Imagining of the Nation
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Transcript of Imagining of the Nation
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Nation as an imaginativecommunity
"Imagined communities" is aconcept coined by BenedictAnderson. He believes that anation is a community sociallyconstructed, imagined by the
people who perceive themselvesas part of that group. Anderson'sboo, Imagined !ommunities, inwhich he eplains the concept indepth, was published in #$%&.
Nations are not lie trees or plantsthey are not a naturally occurringphenomenon. (et the nation hasbecome one of the most importantmodes of social and politicalorgani)ation in the modern world and
we perhaps assume that they aresimply *ust there. +enition of thenation it is an imagined political
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community - - and imagined asboth inherently limited and
sovereign. . "he nation isimagined as limited because eventhe largest of them encompassingperhaps a billion living humanbeings, has nite, if elastic
boundaries, beyond which lie othernations. No nation imagines itselfcoterminous with manind. "It isimagined as sovereign becausethe concept was born in an age in
which /nlightenment and0evolution were destroying thelegitimacy of the divinely-ordained, hierarchical dynasticrealm. !oming to maturity at a
stage of human history when eventhe most devout adherents of anyuniversal religion were inescapablyconfronted with the living
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pluralism of such religions, and theallomorphism between each faith's
ontological claims and territorialstretch, nations dream of beingfree, and, if under 1od, directly so. he gage and emblem of thisfreedom is the sovereign state.
"It is imagined because the
members of even the smallest
nation will never now most of
their fellow-members, meet them,
or even hear of them, yet in theminds of each lives the image of
their communion.
2ost commentators agree that the
idea of the nation is 3estern in origin.It emerged with the growth of 3estern
capitalism and industriali)ation and
was a fundamental component of
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imperialist epansion. It is almost
second nature these days to map the
world as a collection of di4erentnations, each separated from the
other by a border. But borders
between nations do not happen by
accident. hey are constructed,
defended and 5in too many tragiccases6 bloodily contested by groups of
people. It is important that we try to
thin about nations fundamentally as
fabrications. As /rnest 1ellner argues
in his boo Nations and Nationalism
5Blacwell,#$%&6, nations are not
inscribed into the nature of things.
Nations , lie buildings, are planned by
people and built upon particularfoundations which also means that,
lie buildings, they can both rise and
fall.
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7o, the nation is primarily an idea.
It is customary these days to tal
about the 8myth of the nation9 inrecognition of this. In his in:uential
boo Imagined !ommunities
0e:ections on the ;rigins and 7pread
of Nationalism5<ersos,#$%&6, Benedict
Anderson denes the nation rst andforemost as 8an imagined political
community.
his is because 8the members of
even the smallest nation will nevernow most of their fellow members,
meet them, or even hear of them, ye
in the minds of each the image of
their communion. Individuals thin
they are part of a greater collective,that they share a 8deep9 hori)ontal
comradeship with many others. In a
similar vein imothy Brennan points
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out in his essay 8he National =onging
for >orm9 5in Nation and Narration,ed.
Homi ?. Bhabha, 0outledge, #$$@,that the nation refers 8both to the
modern nation state and to something
more ancient and nebulous a local
community, domicile , family ,
condition of belonging9. 7o, central tothe idea of the nation are notions of
collectivity and belonging, a mutual
sense of community that a group of
individual imagines it shares. hese
feelings of community are the emotive
foundation for the organi)ation ,
administration and membership of the
8state9, the political agency which
enforces the social order of the nation.It is often pointed out that a sense
of mutual, national belonging is
manufactured by the performance of
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various narratives, rituals and symbols
which stimulate an individual9s sense
of being a member of a select group.As /ric Hobsbawm has argued, the
nation depends upon the invention of
national traditions which are made
manifest through the repetition of
specic symbols or icons. heperformance of national traditions
eep in place an important sense of
community between the nation9s
present and its past, and helps
concoct the uniue sense of the
shared history and common origins of
its people. Nations of ten traCc in
highly revered symbols that help forge
a sense of its particular, idiosyncraticidentity in which the nation9s people
emotionally invest. 0eviewing the
history of /uropean nations since the
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eighteenth century, Hobsbawm notes
that entirely symbols and devices
came into eistence as part ofnational movements and states, such
as the national anthem, the national
:ag, or the personication of 8the
nation9 in symbol or image, either
oCcial, as with 2arianne and1ermania, or unoCcial, as in the
cartoon stereotypes of Dohn Bull, the
lean (anee Encle 7am or the
81erman 2ichel9.
he emergence of national symbols
such as the :ag or the national
anthem are part of the 8invention of
tradition9 in which all nations
participate the repeated performanceof rituals, events or symbols which
tae on an emotive and semi-sacred
character for the people. hin of how
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the public burning of a nation9s :ag as
a form of protest is often a highly
provocative act. 7uch idiosyncraticand emotive symbols serve as focal
points around which a large number of
people gather as a single, national
body.
