Does nationalism need to be based on ethnic myths of descent - Essay Example

Introduction Nationalism as a concept always identify itself with the ethnic identities and as it is strongly believed that the nation holds the key to the achievement of any objectives. Thus all the policy directions as well as initiatives are always made in manner that make the nation the first preference. Nationalism however, is also associated with the creation of a hegemonic position for an ethnic group to protect the interests of such group by acquiring political power in a State. (Anthony, 1991). What is also critical to note that the nationalism is often associated with the notion of violent means as establishing the writ of a group may be one of the most important objectives of those involved in using nationalism as a tool to achieve the political objectives? It is also important to understand that nationalism is often associated with the capitalism as nationalism is viewed largely an advanced form of capitalism wherein capitalist objectives of freedom are not achieved at the individual level but rather at the level of nation. Nationalism is therefore viewed as the manifestation of capitalist ideologies which do not focus solely on the ethnic myths but rather on the achievement of capitalist objectives at the national level. Benedict Anderson however view nationalism as a construction of an imagined community based on constructed culture thus nationalism ideally is a collection of imagined values of an imagined community.(Anderson,1991). This discussion therefore leads to the point where it can be comprehensively argued that the nationalism is not just limited to the ethnic myth of descent but rather it is something more complex. This paper will therefore look into this argument and will discuss as to whether the nationalism needs to be based on ethnic mythos of descent. Nationalism- A historical perspective Historical process of nationalism will indicate that the nationalism as a process started in the Europe during 19th Century.(Anthony,1993). On a larger scale it attempts to provide the criterion for the creation or ownership of the legitimacy of power over a State by people having certain characteristics. This doctrine therefore indicates that the societies in the world are divided based on the nations each having their own distinctive characteristics and as such the only form of legitimate government can only arise if national self government is imposed over the State. Thus nationalism is necessarily considered as a political ideology which advocates the case of controlling the State by a nation. Since State derives the legitimate obediences it is therefore argued that to wield the control over the population and achieve political legitimacy it is critical that the power must be relocated to a nation to govern the State. (Featherstone,1990) French Revolution is considered as the starting point from where the emergence of strong nationalistic sentiments started to emerge and dominate the political scene of the countries. At this point, it was clearly established that the only sovereign is the nation with the sole power of making laws to its citizens therefore the individuals must show the loyalty to the nation. French Revolution is critical in the sense that it was the turning point to break away the barriers that separated the various regions of the country and united them as a one nation based on single language and culture. French Revolution, also for the first time, provided the power of overthrowing and selecting the rulers to the citizens thus citizens or society emerged as one of the strongest dynamic forces with the legitimate authority to influence and change its socio-political environment if the existing one does not provide the required relief to the nation.(Reynolds,1997). According to Anthony, the ideas of nationalism and nationalities are since earlier ages as nation is considered as the building block of building a society. What is also critical to note that in order to attain the recognition in the world, it is critical that the nationalities must be awakened to gain their natural position in the world? This view is however deeply rooted into the ethnic backgrounds of the nationalism which advocates that the ethnicity is the major element that defines the boundaries of the nationalism. Ethnicity is also critical because it is considered as given and is the essential part of the human existence which gives it identity and recognition in this world. This identity recognition therefore provides an opportunity to the individuals to associate themselves with certain attitudes and behaviors that are being developed over the period of centuries. This development of attitudes and behaviors therefore gives rise to the collective development of identities which result into the creation of a nation and on much larger scale to the nationalism.(Takie,1998). Thus the cultural development as well as the historical memory coupled with strong ethnic sentiments creates collective identities that distinguish them from other ethnic communities.( Conversi,1995). The relative lack of a complete definition of the nationalism therefore brings forward the argument that the nationalism was present in almost every epoch and as such to consider nationalism as a by-product of the French Revolution will be an injustice. Though the nationalistic sentiments started to emerge strongly after that period but nationalism as a historical process must have been in place with the start of the modern civilization that advocated the collective living and living in communities in order to protect the commercial interests of that particular community. This argument also casts doubts over the modernity argument because accordingly the nationalism or nation is not a concept which is temporally modern in its essence. (Arnold,1997). It is also critical to note that patriotism as well as nationalism is two different and separate concepts as patriotism is often associated with the country and its institutions whereas nationalism is often indicate the relationship with a particular national group. It is because of this reason that the nationalism has the tendency to overthrow the State institutions for the purpose of achieving its legitimacy in the State. For example, the popular struggles against the Military in different countries often refers to the struggle to get hold of the State and its institutions so as to make the State as an agent of a nationalist group to indicate