IGNOU MPS 001 Political Theory — Unit 23: Nationalism (Complete Notes)

23.1 Introduction

Nationalism is an important social and political phenomenon that involves the making of nations and nation-states into a definable identity. As a normative doctrine, it emphasises the importance of nations in explaining historical developments and analysing contemporary politics. It claims that “national character” is a pervasive factor differentiating human beings and asserts that all human beings should have one and only one nationality as their prime factor of identity and loyalty.

Nationalism claims to represent the will of the people to decide their own destiny and develop their culture and personality. During the last 200 years, nationalism has combined with liberalism, socialism, and communism and emerged a winner. The national movements in ex-colonial countries in the first half of the 20th century and the disintegration of the Soviet Union revealed the powerful force of nationalism. In the context of globalisation, the attempt to homogenise all communities makes nationalism all the more significant.

Four main debates in the study of nationalism:

How to define nationalism?
When did the nation appear?
How did nations and nation-states historically evolve — and is there a marked difference between Western and non-Western development?
Recent challenges to nationalism in the form of ethnic resurgence and globalisation.

23.2 What is Nationalism?

Nationalism is a compound of many factors, some rooted in human nature with a long history, yet it is a modern phenomenon. Definitions:

Hayes: nationalism is “a condition of mind among members of a nationality… in which loyalty to the ideal or to the fact of a national state is superior to all other loyalties, and of which pride in one’s nationality and belief in its intrinsic excellence and its ‘mission’ are integral parts.”
Hans Kohn: nationalism is “a state of mind… striving to correspond to a political fact.”
Gellner: “Nationalism is primarily a political principle which holds that the political unit and the national unit should be congruent… nationalist sentiment is a feeling of anger aroused by the violation of the principle, or the feeling of satisfaction aroused by its fulfilment.”
Giddens: nationalism is “the affiliation of the individual to a set of symbols and beliefs, emphasising commonality among the members of a particular community.”

Two aspects of nationalism:

The political character — defending the idea that state and nation should be congruent.
Its capacity to be a provider of identity for individuals conscious of forming a group based upon a common past, culture, and attachment to a concrete territory.

The power of nationalism emanates from its ability to engender sentiments of belonging to a particular community. Symbols and rituals play a major role in cultivating a sense of solidarity among the people.

Key features to bear in mind:

Nationalism is a sentiment of attachment to a common homeland, language, ideals, values, and traditions, identifying a group with symbols (flag, songs) that define it as “different” from others.
How a sentiment of attachment can be transformed into a political demand for the creation of a state.
Nationalism uses and legitimises violence in its quest for state creation; national ideology and leaders propagate symbols and ideals.
Nationalism’s capacity to bring together people from different social and cultural levels is fundamental to its persistence — it makes people believe they have much in common.

23.2.1 National Identity

Hayes attributes seven factors for the rise of national consciousness and identity: linguistic and literacy, political, commercial, economic, ecclesiastical, religious, and cultural. Historically, kinship represented the first sign of identification and loyalty.

Guibernau identifies three factors in the creation of national identity:

1. Development of printing and vernacular languages: The development of vernacular languages after the invention of the printing press played a decisive role in creating a sense of belonging to a community. National consciousness derives from shared values, traditions, and memories within a particular culture. Where nation and state were co-extensive, education and literacy reinforced communication and helped develop a strong sense of community. When the state manages to impose a culture and language, it is “nationalism which engenders nations.”

2. Relationship between nation and culture: Identity is an interpretation of the self that establishes what and where a person is, both socially and psychologically. National identity fulfils three functions: (i) helps in making choices about collective political identity; (ii) makes relationship with others possible through a common culture; (iii) gives individuals strength and resilience by identifying with an entity that transcends them. National identity is created through the development of a common culture — values, beliefs, customs, conventions, habits, and practices transmitted to new members. A common culture favours the creation of a bond of solidarity and allows people to imagine the community they belong to as separate and distinct.

3. Common symbols and rituals: Symbols and rituals create consciousness of forming a community. By displaying symbols representing unity (e.g., the flag) and creating occasions where unity is felt, a nation establishes its distinction from others. Symbols mask differences and highlight commonality, creating a sense of group. Through rituals, individuals feel an emotion of unusual intensity stemming from their identification with the nation — which is above them and of which they are a part.

