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Nation-Buildingin Post-Colonial Asia:

Retrospective and Prospective Assessment

The profound transformations experienced by Asian societiesduring the last century are intimately connected with the European colonialdomination in the region which roughly began in the 16th century in Goa(India) and had its symbolic closure with the hand over of Macau in late1999. During this period a significant number of peoples and cultures cameunder the territorial and political control of European powers. The processof decolonisation which took pace after the second world war has certainlymet with the aspirations of self-rule but, at the same time, has led to ageopolitical insertion of the new political entities within a neo-colonialstructure characterised by an unbalanced centre-periphery relationship andthe injunctions of the Cold War.

The processes of political freedom from colonial and neo-colonialdomination have given a major impetus for the development of distinctiveforms of nationalisms in Asia. If, on he one hand, Asian nationalisms presenta complexity which resists any attempt to reduced them to mere reactions toexternal intervention, on the other, they are part and parcel of project of

building and re-building nations which cannot be understood without aproper assessment of the colonial and neo-colonial experiments. In fact,

whether articulating pre-colonial unities or a plurality of them underinstitutions and ideologies inherited or assimilated during the colonial andneo-colonial encounters, nationalism has played an important andinsubstituable role in re-defining and re-constructing territorially, sociallyand politically the ancient cultures of Asia.

The intimate relation between nation-building and nationalism inAsia emerges therefore as a result of a unique conjunction of traditionallocal elements with external adventitious inputs. The first accounts for thesurvival or reviving of ancient forms of self-ruling and human behaviour

whereas the second addresses the need to revise them at the light of themodern requirements of political survival in an expanded world. Thediversity of pre-colonial cultural formations and the diversity of and reactionto the projects of colonial and neo-colonial domination by Portuguese,French, Dutch and British and North-American explains, to a certain extend,the development of a myriad of nationalisms in the region, which rang fromliberalism to religious fundamentalisms, sometimes drawing substantive

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elements from classical modernity other times opposing it. Cultural andregional diversity within a particular political unit has also fuelled thegrowth of subnationalisms, "little nationalisms" and supra-nationalismswhich keep a tense relationship with national hegemonic projects.

In this backdrop, the Project proposes to address the variousaspects involved in nation building and nationalism in Asia in the 20thcentury with emphasis on the role of the colonial and post-colonial heritagein the South, Southeast and East Asia. Special attention would be given tothe impact of globalisation and the perspectives for the 21st century. For itssymbolic role as the first colonial power to reach Asia and the last to leaveit, a special workshop will be conducted on Portuguese colonialism withspecial reference to comparative aspects relating to the various types ofnationalisms and subnationalisms developed in areas of Portuguesedomination such as Goa (India), Timor and Macau (China). The last casesare on-going processes, a fact which lends the whole exercise an interestingdidactic character.

Among the major themes which would be the focus of the Projectwe could list the following.

1. Nationalism as an ideology of political domination and the roleof the state in building or re-building the nation. In the 20th century,nationalism is found to be associated with political systems ranging from

political absolutism, theocracy, military dictatorship, liberal democracy andvarieties of socialisms. Thus, despite the anti-imperial postures adopted byAsian political elites, nationalisms have not been necessarily producers ofdemocratic orders. On the other hand, hegemonic nationalisms havereceived strong opposition by great varieties of sub-nationalisms which seekto eradicate arbitrary and artificial elements of the former.

2. The traditional socio-economic structures of collective and

hierarchical character and the individualistic, equalitarian and globalisedtendencies of modernity. The introduction of capitalism in Asia in its

mercantilist and industrial varieties, has certainly had a strong impact ontraditional and stratified forms of social organisation but it has also beeninfluenced by the later. Various types of social movements in the region,

particularly those fomented by subnationalisms, are distinctively based ontraditional patrimonial relations whether by supporting or challenging them.

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3. Colonial and neo-colonial cultural encounters and thefoundation of Asian nationalisms. It is generally assumed that Asian culturesdid survive the challenge of colonial policies of assimilation anddiscrimination and have preserve a certain cultural identity after the colonialinterlude was over. Yet, if it is true that in most cases contemporary Asian

societies are not new cultural entities, on the other one has to acknowledgethat a certain degree of incorporation of external motifs took place. Almostinvariably, cultural renaissances were a result of re-vision of traditionalvalues - particularly those conveyed by religious schemes - under thescrutiny of external paradigms. Issues such as citizenship and human, genderand minority rights rights are, in a way or another, related to the need toevolve new political unities out of traditional cultures and values. A specialattention could be devoted to the role of diasporas in this dynamics ofcultural interaction.

4. The role of literary production in Asian nation building andnationalism. Post-colonial literature in Asia present some basic orientationswhich make it an important protagonist of the process of constructing new

political unities. First, it undertakes the critique of colonial mentalities.Second, it re-writes the pre-colonial, colonial and neo-colonial pastaccording to revised paradigms. Third, it tries to highlight the constants of

particular cultures. And four, it is essentially fictional as long as long as ittries to anticipate and problematise a common cultural ground for the new

political units.

5. Geopolitics and Globalisation. Colonialism and post-colonialism was instrumental in incorporating in definitive the Asiancontinent into the wider frame of world affairs. It was also an major causefor the territorial re-organisation which followed the political processes ofindependence in the region. After playing the subservient role of a

peripheral region until the end of the Cold War, Asia looks at the 21stcentury and the overall process of globalisation and re-ordination ofinternational relations as an opportunity to ensure for itself a place of

prominence in the global scenario. On the other hand, globalisation has

prompted a reassement of nationalisms in Asia with antinomic orientations.While challenging narrow nationalisms - particularly those marked by ananti-colonial tone - it prompts either a healthy renewal of their fundamentalsor a radicalisation which docks at all sorts of fundamentalisms.