P E N G U I N BOOKS

NATIONAL IDENTITY

Professor Anthony D. Smith took his first degree in Classics and

Philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford, and his master's degree
and doctorate in Sociology at the London School of Economics.
He also holds a doctorate in History of Art from the University
of London. He is currently Professor of Sociology at the Univer-
sity of London in the London School of Economics.

His previous publications include Theories of Nationalism (1971,

2nd ed. 1983), The Concept of Social Change (1973), Nationalism in
the Twentieth Century (1979), The Ethnic Revival (1981), State and
Nation in the Third World (1983) and The Ethnic Origins of Nations
(1986). He is currently working on a book on art and patriotism
in late eighteenth-century Britain and France.
NATIONAL IDENTITY

A N T H O N Y D. SMITH

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 P E N G U I N BOOKS
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 TABLE O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 National and Other Identities i

Chapter 2 The Ethnic Basis of National Identity 19

Chapter 3 The Rise of Nations 43

Chapter 4 Nationalism and Cultural Identity 71

Chapter 5 Nations by Design? 99

Chapter 6 Separatism and Multi-nationalism 123

Chapter 7 Beyond National Identity? 143

Notes 179

Bibliography 199

Index 221
 Introduction

This book aims to provide a straightforward introduction to the

nature, causes and consequences of national identity as a collective
phenomenon. With the present resurgence of the tide of nationalism
in many parts of the world, notably the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe, a synoptic account of the field of national phenomena is
timely. As yet, there are only a few general accounts of the field
that go beyond historical surveys of nationalism. At the same time
the ethnic revival in the West has turned the attention of both the
public and the academic community to the issues posed by ethnic
nationalism and has led to important debates, intellectual as well as
political, in this area. The allied study of ethnicity in North America
has also stimulated interest in the problems of polyethnic states
around the globe.
The present book is an attempt to provide an historical sociology
of national identity and applies the concepts developed in my Ethnic
Origins of Nations (1986) for the mainly pre-modern period to the
modern world of nations and nationalism. Its underlying assumption
is that we cannot understand nations and nationalism simply as an
ideology or form of politics but must treat them as cultural pheno-
mena as well. That is to say, nationalism, the ideology and move-
ment, must be closely related to national identity, a multidimensional
concept, and extended to include a specific language, sentiments and
symbolism.
While for analytical purposes it is necessary to distinguish the
ideological movement of nationalism from the wider phenomenon
of national identity, we cannot begin to understand the power and
appeal of nationalism as a political force without grounding our
analysis in a wider perspective whose focus is national identity
treated as a collective cultural phenomenon.
Such an approach requires in turn an historical sociology of the
bases and formation of national identities. This means that we must
first grasp the pre-modern antecedents of modern nations and relate
 INTRODUCTION

national identity and nationalism to questions of ethnic identity and

community.
Having treated some of these issues elsewhere, I have chosen
instead to present my own view of the problem of continuity
between pre-modern ethnie and modern nations and of the means
by which the latter were formed and created. There is an extensive
literature on rival approaches to ethnicity, which I have only
touched on here (see especially the essays in Taylor and Yapp (1979)
and in Stack (1986) as well as McKay (1982) and A. D. Smith
(1988a)).
In this book I have focused on four main issues. The first is the
characteristics of national as opposed to other kinds of collective
cultural identification. The second is the role of different ethnic
bases in the formation of modern nations and the ways in which
they emerged in early modern Europe. The third is the nature of
different kinds of nationalist ideology and symbolism and their
impact on the formation of territorial and ethnic political identities.
My final concern is the political consequences of different kinds of
national identity, their potential for the proliferation of ethnic con-
flicts and the chances of superseding the identities and ideologies
that give rise to such endemic instability.
Nationalism provides perhaps the most compelling identity myth
in the modern world, but it comes in various forms. Myths of
national identity typically refer to territory or ancestry (or both) as
the basis of political community, and these differences furnish import-
ant, if often neglected, sources of instability and conflict in many
parts of the world. It is no accident that many of the most bitter and
protracted 'inter-national' conflicts derive from compering claims
and conceptions of national identity. An understanding of these
ideas and claims is vital if we are ever to ameliorate, let alone
resolve, some of these conflicts and create a genuine international
community (on which see the excellent treatment in Mayall (1990)).
These are the concerns that have shaped the argument and plan of
this book. I start with a cursory examination of different kinds of
collective cultural identity in order to highlight the special features
of national identity. Chapter 2 looks at the ethnic bases of modern
nations and identifies their features, dynamics and survival potential.
Chapter 3 traces the two main ways in which nations were formed
 INTRODUCTION

and asks why the first modern national states developed in the
West. The contrast between the processes of bureaucratic incorpora-
tion of lower strata and outlying ethnic groups by strong states
formed by aristocratic ethnic communities, and the mobilization of
the 'people' by intellectuals and professionals in popular ethnic com-
munities, is one first found in early-modern Europe. However, it
appears soon afterwards in other continents, and it forms a constant
motif in the culture and politics of the modern world.
Chapter 4 introduces the concept of nationalism as an ideology,
language and sentiment, emphasizing the symbols, ceremonies and
customs of national identity, and distinguishing territorial from
ethnic varieties of nationalism. As an ideology and language, nation-
alism emerged in eighteenth-century Europe, and it is therefore
necessary to explore briefly the cultural matrix and role of the
intellectuals in its emergence.
Chapter 5 and 6 examine in turn the ways in which territorial
and ethnic kinds of national identity arc formed, and their impact
on the politics of different parts of the world. Chapter 5 looks at the
creation of territorial political communities out of former empires
and colonies, and the way in which intelligentsias help to create
'civic nations' by design. Chapter 6 traces the recurrent waves of
popular 'ethno-nationalism' in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe
and the Middle East, in twentieth-century Africa and Asia, and in
Europe and the Soviet Union since the 1960s. In each case, a similar
process of 'vernacular mobilization', mobilization of the people in
and through their indigenous culture and history, challenged the
existing system of states and prompted powerful movements of
ethnic secession and irredentism, though the forms and timing have
varied.
The final chapter looks at the possibilities of a new 'post-national'
world, a world without nationalism and perhaps without nations.
Given the current limitations imposed on multinational corpora-
tions, the erosion of power-blocs and the nationalization of global
communications networks, the chances of imminent supersession of
nationalism look bleak. Nevertheless, signs of regional associations
under the cultural auspices of 'pan' nationalisms may herald a new
stage in collective identifications, at least in some parts of the globe.
This will probably be a slow and uncertain process. All that we
 INTRODUCTION

can say with some degree of certainty is that national identity and
nationalism are likely to remain powerful and proliferating forces in
the foreseeable future. Hence the urgent need to increase our under-
standing of so global a condition and so explosive a force.

Anthony D. Smith,
London School of Economics
2i March 1990
 CHAPTER 1
National and Other Identities

The year 429 BC marked a turning-point for Athens. In that year

Pericles, after thirty years as the Athenian leader, succumbed to the
plague that ravaged Athens. From that moment Athens' power
visibly declined.
In the same year Sophocles staged what many consider to be his
greatest tragedy, Oedipus Tyrannos (Oedipus the King). It is some-
times seen as the playwright's warning to his countrymen about the
perils of pride and power, but its central theme is the problem of
identity.
The play opens with a plague. But this one ravages Thebes, not
Athens. We soon learn that it has been sent by the gods because of
an unsolved murder long ago, that of the Thcban king, Laius.
Shortly after that murder on the road to Delphi Oedipus arrived in
Thebes and freed the city from the terror of the Sphinx by correctly
answering her riddles. Oedipus became king, married the widowed
queen, Jocasta, and had with her four children, two boys and two
girls.
At the beginning of the play Oedipus promises that he will
discover the unclean presence that has brought the plague and must
be banished. He sends for the blind seer, Teiresias; but Teiresias only
answers darkly that he, Oedipus, is the unclean presence who must
be sent into exile. Oedipus suspects that Teiresias has been put up to
such an accusation by Jocasta's scheming brother Creon. But Jocasta
heals their quarrel and reveals that her former husband, Laius, was
murdered by robbers at a place 'where three roads meet'. This stirs
Oedipus' memory of a moment when he killed some strangers.
One man, however, survived, and on his return to Thebes begged
to be sent away to the pastures. Oedipus sends for him. He must
find out what happened to Laius.
A messenger arrives from Corinth and brings the news that
Polybus, the king of that city and Oedipus' father, has died. This
prompts Oedipus to reveal why he left Corinth long ago, never to
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

return. It was because of an oracle from Delphi, which said that he

would kill his father and marry his mother. Even now he cannot
return to Corinth for fear of marrying his mother, Merope.
But the Corinthian messenger has a surprise for Oedipus. He is
not, after all, the son of the king and queen of Corinth. He was a
foundling given to the royal couple because they were childless, and
he was given to them by none other than the messenger himself
long ago when he was a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron. If the
messenger had not received him from his counterpart, the Theban
shepherd, Oedipus would have died of exposure, his little feet swol-
len from the thongs that pierced them: hence his name, Oedipus
(Swollen-foot). W h o is this Theban shepherd, and where did he get
the child with the pierced feet? Jocasta has realized the terrible truth
and begs Oedipus to desist. He refuses. He must find out 'who he
is'. Jocasta rushes out and hangs herself. Oedipus exults:

Let all come out, however vile! However base it be,

I must unlock the secret of my birth. The woman,
With more than woman's pride, is shamed by my low origin.
I am the child of Fortune, the giver of good,
And I shall not be shamed. She is my mother;
My sisters arc the Seasons; my rising and my falling
March with theirs. Born thus, I ask to be no other man
Than that I am, and will know who I am. 1

The Theban shepherd is now brought in. He turns out to be the

same man who fled when Laius was murdered, and the very man
who gave the baby to the Corinthian messenger on Mount Cith-
acron long ago, rather than let it die of exposure. Reluctantly at
first, in mounting terror later, the Theban shepherd reveals the
truth: he was the trusted servant of Laius and Jocasta; they gave him
the baby to expose on Mount Cithaeron; it was because of an
oracle; the baby was the child of Laius and Jocasta . . .
Oedipus rushes out, finds Jocasta hanging from the ceiling and
blinds himself. The rest of his life becomes one long quest, first in
Thebes, then in exile with Antigone, for the meaning of his strange
destiny; until, in the grove of the Eumenides in Colonus outside
Athens, the earth itself swallows him up, and by that act he hallows
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

Athens for ever. That was the poet's last thought, in 406 BC, at the
end of his long life.2

MULTIPLE IDENTITIES
There arc many motifs, and more than one level, in Sophocles'
play. But the question of identity, collective as well as individual,
broods over the action. 'I will know who I am': the discovery of
self is the play's motor and the action's inner meaning. But each
'self that Oedipus uncovers is also a social self, a category and a
role, even when it proves to be erroneous for Oedipus. Only after
the shattering revelation of 'who he is' does he begin to glimpse the
meaning of his destiny. He is not a successful ruler, a normal husband
and father, or saviour of his city. In turn, he becomes a defiling
presence, a murderer, a low-born slave, a foreigner, a child of
Fortune. Only at the end does he sec what, though sighted, he was
unable to 'see' and what only Teiresias, the blind seer, could see. He
will become another Teiresias, another blind seer, with the power
to heal and save through his suffering and his unique fate.3
In Sophocles' drama Oedipus traverses a series of categories and
roles. These roles and categories arc at the same time so many
collective identities, well known to fifth century Greeks. Even if
they had no experience of kingship or murder, ancient Greeks were
well acquainted with the symbolic and mythical significance of such
subjects. The very strangeness of Oedipus' ultimate fate made the
false roles he consecutively 'put on' seem familiar and easily in-
telligible.
Oedipus, like the other heroes whose exploits were dramatized
by the Athenian tragedians, represented the normal person placed in
unusual circumstances and set apart by a unique fate. He is normal
in so far as the roles he occupied before the revelation of his origins
represent so many collective identities and 'locations'. Like others,
Oedipus has a series of such role-identities — father, husband, king,
even hero. His individual identity is, in large part, made up of these
social roles and cultural categories — or so it would appear until the
moment of truth. Then his world is turned upside down, and his
former identities are shown to be hollow.
The tale of Oedipus throws into sharp relief the problem of
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

identity. It reveals the way in which the self is composed of multiple

identities and roles - familial, territorial, class, religious, ethnic and
gender. It also reveals how each of these identities is based on social
classifications that may be modified or even abolished. The revela-
tion of Oedipus' birth teaches us that another, unseen world touches
our material world, turns its social categories upside down and
destroys all familiar identities.
What are these categories and roles of which each individual self
is normally composed?
Most obviously and fundamentally, the category of gender. If
not immutable, gender classifications are universal and pervasive.
They also stand at the origin of other differences and subordinations.
We are in many subtle as well as overt ways defined by our gender,
as arc many of our opportunities and rewards in life. At the same
time the very universality and all-encompassing nature of gender
differentiation makes it a less cohesive and potent base for collective
identification and mobilization. Despite the rise of feminism in
specific countries, gender identity, which spans the globe, is in-
evitably more attenuated and taken for granted than other kinds of
collective identity in the modern world. Geographically separated,
divided by class and ethnically fragmented, gender cleavages must
ally themselves to other, more cohesive identities if they are to
inspire collective consciousness and action. 4
Second, the category of space or territory. Local and regional
identity is equally widespread, particularly in pre-modern eras. Local-
ism and regionalism also appear to possess the cohesive quality that
gender differentiation generally lacks. But the appearance often
proves to be deceptive. Regions easily fragment into localities, and
localities may easily disintegrate into separate settlements. Only
rarely do we meet a powerful and cohesive regional movement, as
in the Vendée during the French Revolution; but, as in this case, its
unity is likely to derive as much from ideology as from ecology. In
most other cases 'regionalism' is unable to sustain the mobilization
of its populations with their separate grievances and unique prob-
lems. Besides, regions are geographically difficult to define; their
centres are often multiple and their boundaries ragged. 5
A third type of collective identity is socio-economic, the category
of social class. Oedipus' fear that he prove to be 'slave-born' mirrors
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

the ancient Greek fears of slavery and poverty - fears that have
often provided the motors of political action, even when slavery
was replaced by serfdom. In Marx's sociology class is the supreme,
indeed the only relevant, collective identity and the sole motor of
history. Certain kinds of social class - aristocracies of various
kinds, bourgeoisies, proletariats - have sometimes provided bases
for decisive political and military action. Sometimes: not always,
not even frequently. United action by an 'aristocracy' is less
common than factional conflicts within aristocracies. Conflicts of
sectors and fractions of a national bourgeoisie are not uncommon,
starting with the French Revolution itself, let alone conflict be-
tween the bourgeoisies of different nations. As for the working
class, while the myth of the international brotherhood of the pro-
letariat is widely accepted, that of the unity of workers within a
given nation is equally prevalent and important, as workers divide
into industrial sectors and along skill levels. Workers' revolutions
are almost as rare as peasant ones; in both cases, sporadic, localized
revolts have been the norm. 6
The difficulty with treating social class as a basis for an enduring
collective identity is its limited emotional appeal and lack of cultural
depth. Whether we define 'class', with Marx, as a relationship to the
means of production or, with Weber, as an aggregate of those with
identical life-chances in the market, there are clear limits to any
attempt to use class as a basis for a sense of identity and community.
Classes, like gender divisions, are often territorially dispersed. They
are also largely categories of economic interest, and arc hence likely
to subdivide according to differences in income and skill levels.
Besides, economic factors are subject to rapid fluctuations over
time; hence the chances of retaining different economic groups
within a class-based community are likely to be slim. Economic
self-interest is not usually the stuff of stable collective identities.
There is a further aspect of class identity that both favours and
militates against the formation of a stable community. 'Class' sig-
nifies a social relationship. There arc always two or more classes in a
given social formation in conflict, which helps to sharpen class
differences, and hence identities, as studies of working-class culture
in Britain have revealed. At the same time, by definition, only part
of a given territorially bounded population will be included in such
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

class identities. If a more inclusive collective identity covering the

whole population in that territory were to emerge, it would necessar-
ily be of quite a different kind from an identity based on class and
economic interests. Such wider collective identities might even chal-
lenge more restricted class identities, and perhaps undermine or
divide them through an appeal to quite different criteria of categor-
ization.
This is just what has often happened. Both religious and ethnic
identities have striven to include more than one class within the
communities created on their bases. Religious communities, where
they aspire to be Churches, have appealed to all sectors of a given
population or even across ethnic boundaries. Their message is either
national or universal. It is never addressed to a particular class as
such, even when in practice the religion is reserved for, or primarily
aimed at, a particular class. Fifth-century Mazdakism in Sassanid
Persia was undoubtedly a movement of social justice for the lower
classes, but its message was, in principle, universal. Similarly, Angli-
canism in eighteenth-century England was largely an upper-class
and middle-class preserve, although in principle open to any English-
man. The many different forms of 'class religion' noted by Weber
suggest the close links between class and religious identities and the
frequent 'sliding' from one to the other. 7
Nevertheless, 'religious identity' is based on quite different criteria
from those of 'social class' and emerges from quite different spheres
of human need and action. Whereas class identities emerge from the
sphere of production and exchange, religious identities derive from
the spheres of communication and socialization. They are based on
alignments of culture and its elements — values, symbols, myths and
traditions, often codified in custom and ritual. They have therefore
tended to join in a single community of the faithful all those who
feel they share certain symbolic codes, value systems and traditions
of belief and ritual, including references to a supra-empirical reality,
however impersonal, and imprints of specialized organizations, how-
ever tenuous. 8
Religious communities are often closely related to ethnic iden-
tities. While the 'world religions' sought to overstep, and abolish,
ethnic boundaries, most religious communities coincided with ethnic
groups. The Armenians, Jews and Monophysite Amhara offer classic
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

instances of this coincidence, as did the Copts before the Arab

conquest of Egypt. The relationship can be even closer. What began
as a purely religious community may end up as an exclusive ethnic
community. The Druse, a schismatic Muslim sect founded in Egypt
but persecuted there, removed to the fastnesses of Mount Lebanon,
where they welcomed Persians and Kurds as well as Arabs into their
ranks for about ten years in the early eleventh century. But, with
the death of their last great teacher, Baha'al Din (d. AD 1031),
proselytization ceased. Membership of the community became fixed,
largely because of fear of religious foes outside. Entry to, and exit
from, the community of the faithful was no longer permitted. Soon
the Druse became as much a community of descent and territory.
To be a Druse today, therefore, is to belong to an 'ethno-religious'
community. 9
Even now many ethnic minorities retain strong religious bonds
and emblems. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland,
Poles, Serbs and Croats, Maronites, Sikhs, Sinhalese, Karen and
Shi'i Persians are among the many ethnic communities whose iden-
tity is based on religious criteria of differentiation. Here, too, as
John Armstrong demonstrates, it is easy to 'slide' from one type
of identity to another, and overlap is frequent. For the greater
part of human history the twin circles of religious and ethnic iden-
tity have been very close, if not identical. Each people in antiquity
possessed its own gods, sacred texts, rituals, priesthoods and
temples, even where minority or peasant groups might also share
in the dominant religious culture of their rulers. Even in early
medieval Europe and the Middle East the world religions of Islam
and Christianity sometimes subdivided into ethnically demarcated
Churches or sects, as with the Armenians and Copts and, later,
the Persian Shi'ites. Though one cannot argue conclusively for
ethnic causation, there are enough circumstantial cases to suggest
strong links between forms of religious identity, even within
world religions, and ethnic cleavages and communities. 10
Nevertheless, analytically the two kinds of cultural collective iden-
tity must be clearly distinguished. Religious community may, after
all, divide an ethno-linguistic population, as happened among the
Swiss or Germans and in Egypt. For a long time religious cleavages
prevented the emergence of a strong and enduring ethnic
 N A T I O N A L AND OTHER IDENTITIES

consciousness among these populations - until the era of nationalism

succeeded in uniting the community on a new, political basis. Sim-
ilarly, though world religions like Buddhism and Christianity may
be adapted to pre-existing ethnic communities that they in turn
reinforce, as in Sri Lanka and Burma, they may, equally, help to
erode ethnic differences, as happened to several barbarian peoples
when they converted to Christianity and merged with neigh-
bouring peoples, as was the case with Angles, Saxons and Jutes in
England."
In the next chapter I shall explore the particular features of ethnic
identity that mark it off from other, including religious, identities.
For the moment the similarities between religious and ethnic identity
need to be stressed. Both stem from similar cultural criteria of
classification. They frequently overlap and reinforce one another.
And singly or together, they can mobilize and sustain strong com-
munities.

THE ELEMENTS OF ' N A T I O N A L ' IDENTITY

One kind of collective identity, so important and widespread today,

is barely mentioned in Sophocles' Theban plays. Though they some-
times hinge on conflict between cities, they never raise the question
of 'national' identity. Oedipus' identities are multiple, but being
'foreign' (i.e. non-Greek) is never one of them. Collective conflicts
are, at most, wars between Greek city-states and their rulers. Did
this not, in fact, mirror the state of ancient Greece in the fifth
century BC?
It was Friedrich Meinecke who in 1908 distinguished the Kultur-
nation, the largely passive cultural community, from the Staatsnation,
the active, self-determining political nation. We may dissent from
his use of these terms, indeed from the terms themselves; but the
distinction itself is valid and relevant. Politically, there was no
'nation' in ancient Greece, only a collection of city-states, each
jealous of its sovereignty. Culturally, however, there existed an
ancient Greek community, Hellas, that could be invoked, for ex-
ample by Pericles, in the political realm - usually for Athenian
purposes. In other words we can speak of a Greek cultural and
ethnic community but not of an ancient Greek 'nation'. 12
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

This suggests that, whatever else it may be, what we mean by

'national' identity involves some sense of political community, how-
ever tenuous. A political community in turn implies at least some
common institutions and a single code of rights and duties for all
the members of the community. It also suggests a definite social
space, a fairly well demarcated and bounded territory, with which
the members identify and to which they feel they belong. This was
very much what the philosophes had in mind when they defined a
nation as a community of people obeying the same laws and institu-
tions within a given territory.' 3
This is, of course, a peculiarly Western conception of the nation.
But then the Western experience has exerted a powerful, indeed the
leading, influence on our conception of the unit we call the 'nation'.
A new kind of policy - the rational state - and a new kind of
community — the territorial nation — first emerged in the West, in
close conjunction with each other. They left their imprint on subse-
quent non-Western conceptions, even when the latter diverged from
their norms.
It is worth spelling out this Western or 'civic' model of the
nation in more detail. It is, in the first place, a predominantly spatial
or territorial conception. According to this view, nations must pos-
sess compact, well-defined territories. People and territory must, as
it were, belong to each other, in the way that the early Dutch, for
example, saw themselves as formed by the high seas and as forging
(literally) the earth they possessed and made their own. But the
earth in question cannot be just anywhere; it is not any stretch of
land. It is, and must be, the 'historic' land, the 'homeland', the
'cradle' of our people, even where, as with the Turks, it is not the
land of ultimate origin. A 'historic land' is one where terrain and
people have exerted mutual, and beneficial, influence over several
generations. The homeland becomes a repository of historic
memories and associations, the place where 'our' sages, saints and
heroes lived, worked, prayed and fought. All this makes the home-
land unique. Its rivers, coasts, lakes, mountains and cities become
'sacred' — places of veneration and exaltation whose inner meanings
can be fathomed only by the initiated, that is, the self-aware
members of the nation. The land's resources also become exclusive
to the people; they are not for 'alien' use and exploitation. The
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

national territory must become self-sufficient. Autarchy is as much a

defence of sacred homelands as of economic interests.' 4
A second element is the idea of a patria, a community of laws and
institutions with a single political will. This entails as least some
common regulating institutions that will give expression to common
political sentiments and purposes. Sometimes, indeed, the patria is
expressed through highly centralized and unitary institutions and
laws, as in post-Revolutionary France, though even there the various
regions retained their local identities into the early twentieth century.
At the other extreme we find unions of separate colonies, provinces
and city-states, whose federal institutions and laws are designed as
much to protect local or provincial liberties as to express a common
will and common political sentiments. Both the United States of
America and the United Provinces of the Netherlands offer well-
documented cases of such national unions. In many ways the
primary purpose of the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and of the
Netherlands' States General was to protect the ancient liberties and
privileges of the constituent provinces, which had been so rudely
assailed by Habsburg policies of centralization under Charles V and
Philip II. Nevertheless, the ferocity and duration of the war against
Spain soon bred a sense of common purpose and identity (quite apart
from Calvinist influence) that expressed a growing Dutch national
political community, albeit incomplete.' 5
Concurrent with the growth of a sense of legal and political
community we may trace a sense of legal equality among the
members of that community. Its full expression is the various kinds
of 'citizenship' that sociologists have enumerated, including civil
and legal rights, political rights and duties, and socio-economic
rights. Here it is legal and political rights that the Western concep-
tion considers integral to its model of a nation. That implies a
minimum of reciprocal rights and obligations among members and
the correlative exclusion of outsiders from those rights and duties. It
also implies a common code of laws over and above local laws,
together with agencies for their enforcement, courts of final appeal
and the like. As important is the acceptance that, in principle, all
members of the nation are legally equal and that the rich and
powerful are bound by the laws of the patria.
Finally, the legal equality of members of a political community

10
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

in its demarcated homeland was felt to presuppose a measure of

common values and traditions among the population, or at any rate
its 'core' community. In other words, nations must have a measure
of common culture and a civic ideology, a set of common under-
standings and aspirations, sentiments and ideas, that bind the popula-
tion together in their homeland. The task of ensuring a common
public, mass culture has been handed over to the agencies of popular
socialization, notably the public system of education and the mass
media. In the Western model of national identity nations were seen
as culture communities, whose members were united, if not made
homogeneous, by common historical memories, myths, symbols
and traditions. Even where new, immigrant communities equipped
with their own historic cultures have been admitted by the state, it
has taken several generations before their descendants have been
admitted (in so far as they have been) into the circle of the 'nation'
and its historic culture through the national agencies of mass socializa-
tion. 16
Historic territory, legal-political community, legal-political
equality of members, and common civic culture and ideology; these
are the components of the standard, Western model of the nation.
Given the influence of the West in the modern world, they have
remained vital elements, albeit in somewhat altered form, in most
non-Western conceptions of national identity. At the same time a
rather different model of the nation sprang up outside the West,
notably in Eastern Europe and Asia. Historically, it challenged the
dominance of the Western model and added significant new ele-
ments, more attuned to the very different circumstances and trajec-
tories of non-Western communities.
We can term this non-Western model an 'ethnic' conception of
the nation. Its distinguishing feature is its emphasis on a community
of birth and native culture. Whereas the Western concept laid down
that an individual had to belong to some nation but could choose to
which he or she belonged, the non-Western or ethnic concept
allowed no such latitude. Whether you stayed in your community
or emigrated to another, you remained ineluctably, organically, a
member of the community of your birth and were for ever stamped
by it. A nation, in other words, was first and foremost a community
of common descent.

11
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

This ethnic model also has a number of facets. First, obviously, is

the stress on descent - or rather, presumed descent - rather than
territory. The nation is seen as a fictive 'super-family', and it boasts
pedigrees and genealogies to back up its claims, often tracked down
by native intellectuals, particularly in East European and Middle
Eastern countries. The point here is that, in this conception, the
nation can trace its roots to an imputed common ancestry and that
therefore its members are brothers and sisters, or at least cousins,
differentiated by family ties from outsiders.
This emphasis on presumed family ties helps to explain the strong
popular or demotic element in the ethnic conception of the nation.
Of course, the 'people' figure in the Western model too. But there
they are seen as a political community subject to common laws and
institutions. In the ethnic model the people, even where they are
not actually mobilized for political action, nevertheless provide the
object of nationalist aspirations and the final rhetorical court of
appeal. Leaders can justify their actions and unite disparate classes
and groups only through an appeal to the 'will of the people', and
this makes the ethnic concept more obviously 'inter-class' and 'popu-
list' in tone, even when the intelligentsia has little intention of
summoning the masses into the political arena. Popular mobilization
therefore plays an important moral and rhetorical, if not an actual,
role in the ethnic conception.' 7
Similarly, the place of law in the Western civic model is taken by
vernacular culture, usually languages and customs in the ethnic
model. That is why lexicographers, philologists and folklorists have
played a central role in the early nationalisms of Eastern Europe and
Asia. Their linguistic and ethnographic research into the past and
present culture of the 'folk' provided the materials for a blueprint of
the 'nation-to-be', even where specific linguistic revivals failed. By
creating a widespread awareness of the myths, history and linguistic
traditions of the community, they succeeded in substantiating and
crystallizing the idea of an ethnic nation in the minds of most
members, even when, as in Ireland and Norway, the ancient lan-
guages declined.' 8
Genealogy and presumed descent ties, popular mobilization, ver-
nacular languages, customs and traditions: these are the elements of
an alternative, ethnic conception of the nation, one that mirrored

12
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

the very different route of 'nation-formation' travelled by many

communities in Eastern Europe and Asia and one that constituted a
dynamic political challenge. It is, as we shall see, a challenge that is
repeated to this day in many parts of the world, and it reflects the
profound dualism at the heart of every nationalism. In fact every
nationalism contains civic and ethnic elements in varying degrees
and different forms. Sometimes civic and territorial elements pre-
dominate; at other times it is the ethnic and vernacular components
that are emphasized. Under the Jacobins, for example, French
nationalism was essentially civic and territorial; it preached the unity
of the republican patrie and the fraternity of its citizens in a
political-legal community. At the same time a linguistic nationalism
emerged, reflecting pride in the purity and civilizing mission of a
hegemonic French culture preached by Barère and the Abbé Gré-
goire. In the early nineteenth century French cultural nationalism
began to reflect more ethnic conceptions of the nation, whether
Frankish or Gallic; later these became validating charters for radically
different ideals of France. The clerical-monarchist Right was par-
ticularly wedded to genealogical and vernacular conceptions of an
'organic' nation, which it opposed to the republican territorial and
civic model, notably during the Dreyfus Affair.19
Nevertheless, even during the most severe conflicts mirroring
opposed models of the nation certain fundamental assumptions tied
the warring parties together through a common nationalist dis-
course. In the French example just cited both republicans and monar-
chists accepted the idea of France's 'natural' and historic territory
(including Alsace). Similarly, there was no real dispute about the
need to inculcate national ideals and history through a mass, public
education system, only about some of its content (notably the Cath-
olic dimension). Devotion to the French language was also universal.
Similarly, nobody questioned the individuality of France and the
French as such; differences arose only over the historical content of
that uniqueness and hence the lessons to be drawn from that experi-
ence.
This suggests that behind the rival models of the nation stand
certain common beliefs about what constitutes a nation as opposed
to any other kind of collective, cultural identity. They include the
idea that nations are territorially bounded units of population and

13
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

that they must have their own homelands; that their members share
a common mass culture and common historical myths and
memories; that members have reciprocal legal rights and duties
under a common legal system; and that nations possess a common
division of labour and system of production with mobility across
the territory for members. These are assumptions, and demands,
common to all nationalists and widely accepted even by their critics,
who may then go on to deplore the ensuing global divisions and
conflicts created by the existence of such nations.
The existence of these common assumptions allows us to list the
fundamental features of national identity as follows:
1. an historic territory, or homeland
2. common myths and historical memories
3. a common, mass public culture
4. common legal rights and duties for all members
5. a common economy with territorial mobility for
members.
A nation can therefore be defined as a named human population
sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a
mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and
duties for all members.20
Such a provisional working definition reveals the complex and
abstract nature of national identity. The nation, in fact, draws on
elements of other kinds of collective identity, which accounts not
only for the way in which national identity can be combined with
these other types of identity — class, religious or ethnic — but also for
the chameleon-like permutations of nationalism, the ideology, with
other ideologies like liberalism, fascism and communism. A national
identity is fundamentally multi-dimensional; it can never be reduced
to a single element, even by particular factions of nationalists, nor
can it be easily or swiftly induced in a population by artificial
means.
Such a definition of national identity also sets it clearly apart
from any conception of the state. The latter refers exclusively to
public institutions, differentiated from, and autonomous of, other
social institutions and exercising a monopoly of coercion and extrac-
tion within a given territory. The nation, on the other hand, signifies
a cultural and political bond, uniting in a single political community

14
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

all who share an historic culture and homeland. This is not to deny
some overlap between the two concepts, given their common refer-
ence to an historic territory and (in democratic states) their appeal
to the sovereignty of the people. But, while modern states must
legitimate themselves in national and popular terms as the states of
particular nations, their content and focus are quite different. 2 '
This lack of congruence between the state and the nation is
exemplified in the many 'plural' states today. Indeed, Walker
Connor's estimate in the early 1970s showed that only about 10 per
cent of states could claim to be true 'nation-states', in the sense that
the state's boundaries coincide with the nation's and that the total
population of the state share a single ethnic culture. While most
states aspire to become nation-states in this sense, they tend to limit
their claims to legitimacy to an aspiration for political unity and
popular sovereignty that, even in old-established Western states,
risks being challenged by ethnic communities within their borders.
These cases, and there are many of them, illustrate the profound
gulf between the concepts of the state and the nation, a gulf that the
historical material to be discussed shortly underlines. 22

SOME F U N C T I O N S AND PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL

IDENTITY

Let me recapitulate. National identity and the nation are complex

constructs composed of a number of interrelated components —
ethnic, cultural, territorial, economic and legal-political. They sig-
nify bonds of solidarity among members of communities united by
shared memories, myths and traditions that may or may not find
expression in states of their own but are entirely different from the
purely legal and bureaucratic tics of the state. Conceptually, the
nation has come to blend two sets of dimensions, the one civic and
territorial, the other ethnic and genealogical, in varying proportions
in particular cases. It is this very multidimensionality that has made
national identity such a flexible and persistent force in modern life
and politics, and allowed it to combine effectively with other power-
ful ideologies and movements, without losing its character.
We can illustrate this multifaceted power of national identity by
looking at some of the functions it fulfils for groups and individuals.

