Imagining of the Nation

7/23/2019 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



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



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



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.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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-



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



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.



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



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.



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



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.



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.



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



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



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



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



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



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

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Imagining of the Nation

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