Explain the concept of nationalism.

 Nationalism is generally seen as a political principle for establishing sovereign nation-states. Nanda (2006) argued that nationalism in a multi-national context is viewed differently at different levels. By analysing several cases of linguistic and provincial movements in India, he tried to demonstrate that in multi-ethnic countries, such as India, nationalism assumes a political connotation at the macro Ideological Images of India level and a cultural connotation at the regional level. While the political connotation symbolises the establishment of a sovereign nation-state at the macro level, the cultural connotation, by and large, underlines the protection of distinct cultural nation/nationality in a given provincial political space within the common sovereign state.

India faces the uphill task of reconciling national integration efforts with accommodation of multiple ethnic identities within the framework of a single sovereign polity. The task becomes all the more difficult as free India has adopted a secular democratic political system. It is well known that India is a veritable labyrinth of cultural pluralism/diversity. Of numerous languages, religions, tribes, races, castes and sub-castes of cultural pluralism in India, language, tribe and, to some extent, religion, happen to be crucial, as they not only serve as important markers of group identity, but also provide viable bases for nationality formation. The fact that linguistic and tribal identities in India are linked to a definite territory, that is, a concept of ‘homeland’ or ‘desh’, reinforces their salience.

Moreover, the term ‘desh’ implies not merely a territory, but also a people, language, style of life, and pattern of culture; in fact, a nation in the European sense of the term. Deshpande (1983) observes that the concept of ‘homeland’ is variously expressed in Indian vocabulary as ‘desh’, ‘nadu’, ‘rastra’, to name some of these. In addition, several linguistic and tribal groups in India possess distinct history, culture, myths, symbols and values. All these elements go into the making of territorially rooted cultural nationalities in India and render her a multi-national character. Given such a complex socio-cultural reality, any attempt to disturb the natural linkage between language, culture and homeland would cause disaffection among the affected people. As a matter of fact, this natural linkage between territory, language and culture was disturbed for the first time in India during the colonial period.

The colonial policy of keeping ‘Indian India’ separate from ‘British India’ was perhaps designed to thwart the development of nationalism at the all-India level. It did not, however, take long for nationalism to grow at the all-India level. Indian nationalism assumed a liberal-political content and it evolved from a sense of pan-Indian geo-political unity and an anticolonial perception shared by people belonging to diverse cultural nationality backgrounds. In fact, the all-India national consciousness was mainly articulated by the nationalist elite comprising various cross sections of the Indian middle class.

Apart from the all-India level, nationalism in India was also seen at the regionalnational level. Unlike the pan-Indian national consciousness, however, the regional national consciousness emerged as a form of cultural nationalism seeking to preserve identity and protect ‘homeland’ vis-à-vis other nationalities in the country. It is in this sense that the regional cultural nationalism differed from the pan-Indian political nationalism which aimed at India’s independence and the establishment of the Indian nation-state. Moreover, the regional national consciousness emanated from a cultural sense of ‘pre-existent nation’ defined in terms of a distinct culture, shared history, specific language and common territory. Thus, the origins of cultural nationalism in India date back to the colonial times. The rise of such cultural nationalism was mainly attributed to the existence of artificial provincial units in colonial India.

Like colonial experience elsewhere, in India too, British colonialism carved out administrative provinces which did not match the physical distribution of nationalities and their socio-cultural affiliation. In some cases, several nationalities were juxtaposed in one provincial unit. For example, the Bengal presidency contained different nationalities like the Bengali, Oriya, Assamese, Maithili, Bhojpuri and a host of tribal communities. The Madras Presidency included the Tamils, Telugus, Malayalees and Kannadigas; while the Bombay Presidency comprised the Marathis, Gujaratis, Kannadigas and Konkanis. In some other instances, people of a particular nationality (for example, Oriyas, Kannadigas, etc.) were apportioned to two or more provincial units. Juxtaposition reduced the smaller nationalities into a minority position; apportionment led to cultural fragmentation and territorial dismemberment of some nationalities. The fragmentation of culture and territory created disjuncture among language, culture and territory. Thus, tension and conflict resulted in both the cases: in the case of juxtaposition, conflict resulted from domination of one nationality over another; in the case of apportionment, tension resulted from a fear of loss of ‘homeland’ and, hence, identity.

The mainstream nationalities, whose culture and territory were not fragmented and who happened to be in majority, emerged as dominant nationality under favourable colonial conditions. While their culture and language flourished under colonial patronage, the language and culture of the dominated and peripheral nationalities faced serious threats. Furthermore, the deprived nationalities perceived the subordination of their cultural identity to the mainstream as the root-cause of their socioeconomic and political deprivation.

The very consciousness of protecting and preserving one’s cultural identity within a culture-congruent provincial unit gave rise to several cultural nationalisms in colonial India. The rise of national consciousness among the Oriyas, Sindhis, Assamese, Telugus, and Malayalees, and the assertion of tribal identity by the Jharkhand tribes are some cases in point. As mentioned earlier, these cultural nationalisms at the regional level were pursued simultaneously along with the anti-colonial national movement for liberation of India. Several studies have discussed this dual character of nationalism in the Indian context. A.R. Desai (1966: 368), for example, noted that from the standpoint of the united national movement for India’s independence, the movement of the nationalities for selfdetermination assumed decisive significance. Some recent articulations on national identity in India reiterated this thesis quite unequivocally. For example, M.N. Karna (2000: 94) observes that both language and region have shaped regional national identity in India and that pan-Indianness objectively co-exists with the regional national consciousness.

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