Nation and
Nationalism
Bishwojit Das Bijoy
Ernest Renan, 'What is Nation' in Homi K Bhabha (ed.), Nation and Narration (New York:
Routledge, 2000). Pp. 08-22. ISBN: 0-415-01483-2
Benedict Anderson, Imagined
Community: Reflections on the Origin and spread of nationalism (New York:
Verso, 2006). ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-086-4
Ranajit
Guha, ‘Nationalism Reduced to Official Nationalism ‘in Ranajit Guha, The Small Voice of History (New Delhi:
Permanent Black, 2009). Pp. 512-519. ISBN: 81-7824-255-9
In this review essay, I will basically review the nation, how the nation is its origin, and three important essays related to Nationalism. These include Ernest Renan's "What is Nation?", Benedict Anderson's "Reflection on the Origin and Spread Nationalism" and Ranjit Guhar's "Nationalism Reduced to Official Nationalism". I have selected these essays to write the review essay because, I think the authors of these essays have different opinions, but they have all discussed a theme in their essays. Here I will try to find similarities and differences in what they have said about Nation and Nationalism, and some critique of their writings.
Ernest Renan’s “What is nation?”: Ernest Renan was a French Philosopher, political theorist, and Historian who defined the nation. He is famous for his theory on nation and nationalism. According to Renan, the term nation is fairly new in history. Ancient Egypt, China, and Chaldea were no nations found. Alike Athenians, Spartans, Tyrians, and Sidonians, however, had patriotism but no nation. Rena discusses the origins of nation and nationalism in his essay. He was discussing a few elements. He said that a nation is created by combining many elements, not just one particular element. He said, Forgetting, Dynasty, Race, Language, Religion, Community interest, Geography plays a vital role in creating a nation. But He thinks some elements like religion, race are less important for building a nation. However, according to him, the most important element is the spiritual principle of people. People want to be like their forefathers and walk in the same way as their forefathers did. In the definition of a nation, Ernest Renan said, “A nation is a spiritual principle, the outcome of profound complication in history”.
Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Community: In his book, originally Benedict Anderson discusses how nations and nationalism originated and spread. Benedict Anderson called the Nation an imagined community because people would never know, never meet, or listen to all the people in their community even in the smallest community. But they will remember what they have in common, thus the image of their union will survive. Anderson says in his book that cultural roots help a nation to emerge as an imagined community. He mentions three cultural roots. These are a religious community, dynasty, and apprehension of time. Religious communities are created through sacred language. When there was no nation, then the religious community came up with the idea of groups. It was through the sacred language that people of different religions united among themselves at that time. Through the sacred language, they imagined they were in a community. So the religious community serves as the root of the imagined community. Dynasties have played an important role in creating a community. They set their own boundaries to establish their own rule. A certain language was used to create unity among the people of that region. Through which they can communicate with each other. Through this, a community was created. So it can be said that the dynasties have served as the roots of the imagined community. A common time is used in a region. Time separates one region from another. That is, a separate community is created. Time serves as the root of the community in creating a community. According to Anderson, the nation is not organic, the nation is created. Anderson says people from different places come together and form an ethnic group, from where the nation is formed. Official nationalism and print capitalism are the big elements of nation-building. According to Anderson, language has indirectly played an important role in nation-building. Because nations in Europe and outside Europe were created by emperors. In the early modern time, different European empires took the official policy to create the official and common language of the empire. They create unity among the people of their empires or regions through language to simplify the process of governance. As a result of the unification of this language through official policy, people have to communicate in the language of their state or region. Through which a nation is formed. Anderson also said that outside Europe, that is, in colonial countries, nations are formed through Europeans. Orientalist thinking can also be noticed here in Anderson. He credits official policy, imperialism, and elite class people in creating nations. For example, in the Indian subcontinent, the British introduced English education, which resulted in the formation of some numbers of European-minded people here, known as the Anglicized Pal, who supported the British. As a result, a community was formed among them. However, at first, they cooperated with the British but later they got into conflict with the British. Through this they find the consciousness of a separate nation among themselves and they create this consciousness and spread it among the common people through print capitalism. By using magazines, books, leaflets, etc they communicate with each other and create a sense of Indian nationalism among the people here. Language also plays an important role in their communication. As a result, nationalism was created and spread.
Ranajit Guha’s The small voice of nationalism: Ranajit Guha also talked about the origin of nationalism. He criticizes Benedict Anderson's theory in his essay “Nationalism Reduced to Official Nationalism”. Benedict Anderson basically discusses the origin and spread of nationalism in his book ‘The Imagined Community. Anderson mentions two models in official nationalism. Where he gave all the credit to the Europeans. Guha called Anderson's theory discriminatory. Ranjit Guha was the first to criticize, saying Anderson's writings were full of irrelevant footnotes. Secondly, Benedict Anderson said that nationalism was created through official and printed capitalism. Through which he has introduced a narrow view and Ranjit Guha has criticized his thinking as colonial. Because Anderson gave full credit to the British for the awakening of Indian nationalism. If the British had not come to India, no nation would have been formed in India. Guha also commented that Anderson's theory of official nationalism was not entirely credible. He says Anderson unilaterally gave credit to the aristocracy or the British. He did not evaluate the achievements of the common people. Anderson also denies the strong nationalism of Indian farmers. Ordinary people have struggled at different times and made important contributions to nationalism through various small movements, including the monastic revolt and the blue revolt. But historians at Anderson and Cambridge have downplayed this role of the common man, saying that nationalism was created by the aristocracy and colonialists. Ranjit Guha has sharply criticized it.
Now, from the writings of Renan and Ranjit Guha’s essay and the discussions of Benedict Anderson, we know that they all discussed the origins of nationalism. However, Guha criticized Benedict Anderson's discussion. Although all three of them discussed Nation and Nationalism, their style of discussion was different. Renan gives an idea of how a nation is formed, Benedict Anderson discusses how a nation is created, and how it spreads, and finally, Ranjit Guha criticizes Benedict Anderson's discussion of the origin of the nation and nationalism.
After reviewing three essays, I can realize that the most important thing in creating a sense of nationalism is language. Because a nation can be easily created through language. However, the complete formation of a nation is not possible only through language and it is not possible to spread the consciousness of that nation. This requires the use of elements such as geographical location, human interest, movement, religious beliefs, education, social system, etc.
Finally,
we will see where these three works are conjoined for our purpose. All the
three essays reviewed here, devote their focus to Origin of Nation and
Nationalism. The authors try to find out here about Nations Origin and
spreading. Therefore in this review essay, we observe how writers think about
Nation and Nationalism.