon and Lufthansa are carefully taking note of Indian tastes and preferences. When Amazon offers cow dung cakes to eager consumers (See Cow Dung from Amazon, Noodles From Patanjali), the face and muscle of the formidable global etailer is not as important as the reality that the product in question is Made in India.Ramdev is a trendsetter in getting businesses to jump on to the swadeshi bandwagon. He spoke toabout business and patriotism. Edited excerpts from the interview:Our life is governed by emotions. Indians are patriotic. Patanjali is patriotism. All the profits made by Patanjali would be used for charity, for the benefit of the country. Nobody would get any dividend. We are giving back to the country whatever we are earning. Brands need to be true to have an emotional connect with consumers.You can become slaves of foreign companies in thinking, lifestyle and beliefs. Financial slavery is the root cause of all miseries that these MNCs have brought into India.