15
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

In line with the dimensions listed above, we can conveniently divide

these functions into 'external' and 'internal' objective consequences.
The external functions are territorial, economic and political.
Nations, first, define a definite social space within which members
must live and work, and demarcate an historic territory that locates
a community in time and space. They also provide individuals with
'sacred centres', objects of spiritual and historical pilgrimage, that
reveal the uniqueness of their nation's 'moral geography'.
Economically, nations underwrite the quest for control over ter-
ritorial resources, including manpower. They also elaborate a single
division of labour, and encourage mobility of goods and labour, as
well as the allocation of resources between members within the
homeland. By defining the membership, the boundaries and the
resources, national identity provides the rationale for ideals of
national autarchy. 23
Politically, too, national identity underpins the state and its organs,
or their pre-political equivalents in nations that lack their own
states. The selection of political personnel, the regulation of political
conduct and the election of governments are grounded in criteria of
national interest, which is presumed to reflect the national will and
national identity of the inclusive population.
But perhaps the most salient political function of national identity
is its legitimation of common legal rights and duties of legal institu-
tions, which define the peculiar values and character of the nation
and reflect the age-old customs and mores of the people. The appeal
to national identity has become the main legitimation for social
order and solidarity today.
National identities also fulfil more intimate, internal functions for
individuals in communities. The most obvious is the socialization of
the members as 'nationals and 'citizens'. Today this is achieved
through compulsory, standardized, public mass education systems,
through which state authorities hope to inculcate national devotion
and a distinctive, homogeneous culture, an activity that most
regimes pursue with considerable energy under the influence of
nationalist ideals of cultural authenticity and unity. 24
The nation is also called upon to provide a social bond between
individuals and classes by providing repertoires of shared values,
symbols and traditions. By the use of symbols - flags, coinage,

16
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

anthems, uniforms, monuments and ceremonies - members are

reminded of their common heritage and cultural kinship and feel
strengthened and exalted by their sense of common identity and
belonging. The nation becomes a 'faith-achievement' group, able to
surmount obstacles and hardships. 25
Finally, a sense of national identity provides a powerful means of
defining and locating individual selves in the world, through the
prism of the collective personality and its distinctive culture. It is
through a shared, unique culture that we are enabled to know 'who
we are' in the contemporary world. By rediscovering that culture
we 'rediscover' ourselves, the 'authentic self, or so it has appeared
to many divided and disoriented individuals who have had to con-
tend with the vast changes and uncertainties of the modern world.
This process of self-definition and location is in many ways the
key to national identity, but it is also the element that has attracted
most doubt and scepticism. Given the wide range of human attitudes
and perceptions, it is hardly surprising if nationalists, their critics and
the rest of us have been unable to agree on the criteria for national
self-definition and location. The quest for the national self and the
individual's relationship to it remains the most baffling element in
the nationalist project.
These doubts arc both philosophical and political. Because of the
many kinds of national self that present themselves in practice (a
natural result of the multifaceted nature of the nation), nationalist
doctrine has been attacked as logically contradictory or incoherent.
The indeterminacy of national criteria and their vague, shifting,
often arbitrary character in the writings of nationalists have under-
mined the ideology's credibility, even where respect has been
accorded to individual nationalist propositions such as the idea of
cultural diversity. At best the idea of the nation has appeared sketchy
and elusive, at worst absurd and contradictory. 26
Intellectual scepticism is paralleled by moral condemnation. In
the name of 'national identity' people have allegedly been willing to
surrender their own liberties and curtail those of others. They have
been prepared to trample on the civil and religious rights of ethnic,
racial and religious minorities whom the nation could not absorb.
International, or more accurately inter-state, relations have similarly
suffered. The ideal of the nation, transplanted across the globe from

17
 NATIONAL A N D OTHER IDENTITIES

its Western heartlands, has brought with it confusion, instability,

strife and terror, particularly in areas of mixed ethnic and religious
character. Nationalism, the doctrine that makes the nation the object
of every political endeavour and national identity the measure of
every human value, has since the French Revolution challenged the
whole idea of a single humanity, of a world community and its
moral unity. Instead nationalism offers a narrow, conflict-laden legiti-
mation for political community, which inevitably pits culture-
communities against each other and, given the sheer number and
variety of cultural differences, can only drag humanity into a politi-
cal Charybdis. 27
This is a familiar indictment, and its scope and intensity proclaim
the emotional and political power of the ideal that it so utterly
condemns. But an ideal and an identity that can fulfil so many
functions, collective and individual, are bound to have the most
varied social and political consequences, given the variety of circum-
stances in which nationalists must operate. We could, equally, cata-
logue the benign effects of nationalism: its defence of minority
cultures; its rescue of'lost' histories and literatures; its inspiration for
cultural renascences; its resolution of 'identity crisis'; its legitimation
of community and social solidarity; its inspiration to resist tyranny;
its ideal of popular sovereignty and collective mobilization; even the
motivation of self-sustaining economic growth. Each of these effects
could, with as much plausibility, be attributed to nationalist ideolo-
gies as the baneful consequences listed by critics. No more striking,
or revealing, testimony could be offered to the ambiguous power of
national identity and nationalism or to their profound relevance, for
good or ill, to most people in most areas of the world today.
Why this should be so, and what the deeper roots of the power
exerted today by national identities are, we must now explore.
 CHAPTER 2
The Ethnic Basis of National Identity

The origins of what we have termed national identity are as complex

as its nature. I am not saying simply that the origins of each nation
are in many ways unique and that there is great variation in the
starting-points, trajectories, rates and timings of modern nations.
The very question 'what are the origins of nations?' needs to be
broken down into several further questions, such as: who is the
nation? Why and how is the nation? When and where is the
nation?
In fact we can conveniently use these questions to seek a general
explanation of the origins and development of modern nations in
three parts.
1. Who is the nation? What are the ethnic bases and models of
modern nations? Why did these particular nations emerge?
2. Why and how does the nation emerge? That is, what are the
general causes and mechanisms that set in motion the proces-
ses of nation-formation from varying ethnic ties and
memories?
3. When and where did the nation arise? What were the specific
ideas, groups and locations that predisposed the formation
of individual nations at particular times and places?
Through answers to these questions, albeit of a general and necess-
arily incomplete nature, we may hope to shed some light on the
vexed problem of national origins and development.

ETHNIE AND ETHNO-GENESIS

If myths like that of Oedipus can be seen as widely believed tales
told in dramatic form, referring to past events but serving present
purposes and/or future goals, then the nation stands at the centre of
one of the most popular and ubiquitous myths of modern times:
that of nationalism. Central to this myth is the idea that nations
exist from time immemorial, and that nationalists must reawaken

19
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

them from a long slumber to take their place in a world of nations.

The hold of the nation lies, as we shall see, partly in the promise
of the nationalist salvation drama itself. But this power is often
immeasurably increased by the living presence of traditions embody-
ing memories, symbols, myths and values from much earlier epochs
in the life of a population, community or area. So it is these
pre-modern ethnic identities and traditions that we must first
explore.'
The concept of 'ethnicity' has received a good deal of attention in
recent years. For some it has a 'primordial' quality. It exists in
nature, outside time. It is one of the 'givens' of human existence
(this is a view that has received some backing recently from socio-
biology, where it is regarded as an extension of processes of genetic
selection and inclusive fitness). At the other extreme ethnicity is
seen as 'situational'. Belonging to an ethnic group is a matter of
attitudes, perceptions and sentiments that are necessarily fleeting and
mutable, varying with the particular situation of the subject. As the
individual's situation changes, so will the group identification; or at
least, the many identities and discourses to which the individual
adheres will vary in importance for that individual in successive
periods and different situations. This makes it possible for ethnicity
to be used 'instrumental'' to further individual or collective inter-
ests, particularly of competing élites who need to mobilize large
followings to support their goals in the struggle for power. In this
struggle ethnicity becomes a useful tool. 2
Between these two extremes lie those approaches that stress the
historical and symbolic—cultural attributes of ethnic identity. This is
the perspective adopted here. An ethnic group is a type of cultural
collectivity, one that emphasizes the role of myths of descent and
historical memories, and that is recognized by one or more cultural
differences like religion, customs, language or institutions. Such
collectivities are doubly 'historical' in the sense that not only are
historical memories essential to their continuance but each such
ethnic group is the product of specific historical forces and is there-
fore subject to historical change and dissolution.
At this point it is useful to distinguish between ethnic categories
and ethnic communities. The former are human populations whom at
least some outsiders consider to constitute a separate cultural and

20
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

historical grouping. But the populations so designated may at the

time have little self-awareness, only a dim consciousness that they
form a separate collectivity. Thus Turks in Anatolia before 1900
were largely unaware of a separate 'Turkish' identity — separate,
that is, from the dominant Ottoman or the overarching Islamic
identities - and besides, local identities of kin, village or region were
often more important. The same can be said for the Slovak inhabi-
tants of the Carpathian valleys before 1850, despite their common
dialects and religion. In both cases a myth of common origins,
shared historical memories, a sense of solidarity or an association
with a designated homeland were largely absent. 3
An ethnic community, on the other hand, can be distinguished
by just these attributes, even if they are firmly held and clearly
enunciated by only small segments of the designated population and
even if some of these attributes are more intense and salient than
others at a given period. We may list six main attributes of ethnic
community (or ethnie, to use the French term):
1. a collective proper name
2. a myth of common ancestry
3. shared historical memories
4. one or more differentiating elements of common culture
5. an association with a specific 'homeland'
6. a sense of solidarity for significant sectors of the popula-
tion. 4
The more a given population possesses or shares these attributes
(and the more of these attributes that it possesses or shares), the
more closely does it approximate the ideal type of an ethnic com-
munity or ethnie. Where this syndrome of elements is present we
are clearly in the presence of a community of historical culture with
a sense of common identity. Such a community must be sharply
differentiated from a race in the sense of a social group that is held to
possess unique hereditary biological traits that allegedly determine
the mental attributes of the group. 5 In practice, ethnies are often
confused with races, not only in this social sense but even in the
physical, anthropological sense of subspecies of Homo sapiens such as
Mongoloid, Negroid, Australoid, Caucasian and the like. Such a
confusion is the product of the widespread influence of racist ideolo-
gies and discourses, with their purportedly 'scientific' notions of

21
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

racial struggle, social organisms and eugenics. In the hundred years

from 1850 to 1945 such notions were applied to the purely cultural
and historical differences of ethnies, both inside Europe and in col-
onial Africa and Asia, with results that are all too well known. 6
But a glance at the above list of ethnic attributes reveals not only
their largely cultural and historical content, but also (with the excep-
tion of number 4) their strongly subjective components. Most im-
portant, it is myths of common ancestry, not any fact of ancestry
(which is usually difficult to ascertain), that are crucial. It is fictive
descent and putative ancestry that matters for the sense of ethnic
identification. Indeed, Horowitz has likened ethnic groups to
'super-families' of fictive descent because members view their ethnie
as composed of interrelated families, forming one huge 'family'
linked by mythical ties of filiation and ancestry. Such a linkage
between family and nation reappears in nationalist mythologies and
testifies to the continuing centrality of this attribute of ethnicity.
Without such descent myths it is difficult to see ethnies surviving for
any length of time. The sense of'whence we came' is central to the
definition o f ' w h o we are'. 7
What I have termed 'shared historical memories' may also take
the form of myth. Indeed, for many pre-modern peoples the line
between myth and history was often blurred or even non-existent.
Even today that line is not as clear-cut as some would like it to be;
the controversy over the historicity of Homer and the Trojan War
is a case in point. So are the tales of Stauffacher and the Oath of the
Riitli, and of William Tell and Gessler, which have entered the
'historical consciousness' of every Swiss. It is not only that widely
believed dramatic tales of the past serving present or future purposes
grow up readily around kernels of well-attested events: in addition,
myths of political foundation, liberation, migration and election
take some historical event as their starting-point for subsequent
interpretation and elaboration. The conversion of Vladimir of Kiev
to Christianity (in AD 988) or the founding of R o m e (in 753 BC?)
may be treated as historical events, but their significance resides in
the legends of foundation with which they are associated. It is these
associations that confer on them a social purpose as sources of
political cohesion. 8
Similarly, attachments to specific stretches of territory, and to

22
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

certain places within them, have a mythical and subjective quality.

It is the attachments and associations, rather than residence in or
possession of the land that matters for ethnic identification. It is
where we belong. It is also often a sacred land, the land of our
forefathers, our lawgivers, our kings and sages, poets and priests,
which makes this our homeland. We belong to it, as much as it
belongs to us. Besides, the sacred centres of the homeland draw the
members of the ethnie to it, or inspire them from afar, even when
their exile is prolonged. Hence, an ethnie may persist, even when
long divorced from its homeland, through an intense nostalgia and
spiritual attachment. This is very much the fate of diaspora com-
munities like the Jews and Armenians. 9
It is only when we come to the varying elements of a common
culture that differentiate one population from another that more
objective attributes enter the picture. Language, religion, customs
and pigmentation are often taken to describe objective 'cultural
markers' or differentiae that persist independently of the will of
individuals, and even appear to constrain them. Yet it is the signifi-
cance with which colour or religion is endowed by large numbers
of individuals (and organizations) that matters more for ethnic
identification even than their durability and independent existence,
as the growing political significance of language and colour over the
last two or three centuries demonstrates. It is only when such
markers are endowed with diacritical significance that these cultural
attributes come to be seen as objective, at least as far as ethnic
boundaries are concerned. 10
All of this suggests that the ethnie is anything but primordial,
despite the claims and rhetoric of nationalist ideologies and dis-
courses. As the subjective significance of each of these attributes
waxes and wanes for the members of a community, so docs the
cohesion and self-awareness of that community's membership. As
these several attributes come together and become more intense and
salient, so does the sense of ethnic identity and, with it, of ethnic
community. Conversely, as each of these attributes is attenuated and
declines, so does the overall sense of ethnicity, and hence the ethnie
itself would dissolve or be absorbed."
How docs an ethnie form? We can give only some very tentative
answers. Where such processes are visible in the historical record

23
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

they suggest certain patterns of ethnic formation. Empirically, these

arc of two main kinds: coalescence and division. On the one hand,
wc can trace ethnic formation through the coming together of
separate units, and this in turn can be broken down into processes of
amalgamation of separate units, such as city-states, and of absorption
of one unit by another, as in the assimilation or regions or 'tribes'.
On the other hand, ethnies may be subdivided through fission, as
with sectarian schism, or through what Horowitz calls 'prolifera-
tion', when a part of the ethnic community leaves it to form a new
group, as in the case of Bangladesh. 12
The frequency of such processes suggests the shifting nature of
ethnic boundaries and the malleability, within certain limits, of their
members' cultural identity. It also reveals the 'concentric' nature of
ethnic, and more generally collective cultural, affiliations. That is to
say, individuals may feel loyalty not only to their families, villages,
castes, cities, regions and religious communities, as well as to class
and gender identifications; they may also feel allegiances to different
ethnic communities at different levels of identification simul-
taneously. An example of this in the ancient world would be the
sentiment of ancient Greeks as members of a polis, or the 'sub-ethnie'
(Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians, Boeotians, etc. — really ethnic identities
in their own right) and of the Hellenic cultural ethnie.11 In the
modern world the various clans, languages and ancestral 'sub-ethnies'
of the Malays or Yoruba furnish examples of the concentric circles
of ethnic identity and allegiance. Of course, at any one time one or
other of these concentric circles of allegiance may be to the fore for
political, economic or demographic reasons; but this serves only to
reinforce 'instrumentalist' arguments against the primordial nature
of ethnic communities and to highlight the importance of boundary
changes.1'*
At the same time this is the only part of the story. We must not
overstate the mutability of ethnic boundaries or the fluidity of their
cultural contents. To do so would deprive us of the means of
accounting for the recurrence of ethnic ties and communities (let
alone their original crystallizations) and their demonstrable dura-
bility over and above boundary and cultural changes in particular
instances. It would dissolve the possibility of constituting identities
that were more than successive fleeting moments in the perceptions,

24
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

attitudes and sentiments of identifying individuals. Worse, we would

be unable to account for any collectivity, any group formation,
from the myriad moments of individual sentiment, perception and
memory. But the fact remains that, as with other social phenomena
of collective identity like class, gender and territory, ethnicity ex-
hibits both constancy and flux side by side, depending on the
purposes and distance of the observer from the collective phenom-
enon in question. The durability of some ethnies, despite changes in
their demographic composition and some of their cultural dis-
tinctiveness and social boundaries, must be set against the more
instrumentalist or phenomenological accounts that fail to consider
the importance of antecedent cultural affinities that set periodic
limits to the redefinitions of ethnic identities.' 5
Any realistic account of ethnic identity and ethno-genesis must,
therefore, eschew the polar extremes of the primordialist-instru-
mentalist debate and its concerns with, on the one hand, fixity of
cultural patterns in nature and, on the other, 'strategic' manipu-
lability of ethnic sentiments and continuous cultural malleability.
Instead we need to reconstitute the notion of collective cultural
identity itself in historical, subjective and symbolic terms. Col-
lective cultural identity refers not to a uniformity of elements over
generations but to a sense of continuity on the part of successive
generations of a given cultural unit of population, to shared
memories of earlier events and periods in the history of that unit
and to notions entertained by each generation about the collective
destiny of that unit and its culture. Changes in cultural identities
therefore refer to the degree to which traumatic developments dis-
turb the basic patterning of the cultural elements that make up the
sense of continuity, shared memories and notions of collective des-
tiny of given cultural units of population. The question is how far
such developments disrupt or alter the fundamental patterns of
myth, symbol, memory and value that bind successive generations
of members together while demarcating them from 'outsiders' and
around which congeal the lines of cultural differentiation that serve
as 'cultural markers' of boundary regulation. 16
We may illustrate these points by considering briefly some cases
of disruptive culture change that nevertheless renewed, rather than
destroyed, the sense of common ethnicity and its identity as we

25
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

defined it above. Typical events that generate profound changes in

the cultural contents of such identity include war and conquest,
exile and enslavement, the influx of immigrants and religious
conversion. The Persians, at least from the Sassanid period, were
subjected to conquest by Arabs, Turks and others, were gradually
converted to Islam and experienced more than one influx of immi-
grants. Yet, despite all the changes of collective cultural identity
consequent on these processes, a Persian sense of distinctive ethnic
identity persisted, and at times received a new lease of life, notably in
the renaissance of the New Persian linguistic and literary revival of
the tenth and eleventh centuries.' 7 The Armenians too experienced
traumatic events that had profound consequences for the cultural
contents of their ethnic identity. They were the first constituted
kingdom and people to convert to Christianity, were fought over
by Sassanids and Byzantines, were defeated, excluded and partly
exiled, received considerable influxes of immigrants and were finally
subjected to mass deportation and genocide in part of their home-
land. Yet, despite changes in location, economic activities, social
organization and parts of their culture over the centuries, a sense of
common Armenian identity has remained throughout their diaspora,
and the forms of their antecedent culture, notably in the sphere ot
religion and language/script, have ensured a subjective attachment
to their cultural identity and separation from their surroundings.' 8
These examples suggest the further observation that a combina-
tion of often adverse external factors and a rich inner or 'ethno'-
history may help to crystallize and perpetuate ethnic identities. If
the origins of cultural differentiation itself are lost in the last states
of prehistory, we may at least attempt to isolate those recurrent
forces that appear to coalesce the sense of ethnic identification and
ensure its persistence over long periods.
Of these, state-making, military mobilization and organized re-
ligion appear to be crucial. Long ago Weber commented on the
importance of political action for ethnic formation and persistence,
arguing 'It is primarily the political community, no matter how
artificially organized, that inspires the belief in common ethnicity.' 19
It is possible to exaggerate the role of state-making in ethnic crystal-
lization (one thinks of the failure of Burgundy, and the qualified
success of Prussia); yet, clearly, the foundation of a unified polity, as

26
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

in ancient Egypt, Israel, R o m e , Sassanid Persia, Japan and China,

not to mention France, Spain and England, played a major role in
the development of a sense of ethnic community and, ultimately, of
cohesive nations. 20
Warfare is, if anything, even more important. Not only does
'war make the state (and the state makes war)', as Tilly declared; it
fashions ethnic communities not only from the contestants but even
from third parties across whose territories such wars arc often con-
ducted. The case of ancient Israel is only the most striking, caught as
it was between the great powers of the ancient Near East, Assyria
and Egypt. Armenians, Swiss, Czechs, Kurds and Sikhs afford other
instances of strategically located communities whose sense of
common ethnicity, even when it did not originate from these events,
was crystallized time and again by the impact of protracted warfare
between foreign powers in which they were caught up. As for the
contestants themselves, we need note only the frequency with which
ethnies are antagonistically paired: French and English, Greeks and
Persians, Byzantines and Sassanids, Egyptians and Assyrians, Khmers
and Vietnamese, Arabs and Israelis . . . While it would be an exag-
geration to deduce the sense of common ethnicity from the fear of
the 'outsider' and paired antagonisms, there is no denying the central
role of warfare, not, as Simmel suggested, as a crucible of ethnic
cohesion (war may fracture that cohesion, as it did in the Great War
in some European countries) but as a mobilizer of ethnic sentiments
and national consciousness, a centralizing force in the life of the
community and a provider of myths and memories for future genera-
tions. It is perhaps this last function that enters most deeply into the
constitution of ethnic identity. 21
As for organized religion, its role is both spiritual and social. The
myth of common ethnic origins is often intertwined with creation
myths - such as that of Deucalion and Pyrrha in Hesiod's Theogony
and that of Noah in the Bible — or at least presupposes them. Very
often the heroes of the ethnic community are also those of religious
lore and tradition, albeit treated as 'servants of God' rather than
ethnic founders or leaders, as was the case with Moses, Zoroaster,
Muhammad, St Gregory, St Patrick and many others. The liturgy
and rites of the Church or community of the faithful supply the
texts, prayers, chants, feasts, ceremonies and customs, sometimes

27
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

even the scripts, of distinctive ethnic communities, setting them

apart from neighbours. And over all this heritage of cultural differ-
ence stand the 'guardians of the tradition', the priests, scribes and
bards who record, preserve and transmit the fund of ethnic myths,
memories, symbols and values encased in sacred traditions command-
ing the veneration of the populace through temple and church,
monastery and school, into every town and village within the realm
of the culture—community. 22
State-making, protracted warfare and organized religion, though
they figure prominently in the historical record of ethnic crystalliz-
ation and persistence, may also operate to break up, or cut across,
ethnic identifications. This happened when empires like those of
Assyria and Achaemenid Persia created the conditions for a sustained
intermingling of ethnic categories and communities in an Aramaic-
speaking and syncretistic civilization, and when prolonged wars and
rivalries put an end to ethnic states and communities like the Car-
thaginians and Normans (in Normandy). Ethnic identity also de-
veloped when religious movements burst across ethnic frontiers and
founded great supra-territorial organizations, Buddhist, Catholic or
Orthodox, or conversely, through schism, divided the members of
ethnic communities such as the Swiss or Irish. Yet, for all these
cases, we may find many more that confirm the close links between
ethnic crystallization and the antecedent role of states, warfare and
organized religion.

ETHNIC CHANGE, DISSOLUTION AND SURVIVAL

The importance of these and other factors can also be seen when we
turn to the closely related questions of how ethnies change in charac-
ter, dissolve or survive.
Let me start with ethnic change and with a well-known example,
that of the Greeks. Modern Greeks are taught that they are the heirs
and descendants not merely of Greek Byzantium, but also of the
ancient Greeks and their classical Hellenic civilization. In both cases
(and there have in fact been two, rival, myths of descent at work
since the early nineteenth century), 'descent' was seen in largely
demographic terms; or rather, cultural affinity with Byzantium and
ancient Greece (notably Athens) was predicated on demographic

28
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

continuity. Unfortunately for the classicist Hellenic myth, the

demographic evidence is at best tenuous, at worst non-existent. As
Jacob Fallmereyer demonstrated long ago, Greek demographic con-
tinuity was brutally interrupted in the late sixth to eighth centuries
AD by massive influxes of Avar, Slav and, later, Albanian immi-
grants. The evidence from the period suggests that the immigrants
succeeded in occupying most of central Greece and the Péloponnèse
(Morea), pushing the original Greek-speaking and Hellenic inhabi-
tants (themselves already intermingled with earlier Macedonian,
Roman and other migrants) to the coastal areas and the islands of
the Aegean. This shifted the centre of a truly Hellenic civilization to
the cast, to the Aegean, the Ionian littoral of Asia Minor and to
Constantinople. It also meant that modern Greeks could hardly
count as being of ancient Greek descent, even if this could never be
ruled out. 23
There is a sense in which the preceding discussion is both relevant
to a sense of Greek identity, now and earlier, and irrelevant. It is
relevant in so far as Greeks, now and earlier, felt that their 'Greekncss'
was a product of their descent from the ancient Greeks (or Byzantine
Greeks), and that such filiation made them feel themselves to be
members of one great 'super-family' of Greeks, shared sentiments of
continuity and membership being essential to a lively sense of iden-
tity. It is irrelevant in that ethnies are constituted, not by lines of
physical descent, but by the sense of continuity, shared memory and
collective destiny, i.e. by lines of cultural affinity embodied in
distinctive myths, memories, symbols and values retained by a given
cultural unit of population. In that sense much has been retained,
and revived, from the extant heritage of ancient Greece. For, even
at the time of Slavic migrations, in Ionia and especially in Con-
stantinople, there was a growing emphasis on the Greek language,
on Greek philosophy and literature, and on classical models of
diought and scholarship. Such a 'Greek revival' was to surface again
in the tenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as subsequently, provid-
ing a powerful impetus to the sense of cultural affinity with ancient
Greece and its classical heritage. 24
This is not to deny for one moment cither the enormous cultural
changes undergone by the Greeks despite a surviving sense of
common ethnicity or the cultural influence of surrounding peoples

29
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

and civilizations over two thousand years. At the same time in

terms of script and language, certain values, a particular environment
and its nostalgia, continuous social interactions, and a sense of religi-
ous and cultural difference, even exclusion, a sense of Greek identity
and common sentiments of ethnicity can be said to have persisted
beneath the many social and political changes of the last two thou-
sand years.35
I shall return in a moment to the role of ethnic exclusion in
ensuring ethnic persistence. For the present I want to look at the
other side of the coin: ethnic dissolution. We say how ethnies can be
dissolved through fission or proliferation. But in a sense the ethnic
community remains in some form in such cases — smaller, perhaps,
or reduplicated, but none the less still 'in the field'. Can we then
speak of ethnic extinction — the disappearance of an ethnie, not just
in the form it possessed until that point but in any form?
I think we can if we hold to the historical, cultural and symbolic
criteria of ethnic identity I have been employing. There are two
main kinds of ethnic extinction in the full sense: genocide and
ethnocide, which is sometimes - at times misleadingly — called
'cultural genocide'. In one sense genocide is a rare and probably
modern phenomenon. It includes those cases where we know that
mass death of a cultural group was premeditated and the basis of
that targeting was exclusively the existence and membership of that
cultural group. Nazi policies towards the Jews and a part of the
Gypsies were of this kind; so perhaps were European actions towards
the Tasmanian Aborigines, and the Turkish actions in Turkish Ar-
menia. 26 Other policies and actions were genocidal in their conse-
quences rather than their intentions; such ethnic destruction occurred
when the American Whites encountered the American Indians, and
when the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Aztec and other
Indian populations of Mexico (though here disease played a larger
part). In these cases ethnic extinction was not deliberately aimed at,
yet no attempt was made to mitigate those policies whose side-
effect was genocidal. These genocidal actions need to be distin-
guished again from large-scale massacres like those by the Mongols
in the thirteenth century or in modern times by the Soviets and
Nazis of selected populations (for example, the Katyn massacre or
the reprisals of Lidice and Oradour), which are designed to break a

30
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

spirit of resistance by terrifying the civilian population or rendering

it leaderless.27
The interesting point about genocide and genocidal actions, at
least in modern times, is how rarely they achieve their stated goals
or unintended consequences. They rarely extinguish ethnies or ethnic
categories. In fact they may do the opposite, reviving ethnic co-
hesion and consciousness, or helping to crystallize it, as they did with
the Aborigines' movement or Romany Gypsy nationalism. Perhaps
there are deep-rooted facets of modernity that both encourage and
preclude successful genocide (where success is measured by total
extinction), and this may have much to do with the conditions and
diffusion of nationalism. It may have been easier to destroy an ethnie
in pre-modern times. At any rate, when at last the Romans decided
to destroy Carthage once and for all they erased the city and mass-
acred three quarters of its population, selling off the rest into slavery.
Though vestiges of Punic culture persisted till the time of St Augus-
tine, the Carthaginians as a western Phoenician ethnie and ethnic
state were extinguished. 28
The same fate awaited several peoples of the ancient world, includ-
ing the Hittites, Philistines, Phoenicians (of Lebanon) and Elamites.
In each case loss of political power and independence presaged
ethnic extinction, but usually through cultural absorption and ethnic
intermingling. These are cases of ethnocide rather than genocide,
despite the drama of the political events that precipitated them.
When he destroyed Susa and eliminated the Elamite state from
politics in 636 BC Asshur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, did not set
about exterminating every Elamite (the Assyrians in fact usually
deported the élites of the peoples they conquered). Yet so massive
was the act of destruction that Elam never recovered, new peoples
settled within its borders, and, though its language persisted into the
Achaemenid Persian period, no Elamite community or state re-
emerged to sustain the myths, memories, values and symbols of
Elamite religion and culture. 29
The fate of Assyria itself was even more swift and dramatic.
Nineveh fell in 612 BC to a combined onslaught of Cyaxares' Medes
and Nabopolassar's Babylonians, and her last prince, Asshur-uballit,
was defeated at Harran three years later. Thereafter, we hear little of
'Assyria'. Its gods were received by Cyrus back into the pantheon at

31
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Babylon, but there is no further mention of state or people, and

when Xenophon's army marched through the province of Assyria
he found all her cities in ruins with the exception of Erbil. Was this
a case of genocidal actions or even genocide? 3°
It is unlikely. The goal of Assyria's enemies was destruction of
her hated rule. That meant destroying her major cities so that there
was no chance of a revival of her political fortunes. True, Nabo-
polassar talked about 'turning the hostile land into heaps and ruins',
but this did not mean exterminating every Assyrian, even if this had
been feasible. Perhaps the Assyrian élites were evicted; but, in any
case, in terms of religion and culture they were less and less differ-
entiated from the Babylonian civilization they sought to emulate.
Besides, the latter days of the vast Assyrian empire witnessed severe
social divisions both in the army and the countryside, and consider-
able ethnic intermingling in the empire's heartlands, and use of an
Aramaic lingua franca for commercial and administrative purposes
following a large influx of Arameans. Hence the ethnic dis-
tinctiveness of the Assyrians was severely compromised well before
the downfall of the empire, and cultural syncretism and ethnic
intermingling helped to ensure the attenuation and absorption of
the Assyrian ethnic community and its culture by the surrounding
peoples and cultures. 31
As with the Phoenicians, Elamites and others, the relatively swift
disappearance of an Assyrian culture and community must be seen
as an example of ethnocide. In the ancient world at least, destruction
of a community's or state's gods and temples was seen as the means
of destroying the community itself; that seems to have been the aim
of the Persians when they destroyed the Babylonian temples in 482
BC, and perhaps of the Romans when they destroyed the Temple in
Jerusalem in AD 70.1Z The aim in all such cases was the eradication
of the group's culture, rather than the group itself, and it differs in
its intended effects from the much slower, unplanned processes of
cultural absorption which have undermined many small ethnic
categories and communities.
History is replete with instances of unintended cultural absorption
and ethnic dissolution. Engels, surveying the ethnic map of Europe
in 1859, referred to these dying ethnic cultures and communities as
so many 'ethnographic monuments', which he hoped would soon

32
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

disappear to make way for the large capitalist nation-state. He has,

in fact, been largely disappointed. At the same time the diminution
of many former ethnies, and the attenuation of their sentiments, as
in the cases of the Occitanic, Sorbs, Wends and many others, dem-
onstrates these widespread processes of gradual absorption through
incorporation and fragmentation.
But, equally, they suggest the other side of the coin - the dura-
bility of ethnic tics, the longevity of their cultures and the persistence
of collective identities and even communities over several centuries.
If ethnic boundaries and cultural contents undergo periodic change,
how shall we account for ethnic survival potential, sometimes across
millennia?
Again, it is useful to consider a well-known example. Jews trace
their ancestry to Abraham, their liberation to the Exodus, their
founding charter to Mount Sinai, and their golden age to (vari-
ously) the Davidic and Solomonic kingdom or the era of the sages
in the late Second Temple period and after. These arc all myths in
the sense outlined above, and they retain their religious potency
today. But their potency is not only religious. They remain, even
for secular Jews, charters of their ethnic identity. Here, too, as with
the Greeks and Armenians, the Irish and Ethiopians, there is a felt
filiation, as well as a cultural affinity, with a remote past in which a
community was formed, a community that despite all the changes it
has undergone, is still in some sense recognized as the 'same' com-
munity. To what is this sense of continuity, of shared memory and
of collective destiny owed?
The simple answer, that peoples survive in some form because they
are rooted in their homelands and enjoy a large measure of independ-
ent statehood, will clearly not do in the Jewish case. The Jews have
been exiled from both for nearly two thousand years. Not that either
is unimportant to the Jewish sense of identity; but both figure more as
symbol than as living memory. Certainly this is true of statehood, the
Hasmonean being the last truly independent Jewish state — unless we
include the kingdom of the Khazars. The land of Israel was at times
more than a symbol of messianic restoration; groups of Jews made
their way there from time to time and founded synagogues. Yet here
too the yearning for Zion was often more spiritual than actual, a
vision of perfection in a restored land and city. 33

33
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Another common view, which this time is directed specifically to

diaspora peoples, is that their survival depends on their ability to
find a distinct economic niche in host societies, usually as middlemen
or artisans, between military and agrarian elites and the peasant
masses. That Jews, Greeks and Armenians, like Lebanese and Chinese
traders, found such niches in medieval European and early modern
societies is not in question and neither is the role of such occupational
niches in reinforcing residential patterns and cultural segregation
where these already exist. What is at issue is the method by which
the category 'occupational niche' is separated from the nexus of
conditions that make up typical diasporas and assigned a prior casual
weight in ensuring ethnic survival and status. Rather, as Armstrong
has argued, archetypal diasporas that stem from religious and cultural
differences must be seen as a totality of interrelated aspects and
dimensions in which occupational segregation and middleman status
serves to reinforce and articulate, but not necessarily to ensure,
ethnic difference and survival. Certainly, in Moorish Spain Jews
held every kind of occupational position, but their ethnic survival
was bound up with more fundamental religious and cultural distinc-
tions from their neighbours. 34
A more basic consideration stems from the earlier emphasis on
organized religion. In the case of diaspora communities, as of
sects-turned-ethnies like the Druse, Samaritans, Maronites and Sikhs,
religious rituals, liturgy and hierarchies have played a powerful
conserving role, ensuring a high degree of formal continuity between
generations and from community to community. Add to this the sep-
arating power of sacred languages and scripts, texts and calendars, and
the apparent mystery of millennial diaspora survival appears soluble.
But there are difficulties here, too. For one thing this says nothing
about the shape, size or location of the surviving community. The
Samaritans, for example, were till quite recently heading for ethnic
extinction, because after centuries of decimation endogamy could
no longer replenish their numbers. In the case of the Beta Israel (or
Falasha) of northern Ethiopia the attrition of their numbers in war,
and the isolation of their craftsman community, might have spelt
absorption had it not been for a wider Jewish ethnic self-renewal
and the rise of Zionism and the state of Israel.35
This thesis also says nothing about the vitality of the community.