The force of nationalism springs from both rational thought and the irrational power of emotions stemming from the feeling of belonging to a particular group. This double face results in nationalism being either transformed into a peaceful and democratic movement or turned into xenophobia — the will to put one’s nation above others and eradicate differences.

23.3 Theories of Nationalism

The most hotly debated question: when and how did the nation appear — is national consciousness an evolutionary historical continuity or the result of modernism?

Two broad categories of theories:

Category	View of the Nation
Perennialism	Nation as a cultural community — ancient, immemorial, rooted, organic, natural, popular; ancestral ties and culture are central
Modernism	Nation as a political community — modern, social construct, designed for an age of revolution and mass mobilisation; a creation of the elite to control the masses

23.3.1 Perennial Theories

23.3.1.1 Primordialism and Socio-Biological Theories

Primordialism assumes that group identity is given — there exist in all societies certain primordial, irrational attachments based on blood, race, language, religion, and region. Clifford Geertz: they are “ineffable and yet coercive ties, which are the result of a long process of crystallisation.” Primordial identities are: (i) given or natural, (ii) ineffable (cannot be explained by social interaction but are coercive), and (iii) deal essentially with sentiments or affections.

Social Biology goes further: nationalism is the result of the extension of kin selection to a wider sphere of individuals defined in terms of putative or common descent. It combines rational and irrational elements — a “primitive mind” with modern techniques. Shaw and Tuba: nationalism fosters pride, dignity, and related sentiments among in-group members, constituting a moral and philosophical basis for political demands. It has its roots in the past but is a contemporary vehicle for human propensities to war.

Psychologically, nationalism establishes a bond between the individual and the nation based on the idea that the latter is a family writ large. The extensive use of kin terms (matria/patria with a fraternal component) reflects this psycho-affective reality.

23.3.2 Modernisation Theories

Modernisation theories assert that nationalism is a modern phenomenon — the result of transition from traditional to modern society. The ideological roots of modernisation are found in the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. At the political level, modernisation implied the appearance of the modern nation-state — a centralised, bureaucratic, territorial, sovereign polity.

23.3.2.1 Social Communication Theories (Deutsch, Rustow, Rokkan and Anderson)

Karl Deutsch (Nationalism and Social Communication): Emphasised the centrality of communication in the making of national communities. He defines nation as “a group of people who communicate more effectively and intensely with one another than with people outside the group.” Massive social mobilisation accompanying commercialisation, industrialisation, urbanisation, and the growth of literacy and mass communication were responsible for the growth of national sentiment.

Dankwart Rustow (A World of Nations): “The essential link between modernisation and nationalism consists of the need for an intensive division of labour.” Modernisation and nationhood are closely related — the most appropriate political structure to achieve advanced modernisation is the nation-state.

Stein Rokkan: proposed a long-term curve identifying six factors in 19th–20th century nation-building: (i) combination of rural and urban resources, (ii) spread and localisation of industrialisation, (iii) pressure towards centralisation and unification of the state, (iv) pull of imperialist tendencies, (v) tension between centre and periphery during ethnic/linguistic mobilisation, and (vi) conflict between the state and the church.

Benedict Anderson (Imagined Communities): Emphasised social communication in the early period of nationality development. He defines nation as an “imagined political community” (imagined as both limited and sovereign). The origin of nationalism: the breakdown of three defining characteristics of the pre-modern period — sacred scripts, divine kingship, and conflation of history with cosmology. The tremendous impact of “print capitalism” — the book was the first commodity produced on a massive scale. Print capitalism created a unified language allowing a sizeable part of the population to read the same texts and identify with each other, giving fixity to language and enabling the idea of the antiquity of one’s nation. According to Anderson, what made new communities imaginable was “a half-conscious, but explosive interaction between a system of production and productive relations (capitalism), a technology of communication and the type of fatality of human linguistic diversity.”

23.3.2.2 Economistic Theories

Economism — favoured by both Marxists and non-Marxists — holds that national consciousness is fundamentally a false consciousness which can be used to justify or hide economic exploitation, political power, and cultural supremacy.