If the invention of tradition is
central to the nation, then so is the
narration of history. Nations are often
underwritten by the positing of a
common historical archive thatenshrines the common past of a
collective 8people9. he nation has its
own historical narrative which posits
and eplain its origins, its individual
character and the victories won in itsname. In reality, there are as many
di4erent versions of history as there
are narratorsF but a national history
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maes one particular version of the
past the only version worthy of study.
In many national histories, certainevents are ritually celebrated as
fundamental to the nation9s past
fortunes and present identity, which
directly connect the narration of
history with the repeated performanceof those symbols and icons mentioned
a moment ago. hin about the
annual commemoration of events
such as hans giving in America or
1uy >awes Night in Britain. /ach
loos bac to an occasion that is
considered a dening moment in the
history of the nation, the celebration
of helps cement the people9srelationship with their past as well as
highlight their togetherness in the
present by gathering them around one
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emotive symbol, such as the burning
of the 1uy on the bonre. 7imilarly,
individual gures are identied as thechief actors and actresses in the story
of the nation great leaders, scientists,
martyrs, writers, generals or admirals.
hese gures both come from the
people yet stand apart from the crowddue to their etraordinary or
inspirational ualities. hus, a national
history functions lie a 8story of the
tribe9, providing the people with a
sense of shared origins, a common
past and a collective identity in the
present.
In addition, of eual importance is
the way the symbol helpGGG.. thefeeling of ownership that 2orris
argues is important to nationalist
sentiment. ;n the one hand, the
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symbolic associations of the cli4s of
+over mae the /nglish feel that they
belong to the land, and on the other,that the land belongs to them.
!ommunity belonging, a sense of
rootedness in the land, home each is
relevant to the construction and
purpose of nationalist representations.As this eample of the ecited /nglish
evidences, the production of symbols
is important to the construction of the
myth of the nation, the function of
which is to unite many individuals into
one people.
National ime and space
As Benedict Anderson argues in
Imagined !ommunities, a dening
feature of the nation is the
standardi)ation of one unity language
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that all of its members can
understand. Although people from
di4erent parts of the nation may useregional variations, in theory all of the
nation9s people come to learn a
standard language which enables
them to communicate freely with each
other. his issue of a standardlanguage is a particularly problematic
one in countries with a history of
colonialism. It is important that we
hold on to the notion of a unitary
national language. In addition ,
Anderson points out that the
imagining or the nation displays
specic features eemplied b two
particular forms of writing the realistnovel and the daily newspaper.
Anderson argues that 8these forms
provided the technical means for re-
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presenting the ind of imagined
community that is the nation. His
point is that the assumptions abouttime and space common to these
genres are duplicated in the ways
nations are imagined.
Nations, lie realist novels, tend to
gather together a variety of people
into one collective body, but it is
highly unliely that one person will
ever meet all of his or her fellow
nationals. 7imilarly, in realist novelsrarely will all the characters meet
together, unlie in a conventional
detective novel where the suspects
are freuently rounded up in one
room at the end. However, the realistnovel9s multitude of characters are
none the less united by time and
space. hey are connected by the
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same bounded, ed landscape within
which they all simultaneously eist.
Also, the diverse activities ofcharacters tae place according to the
same temporal scheme the steady,
onward movement of calendrical time
epitomi)ed by the ticing of the
second hand on a cloc. In reading therealist novel we sometimes notice
di4erent character, unaware of each
other9s eistence, performing
separate activities at the same time.
hin of how often you have read a
sentence in a novel such as
meanwhile, as 2r was buying his
lunch, across town 2s ( was catching
her ght. Although a realist novel9scharacters might lead separate lives,
they ultimately share a common place
and obey the same time schema.
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hese simultaneities of time and
space are also implied by the form of
the daily newspaper. Newspaperscreate communities from coincidence.
hey provide news of manifold events
that have occurred at roughly the
same time. hese events are further
lined by their occurrence in a locationpresumed to be common to readers
note how national newspapers will
divide their contents into 8home
a4airs9 5the nation6 and 8foreign
a4airs,5all other nations6. Anderson
further argues that the act of reading
a newspaper helps generate a sense
of national community for the reader.
3hen we read the paper at breafast,or on the way home form college or
wor, e are aware that possibly
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thousands of others are doing eactly
as we are, at precisely the same time.
he simultaneities of time and
space eemplied in the form of novel
and the newspapers are at the heart
of the ways by which we consider
ourselves as part of a national
community. Nations are narrated lie
novels and newspapers. Hence,
individuals come to consider
themselves belonging to a solid
community moving steadily downhistory. An American will never meet,
or even now the names of more than
a handful of his fellow Americans. He
has no idea what they are up to ay
any one time. But he has completecondence in their steady,
anonymous, simultaneous activity.
