{"id":575,"date":"2020-10-15T12:18:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T12:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/?p=575"},"modified":"2020-10-15T12:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T12:18:22","slug":"nationalism-in-a-globalised-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/2020\/10\/15\/nationalism-in-a-globalised-world\/","title":{"rendered":"NATIONALISM IN A GLOBALISED WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cPatriotism\nis when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people\nother than your own comes first\u201d. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Charles de Gaulle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nationalism,\nas defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is \u201cloyalty and devotion to a nation;\nespecially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all\nothers and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests\nas opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.\u201d In other words,\nnationalism is the idea of identifying with a nation and subscribing to the\nnotion that one\u2019s nation and its culture are superior to others. It is\nimportant to note that nationalism is not solely identifying with a country and\nits culture. Rather, it is largely a psychological phenomenon. More contemporarily,\nnationalism has become associated with idealised conceptions of how a nation\nshould be, usually on the basis of how the nation operated in the past.\nHowever, more often than not, these idealised conceptions of past national\ngreatness are largely imaginative and not necessarily based on reality.\nTypically, nationalism takes two forms: one of unification, and the other of\nsuperiority. The latter one has become the current trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nterm globalisation has been assigned many different definitions and is used\nrather interchangeably based upon context. For this research, we will define\nglobalisation as \u201ca process of interaction and integration among the people,\ncompanies, and governments of different nations. A process is driven by\ninternational trade and investment, and aided by information technology\u201d.\nGlobalisation has been the common moniker of the 21st century, where we have\nseen much more interaction between people across the globe through avenues such\nas social media and international economic interdependence. Globalisation has\nbecome everyday terminology in our contemporary milieus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nationalism,\nthe sentiment that has for long been one of the motivational forces in shaping\nhuman societies and defining state boundaries, is undergoing a perceptible\nchange. In the West it has lost some of its traction. Even in India, in the\naftermath of the recent events at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, a debate has\nstarted on its meaning and implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsense of belonging, first to small social groupings, and later to nation\nstates, generated strong feelings of loyalty and inspired men to make the\nultimate sacrifice. \u201cMy country, right or wrong\u201d was the mantra, and\npatriotism, or its offensive form jingoism, was its corollary. Any hostility\nto, or criticism of, the \u2018nation\u2019 was deemed to be treason and territorial\nintegrity of states was not open to question, unless under duress. Even Abraham\nLincoln\u2019s memorial in Washington remembers him not for having abolished\nslavery, but because he \u201cSaved the Union\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwere, however, enlightened men and women everywhere who were guided by the more\nuniversal principle of humanism, which transcends nationalism. Thomas Paine, an\nEnglishman, ditched his country to side with the Americans who had revolted\nagainst Britain. In his time he may have been berated as a \u2018traitor\u2019, but today\nhe is hailed as one of the great thinkers of human history who gave us classics\nlike the \u2018Rights of Man\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karl\nMarx exhorted workers of the world to unite across national frontiers. For intellectuals\nlike Bertrand Russell (who opposed England\u2019s participation in the First World\nWar) and Babasaheb Ambedkar (for whom social justice took precedence over\npolitical freedom) nationalism was not the paramount ideology. But there were\nnot many such people. The rise of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were both ugly\nmanifestations of patriotism. In the US, in 1950s, McCarthyism, a dirty\ncampaign to hound people with leftist links, was launched for patriotic\nreasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ntraditional notion of nationalism received its first serious knock with the\nformation of the European Union. States which had over centuries fought bitter\nbattles over territory decided to dilute the very concept of national frontiers\nand gradually subsume elements of their identity for the sake of the greater\ngood. This was a voluntary pact entered into by the concerned parties after\ndeliberate consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then,\nin the 1960s and 1970s, the idea of nationalism took another blow, but this\ntime in unfortunate circumstances. This was during the Vietnam conflict. The\nAmerican state came under heavy criticism for fighting what many considered an\nunjust war. And even though their soldiers were dying in large numbers in far\noff Asia, slogans taunting President Lyndon B. Johnson, like \u2018Hey, hey LBJ\/ How\nmany kids you killed today?\u2019 rent the air across the country. Universities led\nthe protest against the national war effort. There were riots and police\nfirings and in Kent State University, Ohio four students died of police\nbullets. This led to college strikes all over the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Were the opponents of the national policy traitors? Apart from some\nfringe jingoists, even in the US no one called them that. In fact, today they\nare considered enlightened young men and women who hastened America\u2019s withdrawal\nfrom an unjust position. Blind adherence to the adage \u201cMy country, right or\nwrong\u201d was out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, we have had instances of a large section of the people\nin Scotland and in Canada\u2019s Quebec province demanding secession from their\nrespective countries. Were they branded \u2018traitors\u2019 and thrown into jail? No,\nthey were given the chance to get a mandate from the people in a referendum, or\nin elections. They both failed, but at least they had the choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countries like the United Kingdom and Canada are confident that they\nhave provided a good enough life, with necessary freedoms and rights, to their\ncitizens and that will ensure unity of the nation. But even if some component\nwants to secede, they do not make a prestige issue of it. In any case, in the\nglobalised society of the 21st century, when mobility across has increased\nexponentially, and when people migrate to distant lands and acquire new\ncitizenship, or have links with kin who have gone there, loyalties can get\nblurred. With problems like pollution and poverty which have to be tackled\nacross frontiers, humanism is what the world needs most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local\ncircumstances do not permit the less developed countries to take such a liberal\nview of secessionist movements just yet. They have serious border issues to\nsettle first. Humanism is difficult to practise unilaterally in international\nrelations. But if passions generated by recent history are allowed to subside,\nwho knows what lies in store for the future? And, among them if there is any\none nation that can rise above narrow sectarian considerations, it has to be\nIndia, a country that, despite recent aberrations, knows how to accommodate\ndiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back\nto the events here, there is undeniably a section in Kashmir which wants to\nsecede from India, though it would be wrong to judge its strength by the noise\nit makes. But what signal does the debate over the JNU events, particularly the\ndoubts expressed over the execution of Afzal Guru, send to the Valley? It tells\nthe people there that India is a democracy where all voices are heard and, if\nthe Indian state errs, it also has the capability of correcting itself through\na democratic process. At least that is what we hope we are capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globalisation\nand its relationship with nationalism are complex. It is likely that the future\nwill bring increased globalisation with more innovations technologically, which\nwill result in an even more intricate relationship between a citizen\u2019s feeling\nof connection to his\/her nation-state and the evolving global society around\nhim\/her. The nation-state will likely continue to be the main political entity\nin the international system, as it has been shown that nationalism is already\nbeginning to rise, and even more extreme feelings of nationalism will likely\noccur. If this is the case, as we have seen currently, immigration sentiments\nwill continue to worsen as a result of this neo-nationalism. Nationalism and\nthe psychological tie to the state, are human nature, coupling modern tribalism\nwith concrete borders. However, we as a species must fight our instincts in\nthis regard and learn to accept one another independent of abstract belongings\nto a certain territory.                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPatriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first\u201d.   \u2014Charles de Gaulle Nationalism, as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is \u201cloyalty and devotion to a nation; especially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}