the superiority of a particular nationalist group. This idea therefore radically divides the society based on the ethnic grounds in most of the cases however, in societies where population is relatively heterogeneous; the emergence of nationalist sentiments may be diluted because of the lack of defining characteristics of the nation as a whole. The gradual encroachment of these ideas into the politics therefore also indicate the relative degree of sensitivity as to how the nations are divided based on their claims to the States and how the struggle for the power can lead to the violent means. Two World Wars in Europe are considered as the direct result of the strong nationalistic sentiments and the dream of creating a State based on the superiority of race. According to Connor (1994), when people are faced with the tough choice of selecting between the patriotism and nationalism, nationalism always appear as a potent force to gain the widespread recognition at the societal level. This question according to Connor (1994) therefore leads to another critical argument of what actually drives the nationalistic sentiments as well as the overall nationalist conscience. This also therefore relates to the understanding of various bonds that hold together the sentiments of the individuals in close knit nationalistic ideologies and beliefs regardless of their impacts on the socio-political lives of the nations. What is also significant to understand that defining nation based on the physical characteristics has historically remained one of the important literary contributions as this concept attempt to define a nation based on the characteristics such as territory, linguistic similarities as well as the religion however, later thoughts also include the psychological bonding as one of the reasons as to why the nationalistic tendencies as well as sentiments can arise within a nationalist group. The concept of imagined communities also gives rise to another critical discussion which does not view nationalism in the context of the actual community but rather as an imagined community that is both sovereign as well as inherent limited.(Anderson,1991). Ethnonational Bond As discussed above that the nationalism is largely seen as a bond – a psychological bond between the various segments of the society and as such defining or explaining the nationalism based on the physical characteristics is relatively arbitrary in nature. Nationalism is also seen from the perspective of the modernity as the new literature considers it as a product of modernity in which the nationalism emerged as a natural consequence of the process.(Canovan,1998). It was because of this reason that Marx even considered nationalism as a bourgeois ideology because it was created out of modernity. This argument is also critical more important in the sense that the nationalism was largely conceived as a concept based on the clustering of the different communities sharing the same traits such as religion, culture etc. This idea of clustering the population however, faulty as it failed to characterize the various cultural differences within the communities and lack of cultural assimilation which basically weakened the nations owing to such inherent weaknesses. (Armstrong,1983). There is also a subtle differences between the concepts because if nationalism is viewed from the perspective of the nationalism than it must not be based upon the ethnicity. The very reason that nationalism is seen as an advanced form of capitalism therefore dilute the strong individual characteristics and give more importance to the nation. Capitalism in its essence is a system which focuses on the individuals and their self will to pursue a path to freedom. This also means that the focus on individual gives nationalism a lesser significance and as such if any nationalistic identities emerge they should not be given the preferences since they may hinder the individual progress. (Calhoun,1997). Thus when it comes to an individual, nationalism essentially loses its character. Connor however, view nationalism in a larger context and indicate that there is a psychological bond that actually holds together the various members of the society thus there is a clear need to distinguish State from the Nation and there must also be distinction between the patriotism and nationalism. Ethnicity and the concept of shared blood is therefore one of the most critical aspects of the nationalism which must be fully integrated when one is discussing the concepts of nationalism in its larger context. Accordingly, Connor coined the new term of ethno-nationalism which views nationalism only within the context of the ethnicity and considers ethnicity as the main force behind the concepts of nationalism.(Connors,1984). Conclusion Since the emergence of the modern society, it has been believed that the shared values, culture as well as religion play significant part in the development of a nation. The collect ideologies that give rise to the concepts of the nationalism therefore are based on the idea of how the different communities based on their shared characteristics can formulate a nation and give rise to the concepts of nationalism. The modern emergence of nationalism started with the French revolution which brought forward the role of citizens in defining the political landscape of a country. The nation and the importance of citizen therefore become primary concern for the policy making and a new form of nationalist governments emerged. This was however deeply rooted into the concepts of ethnicity as nationalism was viewed as a collectivity of the shared cultural values, religion and other traits that distinguished one community from another. The concepts of ethnonationalism therefore coined to create that association between the ethnicity and the nationalism. However, the question of whether it is necessary to associate the nationalism with the ethnicity of descent is something which is debatable. This is due to the fact that some authors argue that the nationalism emerged out of modernity and as such its association with the ethnicity is secondary. This line of argument is also critical as it attempt to associate nationalism with an economic concept of capitalism without associating it with its socio-political aspects. References 1. Anderson, B (1991). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. 2nd ed. London: Verso. 2. Armstrong, J (1983). Nations before Nationalism.. 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