Nationalism is one of the most powerful phenomena of the world and was a sort of religion in the 19th century. It has been the moving factor behind the events and histories in recent time as well as in ancient time. Despite the disagreement among some political thinkers about the origin of nationalism, who points it to the 18th or 19th century, nationalism in some form or other has been one of the important factors in the development of mankind. Nationalism is a concrete concept or reality like that of a state and government or other institutions.
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What is Nationalism?
The word Nationalism is derived from the Latin words of ‘Natus‘ and ‘Natio’. While the former stands for birth, the latter means ethnic characteristics of communities. But it manifested and evolved through the French Revolution and the British Industrial Revolution in the 17th and 18th century.
Slowly, it came to be associated with some characteristics like common ethnic origin, common language, common history, tradition, and a consciousness about a country identity. After the first World War, it was associated with the right to self-determination. It led to independence of many colonial states and formation of new states, particularly in the Afro-Asian region.
Definition of Nationalism
According to Heyes, ‘A nationality by acquiring unity and sovereign independence becomes a nation’. While Gilchrist maintains that ‘Nation is the state plus something else – the unit of people organised in one state’. According to Zimmeran, ‘Nationalism or the nationality is a form of corporate sentiment of peculiar sentiment’. However, there is a common and frequent error in general prevalence when the nation, nationalism, and state are considered as one. There are some differences between this, which must be clarified.
Nation has been defined in different ways, while Burgess defines a nation as ‘a population of an ethnic unity, inhabiting a territory of a geographical unity’. According to Leacock, ‘Nation is a union of men having racial or ethnic or ethnographic significance’. These two definitions are based on the ethnic point of view. It means the people having a common origin and living in a common territory.
Bluntschli defines nation, ‘as a union of masses of men…. bound together, specifically language and customs in a common civilization which give them a sense of unity and distinction from all foreigners’. Some writers view nation as a political organization.
Rise and Growth of Nationalism
The nationalism has its origin in the rise of states in Europe. In its earlier manifestation, it was identified with absolute monarchies as prevalent in Europe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, nationalism acquired the form of independence struggles of colonies of Asia and Africa from imperialism. During the 19th century, nationalism was associated with liberalism, constitutionalism, democracy, and a movement for civil rights. However, the nationalism did not arise from a single factor, many factors were behind the rise of nationalism.
Renaissance and Reformation prepared the ground for the rise of nationalism. The downfall of the Church as the absolute authority and its subordination under the political authority. The interests of the commercial classes, and mercantilism, which strive for the uniform traders’ rules and regulations. The incessant war and conquests paved the way for a desire of peace and order. The doctrine of territorial sovereignty gave rise to the emergence of the nation-state and nationalism.
Thus, the concept became very popular in the modern world.
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