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7teady, anonymous, simultaneous
Anderson9s vocabulary re:ects the
robust and orderly foundations uponwhich the myth of the nation rests. It
promises structure, shelter and
seuence for individuals, cementing a
deep, hori)ontal comuadeship which
unites the many into one imaginedcommunity through the function of
specic forms of narrative.
here is one further important
element that is often fundamental tonationalist representations
constructions of otherness. 3e
encountered the creation of others in
our discussion of the ;rientalist
constructions of di4erences betweenthe civili)ed ;ccident ant the baric
;rient. /very denition of identity is
always dened in relation to
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something else. he placing of
imaginative borders between nations
is fundamental to their eistence, notleast because borders divide the
nation9s people from others outside.
But as we shall see particularly in the
net chapter, the construction of the
nation9s people from others outside.But as we shall see borders in a
process fraught with diCculties , and
has all too often been its undoing.
0eview the myth of the nation9 Nations are imagined
communities. Nations gather together many
individuals who come to imagine
their simultaneity with others. his
unied collective is the nation9s
people.
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Nations depend upon the
invention and performance of
histories, traditions and symbolswhich sustain the people9s specic
identity continuous between past
and present. Nations evoe feelings of
longings, home and community forthe people. Nations stimulate the people 8s
sense that they are the rightful
owners of a specic land.
Nations standardi)e a unitary
language accessible to all the
people. Nations are often narrated
through forms of representation
which promote the unities of time
and space.
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Nations place borders that
separate the people within from
di4erent peoples outside.
National liberation vs. imperialistdomination
7o far we have considered how, inJaul 1ilroy9s words, nations are
created 8through elaborate cultural,
ideological and political processes
which culminate in feeling of
connectedness to other nationalsub*ects and in the idea of a national
interest that transcends the
supposedly petty division of class,
region, dialect or cast. hese feelings
of connectedness have proved a
valuable resource to any anti-colonial
rule in the twentieth century, the
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myth of the nation has proved highly
potent and productive. It was popular
with a variety of independencemovements because it served many
of their intellectuals and leaders as a
valuable ideal behind which resistance
to colonialisms could unite. 7peaing
in #$K@, Amilcar !abral, a leadinggure in the independence
movement in 1uinea Bissau,
described the contemporary con:ict
with several African colonies. he
nation became mobili)ed as a
powerful symbol which anti-colonial
movements used to organi)e
themselves against colonial rule. If
colonialism had condemned millionsto a life of subservience and
dispossession, them anti-colonial
nationalism promised a new dawn of
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independence and political self
determination for coloni)ed peoples.
2any colonies were represented inthis period as nations-in chains,
shacled by the forces of colonialism,
whose peoples had been alienated
from the land which was their rightful
possession and which would bereturned to them once independence
dawned.
In maing these inds of claims,
anti-colonial nationalist movementswere often woring with the national
territorial borders had no eisted prior
to colonialism and were often ed by
the coloni)ing nations. >or eample, at
the Berlin !onference of #%%L the3estern powers divided up Africa
between the by drawing arbitrary
borders around various parts of the
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continent. he colonial borders of
these new nations ignored the
Africans, own maps of the continent.In some cases they divided into two
indigenous tribal landsF in others the
new colonial boundaries circumscribed
African peoples from di4erent tribes
with their own belief systems andlanguages who collectively did not
share a sense of comradeship. >or
eample, the borders of colonial
Nigeria established in #$#M
circumscribed the lands of peoples
who belonged variously to the (oruba,
Hausa, ?anuri and Igbo tribes. In
identifying and ing the borders of
the coloni)ed nations, many 3esternpowers re-organi)ed African political
space. hese borders are not ones
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that indigenous coloni)ed peoples
would have recogni)ed.
7o in calling for national liberation
from colonialism, many anti-colonial
nationalism were woring with the
map of the world drawn by the
coloni)ers. his was, on the one hand,
an epedient and e4ective man
oeuvre in the struggle for
independence, but on the other it
proved a potential source of problems
in the post-colonial period. ocomplicate matters further, one of the
most important results of /mpire was
the movement of peoples across the
globe of Africans and Indians to the
!aribbean, of /uropeans to Americanand Australasia. >or these migrant
peoples, their relationship with the
land was complicated. How could
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they belong to country to which they
or their ancestors had arrived from
elsewhere, a 8homeland overseas3hich nation was truly theirs
7o, the imagining of a sense of
simultaneous national identity for
often heterogeneous groups of people
in the colonies has always had to face
several challenges. How, then, did
writers in the post-war period attempt
to forge national consciousness during
the period of decoloni)ation