34
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Religion may become petrified and antiquarian, as did the Assyrian

state religion; in that case, as we saw, it contributed nothing to the
chances of ethnic survival. The same inner decay can be found in
later Roman religion, as in the Pharaonic religion of Ptolemaic
Egypt. In neither case could we hang an argument for ethnic sur-
vival, let alone ethnic vitality, on any movement within the tra-
ditional religion.3fi
Religion, then, may preserve a sense of common ethnicity as if in
a chrysalis, at least for a period, as was the case with Greek Or-
thodoxy for the self-governing Greek Orthodox millet under Otto-
man rule. But unless new movements and currents stir the spirit
within the religious framework, its very conservatism may deaden
the ethnie or it may become a shell for an attenuated identity. 37
Clearly, organized religion by itself is not enough. What then are
the characteristic mechanisms of ethnic self-renewal? I would single
out four such mechanisms:

1. Religious reform Having accepted the importance of organized

religion for ethnic survival potential, we need to consider the role
of movements of religious reform in stimulating ethnic self-renewal.
In the case of the Jews there are a number of instances. These range
from the Prophetic and Deuteronomic movements in eighth-century
and seventh-century BC Judah to Ezra's reforms in the mid-fifth
century BC, the rise of Pharisaism and Mishnaic rabbinism in the
second century AD, right up to the Chassidic and neo-Orthodox
movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In each case
religious reform was intertwined with ethnic self-renewal; the com-
munity's mode of renewal was religiously inspired. 38
Conversely, failure of religious reform or petrified conservatism
may turn the modes of ethnic self-renewal elsewhere. This occurred
among the Greeks at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The
Greek Orthodox hierarchy in Constantinople became increasingly
remote from middle-class and popular aspirations, including those
of the lower clergy who supplied the revolt in the Morea with
some of its leaders. Here Greek aspirations found increasingly secular
ideological discourses for their goals. 39

2. Cultural borrowing In the wider field of culture ethnic survival

finds sustenance not from isolation but from selective borrowing

35
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

and controlled culture contact. Here again we can find an example

from Jewish history. The stimulus of Hellenistic culture, from the
time of Alexander on, provoked a lively encounter between Greek
and Jewish thought that, though it had fierce political repercussions,
strengthened through enrichment the whole field of Jewish culture
and identity. 40 There are many other examples of the ways in
which external cultural stimuli and contacts have renewed the sense
of ethnic identity through selective cultural appropriation;
nineteenth-century Japan, Russia and Egypt afford well-known cases.

3. Popular participation Socially, too, we can discern modes of ethnic

self-renewal in the movements of social strata and classes. Of these,
the most relevant are popular movements for greater participation
in the cultural or political hierarchy. The great socio-religious popu-
lar movement of the Mazdakites in fifth-century Sassanid Persia
renewed the severely damaged fabric of Sassanid Persian and Zoro-
astrian community at the same time as it undermined the foun-
dations of the Sassanid state. This in turn provoked a repressive, but
also ethnically regenerative, movement under Chosroes I in the sixth
century, which included the codification of the basis of the Book of
Kings, a return to Iranian mythology and ritual, and a national revival
in literature, protocol, learning and the arts. 41 The popular move-
ments in Judaism, from the Mosaic era to the Chassidim just men-
tioned, also served to renew a demotic ethnie through enthusiastic
popular participation and missionary zeal. The same is true of various
popular movements in Islam, including its foundation and the move-
ments of Sunni or Shi'ite purification and messianism to this day,
such as Wahhabism, Mahdism and the Shi'ite revolution in Iran. 42

4. Myths of ethnic election In many ways myths of ethnic chosenness

go to the heart of the modes of ethnic self-renewal and hence
survival. What we notice, first of all, is that ethnies that, for all their
cthnocentrism towards others, lacked such myths (or failed to instil
them in the general population) tended to be absorbed by other
communities after losing their independence. This may of course be
an argument from silence. Generally speaking, it is ethnies with
religious myths of ethnic election that possess the specialist classes
whose position and outlook are so heavily bound up with the success
and influence of election myths — and it is they who are often our

36
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

only literary witnesses. Nevertheless, when we consider the fate of

many ethnies that possessed such classes but boasted no such myth
of ethnic election (as opposed to royal election), then, as the cases of
Assyria, Phoenicia and the Philistines reveal, it is clear that their
chances of ethnic survival were considerably diminished.
This, of course, merely puts the onus of explanation back on to
the conditions which foster and sustain myths of ethnic election.
Yet such a method short-circuits the process of ethnic survival
through exclusive election. For what the myth of election promises
is a conditional salvation. This is vital for grasping its role in survival
potential. Its locus classicus is found in the book of Exodus: ' N o w
therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me from all the peoples;
for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation.' 43 To see oneself as potentially 'an holy
nation' is to link chosenness indissolubly with collective sanctifica-
tion. Salvation is accessible only through redemption, which in turn
requires a return to former ways and beliefs, which are the means of
sanctification. Hence the recurrent note of 'return' in many ethno-
religious traditions that inspire movements of both religious reform
and cultural restoration. Given the ineluctable subjectivity of ethnic
identification, this moral summons to re-sanctify the potential elect
provides a powerful mechanism for ethnic self-renewal and hence
long-term survival. This is certainly one key to the problem of
Jewish survival in the face of adversity, but we can also trace its
revitalizing effects among other peoples - Amharic Ethiopians, Ar-
menians, Greeks converted to Orthodoxy, Orthodox Russians,
Druse, Sikhs, as well as various European ethnies like the Poles,
Germans, French, English, Castilians, Irish, Scots and Welsh, to
name a few. So widespread a phenomenon clearly bears more
thorough-going investigation. 44

'ETHNIC C O R E S ' AND THE F O R M A T I O N OF NATIONS

Religious reform, cultural borrowing, popular participation and

myths of ethnic election: these are some of the mechanisms that,
along with location, autonomy, polyglot and trading skills and
organized religion, help to ensure the survival of certain ethnic

37
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

communities across the centuries despite many changes in their

social composition and cultural contents. These cases again bring us
up sharply against the central paradox of ethnicity: the coexistence
of flux and durability, of an ever-changing individual and cultural
expression within distinct social and cultural parameters. The latter
take the form of a heritage and traditions received from one genera-
tion to another, but in slightly or considerably changed form, which
set limits to the community's outlook and cultural contents. A
certain tradition of images, cults, customs, rites and artefacts, as well
as certain events, heroes, landscapes and values, come to form a
distinctive repository of ethnic culture, to be drawn upon selectively
by successive generations of the community.
How do such traditions influence subsequent generations? In pre-
modern communities it is the priests, scribes and bards, often or-
ganized into guilds and castes, who recount, re-enact and codify
traditions. Often as the only literate strata, and being necessary for
intercession with divine forces, priests, scribes and bards achieve
considerable influence and prestige in many communities. Organized
in their brotherhoods and temples and churches, they form a net-
work of socialization in the major towns and much of the surround-
ing countryside - depending upon their degree of organization and
mental monopoly in the community's territory. Indeed, in many
ancient and medieval empires priesthoods and their temple and
scribal infrastructure formed indispensable partners in government
and/or rival centres of power to the Court and bureaucracy, especially
in ancient Egypt and Sassanid Persia.45
Even in diaspora communities we find the priests, rabbis and
doctors of law, organized along more or less centralized lines, form-
ing an encompassing network of tribunals and counsel, and endow-
ing far-flung enclaves with religious, legal and cultural unity in the
face of an often hostile environment. Especially among Jews and
Armenians, as Armstrong has demonstrated, this highly evolved
network of religious officials and institutions was able to ensure the
subjective unity and survival of the community and its historical
and religious traditions. 46
It is through such unifying and embracing mechanisms that what
we may term 'ethnic cores' are gradually built up. These are fairly
cohesive and self-consciously distinctive ethnies which form the

38
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

kernel and basis of states and kingdoms such as the barbarian regna
of the early medieval era. Among the kingdoms of the Franks,
Lombards, Saxons, Scots and Visigoths the sense of a community of
customs and common descent played a vital role, despite the fact
that many of their inhabitants did not belong to the dominant
ethnic community. Nevertheless, in popular perception, such regna
were seen as increasingly communal and possessed of a unifying
cultural basis.47 By the later medieval period these subjectively
unified communities of culture formed the core around which large
and powerful states erected their administrative, judicial, fiscal and
military apparatus, and proceeded to annex adjacent territories and
their culturally different populations. Under Edward I, for example,
the English (Anglo-Norman) state expanded into Wales, destroying
the Welsh kingdoms and bringing most Welshmen into the realm
as a peripheral cultural community under the domination of the
English state. Something similar happened in France under Louis
VIII to the pays d'oc, notably the County of Toulouse, at the time of
the Albigensian Crusade. 48
Locating such ethnic cores tells us a good deal about the subse-
quent shape and character of nations - if (and when) such nations
emerge. It helps us to answer in large part the question: who is the
nation? and to some extent: where is the nation? That is to say, a
state's ethnic core often shapes the character and boundaries of the
nation; for it is very often on the basis of such a core that states
coalesce to form nations. Though most latter-day nations are, in
fact, polyethnic, or rather most nation-states are polyethnic, many
have been formed in the first place around a dominant ethnie, which
annexed or attracted other ethnies or ethnic fragments into the state
to which it gave a name and a cultural charter. For, since ethnies are
by definition associated with a given territory, not infrequently a
chosen people with a particular sacred land, the presumed boundaries
of the nation are largely determined by the myths and memories of
the dominant ethnie, which include the foundation charter, the
myth of the golden age and the associated territorial claims, or
ethnic title-deeds. Hence the many conflicts, even today, for
sundered parts of the ethnic homeland, — in Armenia, in Kosovo, in
Israel and Palestine, in the Ogaden, and elsewhere.
Both the close relationship and the differences between the

39
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

concepts of ethnie and nation and their historical referents may also
be seen by recalling our definition of the nation. A nation, it was
argued, is a named human population sharing an historic territory, common
myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy
and common legal rights and duties for all members. By definition the
nation is a community of common myths and memories, as is an
ethnic. It is also a territorial community. But whereas in the case of
ethnies the link with a territory may be only historical and symbolic,
in the case of the nation it is physical and actual: nations possess
territories. In other words nations always require ethnic 'elements'.
These may, of course, be reworked; they often are. But nations are
inconceivable without some common myths and memories of a
territorial home.
This suggests a certain circularity in the argument that nations are
formed on the basis of ethnic cores. There is, indeed, considerable
historical and conceptual overlap between ethnies and nations. Never-
theless, we are dealing with different concepts and historical forma-
tions. Fthnic communities do not have several of the attributes of
the nation. They need not be resident in 'their' territorial homeland.
Their culture may not be public or common to all the members.
They need not, and often do not, exhibit a common division of
labour or economic unity. Nor need they have common legal codes
with common rights and duties for all. As we shall see, these attri-
butes of nations are products of particular social and historical con-
ditions working upon antecedent ethnic cores and ethnic minorities.
On the other side of the picture we should note the possibility of
forming nations without immediate antecedent ethnie. In several
states nations are being formed through an attempt to coalesce the
cultures of successive waves of (mainly European) immigrants — in
America, Argentina and Australia. In other cases states were formed
out of the provinces of empires which had imposed a common
language and religion, notably in Latin America. Here, too, creole
élites began a process of nation-formation in the absence of a dis-
tinctive ethnie. In fact, as nation-formation proceeded it was found
necessary to fashion a distinctively Mexican, Chilean, Bolivian, etc.
culture, and to emphasize the specific characteristics - in terms of
separate symbols, values, memories, etc. — of each would-be
nation/ 9

40
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

The dilemma is even sharper in sub-Saharan Africa, whose states

were created, if not deliberately across ethnies, at least with little
reference to them. Here the colonial states had to foster a purely
territorial patriotism, a sense of political loyalty to the newly created
states and their embryonic political communities. In the independent
states born of these territorial communities several ethnies, ethnic
fragments and ethnic categories were drawn together by political
regulation and social boundaries that had come to include previously
unrelated groups in the post-colonial political system, and had
brought them, even against their will, into a new struggle for scarce
resources and political power. In these circumstances the ruling
élites, who may often have been recruited from a dominant ethnie
or coalition of ethnic groupings, were tempted to fashion a new
political mythology and symbolic order not only to legitimate their
often authoritarian regimes, but also to head off threats of endemic
ethnic conflict and even movements of secession. In these cases the
state is utilized to fashion the 'civil religion' whose myths, memories,
symbols and the like will provide the functional equivalent of a
missing or defective dominant ethnie. So the project of nation-
formation in sub-Saharan Africa suggests the creation of the com-
ponents of a new ethnic identity and consciousness that will sub-
sume, by drawing together, some of the loyalties and cultures of the
existing ethnies. At least that has been the national 'project' of many
Africian and Asian élites.50
This means that the relationship of modern nations to any ethnic
core is problematic and uncertain. Why then should we seek the
origins of the nation in pre-modern ethnic ties when not every
modern nation can point back to an ethnic base? There are, I think,
three reasons why we should do so.
The first is that, historically, the first nations were, as we shall sec,
formed on the basis of pre-modern ethnic cores; and, being powerful
and culturally influential, they provided models for subsequent cases
of the formation of nations in many parts of the globe.
The second reason is that the ethnic model of the nation became
increasingly popular and widespread not only for the foregoing reason,
but also because it sat so easily on the pre-modern 'demotic' kind of
community that had survived into the modern era in so many parts of
the world. In other words the ethnic model was sociologically fertile.

41
 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

And third, even where a nation-to-be could boast no ethnic

antecedents of importance and where any ethnic tics were shadowy
or fabricated, the need to forge out of whatever cultural components
were available a coherent mythology and symbolism of a com-
munity of history and culture became everywhere paramount as a
condition of national survival and unity. Without some ethnic
lineage the nation-to-be could fall apart. These three factors in the
formation of nations provide the point of departure for our analysis
in the next two chapters.
 CHAPTER 3
The Rise of Nations

If the presence and reconstruction of ethnic ties and pasts tends to

determine which units of population are eligible and likely to
become nations, it tells us little about why and how this transforma-
tion comes about. To answer the question: what are the general
causes and mechanisms of the formation of nations on the basis of
variable ethnic ties and memories? we need to examine the main
patterns in the formation of identities, and the broad changes that
promoted their development.
In this context the term 'formation of nations' is significant. It
reminds us that though for convenience we delimit and define a
specific concept of the nation, we are in fact dealing with a complex
set of processes over time rather than with fixed 'essences'. In chapter
I the complex and abstract nature of the concept of 'national iden-
tity' was highlighted. As a named human population sharing an historic
territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a
common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members, the
nation is a multidimensional concept, an ideal type that provides a
standard or touchstone which concrete examples imitate in vary-
ing degrees. We must expect individual examples to show consider-
able variation in the degree to which different processes, along the
several dimensions, have developed and combined to produce an
approximation to the ideal type of the nation. It is necessary to bear
this in mind when we explore the causes and mechanisms of the
emergence of nations.

NATIONS BEFORE NATIONALISM?

I mentioned, at the beginning of chapter 2, the nationalist belief that

nations have existed from time immemorial, though often in pro-
longed slumber. To the nationalist, as to an earlier generation of
scholars, there was therefore no special problem about the origins and
causes of nations, no need to explore the processes of their formation.

43
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

Nations were perennial; only their degree of sclf-awarcncss and

activism varied. 1
Against this familiar older view a modern generation of scholars
has demonstrated the contingency of nations and nationalism in
history, and their relative modernity. For most scholars, nationalism,
the movement and ideology, can be dated to the late eighteenth
century. Before the period leading up to the French Revolution we
have only fleeting expressions of a national sentiment, and vague
intimations of the central ideas of nationalism, with its emphasis on
the autonomy of culturally distinctive nations. Even the nation is a
purely modern construct, though here there is considerable disagree-
ment among 'modernists' as to the period of its emergence in
Europe, with some favouring the eighteenth century or earlier and
others preferring the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,
when the masses were finally 'nationalized' and women en-
franchised. Clearly, among the modernists — those who claim the
nation is wholly 'modern' — different ideas of the nation are at
work. 2
Nevertheless, if the modernists are right there can be neither
nations nor nationalism in pre-modern eras. The conditions that
have brought the nation into being were absent in antiquity and the
middle ages, and the differences between pre-modern and modern
collective cultural identities are too great to be subsumed under a
single concept of the nation. Mass 'citizen-nations' can only emerge
in the era of industrialism and democracy. 3
There is much truth in this view, but it needs to be qualified in
important ways. It presumes that a single criterion, the inclusion of
the masses and women, is decisive for determining the emergence
and presence of the nation. This is unduly restrictive, if not mislead-
ing. Besides, by this criterion units of population which mobilized
the masses for military and political activity would constitute nations
- shall we then call the early Sumerian city-states or the early Swiss
cantons nations? Shall we deny the appellation of nation to the
ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, simply because the masses were
excluded from political activity or representation? Is this not to
impose a very Western concept of the nation on to quite different
areas and periods? 4
But can we escape doing just this, at least in some form and to

44
 THE RISF OF N A T I O N S

some degree? I think not. Even if we employ a more multidimen-

sional concept of the nation, like the one I have urged, in practice
we shall still be measuring differences between collective cultural
identities in prc-modcrn and modern periods through a number of
processes and dimensions. Let me try to illustrate what I mean.
We can start by asking whether there were nations and national-
ism in antiquity. Ancient Egypt is an obvious choice. The river Nile
and the surrounding deserts have endowed it with a fairly fixed and
compact territory, except to the south perhaps. Once unification of
Upper and Lower Egypt had been achieved the long history of
dynastic rule there gave contemporaries every impression of a
strong, unified bureaucratic state with the inhabitants subject to
a single Pharaonic code of laws, and with the river affording the
basis for a unified economic system. In terms of culture too, the
monopoly position of Pharaonic religion and customs lent Egyptians
of all classes a distinctive cultural profile at least till the final decline
of the state. 5
Here we seem to have a named population with a historic ter-
ritory, myths, memories and mass culture, and even a common
economy and legal code. Did not ancient Egypt approximate in
every sense to an ideal—typical nation, as much, if not more than,
Assyria, Safavid Persia or Tokugawa Japan?
There is no doubt that the ancient Egyptians, like the Assyrians,
Persians of the Safavid period and Japanese of the Tokugawa era,
constituted what I have termed an ethnie, with a corresponding
ethnocentrism. But they were in several important respects some
way from approximating the ideal type of the nation. Economically,
despite the trading unity promoted by the Nile, Egypt was divided
into regions and districts, with an economy based largely on village
subsistence farming. Legally, too, while all Egyptians were subject
to Pharaonic regulation there was not the least hint of shared rights
and duties, let alone any idea of citizenship such as one finds in
ancient Greece. Indeed, as in all these states, there were different
laws for different classes and strata, the priesthoods constituting a
category all to themselves. Education, too, was class divided, the
sons of the Egyptian nobility receiving quite separate training from
that provided by the scribal schools of the temples. Thus, while
there were common myths and memories as well as a common

45
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

pantheon and rituals that served to differentiate Egyptians from

other peoples, the public culture of the Pharaonic state operated
largely through the religious institutions, which were themselves
subject to divisions and were unable to compensate for the re-
gionalism that so often undermined the unity of the Egyptian state.
In later periods the growing division between the élites and the
peasantry and artisans led to disaffection with the old Pharaonic
temple religion and lower class resort to the new mystery cults and
ultimately Christianity. 6
We may perhaps characterize ancient Egypt more fruitfully as an
ethnic state than as a nation, as we have defined it. The ancient
Egyptian state signally failed to break free of its aristocratic and
priestly bases, unlike the French and British states. Like the other
ethnic states of Assyria, Persia and Japan, it failed to inculcate a
public culture in the middle and lower classes and made little attempt
to unify the population either through a single occupation system
throughout the territory or by prescribing common rights and
duties for all members of the kingdom. The ethnic state remained
the pre-modern equivalent of the modern nation, and it would need
a revolution to break the mould.
Can we speak, then, of an ancient Egyptian nationalism without
falling into a retrospective determinism? We know that Egyptian
monarchs, including Akhnaton, had a clear idea of Egypt as a
kingdom and (later) an empire, and Akhnaton's hymn to the sun
attributes value even to other peoples ('The Nile in heaven, it is for
the foreign peoples'). But such sentiments seem to have been
confined to the élites and to have been invoked to resist foreigners
and guard the old order. As the Theban prince, Kamose, who drove
out the Hyksos kings in c. 1580 Be put it:

I will grapple with them, and cut open their belly!

I will save Egypt and overthrow the Asiatics!7

If nationalism signified merely resistance to cultural and political

outsiders, then Kamose and his successors were nationalists, and
nationalism can be found in every era and continent. But if by
nationalism we wish to designate ideologies and movements that
presuppose a world of nations, each with its own character, and a

46
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

primary allegiance to the nation as the sole source of political power

and the basis of world order, then we shall be hard put to find
movements inspired by such ideals in the ancient, or medieval,
worlds, let alone in ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt, then, presents us with a clear example of an
ethnic state where there is a close fit between the dynastic state and
a population with a relatively homogeneous historical culture. Only
Japan could boast a similar degree of ethnic homogeneity, despite
the presence of Ainu and Korean minorities. Other ethnic states -
Assyria, Elam, Urartu, Persia, China — soon annexed outlying areas
with culturally different peoples or invited (or deported) outsiders
into their homelands and allowed them to intermarry with the
dominant ethnic community.
In assessing the degree to which nations or nationalisms are present
in the ancient world, we are greatly hampered by lack of evidence,
even from the small ruling strata. Perhaps this is one reason why, in
the two cases where we have more evidence, we are more prepared
to admit the possibility of nations and nationalisms.
I refer, of course, to ancient Greece and Israel. Here, if anywhere,
we might expect to confront a strong sense of national identity and
an equally vivid nationalism. Yet even here the evidence is at best am-
biguous.
We have already seen how such unity as there was among ancient
Greeks was strictly cultural rather than political. In fact, the cultural
picture is even more complex, because the ethnic divisions within
the wider Hellenic ethnic community, the cleavages between
Ionians, Aeolians, Boeotians and Dorians, also played a role in social
and even political life. The distinction between Dorian 'fortitude'
and Ionian 'refinement' could be invoked (usually negatively as
'uncouth strength' and 'effeminacy') by the parties to the Pelopon-
nesian War in the quest for allies and justifications. This diversity
also played an important role in social and religious life; tribal
divisions, religious rituals, calendars and artistic forms varied with
each ethnic category. Yet even these divisions did not constitute
effective communities, since each was subdivided into poleis, the
city-states that commanded a Greek's primary allegiance and that,
despite the later amphictyonies, never ceased to do so. 8
This is also the main reason for the failure of ancient Greeks to

47
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

evince more than a semblance of nationalism. Once again, as in

ancient Egypt, we are dealing with the typical cthnoccntrism dis-
played by most cultural communities in antiquity, an cthnoccntrism
that in moments of crisis could impel the constituent parts of the
Hellenic cultural community (in fact by no means all of them) to
come together to resist the common enemy. Successful resistance to
Persia did in fact inspire panhellenic cultural sentiments and fuel the
sense of Greek superiority to 'enslaved' barbarians - but it singularly
failed to unite them, despite the efforts of Kimon and Pericles, in the
crusade against Persia. Persian gold remained more potent than pan-
Greek sentiment. 9
There was perhaps greater unity and more nationalism among
the Jews of Judea. This was a relatively late development. Ancient
Israel had undoubtedly drawn on common myths of origin, shared
memories and traditions, and a common religious culture. But its
unity had been fractured by tribal divisions and the simmering
conflict between the northern and southern tribal regions. Repeated
wars with Canaanites and Philistines engendered some political
unity, but it was really the Jerusalem priesthood and the prophetic
movement that stemmed the tide of cultural assimilation after the
fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. Similarly, it was
the reforms of Ezra and the political measures of Nehemiah that
preserved the Judean commonwealth in the Achaemenid empire
and under their successors, the Ptolemies. In the great crisis of
Hellenization that ensued, and that the measures of the Seleucid
Antiochus Epiphanes exacerbated, these religious currents once again
turned the tide of cultural assimilation under the Maccabees, the
Pharisees and Zealots and finally the Rabbis and Sages.10
But, even here, can we speak of a Jewish nation and Jewish
nationalism? Are we to view the Maccabees and Zealots as early
examples of latterday nationalist guerrillas and freedom fighters?
The difficulty in arriving at a clear answer lies in the near-identity
in Jewish thought and practice of what we consider to be separate,
namely the religious community and the nation with religious mes-
sianism and nationalism. For the Zealots, in particular, the land of
Israel belonged to God and was therefore inalienable. It was the
duty of every Jew to recover it from the Romans as a prelude to
the end of days. Such eschatological hopes were focused on the

48
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

realization of the Covenant between Israel and the Lord. The

messianic promise of God's kingdom on earth would be fulfilled in
a Jewish theocracy in the land of Israel. In this conception no
distinction was possible between a Jewish nation and the religious
community of Israel, or between Jewish messianism and the aspira-
tions of the Jewish people."
Though, as we shall see, nationalism is a fundamentally secular
ideology, there is nothing unusual about a religious nationalism. Not
only have nationalists often found it necessary to appeal to the
religious sentiments of the masses, but they have also found it
relatively easy to identify the nation with the religious community
wherever the latter defines the circle of the ethnic community, as in
Sri Lanka, Armenia, Poland and Ireland. But in these latter cases the
invocation of the ethno-religious community occurs self-consciously
in the age of nationalism, whereas in the ancient Jewish case there
was no European or worldwide tradition of nationalist ideas to
draw on, and hence no ideology of the nation per se. From what we
know of the period it is unlikely that the Zealots of first-century AD
Judea (or any other Jew) entertained the possibility of a secular
concept of the nation separate from Judaism. But arguments from
silence must be treated with caution.' 2
Can we speak, perhaps, of a Jewish nation in the period of the
Second Temple? There was certainly a vivid sense of common
ethnicity embodied in a common name and myths of descent,
shared historical memories, a fervent attachment to the land, and
shared languages (Hebrew and Aramaic) and common religious
culture. In other respects, however, the evidence is less clear. Though
the extent of the Land of Israel was set down by tradition ('from
Dan to Beersheba'), actual territorial extent and unity varied, with
Galilee and the coastal plain (and the southern Negev) standing
somewhat apart from the Judean centre. This entailed corresponding
economic divergences, despite the unifying role of the Temple as
entrepôt of merchandise. Galilee, in particular, was the largely self-
sufficient home of prosperous farmers (olive oil and vineyards were
favoured), especially in the later Mishnaic period. How far Jews in
the Hasmonean commonwealth were united by common civic rights
and duties is also unclear, but religious ordinances and duties applied
equally to all adult males, who, in theory at least, received the same

49
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

religious education. With the rise of the synagogue and the Pharisees,
local religious education became a reality for everyone, though it
was perhaps only in the subsequent Mishnaic period that the
common man (Am Ha-Aretz) came into his own in terms of legal
rights and duties. By then, of course, any remaining hopes of politi-
cal autonomy had been extinguished. 13
This suggests a closer approximation to the ideal type of the
nation among the Jews of the late Second Temple period than
perhaps anywhere else in the ancient world, and it must make us
wary of pronouncing too readily against the possibility of the nation,
and even a form of religious nationalism, before the onset of moder-
nity. The profound consequences of the concept of a chosen people,
the passionate attachment to sacred lands and centres, and the abiding
imprint of sacred languages and scriptures proved to be an enduring
legacy for many peoples from late antiquity to modern times, sustain-
ing their sense of uniqueness and nurturing their hopes of regencra-
tion.' 4
Can we then expect to find similar approximations in the medie-
val period? In fact several medieval kingdoms and peoples came to
see themselves as latterday 'children of Israel', chosen by God to
perform heroic feats through divinely inspired rulers - as com-
munities of common customs and descent, possessed of sacred lands
and centres.
In the West some of the barbarian regna that arose on the ruins of
the Roman empire claimed the prestige of lineal Trojan and/or
Biblical descent. Popular beliefs soon came to identify their com-
munities of common beliefs and descent with the illustrious pedi-
grees of their princely houses. Among the Visigoths, Saxons, Franks
and Normans there emerged a myth of ethnic election, which held
their rulers to be the successors of David and their communities the
heirs of ancient Israel. However the reality fell far short of the
model, both in terms of an ideology of the national cause and the
processes necessary for the formation of nations, whether cultural,
educational, legal, territorial or economic. It is only in the later
medieval era that such processes began to develop in a manner that
laid the basis for national formation and consciousness. I shall return
to these processes shortly. '5
At the other end of Europe, in Poland and Russia, similar regna

50
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

were established in the tenth to twelfth centuries, only to suffer

dismemberment and, in the Russian case, the 'Mongol captivity'.
Despite Slav predominance in both kingdoms, ethnic homogeneity
was never as great as in ancient Egypt or Judca, nor was there as
much economic or legal unification, let alone a public education
system. Only their linguistic and religious cultures, the one Catholic,
the other Orthodox, succeeded in crystallizing a sense of common
and distinctive ethnicity, abetted by the memories of their early
statehood under the Piasts and Rurikids (of Kievan Rus'). These
memories were to play an important role in the later formation and
definition of the Polish and Russian nations from the fifteenth
century on.' 6
If we are dealing with ethnic states rather than nations in Europe
before about AD 1300, can we speak of nationalism before the late
medieval era? Hardly, if we arc referring to an ideological movement
aiming to attain or maintain autonomy, unity and identity for a social
group which is deemed to constitute a nation. There are plenty of
expressions of ethnocentric sentiments in the early and high middle
ages, even if our records come mainly from clerical and bureaucratic
strata. But the ideas and activities we associate with nationalism are
generally lacking before the Anglo-French Wars and the breakup of
Western Christendom through the rival claims of powerful dynastic
states. Ideas and doctrines such as the cultural determination of
politics, auto-emancipation, the primacy of the nation and popular
sovereignty, had to wait until the seventeenth and eighteenth centur-
ies for more than fleeting expression, as did their translation into
nationalist activities and movements.' 7 Only with such oft-cited
expressions and movements as the Scots Declaration of Arbroath in
1320, or the Swiss Oath of the Riitli in 1291, renewed in 1307, does
a more activist note appear — a desire for autonomy based on
cultural difference and distinctive laws and customs of the people,
which echoes the religious sense of ethnic election (with Bruce cast
as 'another Maccabeus or Joshua') of the Maccabees and Zealots.
But though they inspired resistance such ideals did not, in the long
run, help to build a Scots or Swiss nation as part of a world of
nations.' 8

5i
 THE RISE OF NATIONS

TYPES OF ETHNIC COMMUNITY

It is clear that, whatever might be said of individual instances,
collective cultural communities in antiquity and the early middle
ages do not, on the whole, approximate to the ideal type of the
nation, nor do their ideals and sentiments typically express the ideas
and beliefs that we associate with nationalism in more recent periods.
H o w far this reflects our working definitions, and how far it mirrors
an important historical and sociological difference, must remain a
matter of interpretation. That such a difference is present in the
historical record seems clear enough; but its relative significance is a
matter of judgement. The very fact that inspection of that record
reveals considerable doubt suggests a greater continuity between
pre-modern ethnies and ethnocentrism and more modern nations and
nationalism than modernists of all kinds have been prepared to con-
cede.
This means that attempts to explain how and why nations
emerged must start from the ethnic ties and identities that have
commonly formed their cultural basis and that, as I hope to show,
have played an important part in the formation of the first and
subsequent nations.
My point of departure is a distinction that needs to be drawn
between two kinds of ethnic community, the 'lateral' and the 'ver-
tical'.
Among the barbarian principalities of Western Europe, the
Norman duchy of Normandy, founded by Rollo in AD 913, main-
tained a vivid sense of community based on customs and myths of
descent, which united the Norse settlers and French-speaking inhabi-
tants of the area, until its conquest by France in AD 1204. For nearly
three centuries they maintained their élite status as a warrior com-
munity, even when they sent expeditions as far afield as Ireland and
Sicily. Yet it was really only the upper strata that composed the
Norman ethnie. This was not necessarily because they scorned the
native inhabitants, with whom, after all, they intermarried, and
whose language and many of whose customs they adopted. The
point is that their sense of community, their myths of descent and
their historical memories all clustered round the ruling house. It was
the genealogies and exploits of the Norman dukes that Dudo of St

52
 THE RISE OF N A T I O N S

Quentin and Orderic Vitalis celebrated. The ruling house stood for
the whole class of warrior-aristocrats who had founded and settled
the duchy; other classes were simply subsumed under the common
myths and customs attached to the glories of the ruling house.' 9
The Norman community of Normandy, as elsewhere wherever
Norman arms prevailed, reveals a type of ethnic community that
can conveniently be termed 'lateral'. This type of ethnie was usually
composed of aristocrats and higher clergy, though it might from
time to time include bureaucrats, high military officials and the
richer merchants. It is termed lateral because it was at once socially
confined to the upper strata while being geographically spread out
to form often close links with the upper echelons of neighbouring
lateral ethnies. As a result, its borders were typically 'ragged', but it
lacked social depth, and its often marked sense of common ethnicity
was bound up with its esprit de corps as a high status stratum and
ruling class.
In contrast, the 'vertical' type of ethnie was more compact and
popular. Its ethnic culture tended to be diffused to other social strata
and classes. Social divisions were not underpinned by cultural differ-
ences: rather, a distinctive historical culture helped to unite different
classes around a common heritage and traditions, especially when
the latter were under threat from outside. As a result the ethnic
bond was often more intense and exclusive, and barriers to admission
were higher. In contrast to the surrounding aristocratic ethnies like
the Canaanites and Philistines, the Israelite tribal confederacy and
kingdoms evinced a more exclusive ethnocentric zeal and active
mobilization of all strata for protracted wars. Other examples of
more demotic, vertical ethnies included the Druse, Sikhs, Irish and
Basques. In all of these communities there were marked differences
between strata, and even class conflict, but ethnic culture was not
the preserve of one stratum to the exclusion of the others - rather, it
was the property of all members of the community, to a greater or
lesser degree. 20
Obviously, the distinction between lateral and vertical ethnic
communities is an ideal-typical one, and it conceals differences within
each category, while suggesting too sharp a division between the
types. Aristocratic, lateral communities might be of the conquest
variety, like the noble Hittite charioteers or the Hungarian knights.