Marxist theories: Marx held nationalism as an expression of bourgeois interest. The bourgeois “fatherland” referred to the aggregate of institutions, customs, laws, and ideas sanctifying the right to property. For Marx and Engels, the nation was not a central category of social existence but a transitory institution created by the bourgeoisie — hence: “The proletariat has no fatherland.” Marx did not present a full theory of nationalism for three reasons: (i) prevailing ideas are the ideas of the ruling class; (ii) a proletarian revolution following a bourgeois one would lead to a stateless communist society, leaving no room for nationalism; (iii) capitalist relations of production, nationality, and religion should not obstruct human liberation.

By the turn of the century, the Second International placed the national question centrally. Otto Bauer presented a theory based on national character and national culture. Stalin defined nationalism through the simultaneous coalescence of four elements: language, territory, economic life, and psychic formation in a historically constituted community of culture. Lenin endorsed the principle of self-determination of oppressed nationalities.

Three later Marxist approaches:

Michael Hechter (Internal Colonialism): modern states exhibit strong internal inequalities based on ethnic lines. Industrialisation aggravated existing economic dependence and inequality. A “cultural division of labour” exists between the core and the periphery — dominant groups monopolise high-prestige social positions while peripheral cultures are assigned inferior social roles. Ethno-nationalism emerged as a response to this perceived dependence and exploitation.
Tom Nairn (The Break-up of Britain): nationalism is a product of the uneven development of regions within the world capitalist economy — an effect of the expansion of capitalism. Capitalism has unified mankind but at the price of great disequilibrium and antagonism, triggering socio-political fragmentation. Nationalism was the way peripheral countries found to defend themselves against the core. In conclusion: “Nationalism was the socio-historical cost of the accelerated implantation of capitalism at the world level.” Famously: “The theory of nationalism represents Marxism’s great historical failure.”
Emmanuel Wallerstein: the nation is an invented or constructed entity. “The nation hinges around one of the basic structural features of the world economy” — the sovereign states that form the inter-state system. Statehood preceded nationhood. The nation is “in no sense a primordial stable social reality, but a complex clay-like historical production of the capitalist world economy.”
Miroslav Hroch (Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe): class analysis of the modern nation plus the role of cultural development. Three stages in modern society: (i) transition from feudalism to capitalism; (ii) victory and consolidation of capitalism with organised working class movements; (iii) 20th-century worldwide integration and mass communication. Each nationalist movement runs through three cultural phases: (a) period of scholarly interest, (b) period of patriotic agitation, and (c) period of mass movement.

23.3.2.3 Gellner’s Theory of Nationalism

Gellner maintains that nationalism is the unavoidable outcome of an industrial society which requires a specially ductile labour force. He uses “industrial society” instead of “capitalism.” The process of industrialisation undermined traditional social structures and gave primacy to cultural elements such as communication — individual identity was now defined in terms of culture rather than social relations. Only the state could provide through education and official language the kind of cultured person required by industrialisation.

Industrialisation’s uneven spread created a new system of social stratification felt to be illegitimate. If this overlapped with cultural differences, a culturally displaced intelligentsia could form an uneasy alliance with an overexploited proletariat, possibly leading to secession. Nationalism is thus rooted in the distinctive structural requirements of industrial society. Before the age of nationalism (i.e., in agrarian society), political units were not defined in terms of cultural boundaries.

23.3.2.4 Political-Ideological Theories

The common feature: the prominent role of the state in the development of nationalism in modernity. Four key authors:

John Breuilly (Nationalism and the State): Nationalism is a form of politics arising in close association with the development of the modern state and the international state system. In all its history, the modern state has shaped nationalist politics.

Anthony Giddens: Nationalism is a modern phenomenon stemming from the aftermath of the French Revolution. It is linked to class domination and the uneven development of capitalism. European nationalism should not be generalised to other areas without reference to “world time.” Nationalism was a response to certain “needs and dispositions” arising when, as a result of mass commodification of time and space, the individual lost ontological security.

Paul Brass: Ethnicity and nationalism are the product of modernity — constructed by elite groups who use raw materials from different groups to create ethnicities and nations. Ethnic identity and modern nationalism arise out of specific types of interaction between the leadership of centralising states and the elites from non-dominant ethnic groups.

Michael Mann: Accepts the existence of more or less conscious ethnicity and proto-nations before modern times. Four phases of nationalism:

16th century — ideological power dominated (shape of religion; proto-nations like Protestant England).
1700 — “commercial statist” phase — further diffusion of proto-national identities (Anderson’s “print capitalism”).
Third phase — military power dominated and propelled nationhood.
Industrialist phase — encouraged three types of nations: state reinforcing, state creating, and state subverting.

