It is uncommon for a researcher of Asian heritage to usually venture out alone to an all English pub on the night of a football game when England is playing in the Euro tournament, for fear of skin heads and being beaten up by hooligans and ultra-right racists. Fortunately I had company, and the pub next to my house is extremely multicultural. I was in no danger of grievous bodily harm. Interestingly enough, it is owned by a Chinese family, who also owns the Chinese food shop next to my flat. My "friends" who joined me in this weekend quest of watching the match, were comprised of an Indian elderly gentleman, the owner of a small grocery store, and his English helper. Together, we three headed out to see the match, in a Chinese owned and operated English pub, in an old post-industrial outskirt of the English midlands. Perhaps the story cannot possibly more reflective of modern England if it had any other stranger beginning.

The day was strange though. Even before the Euro 2016 started, there was news of riots all over France. Perhaps not since 1431 AD, when Joan of Arc died, has any French town seen English march and rampage, destroying anything that comes into contact. English fans were rioting in Marseilles, which represented a war zone, waging a war not just on the French riot police, but also on the manufactured image of English decorum and civility. Then, it all changed. By the afternoon the news and social media videos started pouring in, things started to get nastier. English fans were initially busy vandalizing; most of the vandals were from a lower middle class background, likely drunk. But, instead they faced a group of Russian Ultras. The Ultras differed from the English hooligans, while the English were essentially rowdy, drunk fans, obnoxious in their own right, they were essentially normal people. The Ultras are, however, motor cycle gangs, adorned with the Moscow Lokomotif, skull tattoos, balaclavas and flags with neo Nazi symbols and tilted swastikas, all trained for combat. While the English hooligans were essentially throwing lurid comments at women passing by and throwing half empty bottles, the Russians were armed with poles, metal bars, and bicycle chains, and were targeting drunken isolated English and French police. By the evening, even before the match started, there were three English missing, and one seriously injured battling for life in the care of a French hospital.

The atmosphere in the pub was also tense, and it inevitably turned to France and the EU. The Chinese family who owns the pub complained how it is difficult to get chefs who are experts at cooking Chinese food, from Shanghai and Hong Kong, as it is difficult to get a visa for them. The owner's family, made up of acknowledged labor party supporters, is against EU internal migration. It is not uncommon, as it was even seen on live TV during the debates, as British Indian former Tory voters railed against David Cameron, and Pakistani chefs lamented the lack of proper Pakistani cooks coming from Asia, because of the migrant quota being covered by the EU.

Meanwhile, there was news that English fans were sloganeering against ISIS and the French and even, for some reason, the Irish republican army, even when the war with IRA stopped decades ago. It was a distinct feeling of us versus them; the "us" in this case included British born Indians and Chinese and even Jamaicans, versus the "them," the great experiment called the EU and everything European.

It made me realize, how much nationalism is still a potent force in human lives, and how much it is misunderstood. The EU started as a great liberal anti-war experiment, which essentially was formed under two altruistic but fundamentally differing ideas, one that promoted the freedom of movement and borderless neoliberal free trade market economies, and the other was this byzantine behemoth, throwing its military might around, telling people their basic nationalistic tribal allegiances are all so twentieth century, dictating economic policies to smaller countries like Greece and Portugal. Perhaps the entire reason that latest polls suggest "Leavers" are gaining, is because both the parties, Labor and the Tories, have opposed the EU from their own ideological spectrums, the former against the free market neoliberalism it espouses, and the latter against the idea of a borderless union. Now that they are trying to defend the indefensible, common British people are revolting against this hogwash.

The match was a draw, but the nationalism lives on. It is a force which has immense potential. If harnessed properly, it can take and increase the efficiency and productivity of a country to its greatest heights. On the other hand, if unchecked, it can cause the downfall of supranational organizations and result in implosion from within. From the Soviet Union to the European Union, nationalism is the only key variable that policy makers cannot quantify, but always seem to neglect from their calculations. It's no wonder they get so many predictions wrong when it comes to conflict in different parts of the globe.

Sumantra Maitra is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SumantraMaitra.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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