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 THE RISE OF N A T I O N S

Or they might be indigenous, like the Sassanid Persian monarchs,

nobles and Zoroastrian clergy who revived Persian glory (notably
under Chosroes I, AD 531-76) among the upper strata, while failing
to incorporate the rural masses and the urban minorities, Manichean,
Christian and Jewish, as the Mazdakite movement demonstrated. 21
Similarly, the demotic, vertical communities included urban city-
state confederacies, sects and diaspora enclaves, as well as the more
rurally based tribal confederations (Arabs, Mongols, Irish) and the
'frontier' warrior ethnies like the Catalans or Swiss. But, as these
examples reveal, we are in fact dealing more with historical and
social processes than fixed types. Given historical communities may
undergo transformation from one polar type to another, or even
mix elements from both. Arabs, who began their political career as
a loose tribal confederation united into a community of the faithful
by the Prophet, soon became 'aristocratized' in the main centres of
their settlement and rule, either as a lateral, conquest ethnie or more
indigenously through Islamization and intermarriage, but with only
ragged boundaries between sultanates.22 Armenian feudal nobles,
no longer able to rule an independent state, became more 'de-
motized', or rather, the shared Armenian religio-ethnic culture was
diffused down the social scale, until in the diaspora a more popular
vertical community (or series of enclave communities) emerged in
place of the earlier more aristocratic and lateral ethnie.21
N o w the importance of the distinction between the two kinds of
ethnic community resides not only in highlighting a persistent source
of ethnic conflict and ethnic survival in pre-modern eras, but also in
offering different types of ethnic core around which nations could
be constructed, and furnishing the two main routes by which nations
could be formed. It is these trajectories that we must now explore.

LATERAL ETHNIES AND B U R E A U C R A T I C

INCORPORATION

Let me start with the lateral route. Aristocratic ethnic communities

have the capacity for self-perpetuation to the extent that they can
incorporate other strata of the population within their cultural orbit.
Quite often they made little attempt to diffuse their culture down
the social scale. Hittites, Philistines, even Assyrians, were content to

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rule over culturally alien annexed populations, and managed to

ensure the survival of their own elite culture for several centuries or
more. But, ultimately, their polities were destroyed and their
cultures absorbed by alien immigrants. In a few other cases - the
Persians and Egyptians spring to mind - lateral ethnies survived by
'changing their character', that is, by adopting new religions and/or
customs, even new languages, while preserving their name, myths of
common descent, high historical memories and their homeland. 24
A few aristocratic ethnies managed to retain their identity for
many centuries, even millennia, partly through strict adherence to
distinctive forms of religion, but also through the inclusion within
their political boundaries of other ethnic groups, and by a limited
diffusion of their religious culture down the social scale. The efforts
of the Amhara kings of the medieval 'Solomonic' dynasty to in-
corporate outlying regions and lower strata into their Monophysite
ethnic culture met with only partial success, but it was enough to
ensure their own survival in the face of Muslim onslaughts and
subsequent European encroachments, at least in their heartlands. 25
The efforts of some of the Western European ethnic states were
more successful. In England, France, Spain, Sweden and to some
extent in Poland and Russia, the dominant lateral ethnie, which
formed the state's ethnic core, was gradually able to incorporate
middle strata and outlying regions into the dominant ethnic culture.
The primary agency of such incorporation was the new bureaucratic
state. Through its military, administrative, fiscal and judicial ap-
paratus it was able to regulate and disseminate the fund of values,
symbols, myths, traditions and memories that formed the cultural
heritage of the dominant aristocratic ethnic core. In this way the
aristocratic ethnic state was able to define a new and broader cultural
identity for the population, even though in practice this often
entailed some degree of accommodation between the dominant and
peripheral ethnic cultures within the parameters set by the power of
the dominant core. 26
Accommodation was the hallmark of developments in England
after the Norman Conquest. There was during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries considerable linguistic borrowing, intermarriage
and élite mobility between conquering Normans and subordinate
upper-stratum Saxons, all within a common framework of growing,

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 THE RISE OF N A T I O N S

if interrupted, state centralization and an English Catholic eccle-

siastical organization. This meant that the bureaucratic incorporation
of subordinate ethnic populations entailed considerable social inter-
course and cultural fusion between Anglo-Saxon, Danish and
Norman elements. By the fourteenth century linguistic fusion had
crystallized into Chaucerian English, and a common myth of'British
descent', propounded in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Mon-
mouth, had received wide social and political recognition. 27
This is not to claim that by the fourteenth century an English
nation had come into existence, only that some of the processes that
help to form nations had become discernible. The ethnic elements
of the nation were already well developed. N o t only was there a
common name and myth of ethnic descent, but also a variety of
historical memories and traditions, fed by prolonged wars with
neighbours in Scotland, Wales and France. There was also a growing
sense of common culture revealed in the English language but based
as much on an influential English Church organization. This was
greatly aided by a growing attachment to an island homeland,
which was especially fervent during the long wars in France al-
though visible much earlier. At the same time unity was slow to
appear in other respects. We cannot really speak of a common
public educational system in the medieval period, despite the pervas-
ive influence of the Church. In its full secular form this would
indeed have to wait for several centuries, but an élite educational
system was established by the later sixteenth century. Economic unifi-
cation, too, was minimal, despite growing fiscal and administrative
intervention by the state from Henry II onwards. Regionalism
persisted for a long time, as did the subsistence economy in those
areas unaffected by the wool trade. Even the boundaries of the
kingdom were in dispute, with the annexations in Wales and the
continual border wars with Scotland, not to mention the Plantagenet
possessions across the Channel. As for common legal rights and
duties, despite Magna Carta and the growth of the common law
these applied only to a highly restricted upper stratum of society. It
was only much later that these rights were generalized to wider
sections of society, and then often through struggle with encroaching
monarchs and landlords. 28
Nevertheless, the centralizing Norman state and English Church

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

did succeed in laying the foundations of a national culture and

national identity quite early on, even if their full expression had to
await the Tudor renaissance and Reformation. Interestingly, it was
at this point that the older, British myth of descent began to give
way to an Anglo-Saxon myth, which traced English origins back to
the Germanic tribes and their ancient liberties and 'free' institutions.
It was also the moment when a new national religion came to
define the peculiar identity of Englishmen, in opposition to the
universal claims of R o m e and its imperial Spanish ally. While the
nation clearly did not include the artisans and peasantry, by the
sixteenth century if not earlier, the former aristocratic Anglo-
Norman lateral ethnic community had bequeathed a state tradition
and administration strong enough to incorporate the upper middle
classes, albeit often through conflicts, as well as outlying regions in
the north, west and Welsh borders. Here, then, is an example of the
way in which the nation emerges through state action (abetted by
the Church), which in turn was built around a relatively homo-
geneous, albeit upper-stratum, ethnic core. 29
Similar processes of ethnic bureaucratic incorporation can be dis-
cerned in French history, though here developments were slower
and more piecemeal. Some amalgamation of upper-stratum Frankish
with Romano-Gallic ethnic culture occurred under the Christianized
Merovingians, but the French regnum really only emerged in the
late twelfth century in the central Ile de France area. Of course the
Capetian kings were able to utilize the identity myths and glory of
the old Frankish kingdom and the Carolingian empire for their
own ends, largely because the kingdom of the eastern Franks came,
after the division of Charlemagne's realm, to be known as the
regnum Teutonicorum, with a separate identity. 30 But of equal import-
ance was the crucial symbolic role played by the French ecclesiastical
hierarchy, notably the archbishoprie of Rheims, where the cere-
monies of anointing gave the Capetian kings an edge over their
many rivals, lending the dynasty an aura and prestige even greater
than the presence of the law schools in Paris or the military tenacity
of successive kings. This sacral quality of French royalty going back
to Papal legitimation of Pepin's usurpation of the throne in AD 754
and Charlemagne's Papal coronation is reflected in the myth of
royal French election that was assiduously cultivated and that is

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

echoed in the ethno-religious language of Pope Boniface at the end

of the thirteenth century, when he declared that: '. . . like the people
of Israel . . . the kingdom of France (is) a peculiar people chosen by
the Lord to carry out the orders of Heaven'. 3 '
Though the process was much slower and more drawn out than
in England, the fact remains that the Capetian kings were able to
establish a relatively effective and centralized kingdom, first in north-
ern and central France, and then from the thirteenth century
onwards to incorporate western, eastern and southern areas of the
pays d'oc whose cultural heritage differed considerably from that of
the north. With the gradual expulsion of the English and the annex-
ation of southern kingdoms and Britanny the renaissance kings were
able to unify the country by degrees, both in terms of administration
and by elevating the French language into the official mode of
communication and government. The quest for territorial and econ-
omic unification proceeded much more slowly, and legal standardiz-
ation too had to wait for the Revolution despite the centralizing
efforts of the Bourbons and their ministers. Indeed, regionalism
persisted well into the nineteenth century; the large body of French
peasants were not fully incorporated into the French nation until
1900, after the application of mass nationalist education and conscrip-
tion by the 'Jacobin' state of the Third Republic. 32
Spain provides an even more discontinuous and incomplete ex-
ample of bureaucratic incorporation by a lateral ethnic state. Here it
was the kingdom of Castile and Aragon that provided the main
bulwark of Catholic resistance to Muslim conquests. In the later
medieval period the rulers increasingly resorted to religion as an
instrument of homogeneity, converting and ultimately expelling
those who, like the Jews and Moriscos, could not be assimilated.
Here, too, notions of purity of blood (limpieza di sangre) helped to
determine membership of an Iberian Catholic lateral ethnie, which
sought to penetrate outlying areas and middle classes through admini-
strative and cultural regulation. 33
But from the start the unity of the Spanish Crown was beset by
demands on several sides from those who claimed ancient rights and
retained their pre-existing cultural heritages. Quite apart from the
Portuguese secession, Catalans, Basques and Galicians managed to
retain their separate cultural identities into the modern era, even

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where, as after the Catalan revolt of 1640, there was considerable

political integration of the regions they inhabited. By the seven-
teenth century the Spanish state and its empire had been considerably
weakened and it was unable to extend and deepen the scope of its
social and geographical penetration. The result was a less unified
national community and a much more plural state than either France
or Britain. By the mid-nineteenth century the Catalan renaissance
paved the way for the reception and formulation of ethnic
nationalisms, notably in Catalonia and Euzkadi, which in turn have
repeatedly breached the unity of the Spanish state. At the same time
most members of the minority ethnic communities also share on
overarching Spanish political loyalty, in varying degrees, in addition
to their often intense ethnic sentiments. But, then, this is the norm
in most Western states today. 34

THE FIRST NATIONS?

The formation of nations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

has been profoundly influenced by the examples of England, France
and Spain, and to a lesser extent Holland and Sweden. This is
usually attributed to their possession of military and economic power
during the period of the formation of nations in Western Europe.
As the burgeoning great powers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, these states were seen as models for imitation by those less
fortunate, and their national format was increasingly regarded as a
key to their success. In the case of England and France and to a
lesser extent Spain this was hardly accidental. The relatively early
development of their nations coincided with successive revolutions
in the spheres of administration, the economy and culture. Indeed
many would argue that in these and other cases the state actually
'created' the nation, that its activities of taxation, conscription and
administration endowed the population within its jurisdiction with
a sense of their corporate identity and civic loyalty. The state was
the necessary condition and matrix for the gestation of the national
loyalties so evident today. The extension of citizenship rights and
the build-up of an infrastructure that linked distant parts of the
realm and vastly increased the density of communication networks
with the state borders drew more and more areas and classes into

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the national political arena and created the images of national com-
munity, of 'England', 'France', 'Spain', that evoke such powerful
feelings of commitment and belonging to this day. 15
In fact the criterion of deep state penetration of society and its
several regions would postpone the realization of nations in the
West by several centuries. Their temporal priority over other in-
stances of the formation of nations would be a matter of a few
decades, since the lower classes were not politically incorporated
until the very end of the nineteenth century in France and England,
and women not until the 1920s. But the influence of England and
France in the wider world was exerted much earlier, so we cannot
credit the mass mobilizing state with the rise of the first nations, as
least not in the perception of others. It is, as we already saw, too
simple an answer to claim that the state 'created' the first nations
tout court. In so far as it bore any responsibility it did so in conjunc-
tion with (and in the context of) other processes.36
T w o such processes or 'revolutions' are germane to our discussion.
The first is economic: the movement to a market economy that
began in a few core states of the late medieval West and spread
outwards to other areas of Europe, Latin America, America, Asia
and ultimately Africa. The capitalist revolution involved vastly in-
creased trading networks in the West and then in selected peri-
pheries, which in turn encouraged the accumulation of capital and
the rise of wealthy urban centres and merchant capital. European
states, often at war with one another, benefited from the activities
of their bourgeoisies, who enabled larger and better equipped armies
to be raised and more efficient administrations staffed by 'experts'
to be built up. 37
The second of these 'Western' revolutions was cultural and educa-
tional. Its centre was the decline of ecclesiastical authority in the
wake of reforming movements in the Church and the wars of the
Reformation. This in turn allowed the development of secular
studies, notably classical humanism and science, of university learn-
ing, and ultimately of popular modes of communication — novels,
plays and journals. An important role in these processes was played
by the intellectuals and professionals (or intelligentsia), whom the
expanding administrative state recruited to serve dynastic and politi-
cal goals through their technical 'expertise' and 'rational' discourse.

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Because of the relatively early development of the rational State in

the West, despite its limited social penetration, the intellectual and
professional strata were generally subordinated to the institutions of
state and their bureaucratic procedures and personnel. Though some
intellectuals operated outside state institutions (notably in the French
Enlightenment), most were relegated to the ancient universities or
co-opted into the royal or party administrations. This enabled the
state to take the lead in identifying the boundaries and character of
the national community, a process that revolutionary Jacobin
patriotic regimes only served to reinforce. 38
It was through these three revolutions - administrative, economic
and cultural — that outlying regions and their ethnies and middle and
lower classes were incorporated into the dominant lateral ethnic
culture through the agency of the bureaucratic state. The creation
of secular, mass nations was ultimately the outcome of a vigorous
programme of political socialization through the public, mass educa-
tion system. But it was long preceded by the more gradual dissemina-
tion of an aristocratic ethnic culture and its transmutation into a
more truly national culture: one that was civic as well as ethnic, and
also socially inclusive, in line with the extension of civil and legal
rights to wider segments of the kingdom. Ultimately, however, the
process could be traced right back to the presence of a core ethnie
around which strong states could be built that made it possible to
incorporate other strata and outlying regions and their ethnies. Be-
cause of the tenacity of certain ethnic myths, memories and symbols,
embodied in customs, traditions, codes and styles, England from an
early date, and France somewhat later, could be welded into king-
doms on the basis of fairly homogeneous (in the subjective sense)
ethnies, which their strong states could extend and deepen, to create
over the next few centuries the relatively novel concept of the
nation. 39

'VERTICAL' ETHNIES AND VERNACULAR

MOBILIZATION
In contrast to the route of bureaucratic incorporation by an aristo-
cratic ethnic community the process of forming nations on the basis
of demotic ethnie: is influenced only indirectly by the bureaucratic

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state. This is mainly because vertical ethnies were usually subject

communities, and because the bond that cemented the membership
in these cases was an exclusive and all-pervasive one. It was organized
religion and its sacred scriptures, liturgy, rituals and clergy that
acted as the chief mechanism of ethnic persistence among vertical
communities. Here religion connotes a whole way of life; it is the
social aspects of salvation religions that have shaped the character of
demotic communities like the Byzantine Greeks, early Orthodox
Russians, Monophysite Copts and Ethiopians, Gregorian Armenians,
Catholic Irish and Poles, Sikhs, Jews and Druse. In all these ethnies
myths of chosenness, sacred texts and scripts and the prestige of the
clergy have helped to ensure the survival of the traditions and
heritage of the community.
But religion-shaped peoples have problems peculiarly their own.
As long as it is a question of quietist accommodation to an often
hostile environment the symbols and organization of an ancient
faith act as a protective shell, and one that is portable. But the
moment the question arises of transforming the community into a
nation it is far more difficult to break out of the habitual conceptual
ethnic framework and its lifestyle. Moreover, there is no internal
coercive agency, no bureaucratic state, to shatter the mould. The
trouble is that so many of the members of a demotic community
simply assumed that they already constituted a nation, and had
always done so, possessing as they did the ethnic components of a
nation — a common name, ancestry myths, historical memories,
attachments to a homeland, and the like. Given an independent
state, such communities felt they could be nations like any other. 40
But a brief glance at the situation of the Arab 'nation' will suffice
to show that matters are not that simple, and that the transformation
of demotic ethnies into nations is often slow and traumatic. The
Arabs, clearly, have been faced by adverse geo-political factors,
including their far-flung geography, their division into states by
colonial powers and the historic and economic differences between
various regions of the Arab world. This alone has made it difficult
to envisage a common Arab nation with a single division of labour
and a unified economy. The very different historical legacies of the
several Arab states have also made it difficult to envisage a common
system of legal rights and duties, though here the Shari'a (the

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 THE RISE OF N A T I O N S

Moslem legal code) may provide some basis for a unified approach
to a common citizenship. There is also little sign of a common
educational approach, let alone anything resembling a single public,
mass education system for all Arabs. As for a common civic culture,
the massive influence of Islam constitutes a source of weakness as
well as strength. There is no reason why a common religious culture
might not in principle act as the social cement of an Arab nation,
were it not for the fact that the Islamic community of the faithful,
the umma, by virtue of its very different inspiration and geographic
extent, constitutes a rival. It creates a unity and destiny that is, from
a purely Arab standpoint, ambiguous, reinforcing yet subtly negat-
ing efforts to rediscover an Arab past that is not universalistic and
global. The difficulties of creating a 'compact' Arab nation are not
only geo-political. 41
Little wonder that Arab intellectuals have found the problem of
Arab self-definition so insoluble. It is not that a distinctive Arab
ethnic culture based on history, language and religious expression is
lacking, only that it overlaps with the wider circle of Islamic culture
and loyalty, and that an Arab intelligentsia finds it difficult to
transform this ethnic culture into a truly national and civic mass
culture. For this is the primary task of the new stratum of secular-
minded intelligentsia: to alter the basic relationship between religion
and ethnicity, between the community of the faithful and the com-
munity of historic culture. 42 Under the impact of a rationalizing
'scientific state', often of an imperial or colonial variety, the rela-
tionship between religious traditions and their demotic ethnic
'bearers' is eroded. The old accommodations between imperial or
colonial states and their constituent minority ethnies are undermined,
and westernization and the market economy throw up new social
classes led by professional and intellectual strata who are drawn to
various Western ideologies and discourses, including nationalist ones,
by the pressure of the scientific state on traditional religious images
and theodicies. 43
In this situation various orientations appear among the intellectuals
and their followers among the professionals: a conscious, moderniz-
ing return to tradition (or 'traditionalism'); a messianic desire to
assimilate to Western modernity and all its works ('assimilation' or
'modernism'); and a more defensive attempt to synthesize elements

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

of the tradition with aspects of Western modernity and revive a

pure and pristine community modelled on a former collective
golden age (or 'reformist revivalism'). Though they arc also found
in the lateral trajectory of the formation of nations, these orientations
are particularly frequent and intense among demotic vertical com-
munities on the road to forming nations. They are typical of com-
munities with rich ethno-histories, that is, with well-documented
and detailed histories. 44
These orientations and debates among intellectuals are significant
to the extent that they mirror and express fundamentally different
directions in the transformation of demotic ethnies into political
nations. It is important for the shape, pace, scope and intensity of
that transformation whether it is conducted under the auspices of
traditionalist, modernist or revivalist elites, or a combination or
succession of them. In each case the intelligentsia attempts to provide
new communal self-definitions and goals, involving the mobilization
of formerly passive communities. These redefinitions should not be
seen simply as inventions or constructs of intellectuals. Rather they
arc attempts to marry an understanding of Western processes of
forming nations with a programme of rediscovering an ethnic past
or pasts that will elevate the people and their vernacular culture to
centre stage, often in place of (or reinterpreting) the old religious
traditions. Instead of being merely a chosen vessel of religious sal-
vation and passive recipient of divine ordinance, the 'people' now
become the source of salvation and the saints and sages of old
become manifestations of the people's national genius.4S
Here then lies the main task of an ethnic intelligentsia: to mobilize
a formerly passive community into forming a nation around the
new vernacular historical culture that it has rediscovered. Beneath
the different responses to westernization lies the imperative of a
moral and political revolution, one which requires the people to be
purified from the accretions of centuries, so that they can be emanci-
pated into a political community of equal citizens. This revolution
involves several interrelated processes. They include:
1. a movement from passive subordination of the community
to its active political assertion
2. a movement to place the community in its homeland, a
secure and recognized compact territory

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

3. a movement to endow the territorial community with econo-

mic unity
4. a movement to place the people at the centre of concern
and to celebrate the masses by re-educating them in national
values, memories and myths
5. a movement to turn ethnic members into legal 'citizens' by
conferring civil, social and political rights on them.
These were arduous undertakings, often bitterly opposed not merely
by the imperial or colonial power and its indigenous upper-class
allies, but also by the guardians of tradition, whose values and
leadership were jeopardized by the new definitions of community
proposed by the intellectuals. The success of these undertakings
hinged on a return by the intelligentsia to a living past, a past that
was no mere quarry for antiquarian research but that could be
derived from the sentiments and traditions of the people. This
meant a twofold strategy of furnishing 'maps' of the community, its
history, its destiny and its place among the nations, and of providing
'moralities' for the regenerated community, ones that could inspire
present generations to emulate the public virtues deemed to express
the national character. In these ways the new nation could be
endowed with a cognitive basis and moral purpose that would
ensure the continued renaissance of its distinctive cultural heritage
and vision. 46
There were two main ways in which such maps and moralities
could be constructed out of a living ethnic past. The educator-
intellectuals found both in the life and symbolism of the people and
their popular historical traditions. The first way was through a
return to 'nature' and its 'poetic spaces'. This nature and these spaces
are quite specific; they constitute the historic home of the people,
the sacred repository of their memories. They have their own his-
torical poetry, for those whose spirits are attuned to them. The
homeland is not just the setting of the national drama, but a major
protagonist, and its natural features take on historical significance
for the people. So lakes, mountains, rivers and valleys can all be
turned into symbols of popular virtues and 'authentic' national
experience; so the Jungfrau became a symbol of the Swiss virtues of
purity and natural beauty, and the Vierwaldstattersee the theatre of
an historical drama, the founding of the Eidgenossenschaft in 1291. In

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

this poetic history fact and legend arc fused to produce inspiring
myths of resistance to tyranny and of purity of soul. 47
Conversely, the historical events and monuments of the homeland
can be 'naturalized'. Castles, temples, tells and dolmens are integrated
into the landscape and treated as part of its special nature. In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Stonehenge became a 'natural'
symbol of British antiquity, as part of the romantic revival of
history. Indeed, so much part of the 'British' (Briton) landscape did
it become, that it became difficult to imagine that it was not natural
and inherent in the British ethnic character, as much part of its
original nature as the Wessex plains and hills around. A purely
historical monument, of a particular time and context, had become
'naturalized'. 48
The other way of constructing maps and moralities for present
generations was through the use of history and, especially, the cult
of golden ages. The purposes of nationalist educator—intellectuals
are social and political, not academic; they aim to purify and activate
the people. To do so, moral exemplars from the ethnic past are
needed, as arc vivid recreations of the glorious past of the com-
munity. Hence the return to that past through a series of myths:
myths of origins and descent, of liberation and migration, of the
golden age and its heroes and sages, perhaps of the chosen people
now to be reborn after its long sleep of decay and/or exile. Together,
these myth-motifs can be formed into a composite nationalist myth-
ology and salvation drama. 49
An example of the nationalist use of history and the nationalist's
desire to return to a golden age is provided by the Gaelic revival of
the 1890s. The vision here was as much pagan as Catholic, different
cultural nationalists emphasizing different aspects of Ireland's golden
age of St Patrick. For some, like O'Grady and Lady Gregory, it was
the legends of Cuchulain and Fin Mac Coil in the golden age of the
High Kings of Tara that they found in the rediscovered Ulster
Cycle that they sought to propagate. Here was an aristocratic war-
rior society, but one that was rural and free and filled with spiritual
wisdom, with its fianna bands and filid guilds of bards. For others, it
was the era after the conversion by St Patrick, famed for its monas-
teries, its Celtic arts and its Christian learning and literature, when
Ireland preserved, almost alone, the torch of intellect and civilization

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 THE RISE OF NATIONS

in a barbarian West. The dual cult of Celtic heroes and Christian

scholar-missionaries suggested to a returning Irish intelligentsia what
a free Ireland might have become, had its development not been
thwarted by the Norman invaders, and then brutally cut off by the
English Protestant conquests. The vision of an ethnic golden age
told modern Irish men and women what was 'authentically theirs',
and how to be 'themselves' once again in a free Ireland. 50
In Finland, too, the past and its heroes was put to striking
nationalist use. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Finns
formed a subordinate vertical ethnic community differentiated from
the Swedish cultural élite and later from their Russian political
masters that was a ready-made ethnic base for the national reconstruc-
tions of educator-intellectuals like Lonnröt, Runeberg and Snellman
from the 1830s on. The doctor, Elias Lonnröt, in particular, captured
the imagination of the Finnish intelligentsia and later of the people,
by bringing back from the province of Karelia the ballads and
poems that he formed into the Kalevala in 1835 (larger edition
1849). This epic o f ' T h e Land of Heroes' bore only a partial resem-
blance to earlier 'Finnish' society of the first millennium AD (judging
from the material remains), but it was enough to create for modern
Finns a cult of the golden age of the heroes Väinämöincn and
Lemminkainen, which was to inspire popular art and the genius of
Sibelius and Gallen-Kallela. 5 ' Here was the ideal self-definition and
exemplar for a regenerated Finland in its heroic struggle against
Swedish cultural and Russian political domination at the end of the
nineteenth century. The recovery of an ancient but apparently 'lost'
period of Finnish history and culture restored to Finns that sense of
community and dignity necessary for a small and relatively poor
and despised society struggling to reassert its place through a 'high'
culture. 52
There are many other examples of the educator—intellectuals' uses
of history and golden ages to promote a national revival. But, even
when a rich vein of 'ethno-history' has been discovered and mined,
the 'cultural wars' have only begun. These are normally of two
kinds. The first is cultural resistance to an imperial cosmopolitanism
or its colonial variant; or even to the cultural influence of more
powerful neighbours, as the Slovaks did against a dominant Czech
culture, or the Ukrainians against Russian culture absorption. The

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second is a cultural war of the 'sons against the fathers', when the
secular intelligentsia turns against the older guardians of tradition, in
order to mobilize the demotic ethnie and transform it into a political
nation. This can be done by selective assimilation of foreign (usually
'Western') elements, as the Tatar education reforms of Ismail Bey
Gasprinski or the borrowings of the Japanese Meiji reformers dem-
onstrate. But it is also necessary to strengthen the indigenous ethnic
base by a campaign of communication and socialization of new
generations into the rediscovered ethno-history and revived lan-
guage of the community. In these processes new self-definitions
of community are forged, often in the teeth of resistance by guar-
dians of the older ethno-religious self-definitions, so as to lay the
basis for entry into the world of nations. 53

MODERNITY AND ANTIQUITY IN THE N A T I O N

I have traced two routes by which different kinds of ethnic com-

munity were transformed into nations. The first was state-sponsored.
It set out from a lateral ethnie, the core of an ethnic state. As that
state became more centralized and bureaucratic it attempted to
incorporate middle classes and outlying regions through military,
fiscal, judicial and administrative processes. If successful, it proved
able to weld often disparate populations into a single political com-
munity based on the cultural heritage of the dominant ethnic core.
If the intelligentsia played a part in this process it was a subordinate
one. The chief actors were kings, ministers and bureaucrats, with
the middle classes appearing later, and the aristocrats and clergy
often ambivalent. For though it was, in a sense, their culture and
heritage that was being diffused by the state, the result was a mar-
ginalization of aristocrats and clergy; their heritage and culture had
become, in principle, everyone's. In the new political nation, they
were often by-passed. 54
The second route was more popular. It started from smaller,
demotic communities whose ethno-religious self-conceptions had to
be exchanged for more activist, political ones. The key to this
transformation was the process of vernacular mobilization. Small
circles of educator-intellectuals, despite their differential responses
to westernization and modernity, were intent on purifying and

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 THE RISE OF N A T I O N S

mobilizing 'the people' through an appeal to the community's

alleged ethnic past. To do this, they had to provide cognitive maps
and historical moralities for present generations, drawn from the
poetic spaces and golden ages of the communal past. In this way
they hoped to transform a backward traditional ethnic community
into a dynamic, but vernacular, political nation.
As the nineteenth century proceeded nationalists in both kinds of
community came to see the nation as both modern and natural, as
suited to the dawning industrial age but also going back to a prim-
ordial era. This dual orientation also underlies recent scholarly
debates about the modernity of the nation and nationalism, as we
saw. From the above account it is clear that nations are indeed
modern phenomena in so far as:
1. they require a unified legal code of common rights and
duties, with citizenship rights where the nation is independ-
ent
2. they are based on a unified economy with a single division
of labour, and mobility of goods and persons throughout
the national territory
3. they need a fairly compact territory, preferably with 'natu-
ral' defensible frontiers, in a world of similar compact
nations
4. they require a single 'political culture' and public, mass
education and media system, to socialise future generations
to be 'citizens' of the new nation.
As we saw, it is rare to find most of these elements in any force in
pre-modern ethnic states, however powerful they appear. Both in
terms of technology and political will, as well as self-conception,
the double drive to uniformity and uniqueness was lacking. There
was neither understanding of these elements of the modern nation
nor the incentive to create these prerequisites; or if there was such
motivation it was overlaid by other more local, or more all-
encompassing needs and visions, so that the village and the Church
made the nation seem politically unnecessary.55
But there is another side to this picture. If the nation seems in
many ways modern, it is also deep-rooted. The nationalists were
guilty of telescoping history, but they were not altogether mistaken.
They grasped that if a nation, however modern, is to survive in this

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modern world, it must do so on two levels: the socio-political and

the cultural-psychological. What, after all, is the raison d'être of any
nation (as opposed to state), if it is not also the cultivation of its
unique (or allegedly unique) culture values? Ethnic distinctiveness
remains a sine qua non of the nation, and that means shared ancestry
myths, common historical memories, unique cultural markers, and
a sense of difference, if not election — all the elements that marked
off ethnic communities in pre-modern eras. In the modern nation
they must be preserved, indeed cultivated, if the nation is not to
become invisible.
There is another facet of the antiquity of modern nations: their
location. They are where they are allegedly because of their long
associations with particular stretches of territory. 'Nations have deep
roots.' Even if those roots are not quite so deep, the claim must be
made not simply for international recognition, but for the much
more fundamental purpose of collective inner security and regenera-
tion. 5 6 The severely practical aspects of nationality here join hands
with the purely symbolic. Nationalism is about 'land', both in terms
of possession and (literal) rebuilding, and of belonging where fore-
fathers lived and where history demarcates a 'homeland'. Subjec-
tively, therefore, locating the nation hinges on a reading of ethnic
history, which presupposes links between the generations of a com-
munity of history and destiny in particular places of the earth. This
does not mean that the nation is ancient; only that, subjectively,
there are pre-modern elements within many nations.
 CHAPTER 4
Nationalism and Cultural Identity

In the 'modernist' image of the nation it is nationalism that creates

national identity. Gellner puts the matter succinctly when he
declares: 'Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-
consciousness; it invents nations where they do not exist — but it does
need some pre-existing differentiating marks to work on, even if, as
indicated, these are purely negative . . .'' In the same vein Kedourie
argues that nationalism itself is an 'invented doctrine': 'Nationalism
is a doctrine invented in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth
century.' 2 How shall we understand such 'invention'? In what sense
does nationalism invent or create nations 'where they do not exist'?
We have already seen, in chapter 2, that we need to probe the
configuration of ethnic ties and sentiments if we want to ascertain
which units might emerge as nations (if and when they did so).
Generally speaking, the stronger and more persistent the pre-existing
ethnic identity, the more likely was any nation that might emerge
to be based on that identity. In discussing the processes and routes of
the formation of nations in chapter 3 it became equally clear that
pre-modern ethnic identities formed the base-line in attempting to
explain why and how nations emerged, at least in Europe.
I shall argue that the same is true of nationalism. Nationalism
does, indeed, help to create nations, many of them apparently or in
aspiration 'new'. As an ideology and a language nationalism is
relatively modern, emerging into the political arena over a period
in the late eighteenth century. But nations and nationalism are no
more 'invented' than other kinds of culture, social organization or
ideology. If nationalism is part of the 'spirit of the age', it is equally
dependent upon earlier motifs, visions and ideals. For what we call
nationalism operates on many levels and may be regarded as a form
of culture as much as a species of political ideology and social
movement. And, while a new era opens with the arrival of
nationalism, it is impossible to grasp its impact on the formation of
national identity without exploring its social and cultural matrix,

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which already owed so much to the presence of pre-modern ethnies

and the gradual emergence of national states in the West. Hence the
need to explore nationalism first as a form of culture and identity
before going on to look at its political impact in the next chapter.
Hence the need also to ask the question 'When and where did
nations emerge?' in the context both of the impact of nationalism
and its proponents and of the processes by which nations were
formed on the basis of pre-existing ethnic ties, processes discussed in
the last two chapters.

