Nationalism In The Modern World

Redefining nationalism in the modern world

The modern political concept of nationalism addresses some fixed notions. Nationalism is defined as formation of a distinct identity for a certain population in terms of their religion, ethnicity or class differences. It is a feeling that people have of being loyal to and proud of their country often with the belief that it is better and more important than other countries; a desire by a large group of people who share the same history, culture, language, etc. to form a separate and independent nation of their own. (Agarwal,2005) and (Kapur,2003)

Rabindranath Tagore stated that “Our mind has faculties which are universal, but its habits are insular.” (Quayum , n.d)

Redefining

Nationalism is a great idea; it unifies the people, raising morale, strengthening culture, civilization, loyalty and devotion to a nation. Nationalism makes people feel like they belong and it creates connections between people who may never have meet before because of their language, culture, religion. (Ozkirimli ,

In studies there are two major schools of thought in nationalism –

i) The Primordialist / perennialists and ii) The modernists.

Primordialist:

Primordialist theory denotes that nations are ancient constructs. The base of nation is naturally formed from sharing similar perceptions and cultural traits, pre- existing community. The theory of Primordialist specified the group identity through primordial, irrational attachments based on blood, language, race, religion in society. Former’s theory proposed that nations are perennial organizations that had existed everywhere and in every age – from the Ancient Greeks, Indians, Mesopotamians, Chinese, Egyptians and others to present.

Primordialism refers to people’s deep emotional attachments to the group, supplying an internal gyroscope and cognitive map through which the social world is perceived, and historicizes selfhood in a web of primordial cultural.

There are various elements that gives basic identity of an individual and they are:

a) The physical Body (E.g. skin, color, size, type of hair);

b) Name of a Person;

c) Language;

D) Religion;

e) The Geographical place of