Mann’s two principal causes of nationalism: (i) emergence of commercial capitalism and its universal social classes; (ii) emergence of modern state with professional armed forces and administrators. Conjoined by fiscal-military pressure from geopolitical rivalry, they produced the politics of popular representation and several varieties of modern nationalism. Industrialisation was not the principal cause — it arrived too late.

23.4 Rise and Growth of Nationalism

Principal factors responsible for the rise of nationalist states:

The individualistic climate of opinion characterising Renaissance and Reformation.
The collapse of the universal authority of the Church.
The desire of rising commercial classes for uniform trade regulations and abolition of feudal obstacles to trade.
The desire for peace, order, and security.
Personal ambitions of monarchs who allied themselves with rising commercial classes against feudal lords.
The doctrine of territorial sovereignty — the idea of one unified legal system governing all social relations within a given national area.

23.4.1 Nation-state in Europe

The nation-state was the product of the combined influence of Reformation, Renaissance, and commercial revolution. The decline of church authority raised the question of the individual’s loyalty — withdrawing it from the Holy Roman Empire and giving it to the monarch who emerged as the symbol and sole representative of the nation. Nationality began to fuse into a state representing the people.

Western Europe (England, France, Spain, Germany): The breaking of church power and establishment of national churches paved the way for the nation-state. Henry VII and Philip II destroyed feudalism and established strong centralised states. The national church under the king freed individuals from the dual loyalty of church and state.

Colonialism: Increasing competition among nation-states for colonies led to further centralisation and solidarity within the nation, intensifying the spirit of nationalism.

Industrial Revolution: Gave birth to the capitalist class, whose interests clashed with absolute monarchy. The struggle was resolved through democracy — now the nation-state meant loyalty not to the king but to a government that consulted the people. Nationalism was meaningless unless it embodied liberty.

French Revolution (1789): A turning point. The declaration of national assembly, location of sovereignty in the nation, abolition of feudal legacies, confiscation of church property, formation of national education policy, the national flag, the national anthem — all these led French nationalism to its pinnacle. The Napoleonic wars spread national consciousness across Europe. The defeat of Germany in 1806 made Fichte and Hegel ardent supporters of German nationalism. Hegel combined the state with the will of the nation — calling the state “the march of God on earth” and giving a mystical base to the nation (later misused by Nazism). Fichte held that economic progress was the basis of political unity, achievable only through state socialism.

Eastern Europe: Formation of nation-states did not take place under centralised authority — these regions were under the Hapsburg, Ottoman, and Asian empires, none of which could inculcate national sentiment. During WWI, the map of Europe was redrawn — five new states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland) and six extended states (Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece, Italy, Denmark, France). The Treaty of Paris accepted the principle of nationalities as part of universal law, and the First World War recommended self-determination be extended to Asia and Africa.

23.4.2 Nation-state in America

The American colonies felt their efforts enriched the home countries — not themselves. Their first slogan was “no taxation without representation,” which led to the full war of independence. The nation-state here meant severing old national bonds and creating new ones — out of the contradiction between national feeling, liberty, and self-interest.

23.4.3 Anti-Colonial Nationalism

The period between the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and the rise of Fascism spread nationalist ideas to Asia, Africa, and Latin America, setting in motion national liberation movements. New nations like China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, and Vietnam emerged.

Anti-colonial nationalism had a distinctive character:

It began with an instinctive and xenophobic hatred of imperialism — hatred of those who occupied lands by force, exploited riches, crushed governments, and enslaved peoples. This was expressed violently (Boxer Rebellion in China) as well as peacefully (Gandhi’s non-violent movement in India).
It aimed at destruction of imperialism and accompanying evils: conquest, oppression, enslavement, exploitation of riches, and sowing of racial, regional, communal, and class distinctions.
It was also a creative force — building a nation based on liberty, independence, economic justice, and national unity; pledging welfare for all classes, castes, and groups.
From the international point of view, these nation-states opposed military bases, undue alien interference, and apartheid — believing in non-alignment and international cooperation.