NATIONALISM: IDEOLOGY, LANGUAGE, SENTIMENT

The term nationalism has been used in several ways. It can signify:
1. the whole process of forming and maintaining nations or
nation-states
2. a consciousness of belonging to the nation, together with
sentiments and aspirations for its security and prosperity
3. a language and symbolism of the 'nation' and its role
4. an ideology, including a cultural doctrine of nations and the
national will and prescriptions for the realization of national
aspirations and the national will
5. a social and political movement to achieve the goals of the
nation and realize its national will.
We may, I think, dismiss the first usage from our consideration. It is
much broader than the others, and it has already been discussed.
The second usage, that of national consciousness or sentiment,
must be distinguished from the others. It is quite possible to find a
population exhibiting a high degree of national consciousness with-
out having much in the way of an ideology or doctrine of the
nation, let alone a nationalist movement. England affords a good
example of this, though even here nationalist ideologies have made
their appearance from time to time, as in the period of Cromwell
and Milton or at the time of Burke and Blake.
Conversely, we find nationalist movements and ideologies among
populations with little or no national consciousness or sentiment.
They may emerge among a small segment of the population but
find no echo in the population at large. This was the case in much
of West Africa, including the Gold Coast and Nigeria. Quite apart

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from ethnic and regional divisions, the novelty of these colonies

meant that most of the inhabitants of these newly formed British
colonics were unaware of a Gold Coast, later Ghanaian, or Nigerian
nationality to which they were supposed to belong. Similarly,
among Arabs and Pakistanis the vast majority saw themselves as
Muslims rather than Arabs or Pakistanis, despite the vociferous
campaigns of the small group of nationalists among them. 3
The same could also be said about nationalism as a language and
symbolism. As we shall see, this too begins as an élite phenomenon
in which intellectuals play a preponderant role. It is not, however,
the same as either nationalist ideology or national sentiment. A
nationalist language and symbolism is broader than an ideology or
ideological movement; it often connects that ideology with the
'mass sentiments' of wider segments of the designated population,
notably through slogans, ideas, symbols and ceremonies. At the
same time nationalist language and symbolism span both the cog-
nitive and expressive dimensions, linking up with broader aspirations
and feelings among both élites and wider strata. Notions of auto-
nomy and authenticity and symbols of self-reliance and of natural
community (for example, re-enactments of resistance events, or
symbols of landscape and historical monuments or of local products,
crafts or sports) exemplify the fusion of cognitive and expressive
aspects and the links with wider sentiments and aspirations. The
feeling for authenticity to be found among the exponents of the
Gaelic Revival in late nineteenth-century Ireland, with its stress on
native sports, nature, local crafts and ancient pagan heroes, illustrates
the diffusion of the new language and symbolism of Irish national-
ism. 4
Finally, the last usage, that of nationalist movement, is closely
linked with nationalist ideology. It is, in fact, inconceivable without
it. Hence, I shall run the two together and, while recognizing that
one can find and discuss nationalist ideology in the absence of a
nationalist movement, I shall define nationalism as an ideological
movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on
behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an
actual or potential 'nation'.5 In fact, this definition embodies elements
from both the ideology and the languagc-cum-symbolism of the
nation, with references to wider sentiments and aspirations.

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 NATIONALISM A N D CULTURAL IDENTITY

Let me start with the ideology of nationalism. We may define the

central propositions of the ideology, or 'core doctrine', as follows,
1. The world is divided into nations, each with its own in-
dividuality, history and destiny.
2. The nation is the source of all political and social power,
and loyalty to the nation overrides all other allegiances.
3. Human beings must identify with a nation if they want to
be free and realize themselves.
4. Nations must be free and secure if peace and justice are to
prevail in the world. 6
I have deliberately avoided all mention of the state in this formula-
tion of nationalism's 'core doctrine'. In a sense, such reference is
implicit in propositions 2 and 4. But nationalism is an ideology of
the nation, not the state. It places the nation at the centre of its
concerns, and its description of the world and its prescriptions for
collective action are concerned only with the nation and its
members. The idea that nations can be free only if they possess
their own sovereign state is neither necessary nor universal. Early
nationalists, as well as cultural nationalists thereafter (such as Rous-
seau, Herder, Achad Ha'am, Aurobindo), were not particularly inter-
ested in the acquisition of a state, either in general or for the nation
with whose aspirations they identified. Nor has every nationalist
movement made the acquisition of a state for its nation a priority.
Many Catalan, Scots and Flemish nationalists have been more con-
cerned with home rule and cultural parity in a multinational state
than with outright independence (though there are some nationalists
who want outright independence in all these cases). The notion that
every nation must have its own state is a common, but not a
necessary, deduction from the core doctrine of nationalism; and it
tells us that nationalism is primarily a cultural doctrine or, more
accurately, a political ideology with a cultural doctrine at its
centre. 7
This cultural doctrine depends, in turn, on the introduction of
new concepts, languages and symbols. Nationalism, I have argued,
is an ideological movement for attaining and maintaining the auto-
nomy, unity and identity of a nation. Each of these concepts derives
from the new philosophical, historical and anthropological languages
or discourses that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centur-

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ics in Europe. There is, for example, a straightforward understanding

of the concept of 'identity' as 'sameness'. The members of a par-
ticular group are alike in just those respects in which they differ
from non-members outside the group. Members dress and eat in
similar ways and speak the same language; in all these respects they
differ from non-members, who dress, eat and speak in different
ways. This pattern of similarity-cum-dissimilarity is one meaning of
national 'identity'. 8
But there is also a philosophical and anthropological concept that
was developed in the eighteenth century. It stems from the idea of
'national genius' found in the writings of Lord Shaftesbury, among
others; he speaks, for example, of the 'rising Genius of our Nation'
(Britain) and prophesies that it will become the 'principal seat of the
Arts'. 9 The idea of national identity or, more often, national charac-
ter is common to eighteenth-century writers, notably Montesquieu
and Rousseau. The latter, indeed, declared: 'The first rule which we
have to follow is that of national character: every people has, or
must have, a character; if it lacks one, we must start by endowing it
with one.' 10
Herder made this principle into a cornerstone of his cultural
populism. For Herder every nation has its peculiar 'genius', its own
ways of thinking, acting and communicating, and we must work to
rediscover that unique genius and that peculiar identity, wherever it
is submerged or lost: 'Let us follow our own path . . . let all men
speak well or ill of our nation, our literature, our language: they are
ours, they are ourselves, and let that be enough.' 11 Hence the
importance of rediscovering the 'collective self through philology,
history and archaeology, of tracing one's roots in an 'ethnic past', in
order to ascertain the authentic identity beneath the alien accretions
of the centuries.
The concept of unity also has a plain and a more esoteric
nationalist meaning. At the simplest level it refers to unification of
the national territory or homeland, if it is divided, and the gathering
together within the homeland of all nationals. Even here nationalists
introduced a more philosophical idea: nationals outside the home-
land were deemed to be 'lost', and the lands they inhabited,
especially those contiguous to the homeland, were 'unredeemed'
(irredenta) and had to be recovered and 'redeemed'. This sometimes

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produced nationalist movements of irrcdentism, such as the later

Italian, Greek and pan-German movements of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Such movements are still in evidence:
witness the Argentinian claim to the Malvinas or Falklands, the
Somali claim to the Ogaden and the I R A claims to Ulster. 12
But there is a further meaning to the nationalist ideal of unity. In
nationalist language 'unity' signifies social cohesion, the brotherhood
of all nationals in the nation, what the French patriots called fraternité
during the Revolution. The family metaphor underlying the genea-
logical concept of the nation reappears here in secular, political
guise: as the union of fraternal citizens, symbolized in David's cele-
brated Oath of the Horatii, the three brothers who swore on their
father's sword to conquer or die (vaincre ou mourir) for their patria or
fatherland. 13
The nationalist ideal of unity has had profound consequences. For
one thing, it has encouraged the idea of the indivisibility of the
nation (la république une et indivisible) and justified the eradication,
often by force, of all intermediate bodies and local differences in the
interests of cultural and political homogeneity. This has spawned
mass-mobilizing policies of social and political integration in which
the state becomes the agent of the 'nation-to-be' and the creator of a
'political community' and 'political culture' that must replace the
various ethnic cultures of a heterogeneous population. Here the
nationalist concept of unity turns back on its ethnic roots and seeks
a uniformity that will transcend cultural differences with the projec-
ted nation.' 4
Finally, with the concept of autonomy we have entered the
Kantian world of'self-determination'. Not that there was no concept
of political freedom before the modern European philosophical tradi-
tion: as far back as Josephus, if not Thucydides, we find the appeal
to freedom to preserve ancestral ways from foreign interference. 15
But with Kant autonomy becomes an ethical imperative for the
individual, a principle of his being, not just a political ideal to be
invoked at times of danger. Applied by Fichte, Schlegel and the
other German Romantics to groups rather than individuals, the
ideal of autonomy gave rise to a philosophy of national self-
determination and collective struggle to realize the authentic national
will — in a state of one's own. Only then would the community be

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able to follow its own 'inner rhythms', heed its own inward voice
and return to its pure and uncontaminated pristine state. That is
why nationalists must devote so much time and effort to instilling a
genuinely national will, so that the members of the nation will be
truly free of alien ideas and ways that are liable to destroy and
stunt their development and that of the community as a whole.
Nationalism signifies the awakening of the nation and its members to
its true collective 'self, so that it, and they, obey only the 'inner
voice' of the purified community. Authentic experience and auth-
entic community are therefore preconditions of full autonomy, just
as only autonomy can allow the nation and its members to realize
themselves in an authentic manner. Autonomy is the goal of every
nationalist. 16
These concepts - autonomy, identity, national genius, authen-
ticity, unity and fraternity — form an interrelated language or dis-
course that has its expressive ceremonials and symbols. These
symbols and ceremonies are so much part of the world we live in
that we take them, for the most part, for granted. They include the
obvious attributes of nations — flags, anthems, parades, coinage,
capital cities, oaths, folk costumes, museums of folklore, war mem-
orials, ceremonies of remembrance for the national dead, passports,
frontiers — as well as more hidden aspects, such as national rec-
reations, the countryside, popular heroes and heroines, fairy tales,
forms of etiquette, styles of architecture, arts and crafts, modes of
town planning, legal procedures, educational practices and military
codes - all those distinctive customs, mores, styles and ways of
acting and feeling that are shared by the members of a community
of historical culture.' 7
In many ways national symbols, customs and ceremonies are the
most potent and durable aspects of nationalism. They embody its
basic concepts, making them visible and distinct for every member,
communicating the tenets of an abstract ideology in palpable, con-
crete terms that evoke instant emotional responses from all strata of
the community. Symbols and ceremonies have always possessed the
emotive collective qualities described by Durkheim, and nowhere is
this more apparent than in the case of nationalist symbols and
ceremonies. Indeed, much of what Durkheim attributes to the
totemic rites and symbols of the Arunta and other Australian tribes

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applies with far greater force to nationalist rites and ceremonies, for
nationalism dispenses with any mediating referent, be it totem or
deity; its deity is the nation itself. The emotions it unleashes are those
of the community directed to itself, self-consciously extolling itself.
The virtues it celebrates arc exclusively and solely those of the
'national self, and the crimes it condemns are those that threaten to
disrupt that self. By means of the ceremonies, customs and symbols
every member of a community participates in the life, emotions and
virtues of that community and, through them, re-dedicates him- or
herself to its destiny. By articulating and making tangible the ideo-
logy of nationalism and the concepts of the nation ceremonial and
symbolism help to assure the continuity of an abstract community
of history and destiny.' 8
What are the underlying sentiments and aspirations that nationalist
ideology and nationalist language and symbols evoke? They relate
to three main referents: territory, history and community. In the
last chapter we saw how, particularly in demotic ethnies engaged in
'vernacular mobilization', intelligentsias sought to construct cog-
nitive maps of a world of nations and to inculcate expressive mor-
alities for collective emulation. To these ends they employed two
main strategies: the use of landscape or poetic spaces and the use of
history or golden ages. In fact, these strategies were rooted in
popular attitudes to space and time and to popular attachments to
home and fathers. It was these ancient beliefs and commitments to
ancestral homelands and to the generations of one's forefathers that
nationalists made use of in elaborating the new ideology, language
and symbolism of a complex abstraction, national identity. The new
concept of the nation was made to serve as a time—space framework
to order chaos and render the universe meaningful by harnessing
pre-modern mass aspirations and sentiments for local and familial
attachments; herein lay a vital part of the wide appeal of an otherwise
abstruse ideology and language.' 9
But perhaps the most fundamental sentiments evoked by
nationalism were, paradoxically, those of family — paradoxically
because real families can constitute an obstacle to the ideal of a
homogeneous nation wherever nationalism embraces the ideal in that
extreme form. That too was part of David's message in the Oath of
the Horatii, mentioned earlier; the women on the right of the picture

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grieve for the loss of their loved ones and the imminent destruction
of their family ties. At the same time the metaphor of family is
indispensable to nationalism. The nation is depicted as one great
family, the members as brothers and sisters of the motherland or
fatherland, speaking their mother tongue. In this way the family of
the nation overrides and replaces the individual's family but evokes
similarly strong loyalties and vivid attachments. Even where local
allegiances arc tolerated and real families given their due the lan-
guage and symbolism of the nation asserts its priority and, through
the state and citizenship, exerts its legal and bureaucratic pressures
on the family, using similar kinship metaphors to justify itself.20

TYPES OF NATIONALISM

So far I have considered nationalism as an undifferentiated whole in

terms of its ideology and core doctrine, its language and symbolism
and its sentiments and aspirations. When we move on to consider
nationalist movements, however, we come up against clear differences
in their goals, differences that reach back into the underlying con-
ceptual divergence between the civic—territorial model and the
ethnic—genealogical model of the nation, described in chapter i.
This difference is so profound, and the kinds of nationalism to
which these alternative models give rise are so varied, that some
have despaired of finding any unitary concept of nationalism.
Chameleon-like, nationalism takes its colour from its context. Capable
of endless manipulation, this eminently malleable nexus of beliefs,
sentiments and symbols can be understood only in each specific
instance; nationalism-in-general is merely a lazy historian's escape
from the arduous task of explaining the influence of this or that
particular nationalist idea, argument or sentiment in its highly speci-
fic context. Though few would perhaps go as far as this claim
implies, several historians would agree with the basic 'contextualist'
argument and regard the differences between specific nationalisms
as in many ways more important than any surface similarities. 2I
There arc several difficulties with this argument. Nobody would
deny the importance of social and cultural context in the rise,
formulation and course of a particular instance of nationalism. But
to describe it as an instance of nationalism presupposes some idea of

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a general family to which such instances belong or which they

exemplify, albeit mixed with other elements. It is difficult to avoid
recourse to a general concept of the nation and nationalism — even
when we agree on the importance and uniqueness of each instance,
a claim that nationalists, ironically, would gladly support.
Second, to deny the legitimacy of a concept of nationalism-in-
general would prevent us from posing general sociological questions
about the modernity of nations and the ubiquity of nationalism's
appeal today and from making historical comparisons between differ-
ent nationalist ideologies, symbols and movements. In fact, the same
historians who insist on the specific context of each case of na-
tionalism pose such general questions and make these historical
comparisons; and this surely is desirable if we are to gain some
understanding of so elusive and complex a phenomenon as national-
ism.
Third, the 'contextualist' argument bypasses a fundamental task
of the study of complex phenomena like nationalism: the provision
of typologies of nationalist ideologies and/or movements. Such typ-
ologies recognize the importance of broadly differing contexts with-
out sacrificing the possibility of more general comparisons. Arguing
that nationalism exhibits a diversity within unity, they go on to
pinpoint the main kinds of ideology and movement in terms of
historical period, geographical area, level of economic development,
philosophical assumptions, class context, cultural milieu or political
aspirations. This is the strategy that I propose to follow here.
This is not the place to consider the various typologies that
scholars have proposed. I shall mention one or two, and state briefly
my own typology as a prelude to an analysis of the cultural matrix
and impact of nationalism in Europe. Other typologies are enumer-
ated in other earlier works. 22
Undoubtedly, the most influential typology is that of Hans Kohn.
He distinguished a 'Western', rational and associational version of
nationalism from an 'Eastern', organic and mystical version. In
Britain, France and America, he argued, a rational concept of the
nation emerged, one that viewed it as an association of human
beings living in a common territory under the same government
and laws. This ideology was largely a product of the middle classes,

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who came to power in these states at the end of the eighteenth

century. In contrast, Eastern Europe (east of the Rhine) had not
developed a significant middle class. Instead a few intellectuals led
the resistance to Napoleon and the ensuing nationalisms. Because
they were numerically insignificant and excluded from power their
versions of nationalism were inevitably shrill and authoritarian. For
the same reason they saw the nation as a seamless, organic unity
with a mystical 'soul' and 'mission' that only the vernacular intel-
lectuals could fathom. Hence their often leading role in nationalist
movements in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in Asia.23
This typology can be criticized on a number of grounds. Its
geopolitical dimension overlooks the influence of both kinds of
ideological nationalism in different European communities - the
organic version in Ireland and later nineteenth-century France, the
rational ideal in some versions of Czech, Hungarian and Zionist
nationalism as well as in early West Africian nationalisms. 24
It is also not clear that Western nationalisms are the product of
the bourgeoisie. As we have seen, they owe much to earlier monar-
chical and aristocratic culture and activities. Similarly, the commit-
ment of the bourgeoisie to rational versions of nationalism is a
dubious assumption: witness the often mystical pan-German senti-
ments of the German industrial bourgeoisie or the support for an
organic and 'primitivist' Russian nationalism by wealthy Russian
merchants at the end of the nineteenth century. 2S
There is also the distinction drawn by Plamenatz between the
culturally far more developed Italian and German nationalisms
and the relatively underdeveloped Balkan and Eastern European
nationalisms, with their lack of cultural and educational resources,
which hampered their chances and produced weaker, but shriller,
movements. 26
Despite these criticisms, Kohn's philosophical distinction between
a more rational and a more organic version of nationalist ideology
remains valid and useful. It is implicit in the distinction drawn in
chapter I between 'Western' civic-territorial and 'Eastern' ethnic-
genealogical models of the nation. Here too we have to treat geopol-
itical labels cautiously. Both models can be found in the 'East', in the
'West', in Asia, Africa and in Latin America, as well as within many
nationalist movements.

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 NATIONALISM A N D CULTURAL IDENTITY

Nevertheless, the conceptual distinction has important conse-

quences. Civic and territorial models of the nation tend to produce
certain kinds of nationalist movement: 'anti-colonial' movements
before independence has been attained and 'integration' movements
after independence. Ethnic and genealogical models of the nation,
on the other hand, tend to give rise to secessionist or diaspora
movements before independence and irredentist or 'pan' movements
thereafter. This overlooks a number of sub-varieties, as well as
mixed cases; but it captures, I think the basic logic of many na-
tionalisms.
On this basis we can construct a provisional typology of national-
isms around the distinction between ethnic and territorial national-
ism, taking into account the overall situation in which particular
communities and movements find themselves both before and after
independence. These situations, together with the basic orientation,
largely determine the political goals of each nationalism. Thus we
find the following.
1. Territorial nationalisms
(a) Pre-independence movements whose concept of the nation is
mainly civic and territorial will seek first to eject foreign
rulers and substitute a new state-nation for the old colonial
territory; these are anti-colonial nationalisms.
(b) Post-independence movements whose concept of the nation
remains basically civic and territorial will seek to bring
together and integrate into a new political community
often disparate ethnic populations and to create a new
'territorial nation' out of the old colonial state; these are
integration nationalisms.
2. Ethnic nationalisms
(a) Pre-independence movements whose concept of the nation is
basically ethnic and genealogical will seek to secede from a
larger political unit (or secede and gather together in a
designated ethnic homeland) and set up a new political
'ethno-nation' in its place; these are secession and diaspora na-
tionalisms.
(b) Post-independence movements whose concept of the nation
is basically ethnic and genealogical will seek to expand by
including ethnic 'kinsmen' outside the present boundaries

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of the 'ethno-nation' and the lands they inhabit or by

forming a much larger 'ethno-national' state through the
union of culturally and ethnically similar ethno-national
states; these are irredentist and 'pan' nationalisms. 27
This does not pretend to be an exhaustive typology. It omits
several well-known kinds of nationalism, notably protectionist econ-
omic and 'integral' fascist nationalisms and racial nationalisms.
But it can be argued that the latter constitute sub-varieties of
post-independence integration or irredentist nationalisms, with
which they are, in fact, historically associated, as in the case of
Maurras' 'integral' nationalism in the period of French irredentist
nationalism over Alsace-Lorraine, or Latin American protectionism
at a time of populist integration nationalisms in Argentina, Brazil
and Chile. 28
Such a basic typology helps us to compare nationalisms within
each category, and to place nationalisms in broad comparable con-
texts, while allowing the possibility of more general explanations.
This is not to gainsay the unique features of particular instances of
nationalism. On the contrary: the very fact that it has proved
necessary to sketch a 'core doctrine' and the basic concepts and
symbols of nationalism suggests the importance of those other
features of a particular nationalism that are unique to each case.
These specific doctrines and concepts (a better term than 'secondary'
or 'additional') play a vital role in each instance and not just a
supporting role. For it is the specific doctrines and ideas that provide
the symbolism and ceremonial that arouse the deepest popular
emotions and aspirations - notably when they are interwoven with
much older symbols and ceremonies. The idea of Poland as the
'suffering Christ', a messianic figure of redemption that pervades
the poetry of Poland's great poet, Mickiewicz, is allied to the re-
demptive power of the Madonna of Jasna Gora, still the object of a
mass cult of devotion. The ethno-religious Catholic image of suffer-
ing and redemption is central to an understanding of the ideology,
language and symbolism of Polish nationalism. 29 Similarly, the invo-
cation of Hindu heroes and deities, like Shivaji and the goddess
Kali, by Tilak and his followers, though remote from the secular
ideology of nationalism-in-general, played a vital role in creating
a Hindu Indian nationalism that singled out the unique, the

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incommensurable, elements of a genuinely Indian nation. For without

such bonds of differentiation there can be no nation. 30
The importance of specific doctrines and symbols of nationalism
points towards the deeper meaning of nationalism — the ideology,
the language, the consciousness. In a world of nations each nation is
unique, each is 'chosen'. Nationalism is the secular, modern equiva-
lent of the pre-modern, sacred myth of ethnic election. A doctrine
of polycentric uniqueness, it preaches the universality of 'irreplace-
able culture values'. Where once each ethnic community was a
world unto itself, the centre of the universe, the light amid darkness,
now the heritage and culture values from the storehouse of that
same community, selected, reinterpreted and reconstituted, form
one unique, incommensurable national identity among many other,
equally unique, cultural identities. This means that every culture,
even the least developed and elaborated, possesses some 'value' that
is irreplaceable and may contribute to the total fund of human
cultural values. Nationalism, as an ideology and symbolism, legit-
imates every cultural configuration, summoning intellectuals every-
where to transform 'low' into 'high' cultures, oral into written,
literary traditions, in order to preserve for posterity its fund of
irreplaceable culture values. Chosen peoples were formerly selected
by their deities; today they are chosen by an ideology and a symbol-
ism that elevate the unique and the individual and transform them
into a global reality. In former days peoples were chosen for their
alleged virtues; today they are called to be nations because of their
cultural heritages.

THE C U L T U R A L MATRIX OF NATIONALISM

A world of cultural diversity, of many 'chosen cultures', is also a

world of ethnic historicism. At first sight such a world appears
remote from the world of territorial absolutism that saw the birth
of nationalist ideologies, symbolism and movements. Nevertheless,
it was in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Western
Europe that nationalist ideals, motifs and symbols first appeared.
For, while sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Europe witnessed
powerful movements of messianic religious nationalism — notably in
Holland and England but also in Bohemia and Poland - the con-

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cepts, ideals, symbols and myths of the nation as an ultimate end in

itself had to wait till later and the 'core doctrine' and ideological
movements later still. 31
We are, of course, tracing complex processes that are never easy
to pcriodizc, let alone date. There is no fixed stage, let alone
moment, when one can definitely point to the emergence of true
nationalism. When historians debate whether nationalism emerged
during the early Partitions of Poland (Lord Acton), during the
American Revolution (Benedict Anderson), the English Revolution
(Hans Kohn) or even Fichte's 1807 Addresses to the German Nation
(Kedourie), this tells us a good deal about their different definitions
of nationalism but not so much about its emergence. More import-
ant, it omits the much longer period of the gestation of nationalism
as language-and-symbolism, and as consciousness-and-aspiration.
Since it is extremely difficult to gauge consciousness and sentiment,
except indirectly, I shall concentrate on the rise of nationalist con-
cepts, language, myths and symbols, even though our sources are
located exclusively among the small European educated classes of
the eighteenth century. 32
Already in the seventeenth century we find a growing interest in
the idea of 'national character' and 'national genius'. We met the
latter in Lord Shaftesbury's high opinion of British attainments, to
which we may add Jonathan Richardson's comparison of the English
with the ancient Greeks and Romans, in which he claimed: 'There
is a haughty Courage, an Elevation of Thought, a Greatness of
Taste, a Love of Liberty, a Simplicity and Honesty among us,
which we inherit from our Ancestors, and which belongs to us as
Englishmen: and 'tis in These this Resemblance consists.'33 Similar
sentiments can be found in early eighteenth-century France. Father
Daniel linked France's greatness to its monarchy, declaring that
'antiquity itself would find much to admire in the endless produc-
tions of the several arts, the thousand marvels that France has
produced in our time'; while Henri-François Daguesseau's oration
to the Paris Parlement of 1715 praised the 'love of patrie' in which
'the citizens find a patrie and the patrie its citizens'. 34
By the middle of the eighteenth century the concept of 'national
character' was widely accepted. La Font de Saint-Yenne, an influ-
ential art critic, looked back with pride to the Grand Siècle of Louis

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XIV, Colbert and Le Brun and prophesied the revival of 'le génie
François', inspired, as he put it, by 'le zèle ardent et courageux d'un
Citoyen, à exposer les abus qui déshonorent sa Nation, et à con-
tribuer à sa gloire', 35 while across the Channel Reynolds preached
the need for a national school of history painting worthy of the
nation, and James Barry declared in 1775: 'History painting and
sculpture should be the main views of every people desirous of
gaining honour by the arts. These are tests by which the national
character will be tried in after ages, and by which it has been, and is
now, tried by the natives of other countries.' 36
By the latter half of the eighteenth century this kind of language
had spread to America (Noah Webster), to Germany (Moser,
Herder), to Switzerland (Zimmerman, Fuseli), to Italy (Vico, Alfieri)
and to Holland, Sweden, Poland and Russia. While their conceptual
sources were various, including Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, Montes-
quieu and the philosophes, they also looked to the practice of en-
lightened despotism, which was increasingly identifying 'its' states
with 'its' populations and treating them, or at any rate their educated
classes, as the nation. For by this period in the West it was no longer
really possible to confine membership of the nation to the first two
estates, as in parts of Eastern Europe. By the mid eighteenth century
enlightened despots felt it necessary to take account of the sentiments
and opinions of the wealthier and more educated classes, whose
'expert' services they increasingly required. 37
The concept of national character and the idea of national genius
became useful and necessary elements in the new outlook and lan-
guage of a Europe of enlightened and competing states. Equally
important was the new concern with history and social develop-
ment. This had several sources. Perhaps the most important in this
context was the common practice of comparing European with
classical civilization, which came to a head in late seventeenth-
century France in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. Just as
the discovery of new lands and cultures by eighteenth-century ex-
plorers opened up a new vision of space and spatial comparison, so
the recovery of classical thought and art helped to create a new vision
of time and to provoke historical comparison with the civilizations
of the past.
It was a period that saw the growing power of the rational state

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to intervene in society and try to solve problems (of illness, famine,

crime, even ignorance) that had previously been thought insoluble
in this world. The growing confidence spurred by the economic
revolution of capitalism, the administrative revolution of profes-
sionalized statecraft and the cultural revolution of secular, humanistic
education and science inspired a belief in the possibility of progress
rivalling the achievements of classical Greece and R o m e and an
evolutionary worldview in which states and civilizations could be
ranged in a cultural hierarchy of national genius. 'Historicism', the
belief in the birth, growth, efflorescence and decay of peoples and
cultures, became increasingly attractive as a framework for inquiry
into the past and present and as an explanatory principle in elucidat-
ing the meaning of events, past and present. By placing events and
persons in their appropriate historical context, and seeking to portray
the event and period 'as it really was', one could empathetically
understand historical events and processes and thereby how things
came to be in the present. For these reasons we find in Britain and
France a significant increase in the number and range of works
dealing with both classical and national history during the eighteenth
century, including the histories of Rollin, Rapin, Hume, Gibbon,
Buchanan, Campden, Abbé Velly, Villaret and Mably, and a much
greater interest in questions of origin and descent of peoples and of
their cultural distinctiveness and historical character. 38
From this moment we can discern two parallel lines of develop-
ment, though in practice they may cross and interweave at times.
From the early 1760s a new quasi-Grecian taste made its appearance
in western European society, at first elegant and superficial in the
manner of Pompeian frescoes but soon with a deeper, heroic inten-
tion. The suave refinement of Adam and Vien gave way to the
starker martial visions of Fuseli, Canova and David, to the classical
simplicity of Gluck and Haydn and the monumental classicism of
Boullée and Ledoux, Soane and Jefferson. The neo-classical move-
ment had both a primitivist and classical urban aspect: on the one
hand, a return to primitive forms and states (Laugier's hut, Rous-
seau's noble savage), on the other hand, seeking inspiration from the
ancient polis community in Sparta, Athens and republican Rome. 3 9
This latter aspect was of particular importance for the growth of
nationalism, the ideology and the language. Again it was Rousseau

