Nation, a Novelty

Nation, a NoveltyEric HobsbawmEric Hobsbawm traces the long term changes in the concept and praxis of nation and nationalism over 2 centuries, since the Enlightenment.Hobsbawm assesses each development in Nationalist thought in the light of politics technology and social transformation (Hobsbawm 10)He most carefully scrutinizes and extracts ideologies of nationalism and the genesis of modern nation in the works of the ideologist of the era of triumphant bourgeois liberalism (38).

Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hrochare the greatest influences on his work.From Gellner comes an emphasis on the state as the agent of nation building.From Hroch comes the authors awareness of the regional and social heterogeniety in the spread of national belongingness and the three paradigmatic stages of its dissemination scholarly, political, public.Scholarly Phase- Emergence of scholarly, cultural, literary, folkloric identity for a particular region and its people

Political Phase- Emergence of political and militant nationalists largely based on language, ethnicity, religion and historical memory.Public Phase the political movement acquires mass support.Hobsbawn concentrates on the third stage when nationalism is transformed from political movement to mass ideology.He emphasizes that the nation is essentially constructed from above but in order to be understood it must be studied from the belowThe view from below the nation as seen not by governments and the spokesmn and the activists of nationalist movements but by the ordinary people who are the objects of their action and propaganda (11).Official ideologies are not public ideologies and nationalist standards are not always ascribed to by the masses. Priorities might differ. And nationalist identification is subject to change over time.

Nation from revolutionNations started taking shape in the era of revolutions.Before 1884 nation only meant, homeland, a territorial aggregation of inhabitants.Gradually the notion of state/government was embedded in the concept of nation.Patria or terra which meant nothing more than the place of birth acquired the politically and sentimentally loaded meaning of patriotism.However in the initial decades of its formation nation and nationalism only stood for the relationship between the state and the people bound by territoriality .The French Declaration of right read Each people is independent and sovereign, whatever the number of individuals who compose it and the extent of the territory it occupies. This sovereignty is inalienable.Little is said about what constituted the people emphasizing that people were political citizens with multiple cultural/ethnic/linguistic affiliations.The Bourgeois Liberal thoughtJohn Stuart Mill Formation of a nation-state had to be (1)feasible and (2)desired by the nationality itself.The feasibility was essentially calculated in bourgeois-capitalist terms.Nations emerged as guilds, trading units. The concept of national economics and national profit emerged and clouded free trade.State took over control of currency and infiltrated fiscal policy making Formation of nation was seen as Social darwinism. Evolution from individuals to family, to locality, regions, states, nation and moving towards a common world.Nationalism was therefore the process of unification.Hence the principle of nationality applied only to nationalities of certain size.And the building of nations was seen inevitably as a process of expansion.This was definitely incompatible to the definitions of nation based on ethnicity, language or common history.The concept of nationally heterogenous nation-states was readily accepted because there were many parts of europe and the rest of the word where nationalities were so mixed up on the same territory, that a purely spatial unscrambling of them seemed unrealistic. (Hitlers genocide)

Nation: towards LiberalismIn practice, besides the size, there were only three criteria that were needed to classify a people as a nation.Its historic association with a current state or one with a fairly lengthy and recent past.The existence of a long established cultural elite, possessing a written national literary and administrative vernacular.A proven capacity for conquest. (Accession act of 1950)

People like Mill and Renan were relaxed about ethnicity and race because politically it didnt matter much.However, since 1880s the debate about the national question gained traction not only for the governments confronted with various kinds of agitation but also for political parties seeking to mobilize electoral constituencies.

Two Ideas of Nationalist Thought

NATIONALIST IDEANation should constitute people of historical existence and belonging to the land as opposed to foreigners.Ethnicity, cultural heritage importantREVOLUTIONARY-DEMOCRATIC IDEASovereign citizens who abide an acknowledge the conditions of citizenship constitute a nation.Ethnicity not an issue