A peculiar feature of anti-colonial nationalism: in most cases, the nation did not precede the emergence of the state. After gaining independence, colonial states drew their borders and established political institutions suited to their economic needs. Each colony was a “collection of peoples and old states brought together within the same boundaries” — a mosaic of different ethnic communities and tribes. The artificial and imposed character of states accounted for most post-independence troubles.

Post-independence challenges:

Inability to eliminate economic backwardness.
Difficulty of creating a coherent civil society out of a heterogeneous population.
Independence liberated ethnic nationalism within emergent state nationalism.
India (Kashmir, caste, class, ethnic, language layers); Pakistan (Muslim League’s separate nation-state challenge); civil wars in Sudan, Zaire, Chad, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana; split of Pakistan leading to Bangladesh.
Socio-political environment elevated leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Sukarno, Nasser to the category of “prophet liberators” — yet the vast gap between Western-educated elites and an illiterate population increased after independence.

The major task: nationalist intellectuals needed to create a nation to legitimise the state. Given heterogeneous societies, conflict stems from: (i) differences among ethnic groups within arbitrarily created colonial borders, and (ii) the wide gap between a small affluent elite and large numbers living in poverty.

23.5 Contemporary Developments: Nationalism vis-à-vis Ethnic Resurgence and Globalisation

Three developments since the Second World War:

1. Consolidation: The nation-state became the main source of political authority — from 51 states in 1945 to 185 by 1992. The power of national governments in many new states was consolidated in the 1970s and 1980s. India’s coming up illustrates the nation-state’s great virtue of securing mass compliance of policies with a minimum of coercion.

2. Ethnic Resurgence: Alongside consolidation, there was a revival of minority nationalist movements claiming autonomy or independence. Since the 1970s: Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties in the UK; cultural autonomy demands in Brittany and Corsica (France); Québécois independence from Canada; Kashmir nationalism (India); Tamil nationalism (Sri Lanka). After the disintegration of the USSR and East European Communist bloc, ethnic resurgence spread. Reasons: loss of group identity of certain minorities; post-WWII state creation had nothing to do with self-determination — it was more due to decolonisation, revolution, or outside power intervention. The split of the Soviet Union and disintegration of Yugoslavia showed these states were imperfectly integrated.

3. Globalisation: The world has become highly interdependent. Information, money, weapons, technology, pollution, values, radiation, food, computers, drugs, disease — all flow rapidly around the globe. The role of international and supranational organisations (UN, World Bank, IMF, GATT, NGOs) is increasing by leaps and bounds.

Key debates on globalisation and nationalism:

Hobsbawm: The future will be supranational — not contained within “nation-states” politically, economically, culturally, or linguistically.
Counter-argument: Much speculation is based on wishful thinking. Current proliferation of self-determination struggles shows that even the democratic nature of nation-states has not solved the problem.

Contemporary nationalism uses tradition in the service of modernity (Touraine: the nation is “a non-modern actor that creates modernity”). The return to tradition emphasises the value of continuity in a context of constant change. Globalisation unleashes a pressing demand for identity among individuals who regard their inherited cultural bases as threatened by alien cultures with greater resources. Nationalism emerges as a response to progressive homogenisation — representing a struggle to defend identity politics. Thus, nationalism will survive the wave of globalisation.

Summary (Key Takeaways)

Nationalism is a sentiment of attachment to a homeland, common language, ideals, values, and traditions, identifying a group through symbols that make it different from others. Its double face: it can be peaceful/democratic or turn into xenophobia.
National identity is created through three factors: vernacular language and printing, nation-culture relationship, and common symbols and rituals. It fulfils functions of choice, community relationship, and resilience.
Perennial theories: nation as ancient, cultural, immemorial, organic (primordialism, social biology).
Modernisation theories: nation as modern political construct — social communication theories (Deutsch, Rustow, Rokkan, Anderson); economistic theories (Marx, Hechter, Nairn, Wallerstein, Hroch); Gellner’s theory (industrial society); political-ideological theories (Breuilly, Giddens, Brass, Mann).
Historically: Nation-state began in England/Western Europe → French Revolution → German nationalism → dissolution of Hapsburg/Ottoman/Asian empires → American Revolution (new type) → anti-colonial nationalism in Asia and Africa (20th century).
Contemporary challenges: Consolidation; ethnic resurgence; globalisation. Despite all these challenges, nationalism remains the dominant force in the world — globalisation will not eradicate it because there is no global identity that suits the needs of a diverse population.