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who anticipated and encouraged its dissemination, though he had

precursors - Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke and especially Montesquieu's
seminal concept of the 'spirit' of a nation. But it was Rousseau who
made the idea of 'national character' central to the political life of a
community and who sought to translate it into a practical pro-
gramme of national preservation and restoration. In both his Projet
Corse and his Gouvernement de la Pologne Rousseau insisted on the
importance of national individuality and its maintenance through
the cultivation and preservation of a nation's manners and customs:
'Ce ne sont ni les murs, ni les hommes qui font la patrie; ce sont les
lois, les moeurs, les coutumes, le gouvernement, la constitution, la
manière d'être qui résulte de tout cela. La patrie est dans les relations
de l'état à ses membres: quand ses relations changent ou s'anéantis-
sent, la patrie s'évanouit.' 40 For Rousseau, his heart in an idealized
childhood Genevan republic, the models of national solidarity were
the city-states of classical antiquity. He was by no means alone in
these moral and political passions. Most of the Jacobin patriot leaders
saw themselves and their roles as those of latter-day Romans and
Spartans; Cato, Brutus, Scaevola, Phocion, Socrates and Timoleon
were their heroes, the civic cults of the polis their ideal religion. 41
But in this same period (1760—1800) a parallel trend opened up
the way towards a very different vision. The 'history' that the neo-
classical movement valued was essentially civic and political. It
derived from a reading of classical antiquity as a plateau of civiliza-
tion that was being realized again in modern Europe but on an even
higher plane. It was a universal history, yet its constituents were
city-states and their civic solidarities and patriotisms. Between the
classical model and its modern realization there had been a falling
away, characterized by a return to a more barbaric, rural (feudal)
society. It was just this rural society of the age between the classical
and modern epochs, the 'middle age', that became the source of
inspiration for a very different reading of European origins and de-
velopment.
'Literary medievalism', the return through medieval literature to
that rural European past, was from the first much more particular-
istic. It depended, by its method of inquiry and its literary data, on
the records of specific peoples and milieux in order that earlier
periods of a community's history and culture were to be re-

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constructed as they had really existed. The movement began in

poetry, mainly in Britain, with the cult of ancient British poetry,
Ossian and the Edda, and soon spread to Germany in the 1770s,
where Moser, Herder and the young Goethe presaged a romantic
cult of medieval Germany during the Sturm und Drang period. For
the first time Gothic cathedrals, medieval miniatures, stained glass,
Christian romances, chivalry and aristocratic pedigrees came back
into their own. Since they were 'rediscovered' by intellectuals from
each emergent nation, and were viewed as objectifications of the
underlying values and culture of each nation, manifestations of its
unique 'genius', the cult of literary medievalism greatly strengthened
the emerging consciousness of each nation's ethnic background and
hence its ethnic nationalism. 42
Britain and France, though open to neo-classical and medievalist
developments, tended to diverge, at least for a time. France mani-
fested a powerful movement of historical classicism in both politics
and the arts, while Britain tended to move more quickly towards a
literary medievalism that owed much to the revival of Shakespeare,
Spenser and Milton, as well as Homer, the 'poet of nature'. 43
At first, because of the impact of the Revolution, the French
passion for moral drama and historical verisimilitude drawn from its
reading of classical heroic patriotism swept through Europe in the
wake of Napoleon's victorious armies, leaving in every city the
architectural and sculptural marks of its classical triumphs. But soon
other monuments speaking for a past nearer home, and recalling
earlier periods of the community's history, appeared beside the
classical temples, arches and chambers of commerce. Gothic
churches, vaulted tombs, museums and houses of assembly, adorned
with mementoes of medieval battles and national heroes, filled the
lacunae of the nation's collective memory, and little children were
taught to revere Arthur and Vercingetorix, Siegfried and Lem-
minkainen, Alexander Nevsky and Stefan Dusan as much, if not
more than, Socrates, Cato and Brutus. For the medieval era and its
golden age of ethnic heroes seemed to answer more fully to the
historicist vision that underpinned the new language and ideology
of nationalism, revealing in every corner of Europe the unsuspected
glories of one national genius after another, each drawing inspiration
from the golden age and poetic landscape of his or her ethnic

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community. Medievalist literary historicism spread the cult of

national distinctiveness even to the most submerged community
and cultural category of Europe's population.
Of course, it was not literary medievalism that stirred these com-
munities to mobilize and demand national status. Many factors were
involved in this process, not least the impact of rationalized states on
outlying areas and market relations on subsistence economies. But
medievalist literary historicism provided the concepts, symbols and
language for the vernacular mobilization of demotic ethnies and a
mirror in which members could grasp their own aspirations as they
took shape amid the transformations wrought by the Western 're-
volutions'. Here they could read of themselves as a unique com-
munity with a 'peculiar genius' and distinctive culture, and recognize
a 'national character' that demanded its autonomy so that it could
live authentically. Here too the members of each cultural com-
munity could discover why national unity was essential to a 'realiza-
tion' of the true national identity and why only in an historic
homeland could that community find its 'genuine self and achieve
autarchy and solidarity for its citizens. This was a language and a
symbolism that sprang easily from the historicist vision that literary
medievalism did so much to foster and disseminate throughout
Europe. 44
This language and this symbolism spread rapidly, first to Eastern
Europe, then to the Middle East and Asia and, finally, to Africa,
having already mobilized the educated classes in the United States
and Latin America. In each case we can trace a definite cultural
sequence, despite many variations in tempo, scope and intensity.
First there is a concern with 'national character' and its necessary
freedom of growth. This is swiftly followed by the rise of histori-
cism, in which the 'national genius' is explained according to the
laws of its own historical development. This gives rise to two
cultural patterns. The first, which we may call 'neo-classical', is
inspired by Western rationalism and enlightenment, which mediates
the original classical sources outside Europe. Such Western neo-
classicism is often associated with republicanism and its virtues. At
the same time there is a growing interest in the vernacular past or
medieval (or ancestral) heritage of the indigenous peoples. Some-
times this nativism or medievalism is counterposed to Western neo-

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classicism; sometimes it combines with it, perhaps in an 'official'

nationalism propagated by particular ideological regimes, as was the
case in Wilhelmine Germany and Meiji Japan. That such combina-
tions were possible suggests the flexibility of these cultural patterns.
For both neo-classicism and medievalism (or nativism) are variants
of a wider romanticism, a yearning for an idealized golden age and
a heroic past that can serve as exemplars for collective regeneration
in the present. Yet the opposition between enlightenment and medi-
eval romanticism also mirrors a deeper cultural and social cleavage
between the two ethnic bases and routes in the formation of nations,
from which two radically different concepts of the nation have
emerged. 45

THE INTELLECTUALS AND NATIONALIST C U L T U R E

From this discussion of the gestation of nationalism in eighteenth-

century Europe we can begin to gauge the different levels of its
operation.
There is, first, a strictly political level. Nationalism as an ideology
is a doctrine of the units of political power and a set of prescriptions
about the nature of power-holders. It is also a doctrine of the
legitimate global relations of such units. There is too an economic
level of nationalist activity. Nationalism ideally prescribes a self-
sufficiency of resources and purity of lifestyle in line with its commit-
ment to autonomy and authenticity; failing that, nationalists strive
for maximum control over their homeland and its resources. Beyond
that, nationalism operates at the social level by prescribing the
mobilization of the 'people', their legal equality as citizens and their
participation in public life for the 'national good'. Seeing the nation
as a family writ large, it seeks to inspire a spirit of national solidarity
and brotherhood in the members of the nation; hence it preaches
the social unity of each nation.
But at the broadest level nationalism must be seen as a form of
historicist culture and civic education, one that overlays or replaces
the older modes of religious culture and familial education. More
than a style and doctrine of politics, nationalism is a form of culture -
an ideology, a language, mythology, symbolism and consciousness
- that has achieved global resonance, and the nation is a type of

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identity whose meaning and priority is presupposed by this form of

culture. In that sense the nation and national identity must be seen
as a creation of nationalism and its proponents, and its significance
and celebration too is the handiwork of nationalists.
This goes some way to explaining the role of the arts in
nationalism. Nationalists, intent on celebrating or commemorating
the nation, arc drawn to the dramatic and creative possibilities of
artistic media and genres in painting, sculpture, architecture, music,
opera, ballet and film, as well in the arts and crafts. Through these
genres nationalist artists may, directly or evocatively, 'reconstruct'
the sights, sounds and images of the nation in all its concrete speci-
ficity and with 'archaeological' verisimilitude. It is not surprising,
therefore, if in an era of burgeoning nationalism, in the late eigh-
teenth century, Western artists were drawn to the 'archaeological
drama' of recreated images of ancient R o m e and Sparta, or medieval
France, England and Germany, and to their political messages of
'moral historicism', the portrayal of examples of public virtue from
the past in order to inspire emulation by present generations. In these
'golden ages', among idealized heroes and sages, they could recreate
a vivid panorama of life wie es eigentlich war, which could suggest
the nation's antiquity and continuity, its noble heritage and the
drama of its ancient glory and regeneration. Who, more than poets,
musicians, painters and sculptors, could bring the national ideal to
life and disseminate it among the people? In this respect a David, a
Mickiewicz and a Sibelius were worth more than several battalions
of Father Jahn's Turnerschaften and a Yeats as much as the hurling
societies of the Gaelic Association. 46
There is a reverse side to this coin. Many artists, in Europe and
outside, have been drawn into the world of nationalism, its language
and symbolism. Among composers alone, we may mention Liszt,
Chopin, Dvorak and Smetana, Borodin and Moussorgsky, Kodâly
and Bartók, Elgar and Vaughan-Williams, Verdi and Wagner, de
Falla, Grieg and Sibelius; among painters, we may single out David
and Ingres, Fuseli and West, Gros, Hayez, Maclise, Delaroche,
Gallcn-Kallela, Vasnetsov and Surikov, as well as many landscape and
genre painters who contributed to a populistic nationalism in a
manner that was more evocative than deliberate. For the language
and symbols of nationalism helped to draw artists to seek outlets in

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motifs, genres and forms different from the traditional and classical
in the tone-poem, the historical opera, ethnic dances, historical
novels, local landscapes, ballads, dramatic poems, choral drama and
the like. These forms, along with nocturnes, poetic fantasies, rhap-
sodies, ballads, preludes and dances, arc characterized by a
heightened expressive subjectivity that is well suited to the
conceptual language and style of ethnic nationalism and to the
rediscovery of the 'inner self that is one of the chief ends of ethnic
historicism. 47
Expansion of the range and intensity of expressive language and
subjectivity has gone hand in hand with the rise to prominence of
circles of historicist intellectuals bent on uncovering the historical
roots of collective identities and the inner meaning of ethnic dis-
tinctiveness in the modern world. Here I distinguish intellectuals
proper from a much wider stratum of professionals as well as from
the still wider educated public. Analytically, we may distinguish
intellectuals who create artistic works and produce ideas from the
wider intelligentsia or professionals who transmit and disseminate
those ideas and creations and from a still wider educated public that
'consumes' ideas and works of art. Of course, in practice the same
individual may produce, disseminate and consume ideas in the differ-
ent roles of artist/intellectual, professional/interpreter and audience/
public. Nevertheless, this tripartite distinction may help to clarify
the seminal role of intellectuals in European, and later non-European,
nationalisms. 48
It is the intellectuals — poets, musicians, painters, sculptors, novel-
ists, historians and archaeologists, playwrights, philologists, anthro-
pologists and folklorists - who have proposed and elaborated the
concepts and language of the nation and nationalism and have,
through their musings and research, given voice to wider aspirations
that they have conveyed in appropriate images, myths and symbols.
The ideology and cultural core doctrine of nationalism may also be
ascribed to social philosophers, orators and historians (Rousseau,
Vico, Herder, Burke, Fichte, Mazzini, Michelet, Palacky, Karamzin),
each elaborating elements fitted to the situation of the particular
community for which he spoke. 49
Critics of nationalism have seized on the seminal role of the
intellectuals to explain the ideology's errors and lack of political

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realism. They argue that a doctrine of the national will must produce
coercive fanaticism or else fall into anarchy in its delusionary
dream of terrestrial perfection. Other scholars, for whom national-
ism is primarily a type of political argument about seizing state
power, while equally critical of the 'pseudo-solutions' that it
provides, consider that the role of intellectuals has been over-
estimated, despite the importance of abstract ideology in the modern
political world. 50
There is a mass of evidence for the primary role of intellectuals,
both in generating cultural nationalism and in providing the ideol-
ogy, if not the early leadership, of political nationalism. Wherever
one turns in Europe, their seminal position in generating and analys-
ing the concepts, myths, symbols and ideology of nationalism is
apparent. This applies to the first appearance of the core doctrine
and to the antecedent concepts of national character, genius of the
nation and national will. It is also true of that other tradition of
social thought, namely the idea of collective liberty and popular
democracy. Here too social philosophers played a major role,
notably Rousseau, Siéyès, Paine, Jefferson and Fichte (at least in his
early writings). The influence of Kant too cannot be overlooked,
even though his major contribution, the idea that the good will is
the autonomous will, applied to individuals rather than groups. 5 '
It was the confluence of these two traditions, the cultural language
of national character and the political discourse of collective liberty
and popular sovereignty, that inspired the revolutionary fervour
and excesses of the Jacobin patriots in 1792—4. But these cultural and
political traditions also underlay the liberal 'bourgeois' Revolution
of 1789—91 and its partial resumption under the Directoire.
Here one of the guiding forces was the ideology of nationalism,
which made itself manifest, both in Siéyès' well-known pamphlet
Qu'est-ce que le Tiers Etat? and in the cahiers de doléances of early
1789. The proclamation of the 'citizen-nation' and the mobilization
and unification of all Frenchmen for a new, reformed social and
political order, in the spring and summer of 1789, marked the
moment of transition from 'nationalism as a form of culture', with
which we have been concerned so far, to 'nationaUsm as a form of
polities', to which I turn inthe next chapter. 52
For the present we need note only the vital role of intellectuals in

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the initial stages of both forms of nationalism. But, equally, we

should be careful not to exaggerate that role in the later stages or
even in the organization of more regular nationalist movements.
How shall we explain the seminal influence of the intellectuals in
early nationalisms? Is it simply a function of intellectualism every-
where that any ideological movement requires its intellectuals to
formulate a persuasive, abstract doctrine that will mediate the often
conflicting interests of the groups supporting the movement? Is it
simply a question of necessary skills and abilities, the need for every
politically successful movement to have its trained advocates, con-
stitutional experts, propagandists, orators and the like? Or should
we characterize nationalism as a 'movement of intellectuals' excluded
from power and bent on acquiring it through leadership of 'the
people' whose cultural definition they have themselves supplied?
There is an element of truth in all these characterizations. In-
tellectuals and intellectualism are clearly needed for the purpose of
propounding and elaborating the ideologies of most modern move-
ments (though not all), and their skills, if they truly possess the
required ones, will help to advance the movement's cause. But there
is nothing specific to nationalism about such skills or intellectualism,
and the relevant skills, as we shall see, are more likely to be the
preserve of professionals (the intelligentsia) than of intellectuals
proper; these are skills acquired in addition to their primary function
of cultural creation and analysis.53
As for the notion that nationalism is a movement of 'power-
seeking' intellectuals, though one may point to instances of excluded
and resentful intellectuals, especially under a racialist colonialism,
there is insufficient evidence to formulate a general proposition
about the motives of nationalist intellectuals, and a considerable
amount of contrary evidence showing that intellectuals proper rarely
become nationalist leaders, though they may from time to time
exercise advisory roles. Rousseau, Fichte, Korais, Obradovic, Kar-
adzic, Gokalp, Achad Ha'am, al-Kawakibi, Banerjea, Li'ang Ch'i
Ch'ao, Blyden, Cheikh Anta Diop, Gasprinski — these earliest pro-
pounders of their various nationalisms may have been secretly motiv-
ated by resentment, but they reaped no political reward. Indeed,
they were often ignored, even temporarily forgotten, by their con-
temporaries, as was Marx's contemporary Moses Hess.54

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How then shall we explain the attraction of nationalism for many

intellectuals? The most popular thesis speaks of nationalism as the
resolution of an 'identity crisis' of the intellectuals, and there is an
important truth here, provided the thesis is properly formulated. Its
validity is confined to intellectuals proper and should not be gener-
alized to include other strata or classes, not even the intelligentsia.
Moreover, the success and even the character of nationalism cannot
be accounted for in these overly simple terms. A full-blown
nationalism takes its character from a variety of circumstances and
imprints, of which the intellectuals' is but one, albeit seminal, influ-
ence. Nor can the thesis explain the social thought and politics of
the intellectuals tout court; after all, many intellectuals do not become
nationalists or, if they do, it is only superficially and temporarily.
What the thesis can try to explain is why nationalism has made a
lifelong appeal to intellectuals in so many parts of the world and
why their imprint on the ideology and language of nationalism has
been so influential.55
The identity crisis of the intellectuals springs ultimately from the
challenges posed to traditional religion and society by the 'scientific
state' and the Western 'revolutions' that it promotes wherever its
influence is felt. I have already described the different reactions of
the intellectuals to this crisis of'dual legitimation': of legitimation in
terms of received religion and tradition versus legitimation by appeal
to reason and observation, fostered by a state that makes increasing
use of'scientific' technique and attitudes. It is this profound challenge
to traditional cosmic images, symbols and theodicies, a challenge
felt first and most acutely by those exposed to rationalist and scien-
tific thought and activity, that propels many intellectuals to discover
alternative principles and concepts, and a new mythology and sym-
bolism, to legitimate and ground human thought and action.
Perhaps the most important of these principles and myths is that of
'historicism'. Its appeal lies exactly in its ability to present as (ap-
parently) comprehensive a picture of the universe as the old religious
world-views without appealing to an external principle of creation,
while at the same time integrating the past (tradition), the present
(reason) and the future (perfectibility). The question then arose:
whose past and whose future? That of humanity as a whole, or that
of its individual or collective parts? The answers to these questions

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provoked major divisions within the ranks of the intellectuals and

led to the formulation of alternative, though often overlapping,
social and political traditions and movements - to the traditions of
liberalism and Marxism on the one hand and those of nationalism
and racial fascism on the other. 56
Hand in hand with this wider crisis of dual legitimation went a
more specific crisis of the intellectuals as to their identity in a world
torn by these challenges to their cosmic traditions. The questions
then arose: who am I? Who are we? What is our purpose and role
in life and in society? The answers to these questions were manifold,
as one might imagine, and individual circumstances and choice
often determined much of them. Nevertheless, the fact that the
range of answers was neither unlimited nor random suggests lines of
inquiry into why certain types of answer to this crisis of identity
were particularly appealing. One such answer was certainly, and
remains, the nationalist solution, which sinks or 'realizes' individual
identity within the new collective cultural identity of the nation.
The individual in this solution takes her or his identity from a
cultural collectivity; she or he becomes a citizen, that is, a recognized
and rightful member of a political community that is, simultaneously
a cultural 'community of history and destiny'. Ultimately, in this
answer to the question of identity, 'wc are who wc are' because of
our historic culture.
We are back to the image of nationalism as a form of historicist
culture, which emerges out of the breakdown of earlier religious
forms of culture. This has been, and remains, a large and vital part
of both nationalism and national identity, that is, the identity solution
proposed by nationalism. But, if we ask where this particular histori-
cist solution comes from, we cannot simply appeal to the imagery
and celebration of nationalists; we need to look deeper into the
sources of their concepts and images. 1 have suggested that we look
for those sources in the different kinds of ethnic base and political
process in late medieval and early modern Europe, as well as in the
wider sense of cultural community persisting in varying degrees in
different parts of the world. Here, all around them, lay models and
examples of collective identity that could serve both the intellectuals
in their own private quest for an 'identity solution' and wider strata
with different preoccupations and interests.

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For we must never forget that the nationalist solution was adopted
not only by many intellectuals in search of their roots but also by
many others for whom a similar quest for roots, though it may
have possessed other meanings, became equally paramount and for
whom a similar solution, the nation, was equally necessary and
attractive. It is to these others, and their national identity, that I
now turn.
 CHAPTER 5
Nations by Design?

As a doctrine of culture and a symbolic language and consciousness,

nationalism's primary concern is to create a world of collective
cultural identities or cultural nations. While it does not determine
which units of population are eligible to become nations, nor why
they do so, nationalism plays a large part in determining when and
where nations will be formed. It is at this point that nationalism
enters the political arena. As a doctrine and language of polycentric
uniqueness, a modern, secular equivalent of the old doctrine of
chosen peoples, nationalism might have remained a purely cultural
and social vision and consciousness, largely divorced from the politi-
cal realm, as was the case with many ethnic communities in pre-
modern eras. The fact that nationalism often fails to recognize the
boundary between the private realm of culture and the public one
of politics suggests that other components of nationalism discussed
in chapter 4, as well as certain features of the modern world, have a
direct political impact, irrespective of the intentions of particular
groups and versions of nationalism.
In other words, what we mean by national identity comprises
both a cultural and political identity and is located in a political
community as well as a cultural one. This is significant because it
means that any attempt to forge a national identity is also a political
action with political consequences, like the need to redraw the
geopolitical map or alter the composition of political regimes and
states. Creating a 'world of nations' has profound consequences for
the global system of states as well as for individual states.
The politics of national identity are complicated by the duality of
concepts of the nation, the ethnic and the territorial model, described
in chapter 1. This has led to attempts to create two very different
kinds of national political identity and community. The first (in
historical sequence usually) has been the territorial type of political
nation; the second the ethnic type of political nation. In each case a
rather different model of political identity and community is

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envisaged, drawing from the different neo-classical/rational and

indigenous/romantic cultural sources discussed in the previous
chapter. In this chapter I shall be concerned mainly with attempts to
create territorial political identities and communities; in the next
chapter, with the ethnic reaction that these attempts have provoked
and the problems of polyethnic states.

EMPIRES INTO NATIONS

Historians commonly distinguish the growth of the 'old, continuous
nations' of the West from the more deliberate creation of nations in
Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. In Western Europe
nations were to all intents and purposes in place before the rise of
nationalism, the ideology, language and aspiration, during the eigh-
teenth century. Outside the West the formation of nations followed
the diffusion of nationalism in the relevant area. In Western Europe
nations were largely unplanned. Outside the West they were largely
the result of nationalist purposes and movements. The West acquired
nations almost by accident; in other parts of the globe nations were
created by design. 1
From a Western standpoint this distinction has much to commend
it. I have, in chapter 3, argued that Western nations, the first nations,
did in part antedate the rise of nationalism, and emerged as an
unintended consequence of processes of bureaucratic incorporation
by aristocratic 'lateral' ethnies, whose ruling classes could by no
stretch of the imagination be called 'nationalist'. But even here we
need to exercise care. It remains an open question how much weight
should be attached to royal centralization and homogenization from
the fifteenth century, as opposed to Jacobin and subsequent
nationalisms, in creating the French nation. The element of 'design'
is not wholly absent even in the English, and later British, case;
witness Tudor and Stuart centralization in opposition to papal R o m e
and Spain, the impact of Puritan ethnic 'nationalism' and the use of
a rising tide of national sentiment in Britain from 1770 to 1820.2
Nevertheless, it remains true that, by comparison with non-
Western cases, the rise of Western nations owed much less to
nationalism and a movement to create a 'nation where none existed'.
In non-Western instances of the formation of nations the specifically

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nationals element, as an ideological movement, assumes greater

importance. That importance, and hence the role of 'invention' and
'construction' in the formation of national identity, varies con-
siderably, depending in great part on the pre-existing local ethnic
configuration. It is also influenced by the nature and activities of the
preceding political system and institutions.
We distinguished in chapter 3 two routes in the formation of
nations. One was the process of bureaucratic incorporation leading
to the rise of territorial and civic political nations, the other a
process of vernacular mobilization for the creation of ethnic and
genealogical political nations. If we confine our attention to the first
route, we can subdivide it outside the West into an 'imperial' and a
'colonial' route, according to the nature and activities of the political
system preceding the formation of the nation. In the first case the
unit in question is formally sovereign and independent; it requires
not a movement of liberation from alien rule but rather a transforma-
tion of its political system and cultural self-definition. In the second
case not only must a new cultural identity be forged but also the
unit, as a dependent colony, requires to be liberated from rule by
alien powers and become independent and sovereign.
Let me start with the independent states and the 'imperial' route.
How is a national political identity forged in these cases? How was,
or is, it possible to transform states and empires like Russia, China,
Japan, Persia, Ottoman Turkey and Ethiopia into 'compact' political
communities and 'territorial nations'?
The main characteristics of the polities that initiated the processes
of forming nations, and the route by which this may be achieved,
have included the following.
1. Their aristocratic base in a 'lateral' ethnie. Though they may
include demotic elements (as in the Russian, Ethiopian, Tur-
kish and Japanese cases), the state is suffused by an aristocratic
culture and traditions, often permeated with religious and
priestly influences.
2. Their inclusion of significant ethnic minorities. This varies con-
siderably, with some empires including many large minor-
ities (for example, Russia, Ethiopia, Ottoman Turkey),
others only a few (Japan).
3. The 'modernizing' character of their bureaucratic states.

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Again, this varies in degree (compare Japan with Ottoman

Turkey or Ethiopia), but it represents the consolidation of a
dominant ethnic core and ruling class over subordinate
ethnies and classes.
4. The frequent use of 'official' and institutional nationalism. In
order to consolidate their hold and homogenize the popula-
tion into a compact nation, the ruling class seeks to assimi-
late ethnic minorities through an educational programme
of nationalism, backed by major institutions. To this end,
they promote official, establishment ideas and images of
the nation, to which everyone must conform and which
preclude the rise of any other ideas, symbols or imagery.
H o w successful has the imperial route and its programme of
official nationalism proved in transforming ethnic states and empires
into compact territorial political nations?
Success in this field has depended on both geopolitical and social
changes. Broadly speaking, movement towards the goal of the
nation-state has been swifter where the dominant ethnie and its rulers
have been able to divest themselves of their imperial heritage, usually
by redrawing their borders, as in the Turkish case, or where 'empire'
did not include other, contiguous or overseas territories and their
ethnically different inhabitants, as with Japan.
Socially, movement towards the goal of the nation-state has been
swifter to the extent that the old ruling aristocracy has been replaced,
though not necessarily by violence, by middle and lower classes,
whilst simultaneously preserving and adapting their ethnic cultural
heritage. Too sharp a repudiation of that heritage stores up problems
of cultural, and political, identity for the future unless there is a
vibrant alternative demotic community to hand within the domi-
nant ethnic core.
Judged by these criteria, the imperial route for forming territorial
political nations has had only partial success to date. This may be
seen by considering a few empirical examples.

1. Russia The last century of tsarist rule saw both the attempted
modernization (often interrupted) of social and political institutions
and the use of an official nationalism to Russify large parts of the
empire's populations and assimilate them through the imposition of

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Russian culture and Orthodoxy. At the same time the gulf between
rulers and ruled within the dominant Russian ethnic core widened,
despite the abolition of serfdom in 1861; the westernized culture of
the aristocracy and the Orthodox beliefs and rituals of the peasant
masses expressed antithetical visions of 'Russia'. 3
The October Revolution repudiated both visions for a Marxist
'proletarian' alternative that sought to turn the Russian empire into
a federation of soviet republics for the most important peripheral
ethnies. But the civil war, the building of 'Socialism in One Country"
and especially the dangers of the Great Patriotic War against the
Nazis brought a partial return to the traditional, even religious,
heritage of Great Russian nationalism. Today that heritage is sought
more openly at the cultural, if not the institutional, level. At the
same time, even so partial a return under perestroika has been
accompanied by growing nationalist demands of non-Russian
demotic ethnies, demands that could imperil the socialist vision and
its federal expression. 4
In these circumstances it has been found necessary to delay the
programme of greater cooperation between the socialist nations of
the U S S R and to postpone, perhaps sine die, the ideal of their
fusion. We can no longer easily envisage the growth of a Soviet
national identity or a Soviet political community except as a truly
federal commonwealth of separate national identities and political
communities. 5

2. Turkey The last seventy years of Ottoman rule witnessed suc-

cessive attempts to reform the basis of the empire (Tanzimat), includ-
ing a resort to 'Ottomanism' through equality and citizenship for all
subjects and to 'Islamism' under Abdul Hamid, which promoted the
welfare of the Islamic inhabitants without abolishing citizenship for
all.
But the modernizing attempts by an aristocratic Islamic élite
failed amid the break-up of first the Christian and then the Muslim
parts of the empire. At this point a new pan-Turkist ideology
emerged among sections of the intellectuals, and it was taken up by
some of the professionals and military after the coup d'état of 1908,
hastening the alienation of the non-Turkic parts of the empire,
including the Arabs. 6

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

It was this Turkic ideal, shorn of its extra-Anatolian irrcdentism,

that Kemal Ataturk made the basis of his secular, westernizing
nationalism. In effect he engineered the secession of the Turkish
heartlands from the Ottoman empire and caliphate, repudiating
Ottomanism and Islam and pushing through a series of modernizing
social and cultural reforms in the cities that would redefine the
empire as a compact territorial political community aligned to the
ethnic nation of Anatolian Turks. But, realizing that territorial and
civic concepts of the nation require a solidary basis in a national
cultural identity, the Kemalists attempted to furnish the necessary
ethnic myths, memories, values and symbols by utilizing the theory
of Turkish origins in Central Asia, their unbroken descent from
Oghuz Khan and the antiquity of their (purified) original language
(the Sun Language theory). 7
Despite the apparent success of the territorial concept, its ethnic
underpinning encountered serious problems. The small towns and
villages continued to display strong Islamic loyalties and sentiments;
Turkic theories and symbolism failed to replace this wider allegi-
ance, even among the merchants. Pan-Turkism retained vociferous
adherents, while Marxism also has a small following. Once again
the content, if not the form, of Turkish national identity, proved
elusive.8

3. Ethiopia It was only in the late nineteenth century that the

Ethiopian state expanded into an empire under Menelik to include
large numbers of Muslims, several ethnic communities and categor-
ies like the Galla, the Somali in the Ogaden and a variety of groups
in Eritrea. For centuries the dominant ethnie on the Abyssinian
plateau had been the Christian Monophysite Amhara, but it was
only in this century that their rulers pursued an official Amharic
nationalism that sought to create an Amharized 'territorial nation'.
Modernizing policies were also begun under Haile Selassie in the
1960s but too late to overcome the serious economic problems and
head off the intelligentsia's challenge. After a disastrous famine, the
military revolt of 1974 deposed the Lion of Judah but continued his
modernizing and centralizing policies against Tigréan, Galla, Somali
and Eritrean ethnic separatisms with Soviet support and even fiercer
determination. To their Marxist anti-Christian and land reform

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programmes was allied an ethnic resettlement policy, one of whose

aims was to promote the Dergue's vision of a socialist African
territorial nation. Yet here too identity problems abound. Despite
the attack on the Monophysitc Church, the Amhara remain domi-
nant, and Mengistu's regime combines Marxist with Amharic Christ-
ian symbolism; maintenance of Ethiopian borders owes more to
Menelik than to Marx. Too sharp a repudiation of the aristocratic-
clerical past may destroy Ethiopia's raison d'être if the borders are
not to be redrawn. 9

4. Japan Without doubt the most successful case of modernizing

nationalism by the imperial route, Japan nevertheless suffers identity
problems, at both the cultural and the political level.
More homogeneous and geopolitically rooted than most, the
Japanese ethnic community was united in the early medieval era by
the legacy of the Heian and Nara empires and by the emergence of
successive feudal states (the Kamakura, Ashikaga and Tokugawa
shogunates) despite long periods of civil war between feuding lords.
By the early seventeenth century Japan had evolved into an ethnic
state with only the small Ainu minority (later supplemented by
Koreans) dwelling in the north. Tokugawa feudal absolutism
cemented the congruence of state and ethnie by (almost) sealing
Japan's borders with the outside world. 10
The Meiji Restoration of 1868, led by some samurai factions,
replaced the shogunal system by a modernizing Imperial one, open
to necessary outside influences but bent on achieving political parity
with the West through economic and political reform under
imperial auspices.
To this end the Meiji élites utilized Confucian and peasant
traditions of loyalty to one's lord, familism (ie) and the village
community (mura) to reinforce the dominance of the emperor
system, turn a politically passive and economically fragmented
ethnic community into a more cohesive, economically centralized
and mobilized political community and thereby create a Japanese
national political identity. Here Meiji political nationalism created
the modern Japanese nation on the basis of aristocratic (samurai)
culture and its ethnic state, while also utilizing those demotic peasant
traditions that could be integrated into the ruling imperial system."

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 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

The results have been problematic despite the secure ethnic basis
of modern Japanese national identity. The emperor system {tennosei),
as the bulwark of aggressive nationalism and Fascism during the
Second World War, has been deprived of its former mystique and
position and remains under a cloud, at least for the time being.
With that loyalty in abeyance, the foundations of Japanese national
political identity have been shaken, though some advocate a prudent
'revivalist' political nationalism. In its place there has re-emerged
the periodic Japanese preoccupation with national distinctiveness,
notably in the literature known as nihonjinron (discussions of the
Japanese), which is a vital element of any cultural nationalism con-
cerned with redefining a national cultural identity. Though formu-
lated by intellectuals drawn from various strata, this concern has
been taken up by business élites in the large Japanese companies
who stress the distinctive social and holistic culture of Japan. But
how far this can prove a durable and comprehensive base for Japa-
nese national identity, cultural or political, remains to be seen.12
In these examples nationalism, the ideology and symbolism, has
grafted a new concept of national political identity on to a pre-existing
'lateral' ethnic identity. This process has met with only partial success,
depending on the degree of cultural homogeneity of the state's
population — that is, the degree to which it constituted an ethnic state —
and whether it was able to divest itself of empire and hence of culturally
different communities. Where the process has been relatively successful,
nationalist ideals and symbolism have helped to redefine an imperial
community as a fairly compact nation and political community.

COLONIES I N T O NATIONS

By far the greater number of non-western states started out as

colonics of outside (usually overseas) European powers. In most of
these cases both cultural and political identities were lacking. Any
identity or solidarity that a colonial population possessed was in-
itially the product of the incorporation and changes brought by the
colonial power. In the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Belgian
Congo, Kenya, Egypt, Iraq, India, Burma and Indonesia, to take
some examples, the nation that is (usually still) being forged has
been defined, in its boundaries and character, by the colonial state.

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

There is a vast literature on the colonial state. Given the variety

of European colonial policies - French, Belgian, Portuguese, British,
Italian, German and Russian (in Central Asia and the Caucasus) —
any generalization about the impact of colonialism is hazardous. But
certain aspects, while not true of every instance, were widespread.
These include the following.
1. The overseas alien ethnic basis of the colonial state and its
administrative élites. As Alavi highlighted, the colonial state
was an outgrowth not of indigenous civil society but of
metropolitan society mixed, however, with executive charac-
teristics not tolerated within the metropolis. In other words,
the colonial state was a hybrid: an alien executive instrument
of a culturally different political community.' 3
2. The creation by treaty and political fiat of administrative
boundaries that only partially took ethnic boundaries into
account and the bureaucratic inclusion of previously separate
ethnic communities and categories within a single political
system. Not only did the colonial state vastly increase the
scale of many units (even in India, which had only once
been united for a brief period under the Mauryas); it also
for the first time defined a territorial space for the interaction
and loyalty of the included populations. 14
3. The growth of a territorial patriotism based on this space and
limited by these boundaries. This entirely novel territorial
patriotism was directly encouraged by most administrative
authorities (less so in French West Africa, where a policy of
'identity' with France was practised - by African élites); it
was also the product of economic exchange and economic
and legal regulation by the colonial regime within each
territory. The upshot was an incipient sense of attachment
to 'Nigeria', 'Kenya', 'Burma' among an élite.15
4.. The rise to prominence of professional and educated strata
in each colony, either through direct colonial policy or, in
spite of colonial barriers, through higher-level educational
provision (as in the Belgian Congo). This 'intelligentsia'
normally played a key role in the subsequent nationalist
movement.' 6
5. The provision by missionaries and missionary education,

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

but also by others, of ideals of emancipation and liberation

from colonial rule. Here the link with the intelligentsia
is most apparent; it was this stratum that became most
imbued with such ideals and sought to realize them in prac-
tice.
6. The depreciation of indigenous peoples and their cultures
even when they were preserved, by colonial bureaucrats,
traders and soldiers — sometimes on a selective basis — and
often with strong racial motives. 17
The nationalisms that have characterized the colonial setting are,
not surprisingly, termed 'anti-colonial' by many writers. The im-
plication is that their potential is exhausted with the achievement of
their goal of independence from the colonial power. They are not
'true' nationalist movements because there is no actual or potential
nation available (with a few exceptions like Somalia). There is
another aspect of this anti-colonialism: its westernizing orientation,
coupled with the exclusion of its proponents, the intelligentsia.
These nationalisms are literally anti-colonial in the sense that they
originate with the exclusion of that intelligentsia from the colonial
bureaucracy and are directed at correcting this state of affairs. We
are back with 'resentment', the anger and frustration of the in-
tellectuals - now the intelligentsia - at their unmerited exclusion,
heightened in this case by the one-sided love affair of so many of
the intelligentsia with the West and its values. Truly, colonial
nationalisms are still-born; they are imitative 'nationalisms of the
intelligentsia', unable to forge real nations.' 8
That there was exclusion of the intelligentsia from the upper
echelons of many colonial bureaucracies is not in dispute. Such
exclusion was structural and cultural, a combination of an excess of
qualified graduates and educated personnel to posts in the colonial
bureaucracies, often combined with racial discrimination against
black or mixed-origin candidates, however qualified, notably in
India and British Africa, much less so in French West Africa.' 9 This
helps to explain the earlier and more assertive politicization of
sections of the intelligentsia in the British colonies. Yet, the fact that
a strong cultural movement of Négritude emerged later in French
territories in the West Indies and West Africa suggests that bureau-
cratic exclusion of the intelligentsia is only one, albeit important,

108
 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

factor in the genesis of colonial nationalisms. The depreciation of

indigenous cultures must also be allowed its due, as must the at-
tempts by a semi-Westernized intelligentsia to 'return' to the peasant
masses.20
In fact, colonial nationalisms cannot be reduced to a single motor,
however important and widespread. Their variety reflects the many
differences in their backgrounds and influences. The degree of
economic development of a colony and area, the extent to which
capitalism has penetrated indigenous social structures, the nature of
indigenous resources and infrastructure (ports, roads, etc.) the pres-
ence of settler communities, the thrust of colonial economic and
political policies in each territory and the extent of urban growth
and educational provision were among the many factors that
influenced the timing, scope, direction and intensity of particular
colonial nationalisms. Equally important was the nature of the
cultural influences to which the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie in a
particular colony were exposed. It has been shown that in British
and French West Africa, for example, the influence of Rousseau
and Mill helped to shape the aspirations, language and ideology of
nationalist movements in the area, whereas in India to these influ-
ences were subsequently added those of Herder and the German
Romantics, particularly in the thinking of Aurobindo and Tilak. 21
Arab nationalists were similarly drawn to German Romantic notions
of language and national soul and mission, whereas Zionism was
shaped by Russian populism and by Western liberalism (in Herzl's
formulations). 22
Even so brief a sketch of the factors involved in the genesis of colonial
nationalisms reveals the limitations of the literal meaning of the term
'anti-colonialism'. But, by the same token, does it not also confirm their
fundamentally 'imitative' and 'reactive' character? Have not the
African and Asian intelligentsias imbibed their nationalisms abroad and
used them to 'invent nations where none existed'?
Again, the fact that many members of the colonial intelligentsia
were influenced in their nationalist thinking by European sources,
whether through study or travel abroad or through libraries and
books at home, is not in doubt. N o r is the profound influence of
Western scholarship. It was the research of Jones, Müller, Renan,
Cahun, Arminius Vâmbéry, Zimmer, Rhys and other scholars that

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

helped to define the character, boundaries and problems of the area

or community in question, as well as spreading to non-European
areas the language and concepts of nationalism, even if uninten-
tionally. 23
But such research fell on fertile soil. The 'diffusion of ideas' thesis
deals with only a part of the explanation of the rise of nationalism;
Its relevance, as we shall see, is more for demotic nationalisms based
on 'vertical' ethnies than for the shaping of territorial cultural and
political identities. The fact is that sufficient numbers of the African,
Latin American and Asian intelligentsias were receptive to European
romantic and nationalist influences at particular junctures, and this
requires separate explanation. I shall return to this question in the
next chapter.

THE ' I N V E N T I O N ' OF NATIONS?

Our concern here is with the civic and territorial nationalisms that
emerged from the colonial framework to provide one vehicle for
the formation of new political identities in Latin America, Africa
and Asia. H o w far were these identities the inventions of colonial
intelligentsias and their successors? How, in fact, are the new nations
of Africa, Asia and even Latin America being created?
There seem to be two main ways of creating civic, territorial
nations outside Europe. The first is the 'dominant ethnie' model, in
which the culture of the new state's core ethnic community becomes
the main pillar of the new national political identity and community,
especially where the culture in question can claim to be 'historic'
and 'living' among the core community, as with the Javanese culture
in Indonesia. Though other cultures continue to flourish, the identity
of the emerging political community is shaped by the historic culture
of its dominant ethnie.
Egypt presents a striking example. Though the Coptic minority
continues to flourish, it is the Arabic-language, Islamic culture of
the majority of the community that predominates as the official
national identity. On one level Egypt affords a prime example of
the compact territorial nation; at another, its cultural identity reveals
different historical layers, so that in this century a purely Egyptian
'pharaonism' can be counterposed to a broader, dominant Islamic

11o
 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

Arabism. These cultural differences have spilled over periodically

into the political realm: an earlier political sentiment of 'Egypt for
the Egyptians' gave way under Nasser to an expansionist demotic
Arabism, only to return in muted form to a narrower Egyptian
focus under his successors. How far Egyptian leaders can integrate
their civic, territorial model with the Islamic popular aspirations of
the majority remains to be seen. But in practice 'invention' of an
Egyptian nation is heavily circumscribed by pre-existing ethno-
religious communal ties and sentiments. 24
In Burma too, despite a high level of conflict, the vivid and
historic nature of the dominant Burman culture reduced the scope
for the territorial 'invention' of a Burmese nation. It is the Burmans
and their historic culture who are likely to shape the nature of any
Burmese political identity, if only for demographic and historical
reasons. The conflicts with Karen, Shan, Mon and other ethnies are
the more protracted because of the vivid, active quality of Burmese
ethnicity and historic culture, even if overlaid by the ideology of
the present regime and the equally vibrant quality of ethnicity
among the minority communities. 25
In Kenya too a process of Kikuyization is apparent. Here, how-
ever, the dominant ethnic community is periodically challenged by
other communities, especially the Luo. Nevertheless, the nature of a
'Kenyan' territorial nation is heavily influenced by the aspirations,
needs and culture of the dominant Kikuyu community. Similarly in
Zimbabwe it is Shona culture and historical memories that are
likely to shape any emerging sense of Zimbabwean identity, despite
the need to accommodate the aspirations of the important Ndebele
minority community. 26
In these cases the process of constructing the nation is less one of
'invention' than of 'reconstructing' the ethnic core and integrating
its culture with the requirements of a modern state and with the
aspirations of minority communities. In this respect it resembles, to
a certain extent, the situation of late medieval kingdoms in Europe.
They too were built up, as we have seen, around ethnic cores and
expanded to embrace adjacent lands and ethnic communities, which
it then became necessary to suppress or accommodate. In the African
and Asian cases, however, the time span is quite different, and so is
the ideological context. Given the geopolitical situation, regimes in

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the new states are under considerable and immediate pressure to

create nations such as exist in Europe and America, if only to be
able to compete in the international arena. Besides, ideologically
they are committed to 'nation-building', which in practice means
state-building combined with national integration and mobilization;
this too requires the formation of a national cultural and political
identity that clearly differentiates it from its neighbours. It is tempt-
ing to use the cultural distinctiveness of the dominant ethnie to hand
to forge the political and cultural identity of a new nation and at the
same time opt for a popular mass-mobilizing solution to the problem
of creating a 'new' nation in a post-colonial framework.
The second way to create civic, territorial nations in the colonial
setting is to find ways of creating a supra-ethnic 'political culture'
for the new political community. In these cases there is no acknow-
ledged dominant ethnie; either the new state contains a number of
equally small ethnic communities and categories, none of which can
dominate the state, as in Tanzania, or a number of rival ethnies as in
Nigeria, Uganda, Zaire and Syria.
Nigeria affords the classic instance. With some two hundred and
fifty ethnic communities and categories, and the three major regional
ethnies accounting for some 60 per cent of the total population
locked in political and economic competition, the colonial territory
of'Nigeria', created relatively recently by the British, furnished one
of several bases for the formation of nations in the aftermath of
independence. Given the near-parity and rivalry of the three main
ethnic communities, the Hausa—Fulani, the Yoruba and the Ibo, the
construction of a Nigerian cultural and political identity was bound
to be an arduous task. In the event it required two coups, massacres
of the Ibo and a ruinous civil war to create the conditions for
moving towards the vision of a civic, territorial Nigerian nation.
Continuing unease over the political predominance of any Hausa—
Fulani ethnic coalition must render doubtful any attempt to forge a
pan-Nigerian identity by political means. Given the deep cultural and
religious differences, the 'trapped' minority status of some large
ethnies (Efiks, Tiv, Ibibio) and the ability of the three largest com-
munities to 'amass' the new administrative states created by the
government (to secure larger shares of federal benefits), the chances
of creating a common 'political culture' out of recent West African

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 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

colonial experiences and the nationalist struggle must remain prob-

lematic. 27
In other cases post-colonial regimes have tried to forge consciously
supra-ethnic 'civil religions'. Zaire and Syria furnish examples of
this strategy. In Zaire the regime of Mobutu has inculcated and
propagated a common 'Zairian' symbolism and religion in a con-
scious effort to weld disparate ethnies and ethnic categories into a
new nation of Zaire, free of the ethnic strife that marked the hasty
departure of the Belgian colonial power and Katanga's secession.28
In Syria Assad's regime seeks to forge a new socialistic Syrian
political identity on the twin bases of army and Ba'ath Party ideo-
logy. But that ideology remains strongly pan-Arab and Islamic in
character, drawing on symbols and memories of early Arab glory
under the Umayyads and seeking to revive Damascus as the seat of
a regenerated Arab nation, thereby surmounting ethnic and sectarian
differences within Syria.29
The position is rather more complicated in the Indian subconti-
nent. Though the Punjabis provide the dominant ethnic community
in Pakistan, there are a number of competing ethnies; yet Islam
provides a rationale for a wider territorial 'political culture' and the
basis for a possible national identity, albeit heavily Punjabi in charac-
ter. In India Hinduism functions in a similar manner, despite the
presence of large religious minorities and even more competing
ethnies and regions. Here the modern bureaucratic state imposed
by the British was captured by northern and central Hindi-speaking
and Hindu élites; and they have been trying to weld the many
Indian regions and ethnic communities into a single secular, ter-
ritorial nation by means of a series of interlocking institutions and
cross-cutting ties and through Hindu myths, symbols and customs. A
social religion is used paradoxically to create a measure of cultural
homogeneity above the tolerated diversity of castes, regions, lan-
guages and ethnic groups. The revival of Hindu mythology and
values by the mass-mobilizing nationalists became part of the overall
strategy of forging a territorial political identity based on the achieve-
ments and boundaries of British rule and an all-India civil service.30
The Indian example reveals the importance both of manufactured
political ideology and identity and of pre-existing cthno-religious
ties and symbols from which such an identity could be constructed.

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

The process involved both cultural and political levels of identity.

On the one hand a new cultural concept of 'India', based on the
rediscovery of a heroic Indo-Aryan past and its Vedic and Hindu
legacy, had to be formulated and disseminated. On the other hand
this 'Indian' population had to be mobilized as a single political
force, not only against the British but also against persisting local
caste, regional and linguistic-ethnic identities. A civic and territorial
nationalism had to provide the framework in which a more demotic,
vernacular Hindu mass-mobilization could be encouraged. Here the
two routes to the formation of nations coexist, sometimes unhappily,
providing alternative models of inspiration and visions of'India'. 3 1
How far, then, may we legitimately speak of the 'invention of
nations' from colonies by the intelligentsia? In the majority of such
cases the element of 'invention' is doubly circumscribed: first by the
'sanctity' of colonial units and boundaries as the basis of the new
civic-territorial nation and, second, by the presence of a dominant
ethnie whose culture and political identity necessarily shapes the
character of the state and regime and hence of the emerging nation.
This pattern is found in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia,
Burma, Sri Lanka, to some extent in India, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt,
Algeria, Sudan, Kenya, Guinea and Zimbabwe . . . The fact that
many of these dominant-ethnie states encounter fierce opposition
from ethnic minorities within the state reveals the failure to 'invent'
a new political culture and mythology, one that can encompass or
transcend the ethnic identities of both dominant and minority ethnie
at a time when ethnic nationalism is mobilizing the peripheral,
demotic communities and giving them a new, self-aware political
assertiveness.
The attempt by dominant ethnies — and nations — to use the
modern state to incorporate other ethnic communities in the manner
of West European state-making and nation-forming processes
provoked often determined opposition from many demotic ethnies,
which the fragile new state could barely contain, let alone subdue. 32
The record to date does not lend support to the view that such
territorial 'creations' possess the resources and stability, let alone the
ability, to furnish acceptable political cultures that transcend eth-
nicity or to gain legitimacy for the political domination and culture
of the predominant ethnic community.

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

What about new states in which no one ethnie was dominant?

Were the chances of creating an acceptable political culture and
political community higher in these cases?
The record to date has not been encouraging. Detaching in-
dividuals from their primary loyalties to their ethnic communities,
at least to the extent of inculcating a larger, public loyalty to the
'state-nation', has been attempted in a number of cases but has had
variable results. In Tanzania, where there have been no larger ethnic
communities to compete for domination, the inculcation of a Tan-
zanian national identity has gone farthest, aided by the drive to a
particular version of agrarian socialism and by the dominance of a
single party and its highly respected leader. In other states, like
Nigeria and Uganda, ethnic rivalries persist despite determined cen-
tralizing policies and administrative measures designed to depoliticize
the major competing ethnies. But there has also been progress in
securing a measure of attachment among the more educated middle
class for the post-colonial territorial units through the state's deter-
mined use of political symbolism in the schools, press, radio and
T V . At the same time some early post-colonial regimes sought to
mobilize their polyethnic populations for participatory sacrifices
through the agency of a vigorous 'political religion', in which the
nation was viewed as sinless and seamless and the state (and leader)
was seen as its political expression, as in Nkrumah's Ghana and
Nasser's Egypt. This had the effect of legitimating a relatively novel
concept, the territorial nation, and its accompanying political iden-
tity — legitimation that was reinforced by the strong stand taken by
continental organizations like the O A U (in 1964) to uphold the
colonial partition of Africa in the form of existing colonial bound-
aries.33
This commitment to the sanctity of colonial boundaries has been
maintained, despite some signs of a less rigid interpretation of the
concept of the unitary territorial state, at least within its boundaries,
as revealed in the Nigerian Constitution's nineteen states and the
1980 Sudanese experiment with six main regions, though this has
not allayed southern suspicions of northern Islamic hegemony. 34
Such evidence, however, as well as the relative failure of ethnic
secession movements to date, is negative. It illustrates at most the
coercive and economic power of the state in its role as one of the

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main employers and the fiscal manager. It tells us little about the
growth of a clear cultural and political territorial identity among
the population at large. As we shall see, attempts to mobilize the
population for greater participation run considerable risks of ethnic
fragmentation, particularly where the state apparatus is not equal to
the task of containment.
Even in those states that have adopted a socialist or Marxist route
towards transcending ethnicity, success in creating a mass 'political
culture' has been partial to date. In Mozambique a unitary, territorial
concept has been created in the absence of any dominant ethnie and
in the wake of the political unification of the movements of resist-
ance to Portuguese rule in the 1960s. But in Angola (as in Ethiopia
and Burma) ethnicity has provided a base for political divisions
leading to civil war, as the rival movements of resistance to Por-
tuguese rule, based on the BaKongo, Ovimbundu and Akwam-
bundu, failed to unite in their guerrilla struggles. Hence any progress
towards creating a primary Angolan territorial political identity is
bound to be slow and shaky.3S
More generally, the spate of periodic ethnic movements in non-
Western states, whether they originated as parts of old empires or as
colonies, is evidence of the revitalization of ethnic ties among de-
motic communities and the ethnic politicization of ethnic categories,
all of which hamper efforts to 'invent' territorial nations where
none existed. It is where the new state is built up around a dominant
ethnie, as in the West itself, that, paradoxically, the best chance of
creating a 'territorial nation' and political community exists.

THE 'CIVIC N A T I O N ' OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA

Can we characterize more fully the nature of the territorial political

identity that non-Western nationalists have been striving to create?
What type of community is it that their nationalism seeks to realize?
The answers to such questions will, of course, vary considerably
in detail, and they must not be confused with a reality that is
frequently a grotesque caricature of nationalist aspirations. Neverthe-
less, we can, I think, single out recurrent features of these territorial
nationalisms and the political identities that they aim to forge.
These include the following.

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 N A T I O N S BY D E S I G N ?

1. Territorialism I mean by this a political commitment not simply

to particular boundaries, however they originated, but to a particular
spatial and social location among other territorial nations. The basis
of this commitment is a belief in the importance of residence and
propinquity, as opposed to descent and genealogy. 'Living together'
and being 'rooted' in a particular terrain and soil become the criteria
for citizenship and the bases of political community. Often such
criteria are wedded to notions of return to agrarian simplicity and
self-sufficiency and to the rustic virtues corrupted by urban luxury.
The nation is conceived of as a territorial patria, the place of one's
birth and childhood, the extension of hearth and home. It is also the
place of one's ancestors and of the heroes and cultures of one's
antiquity. Hence from the standpoint of a territorial nationalist it is
quite legitimate to annex the monuments and artefacts of earlier
civilizations in the same place, appropriating their cultural achieve-
ments to differentiate and glorify the territorial nation, which may
(to date) lack achievements of its own. Contemporary Iraqis may
therefore appropriate the ancient Babylonian culture from Ham-
murabi to Nebuchadrezzar; Ghanaians may appropriate the glories
of the medieval empire of Ghana many miles to the north; and
Zimbabweans may seek to incorporate the mysterious monument
and civilization of Great Zimbabwe into their political self-image.
In other words, the patria must become an historic territory.3"5

2. Participation Of course, all nationalisms presuppose the active

participation of all citizens, at least in theory. In practice such partici-
pation is often heavily circumscribed. What is important to ter-
ritorial nationalists is the active participation of all citizens on a
territorial and civic basis. It is a form of territorial populism that is
often practised, an appeal over the heads of chiefs, elders, religious
leaders, village headmen and the like to every potential citizen of
the nation (or 'nation-to-be'). In the Gold Coast Nkrumah's Conven-
tion People's Party appealed, through its rural branches, to members
of different ethnic communities and categories to form a populist
following for the party and its leader. The basis of that appeal was
not ethnic, religious or familial but to the individual as a resident,
and hence citizen-to-be, of the territory and hence nation-to-be. 37
Similarly, the one-party system, which allows debate within the

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organization, is organized on a territory-wide basis and seeks to

involve in its activities every citizen throughout the territory of the
state. (There are some exceptions to this rule, and we shall return to
them in the next chapter.)

3. Citizenship This again is not unique to territorial nations (legal

citizenship being a concomitant of any nation), but it assumes a
peculiarly prominent role in territorial nations and nationalisms. For
here citizenship is used not simply to underline membership of the
nation and differentiate 'us' from 'them' but even more to outbid
the claims of competing allegiances and identities, notably ethnic
ones. Given the frequent salience of the latter, legal citizenship
carries strong moral and economic overtones, becoming the main
device for exclusion but also the chief agency of inclusion and
benefits (in jobs, education, health care, etc.), irrespective of ethnic
origins.
Again, this is a conception more honoured in the breach than the
observance, but it remains the touchstone for progress towards the
nationalist ideal of the civic-territorial nation and the basis on which
individuals can claim legal rights in the political community.

4. Civic education This is potentially the most significant feature of

territorial nationalism and the identity it seeks to create. Observers
often remark on the seriousness with which the regimes of new
states embark on campaigns for literacy and primary education of
the whole population and, sometimes, for (some) secondary educa-
tion. Equally important is the content of that education in the
territorial nations. If the curriculum is secular and Western (except
in some Islamic states), its spirit is largely 'civic' in character. That is
to say, education is as much for the benefit of the national com-
munity as for the individual. There is far greater emphasis on the
service to the community that the individual can provide, and the
debt that he or she incurs, even if this is conveyed indirectly by
social approval rather than by indoctrination. 38
A 'civic' emphasis in the education system is not confined to non-
Western or territorial nationalisms. It may be traced back to the
Jacobin patriots of the French Revolution and was a feature of the
French Third Republic and of the education systems in the modern

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United States. The point is only that, in the absence of a stress on

vernacular education of ethnic members, the civic element plays a
greater role exactly because of the weight placed on training for
citizenship in territorial nations. If ethnic cleavages are to be eroded
in the longer term, it is argued, this can be done only by a pro-
nounced emphasis on inculcating social mores in a spirit of civic
equality and fraternity. Part at least of the contents of that education
may be termed civic too. For it may be used to convey, through
language (assuming there to be a lingua franca), history, the arts and
literature, a political mythology and symbolism of the new nation
(or the 'nation-to-be') that will legitimate its novel, even revolu-
tionary, directions in the myths, memories, values and symbols of
its anti-colonial struggle, its movements for social and political libera-
tion and its visions of distant heroes and 'golden ages' that may
inspire similar self-sacrifice today. 39

Cui bono? Whose interests do all these aspirations and ideals of

territorial nationalists ultimately serve?
It would be tempting to answer: the interests of the bourgeoisie,
the middle classes, even the intelligentsia — there would be some
truth in each characterization depending on how one defined each
social category — tempting, but ultimately misleading.
It may be true that, at the cultural level, nationalism, the ideology
and language, is a product of intellectuals and that intellectuals tend
to be attracted to its promise. At the political level, however, in-
tellectuals proper are much less in evidence. Their place is taken,
variously, by other groups. And, to complicate matters, the 'same'
social category can possess different meanings in different societies.
This is relatively clear in the case of the bourgeoisie. The term
can, of course, be specified precisely in the context of Marxist
theory. But then its relevance is limited to capitalist or semi-capitalist
societies. To enlarge it by including officers, police, top bureaucrats
and politicians, traditional élites and leading members of the liberal
professions, to make up what Markovitz calls the 'organizational
bourgeoisie', is to dilute it to the point of destroying its explanatory
power. 40 Similarly with the ubiquitous middle class(es) and the intel-
ligentsia, which is variously described as 'free-floating' (Mannhein),
'modernizing' (J. H. Kautsky), the rising 'New Class' (Gouldner). 41

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 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

In fact, the social composition of nationalist movements, viewed

comparatively, is both cross-class and highly variable depending on
the historical juncture and the phase of the movement. Not only
'workers' and 'peasants' (or segments thereof) but also officers, lower
clergy, minor (sometimes major!) aristocrats, as well as intellectuals
proper, merchants and industrialists, technicians and members of the
liberal professions, can be found among their adherents. This should
not surprise us. We have seen how complex, abstract and multi-
dimensional is the concept of national identity — so much so that
different social groups can at different historical junctures feel that
their needs, interests and ideals are served in and through identifica-
tion with the abstract but emotionally very concrete nation. 42
The question may, with these cautions, still be legitimately posed:
cui bono? Whose interests, in particular, are served by national identifi-
cations on a territorial and civic basis at different times?
Once again it appears that one group in particular plays a promi-
nent role in early territorial nationalisms, though other social groups
are also frequently active. That group is often called the intelligentsia
(here distinguished from the much smaller circles of intellectuals) if
by that term we mean simply the professionals.
It was among these professionals (lawyers, doctors, engineers,
journalists, teachers, etc.) that early civic and territorial nationalisms
found their primary support — though in certain instances a number
of businessmen, managers and traders were also attracted to the
promise of a centralized, regulated and territory-wide market in the
new civic nation, wherever, of course, some degree of capitalist
enterprise was permitted.
We should exercise caution in making such an assertion. The
professionals do not usually originate the ideology of the civic
nation. Theirs is a more practical role: that of disseminating the idea
and realizing it in political institutions and activities. Nor do most
of the intelligentsia — the professionals — usually participate in these
activities. Many are concerned with their own career prospects. But
then many people do not join social movements, save in exceptional
circumstances. 43
In the ex-colonies, however, the lack of a developed civil society,
the dominance of the state and its bureaucratic institutions and the
need for communication skills in the development of anti-colonial

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nationalisms placed the professionals in positions of leadership on

the eve and the morrow of independence. In the early post-
independence African legislatures the leading social category was
that of the professionals, followed some way behind by the entre-
preneurs, managers and traders. Many of the leaders of the Asian
and African states were also drawn from the professional strata
immediately after independence, and several studied in Western
institutions of higher education, including Kenyatta, Nkrumah, Ho
Chi Minh, Manley, Senghor and Gandhi. They were part of wider
circles that, disappointed by the gulf between Western, Christian
ideals and colonial political practice, sought to return to their com-
munities and fulfil their messianic dreams through their own peoples.
Yet most of them did not return all the way to those peoples; they
took from the West its model of the civic and territorial nation and
sought to adapt it to their communities. In other words, theirs was
not a real 'ethnic solution', for it was not the particular ethnie to
which they necessarily or primarily returned. Even when circum-
stances compelled them to seek their power base in one of the
ethnic communities that made up the colonial state they still aspired to
rule over the whole of the territory once the colonial power was
ejected, and to create a new territorial nation and civic political iden-
tity above or in place of the various smaller ethnic communities. 44
There is, in fact, an 'elective affinity' between the adapted model
of a civic, territorial nation and the status needs and interests of the
professionals (and, to a lesser extent, of the commercial bourgeoisie).
The demand of the professional is for a 'career open to talent', for
an income worthy of his or her skills and for a status commensurate
with the dignity of the vocation. These demands are most easily
satisfied in a territorial nation with a civic ideology, albeit one
tailored to local communal beliefs and needs. The equality of rights
and duties embodied in a common citizenship, the lack of barriers
to mobility, geographical and social, inherent in a residential ter-
ritorialism, the summons to active participation in public affairs,
and above all the emphasis upon a standardized, public, civic educa-
tion, often with considerable secular and rationalist content — all
these features of the civic-territorial model of the nation are con-
ducive to the realization of the interests and status demands of
aspiring professionals.

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 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

This is not the only, perhaps not the major, reason for the persist-
ence of the territorial-civic model of the nation. It is, after all, a
fundamental assumption of the inter-state order and its juridical
definition of the state. But the leading role of local intelligentsias
must not be overlooked. It helps to flesh out the bare structure of
the inter-state system and its components by its pressure for social
integration and cultural homogeneity in the public realm and by its
holding up of a different image of political community from that
offered by ethnic nationalists. Though the reality usually falls far
short of that image, though many populations fail as yet to identify
with a territorial and civic community, the pressures to do so — and
thereby to achieve a measure of integration and homogeneity -
remain powerful.
That such images and pressures bear different connotations in
different societies, that homogeneity, civic education or territorial
participation may mean somewhat different things in Angola,
Nigeria and Pakistan, is undeniable. Yet there remains for many of
the professionals, merchants and bureaucrats of non-Western states a
common language - common concepts and symbols - of civic-
territorial nationalism that underlies many of the actions of such
states and their élites in the inter-state systems and by means of
which they make sense of their relations and actions.
But it is only one of the nationalist ideologies and languages in
the contemporary world. It faces challenges from many sides, not
least from a rival form of nationalism and national identity. It is to
that rival and its political consequences that we must now turn.
 CHAPTER 6
Separatism and Multi-nationalism

The impact of nationalism on the rise and incidence of national

identities is not confined to the creation of territorial nations. Perhaps
even more significant, and certainly more explosive, has been its
role in the formation of ethnic nations. It is the challenge of ethno-
nationalism to the world order of states that has brought nationalism,
and nations, into such disrepute in so many quarters. To assess the
validity of this judgement, we need to look more closely at the
impact of ethnic nationalism today and in the recent past.
We need first to recall our distinction between the two models of
the nation, the civic—territorial and the ethnic-genealogical, and the
two routes of the formation of nations, that of bureaucratic in-
corporation and that of vernacular mobilization. Those nations
created by aristocratic élites from a lateral community by using a
strong state to incorporate lower strata and outlying areas have
predictably manifested a fervent territorial nationalism, both towards
minorities within the politically demarcated territory and to enemies
outside its boundaries. In contrast, those nations created 'from below'
by excluded intelligentsias and some middle strata from a vertical
community, using cultural resources (ethno-history, language, ethnic
religion, customs, etc.) to mobilize other strata into an active, politi-
cized 'nation', have equally predictably evinced a powerful ethnic
nationalism directed both inwards to galvanize and purify the 'true'
nation and its members, and outwards against alien oppressors and
competitors for political power. It is this latter kind of nation and
nationalism that accounts for the vast majority of active nationalisms
today.

R E C U R R E N C E OF DEMOTIC ETHNO-NATIONALISM
We can, in fact, distinguish several waves of ethnic nationalisms
since the late eighteenth century. The first is the classic period of
ethnic self-determination in the early to late nineteenth century,

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 SEPARATISM A N D MULTI-NATrONALISM

with its main centres in Eastern Europe and a little later the Middle
East. Generally speaking, movements of ethnic self-determination
mobilized some of the middle and lower strata into a vernacular
politicized culture and then attempted to secure the secession of that
community and its 'historic' territory from large, unwieldy empires.
Essentially such movements were directed against regimes that were
both modernizing and autocratic. The regimes generally ruled over
a medley of ethnic communities and categories whom the rulers
sought to integrate and, usually fitfully, homogenize. Hence, classic
ethnic nationalism can be seen as both provoker of, and response to,
an 'official' imperial nationalism of the dominant ethnie's ruling
elites, as in the case of the Habsburg, Romanov and Ottoman
empires.'
A second group or wave of ethnic nationalisms emerged in the
overseas territories of European colonial empires in the early to
mid-twentieth century. Such movements continue to challenge the
peace and stability of post-colonial states in Africa and Asia today.
We find early intimations of such demotic ethno-nationalisms in
Bengal at the turn of the century, and among Kurds, Karen, Ewe,
Somali and BaKongo before and after the Second World War.
Such movements, like their European predecessors, aim at outright
secession from the (colonial and) post-colonial state that is seen, in a
manner analogous to the earlier European empires, as an alien intru-
sion or imposition, despite the fact of its claim to be autochthonous.
Demotic ethno-nationalisms bring the contrasts between state and
nation into sharp focus; all across Africa and Asia they mobilize
distinct ethnic communities in the name of submerged and neg-
lected, but irreplaceable, culture-values, threatened with extinction
by the forces of modernization and the bureaucratic state that in
turn is often at the service of a dominant ethnie and its élites. For
Tamils, Sikhs, Moros, Baluchis, Pathans, Uzbeks, Kazhaks, Ar-
menians, Azéris, Kurds, Georgians, Palestinians, South Sudanese,
Eritreans, Tigre, O r o m o , Luo, Ganda, Ndebele, Ovimbundu,
BaKongo, Lunda, Ewe, Ibo and many others, the new states into
which colonialism incorporated them are viewed with sentiments
that range from reserve to outright hostility, which may spill over
into protracted wars of ethnic liberation threatening the stability of
whole regions. 2

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 SEPARATISM A N D MULTI-NATIONALISM

Even in the West and the 'old, continuous nations' of Europe,

ethno-nationalism has renewed itself. Since the 1960s a third wave of
ethnic movements for autonomy or separation has swept through
much of Western Europe, reaching Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland
and the Soviet Union. Perhaps the earliest manifestations of this
particular wave could be found in Canada, among the Québécois,
and in the United States, among the Southern Blacks and later the
Indians and Hispanics. On the other hand a good many of the
European ethno-nationalisms (for example, the Catalan, Basque,
Breton, Scots, Welsh and Flemish movements) were pre-war in
origin, with cultural antecedents reaching back in some cases to the
1880s.3
It is this third wave of ethno-nationalisms that has prompted a
critical reassessment of theories of the national identity. For the
earlier diffusionist models of historians and socio-demographers like
Deutsch and Lerner failed to explain why members of particular
ethnic communities are available for vernacular mobilization and
political activism. Besides, they too readily assumed a secular tend-
ency for smaller communities with 'low' cultures to be assimilated
by their dominant ethnic neighbours, a prediction that events in the
1960s and 1970s clearly disproved. 4
The place of diffusionist models has been largely taken by de-
pendency models, which stress the processes of 'internal colonialism'
by which peripheral communities are economically and politically
subordinated to core ethnies, especially during and after industrializ-
ation. But here too there have been problems. Approaches that
emphasize the dependence of the 'periphery' on the 'core' fail to
explain the incidence and timing of recent ethno-nationalisms. In-
dustrialization often long antedated the rise of such movements, and
ethno-nationalism appears to correlate with no specific type of socio-
economic background. We find vigorous ethno-nationalisms in econ-
omic settings as diverse as Slovenia and Catalonia on the one hand
and Corsica and Brittany on the other, with Wales and Flanders
occupying an economic middle ground. As Walker Connor has
demonstrated, there appears to be no correlation between degrees of
ethno-nationalism and economic factors of any kind. 5
For these reasons we need to look more closely at the significance
of Western 'neo-nationalism' against the background of the wider

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global movement of ethnic mobilization. For on the success or

failure of such movements hangs much of the shape and meaning of
national identity in the future, as well as the stability of the various
regional systems of states in the world.
In fact all these demotic ethno-nationalisms exhibit remarkable
similarities in their goals and meanings for the participants, despite
changes in the social composition and consumption of these
nationalisms. These similarities stem from the basic processes of
vernacular mobilization and cultural politicization that are the hall-
marks of the route by which demotic vertical ethnies are transformed
into ethnic nations. As a result, the type of national identity that they
generate is quite different from the territorial civic identities
examined in the last chapter, and it poses a radical challenge to the
plural nature of most contemporary states.

ETHNIC SEPARATISM F R O M OLD EMPIRES

The classic cases of ethnic self-determination in the last century

were those of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. But, even then,
there were instances of ethnic separatism on the western, northern
and southern fringes of Europe: in Ireland, Norway, Finland, Brit-
tany, Catalonia and the Basque country. The links and overlappings
of classic and later ethnic 'neo-nationalisms' are typical — they reveal
the kinship of the various 'waves' of separatist ethnic nationalisms
and their common cultural groundwork. 6
What was this common cultural basis? The goals of all these
movements were remarkably similar. They included:
1. the creation of a literary 'high' culture for the community
where it was lacking
2. the formation of a culturally homogeneous 'organic' nation
3. securing a recognized 'homeland', and preferably an in-
dependent state for the community
4. turning a hitherto passive ethnie into an active ethno-
political community, a 'subject of history'.
The cultural basis for the pursuit of these aims was the presence and/
or rediscovery of a distinctive 'ethno-history'. Where that history
was deficient it would have to be reconstructed and even 'invented'
in places. In either case the uses of ethno-history were always selec-

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rive: it was as important to forget certain things as to remember

others.
The uses of ethno-history were essentially social and political.
Nationalists were interested not in inquiring into 'their' past for its
own sake, but in the reappropriation of a mythology of the ter-
ritorialized past of 'their people'. Throughout, the basic process was
one of vernacular mobilization of a passive ethnie, and the politiciza-
tion of its cultural heritage through the cultivation of its poetic
spaces and the commemoration of its golden ages.
Cultivating poetic spaces meant, first of all, identifying a sacred
territory that belonged historically to a particular community, and
that was thereby sanctified by the association. Such a sacred home-
land held within its domains places of pilgrimage and reverence —
Mount Zion, Mount Ararat, Mount Meru, Croag Patrick, Q o m ,
Yasna Gora — places of historical collective salvation and redemption,
where saints and sages had inspired their followers or the deity had
appeared to the community or its representatives. From these sacred
historic centres the light of ethnic election shone forth to consecrate
the whole land. 7
Cultivating poetic spaces also signified a process of turning natural
features of the homeland into historical ones, and naturalizing histor-
ical monuments. Rivers like the Danube and Rhine, mountains like
Zion and Olympus, lakes like the Vierwaldstättersee and lake
Peipius, have become humanized and historicized by their associ-
ations with communal myth and endeavour. Conversely, historical
monuments like Stonehenge, the Breton dolmens, megaliths, tells
and ruined temples, have all become part of a particular ethnic or
regional landscape, an inseparable component and memorial of older
civilizations absorbed by the flow of time into their natural habitats.
It was just these natural and monumental features that struck so rich
a chord in the ethnic nationalism of the returning intelligentsia
when they sought to rediscover their ethno-history and mobilize
their peoples through vernacular culture. For composers, artists and
writers, the nationalist myth of poetic landscapes evoked powerful
sentiments of nostalgia and identification, which they amplified and
diffused through their art. For Smetana and Dvorak in Bohemia,
Sibelius in Finland, Bartok and Kodâly in Hungary, and Borodin
and Moussorgsky in Russia, their country's landscapes and changing

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seasons, legends and monuments, stirred strong nationalist passions

that through their music they were able to communicate to large
and receptive publics. 8
Equally important was the celebration and commemoration of
the heroic past. Max Weber remarked on this aspect of demotic
ethnic nationalism, apropos of the Alsatians whom the German
Reich had annexed, when he wrote of their sense of community
with the French (despite the fact that many Alsatians were German-
speakers): 'This can be understood by any visitor who walks through
the museum in Colmar, which is rich in relics such as tricolors,
pompier and military helmets, edicts by Louis Philippe and especially
memorabilia from the French Revolution; these may appear trivial
to the outsider, but they have sentimental value for the Alsatians.
This sense of community came into being by virtue of common
political and, indirectly, social experiences which are highly valued
by the masses as symbols of the destruction of feudalism, and the
story of these events takes the place of the heroic legends of primitive
peoples.' 9
These historical memories and heroic legends are not, in fact,
confined to 'primitive peoples'. We find them throughout the first
great wave of classic Eastern European and Middle Eastern national-
isms — among Poles and Czechs, Finns and Armenians, Germans,
Turks and Arabs. In each case nationalists rediscovered and often
exaggerated the heroism of past ages, the glories of ancestral civiliz-
ations (often not 'their own') and the exploits of their great national
heroes, even when those heroes belonged more to the realm of
legend than history and, if they lived, knew nothing of the nation
which was so busy reclaiming them from obscurity. Siegfried, Cuch-
ulain, Arthur, Lemminkainen, Nevsky, Agamemnon, formerly
heroes of ancient sagas, were now elevated into exemplars of
national virtue and prototypes of the regenerated 'new man' extolled
by ethnic nationalists everywhere. 10
Whom did these rediscoveries and reconstructions serve? In the
first place a deracinated intelligentsia, seeking entry into the 'living
past' of their resurrected ethnie in order to mobilize its members in
the quest for social status and political power. By placing their
professional skills at the service of their newly-found community,
the returning intelligentsia attempts to bridge the gulf between

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themselves and the majority of 'their' ethnic populations generated

by the rationalist 'culture of critical discourse' that they have
imbibed through their increasingly secular education."
But, equally important, the beneficiaries of this return to a re-
constructed ethno-history are the members of the mobilized ethnie
at large. For their status is reversed through the process of vernacular
mobilization: not simply in the sense of being activated, and no
longer passive objects of external domination, but more particularly
because it is a form of their folk culture that is appropriated by the
historicist intellectuals and elevated into a literary 'high' culture. For
the first time the masses become the subject of history, under the
slogan of popular sovereignty. At the same time in their culture is
sought the individuality, the uniqueness, and hence the raison d'être,
of the community-turned-nation. 12
In the process of vernacular mobilization quite new 'relations of
communication' are forged. Where familial and ethnic modes of
communicating values, symbols, myths and memories, and of social-
izing new generations in these traditions, had prevailed in many
areas, the effect of vernacular mobilization by a returning intelli-
gentsia was to create a new mode of 'national' communication and
socialization, in which ethnic values, myths and memories became
the basis of a political nation and a politically mobilized community.
Under the aegis of different kinds of intelligentsia in conjunction
with certain classes (usually bourgeoisie, but sometimes lower aris-
tocracy or even workers) a new and distinctly national identity is
created, which diffuses a reconstructed ethnic folk culture to all
classes of the community. That identity has its civic elements, too;
members are now legal citizens of the political ethno-nation, and
they begin to define themselves in territorial terms as well. But the
basis of their kind of national identity remains true to its demotic
roots; the national identity created by intellectuals and intelligentsia
among formerly vertical ethnies strives to stay close to its putative
ethnic culture and boundaries. Mass mobilizing ethnic nationalism
creates a political nation in the image of its presumed ethnic roots.
Hence the very different form that national identities take among
communities created by the mobilization and transformation of
formerly demotic ethnies, at once more intense and often more
inward-looking than territorially-based national identities. The deep

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preoccupation of many Irish nationalists with the revival of a Gaelic

culture, or the powerful sentiments evoked among Finns by the
rediscovery of Karelia, its landscape, history and poetry, are typical
of this intense rediscovery and spiritual mobilization of a lost ethnic
past in the service of a newly politicized community, where every
member must be re-educated into the new vernacular culture that
claims to be the only authentic voice of the people.' 3
The consequences of this intense preoccupation with an 'authentic'
vernacular culture and history are well known. In Eastern Europe
and parts of the Middle East it inevitably brought populations that
had long lived side by side in stable, if sometimes uneasy, relations
into competition and even conflict. In ethnically mixed areas the
quest for a homeland in which the authentic culture could be
explored and realized helped to create antagonisms or exacerbate
pre-existing rivalries. By the late nineteenth century these areas in
particular became the scene of the most intense conflicts and
terror.' 4
Terror and instability were aggravated, not only by the passions
aroused by the process of vernacular mobilization, but also by the
slow but visible decline of the old empires in which most demotic
ethnies had been incorporated. For centuries the only source of
political legitimacy in these areas had been the imperial state and its
monarchs. There was no obvious and accepted alternative. To locate
an alternative source in the historic culture—community was not
only to create a new type of political identity, but also to elevate
that identity into the underlying principle of a new political order,
one that derived political authority from the doctrine of a sovereign
people. Hence the importance of repeated 'French revolutions' in
lending credence to the idea of a sovereign culture—community as
the sole legitimate source of political authority, within that exemplar
of a compact nation in the very heart of the prestigious West. Only
that example and that prestige could have given political legitimacy
to the intelligentsia's programme of vernacular mobilization, and
turned a moral and cultural transformation into a political and
social revolution. The reverberations of the French Revolution in
the hinterlands of the Habsburg, Ottoman and even Romanov
empires, were felt well into the twentieth century. 15
But the fusion of French ideals of the sovereign people and

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vernacular mobilization of pre-modern demotic ethnies by the intelli-

gentsia produced a rather different model of 'national identity'
among these folk communities. Popular participation, rather than
civil and political rights; populist organization, more than demo-
cratic parties; intervention by the people's nation-state, rather than
protection of minorities and individuals from state interference:
these became for many decades the hallmarks of the newly formed
cthno-political nations erected on the basis of pre-modern demotic
ethnies. This attempt to fuse the civic ideals of the territorial nation
with the genealogical attachments of the cthno-political nation,
usually in the wake of a secessionist struggle from large empires, has
provided the model for subsequent waves of vernacular mobilization
and the creation of separatist ethno-political communities in the
new states of Africa and Asia, as well as the old states of the West.

ETHNIC SEPARATISM IN POST-COLONIAL STATES

The vast majority of ethnic separatist movements after the Second

World War have occurred in the newly formed states of Africa and
Asia. In other words, they have sprung in a double sense from
colonialism: first, because it was the colonial state that brought
many quite separate and distant ethnic communities and categories
under a single political jurisdiction, increasing both the scale of
politics and the chances of conflict over centrally distributed re-
sources; second, because it was during the process of decolonization,
during the years of decline and handover, that ethnic separatisms
emerged to challenge the civic order of the future post-colonial
state and its territorial national identity.
The basic processes at work in these post-war ethnic separatisms
are similar to those of classic ethnic nationalism. But their order is
often telescoped or even reversed. Instead of the politicization of the
ethnie and its heritage succeeding the process of vernacular mobiliza-
tion by an intelligentsia, as in Eastern Europe and the fringes of that
continent, we often find the two processes occurring together or
even changing their usual sequence. Whereas in Europe the
nationalist movement emerged from a preceding cultural 'reawaken-
ing' over some decades, in Asia and Africa the two kinds of
nationalism were often conjoined or simultaneous. Among the

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Kurds, for example, the first cultural and literary organizations

sprang up in the wake of the Young Turk coup in 1908. Apart from
a short-lived Kurdish journal founded in 1898, the first Kurdish
cultural organization (Taali we Terakii Kurdistan, Recovery and
Progress of Kurdistan) was formed in the autumn of 1908, publish-
ing a lively cultural gazette in Istanbul, and young intellectuals set
up Kurdish clubs in the main Kurdish cities. By 1912 the first
Kurdish political association, Kiviya Kurd (Kurdish Hope), created
in 1910, was legalized. The First World War interrupted Kurdish
political activity, as did the ensuing deportations and massacre of
Kurds; but new political organizations, notably Kurdistan Taali Djemiy-
eti (the Society for the Recovery of Kurdistan), took up the struggle.
The campaign to standardize the script and modernize the Kurdish
language is an offshoot of the wider nationalist political struggle
and proceeds pari passu with politicization of a tribally divided
ethnic community in the various guerrilla campaigns against the
Turks, Iraqis and Iranians, notably in the 1960s and 1970s.16
In the case of the Baluchi in Pakistan, though their intellectuals
can look back to a long history and a rich and ancient folklore, it is
clear that the process of vernacular mobilization developed as an
outgrowth of a Baluchi political nationalism from 1947 onwards. It
is only recently, for example, that a distinctive Baluchi alphabet,
based on a modified form of the Persianized Nastaliq style of the
Arabic alphabet, was used in a Baluchi textbook produced in Canada
in 1969, but many Baluch nationalist works are written in Urdu
and English. In this case recurrent wars with the central authorities
in Pakistan have engendered widespread Baluch national conscious-
ness, cutting across tribal divisions, while gradual urbanization and
education has produced a literate class that is providing a new
nationalist leadership. 17
In still other cases, such as those of the Palestinians and Eritreans,
the process of vernacular mobilization must first discover an ethnic
past that is serviceable for present needs and then create a unified
and distinctive consciousness and sense of ethnic community out of
a politicized common culture. In the Palestinian case this means
accentuating a separate Palestinian cultural personality and dis-
tinguishing it from the wider Arab identity. In the case of Eritrea
cultural unity must be created out of the common fate of regional

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unity and political struggle. In both cases it is the military and

political struggle itself that will provide the crucible of vernacular
mobilization, though here too it presupposes some measure of
cultural symbolism held in common.' 8
Current cases of separatist ethno-nationalisms, whatever their
origins, seek autonomy or secession from relatively new states whose
boundaries and raison d'être are part of the colonial legacy. The
primary source of their disaffection lies in the plural nature and
fragile legitimacy of the post-colonial state itself. While economic
grievances provide the catalysts of rebellion in most cases, as the
new state fails to deliver its promises or favours certain ethnic
communities and categories at the expense of others, it is the very
nature of the post-colonial state that creates the underlying con-
ditions for the possibility of a resort to secession. Given the consider-
able power of the state and its offices, not only is ethnic competition
for political power in the new states sharpened but victory and
defeat carry with them far higher rewards and penalties than in the
developed and more unified states of the West. Because social classes
are less developed and ethnic ties more pronounced, especially in
conditions of urban competition, the political constituencies of
leaders and parties are much more likely to be composed of one or
more ethnic community or category, distinguished as such in the
party's slogans and programmes. Fierce political competition be-
tween ethnically defined constituencies tends to harden the bound-
aries and promote the self-awareness of ethnies and ethnic categories;
moreover, failure in that competition, particularly if repeated, may
drive the defeated community to contemplate secession, especially
where its leaders have internalized negative stereotypes or where, as
in the Biafran case, such stereotypes helped to create conditions of
terror and massacre. Unless, therefore, the leaders of new states take
active measures to defuse ethnic cleavages through economic and
administrative measures, as the Nigerian leadership since 1975 has
attempted to do, or is prepared to use the dominant ethnie to
repress ethnic opposition by force, the latent tendencies of the new
polyethnic states to generate ethnic instability must always be
reckoned with.' 9

There is, of course, a close relationship, perhaps a dialectical one,

between attempts to create a civic and territorial national identity

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and movements aiming to separate from that 'territorial nation' one

or other ethnic community or category and fashion it into an
'ethnic nation'. The more the leaderships of the new states strive to
create integrated territorial nations out of a polyethnic mosaic, the
greater the chances of ethnic dissent and even attempted secession
wherever colonialism and nationalism have roused a returning intelli-
gentsia to rediscover their ethnic past and its cultural heritage.
Where such pasts can no longer be recovered, or where an intelli-
gentsia that could recover them is absent, neither colonialism nor an
integrative territorial nationalism will be able to ignite ethnic dissent,
let alone a separatist movement. This is true of many small ethnic
categories in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is possible to speak of
'failed nationalisms' in the sense that movements of ethnic national-
ism never got off the ground, despite the colonial presence, the
beginnings of Western capitalist penetration and the example of
other nationalisms near by. In these cases the necessary 'internal'
conditions — a stratum of secular intellectuals, a wider intelligentsia
and a recoverable ethnic past — were lacking. 20
This is not to deny the importance, in many cases, of the degree
of relative economic and cultural development of different ethnic
communities and categories or of the regions in which they are
located. The burden of Horowitz's argument turns on just these
developmental relationships. Movements of ethnic separatism, he
contends, emerge most quickly and frequently among backward
ethnic groups in backward regions, like the southern Sudan, Kurdi-
stan, the Karen and Shan of Burma and the Bengalis of Pakistan.
They have too little to gain from inclusion in the new states with
their project of creating integrated territorial nations. On the other
hand, advanced ethnic groups in backward regions are reluctant to
secede. They do so only when, as population exporters to other
regions of the new states, their position becomes untenable and the
costs of remaining become too high. For advanced groups in
advanced regions, like the Yoruba, Baganda and Sikhs, secession is
likely only if its economic costs are low, and usually it is more
profitable for the community to remain within the undivided state.
Backward ethnic groups in advanced regions may contemplate seces-
sion more easily, but they are rarely preponderant within the region;
the anticipated economic benefits of secession are not matched by

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sufficient political control, with the exception of southern Katanga.

In general, economic interest combines with group anxiety to ex-
plain the paths to ethnic separatism, but in the greater number of
cases group anxiety outweighs perceived economic gains.21
Horowitz's matrix of secession is intended to be only a guide.
There are too many intervening variables - the severity of ethnic
discrimination, civil-service representation, the extent of migration
into regions and so on - to be able to deduce the incidence and
timing of secession from the relative development of groups and
regions. Nevertheless, the fact that it highlights the numerical pre-
ponderance of secession movements among backward ethnic groups
in backward regions suggests the utility of relating secession to the
relative position of groups and regions within the new states.
The problems of this kind of matrix are twofold. First, there is
the difficulty of pinning down terms like 'advanced' and 'backward',
given the possible combinations of indicators and the fluctuating
evaluations and conflicting stereotypes in each case. The Eritrean
and Biafran cases illustrate the difficulty of applying such terms to
whole groups or deducing outcomes from hypotheses based on
these terms. Recent events in the Baltic states also cast doubt on
predictions about the reluctance of 'advanced' groups in 'advanced'
regions to secede. Second, as these cases suggest, entirely different
factors need to be fed into any such matrix, making it far more
complex and difficult to use. I am thinking of factors like the degree
of political repression (as Horowitz concedes in the Basque case) and
democratic freedom, the opportunities for cultural and political
mobilization and the presence or absence of an intelligentsia, as well
as a usable ethnic past, however recent. The existence of ethnic
antagonisms in the past is also a relevant factor in the aftermath of
colonialism and in the context of a fragile new state. 22
But perhaps the most potent factor, and the one that most influ-
ences the chances of creating new ethnic nations, is the determination
and power of the élites who control the apparatus of the new states
to resist movements of ethnic secession, often with considerable
force. In fact, very few ethnic separatisms have achieved their goals
since the Second World War. Most new states were created through
the process of decolonization, not secession. The exceptions -
Bangladesh and Singapore - were the products of exceptional

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circumstances; the separation of Singapore, with its overwhelmingly

Chinese population, was an agreed process, whereas that of Ban-
gladesh was the result of an unusual geopolitical constellation of
regional power. In every other case, notably Biafra, Eritrea, Kurd-
istan, Kalistan and Tamilnad, neither agreement nor an unusual
regional geopolitical constellation exists. While each of these (and
other) ethnic separatisms has had its external backers, at least tempor-
arily, none has been able to count on a degree of external support
that would force significant concessions from a state whose ruling
classes are drawn from the dominant ethnie and have set their faces
against even a measure of ethnic autonomy. The ensuing political
instability has taken many forms, ranging from simmering ethnic
discontent to open protracted wars of secession, as in Ethiopia, Angola
and Sri Lanka, with little prospect of an early peaceful resolution. 23
What does this instability bode for the creation of ethno-national
identities within the context of post-colonial states? Do the in-
tegrative and sometimes discriminatory pressures of these states
erode or reinforce the processes of vernacular mobilization and
cultural politicization that are the hallmarks of the transformation of
demotic ethnies into ethno-political nations? It is difficult to be
categorical here. It is clear that the pressures of integration have
undermined the structures and eroded the cultures of many smaller
ethnic categories that lacked literary traditions, as in Siberia and
Africa, or had partially lost them, as in parts of Latin America. In
these cases the failure to develop or maintain literary 'high' cultures
and specialist communications groups has lowered the resistance of
these ethnic categories to cultural integration in the post-colonial
states. Such categories, perhaps for these reasons, also lacked the
political will and military resources to counter acculturation and in-
tegration. 24
On the other hand, where there existed a living cultural and
literary tradition that could be adapted to modern conditions, the
integrative pressures of the post-colonial state, following on as they
often did the divisive policies of colonialism, frequently reinforced
the processes of ethnic mobilization and politicization. Growing
conflict has itself crystallized a sense of ethnic identity in what was
before often only a linguistic or ethno-regional category and may
still be divided by religion and ethnic origin, as is the case with

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Eritreans and southern Sudanese. Even such well-known ethnic

groups as the Kurds and Ibo knew little unity and cohesion until
after the Second World War, the former being divided to this day
into mountain tribes that were often in dispute, the latter into
villages and districts that were drawn together, in competition with
non-Ibo and non-Christians, only by the changes wrought by British
colonialism and the fierce ethnic competition after i960. It is the
conflicts with states and other communities in which Kurds and Ibo
were involved that have given the members of both groups a wider
self-awareness and a sense of their common history and destiny. In
this respect the endemic instability of the post-colonial state has
fuelled the regional and ethnic conflicts that over the years tend to
promote a heightened sense of ethnic identity and strengthen the
aspirations for separate ethno-national identity. 25
Ethnocide and ethnic mobilization, then, are equally possible
outcomes of the often fragile but coercive nature of the post-colonial
state and its attempts to integrate into a 'territorial nation' a poly-
ethnic society. This is true in many cases, despite the efforts of
regimes in several states to accommodate, and even satisfy, the econ-
omic and political demands of minority ethnies and regional ethnic
categories. Where this balance no longer holds, where disaffected
ethnies become alienated enough to resort to terror and revolt, their
ethnic nationalism may become the vehicle for a new national
identity that draws many members of the community involved in
the conflict into a new type of politicized vernacular culture and
creates a different kind of participant society. In these cases the
movement itself is the prototype and harbinger of a new society
and culture. Its cells, schools, guerrilla units, welfare associations,
self-help groups, women's societies and labour unions, as well as its
songs, flags, dress, poetry, sports, arts and crafts, all presage and
create the nucleus of the future ethnic nation and its political identity,
even where secession is prevented and the community fails to obtain
its own state. In these cases the movement has helped to create a
proto-nation out of a demotic ethnie, for the nation is not to be
equated with the state, even when it aspires to have a state of its
own. 2 6

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 SEPARATISM A N D MULTI-NATIONALISM

SEPARATISM AND AUTONOMISM IN INDUSTRIAL

SOCIETIES
A third wave of demotic ethnic nationalisms has been sweeping
industrial societies since the late 1950s. This is a new phenomenon:
the renewal of nationalism in states that had experienced nationalism
before the Second World War and were thought to be immune
from its influence. The difference between the ethnic nationalisms
of developing societies and those of the developed states is apparent:
in the former we are witnessing a straightforward trajectory in
which the drive to create territorial nations in the new states evokes
a reactive ethnic separatism, whereas in industrial societies we have
entered a second cycle in the drama of nationalism, re-enacted on
the ashes of former national hatreds. In North America, Europe and
the Soviet Union undergoing perestroïka the interventionist state has
rekindled among its ethnic minorities those aspirations for autonomy
and even separation that had previously been muted or repressed.
No wonder many observers were surprised by the vigour of this
nationalist renewal. 27
What are the new features of this renewal? First, they are, for the
most part, autonomist rather than separatist: the majority of fol-
lowers of the ethnic movement prefer to have cultural, social and
economic autonomy while remaining part of the political and mili-
tary framework of the state into which they were incorporated,
often centuries ago. There are exceptions to this generalization.
More radical wings of the movement, such as E T A among the
Basques and the S N P in Scotland, have opted for outright indepen-
dence from Spain and Britain; a few movements, as a whole, have
expressed separatist aspirations, as with Sajudis in Lithuania. But, on
the whole, most ethnic movements in industrial societies have pre-
ferred autonomy to separation. 28
Second, movements of ethnic autonomy recognize the possibility,
perhaps desirability, of dual identities, a cultural-national and a
political-national identity or, as they would see it, a national identity
within a territorial state identity, a Breton nation within France, a
Catalan nation within Spain and so on. In other words they rec-
ognize the duality of historical memories and political sentiments
that cannot easily be severed, not to mention the economic benefits

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to be gained by remaining within an existing state framework, as

for example, the Scots realized during the devolution debate in the
1970s. 29
Third, movements of ethnic autonomy in industrial societies take
place in well-established states enjoying a generally higher standard
of living than that of most developing states. They may occur
among relatively less advanced groups in less advanced regions, but
few of these groups, or their regions, are poor in the manner we
encounter in developing societies; Bretons and Brittany cannot be
compared with the southern Sudan. In some cases, indeed, both
ethnies and the regions they occupy are more advanced than the
dominant group and the centre; Basques and Catalans, and Slovenes
and Croats, enjoy higher levels of economic development than
Castile or Serbia. But in all these cases the states of the developed
world arc less precarious and novel, and their economic base is
more advanced, than those of the developing world. 30
Fourth, with one significant but partial exception, movements for
ethnic autonomy in industrial societies are directed against modern
'nation-states', that is to say, states that had for some time been
regarded and regarded themselves as 'nations', even though from
the standpoint of a strict interpretation of nationalism, they were
national hybrids, a mixture of étatiste and nationalist principles. The
partial exception, of course, is the Soviet Union, which represents a
federation of nations preserving borders roughly similar to those of
a former empire and held together by a command structure based
on Russian national preponderance. So ethnic nationalism in the
Soviet Union today wears a double aspect: a movement of ethnic
autonomy from the Soviet state, as in the West, and a more separatist
rejection of Russian imperial preponderance, a reaction to an older
imperial tradition of incorporation. In this sense ethnic nationalism
in the Soviet Union is closer to the classic nationalism of the nine-
teenth century than Western 'neo-nationalisms', which are directed
as much against neglect by the 'nation-state' as against its bureau-
cratic interference. 31
But there are also more fundamental similarities between the
renewal of ethnic nationalism in industrial societies and the earlier
waves of ethnic nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe and
twentieth-century separatisms in Africa and Asia. For one thing,

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they are all movements of 'subject peoples' against dominant ethnies

and 'alien' states and their ruling élites. Theirs are movements of
popular mobilization, at least in their rhetoric and slogans, if not
always in deed. They are directed against the status quo, the existing
distribution of power within the polyethnic state, its systematic
exclusion or relegation of certain ethnic categories and its denial of
their collective culture and rights. In this they contrast sharply with
the territorial nationalisms of dominant ethnies and their bureaucratic
states.32
Second, all these demotic movements involve processes of ver-
nacular mobilization and cultural politicization. They are bent on
creating a new kind of individual in a new kind of society, the
culturally distinct ethnic nation. This means returning to an idealized
image of 'what we were', which will serve as an exemplar and
guide for the nation-to-be. By returning to an ethnic past the
community will discover a cognitive framework, a map and location
for its unfocused aspirations. Similarly, 'our past' will teach the
present generation not only the virtues of their ancestors but also
their immediate duties. It will disclose to the community its true
nature, its authentic experience and hidden destiny. From its past
the community will discover the inner morality that defines its
unique character. Hence the underlying impetus of all these demotic
ethnic nationalisms is to rediscover their communities (even where
that means 'inventing' large parts of the 'self) through the uses of
landscape and history and the resuscitation of dying customs, rituals
and languages. It is not enough simply to mobilize the masses; to
sustain that mobilization, to turn 'masses' into 'nations', it is first
necessary to 'vernacularize' them and thereby bestow a unique iden-
tity and destiny upon them. 33
Third, in all these movements intellectuals and intelligentsias play
an important role. The extent, and exact nature, of that role, as we
saw, varies according to context; in different societies and periods
the meaning of the term 'intelligentsia' may vary, but it varies
within definite limits. For it is nevertheless possible to discern the
strong influence, and often leadership, of intellectual and professional
groups both in the process of vernacular mobilization and in the
cultural politicization of wider strata of the community or category.
The intellectuals and professionals not only revive customs and

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 SEPARATISM A N D MULTI-NATIONALISM

languages, rediscover history and (re-)establish ceremonies and tradi-

tions; they also give these activities and rediscoveries a national
political meaning they never previously possessed. From the re-
discovery of epics like the Edda and Kalevala to the revival of
hurling in Ireland and folk singing in Brittany, the leading role of
educators, artists and journalists is evident; and this remains true of
the latest surge of demotic ethnic nationalisms in industrial so-
cieties.34
The renewal of nationalism in industrial societies must, therefore,
be understood not as something new and sui generis but as a new
phase of the whole process of demotic vernacular mobilization that
has been sweeping various parts of the world since the eighteenth
century and possibly earlier, if we include the Puritan Dutch and
English movements in the early and mid seventeenth century. 3S
The kinship between all these movements is also historical. In fact,
several of the 'recent' movements for ethnic autonomy in the West
are really not at all recent; they merely experienced an upsurge of
support in the 1960s. But that upsurge built on pre-existing vehicles
and ideals formed before 1939 and in some cases - Wales, Scotland,
Catalonia, Euzkadi, Brittany — before 1914. In all these cases a
cultural renaissance, literary, linguistic and historical, preceded the
formation of political movements demanding ethnic autonomy. 36
There is really nothing surprising about this upsurge of ethnic
nationalism among minorities within old-established, industrial
states, just as there is no cause for wonder at the subsequent revival
of nationalism in the communist states of Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union. In each case we are dealing with perceptions of
neglected or suppressed identity, and in each case it is the centralized
state itself that is held to blame. One has to admit that in this matter
the state can do no right; benign neglect is as much cause for
grievance as crass intervention. 37 That is why it is perhaps wiser to
treat the state's role as that of powerful catalyst of underlying
conditions and sentiments that must be sought elsewhere. This is
not to absolve it of all responsibility for ethnic unrest. Clearly, state
policies can greatly exacerbate (as well as determine the timing and
intensity of) underlying sentiments and conditions, particularly when
the state acts in an ethnically partisan manner, as not infrequently
happens and not only in the developing states.38

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 SEPARATISM A N D MULTI-NATIONALISM

Where then should we look for the causes of those conditions and
sentiments that so often fuel movements of ethnic autonomy and
separation? Obviously the answer to such a broadly framed question
will vary with the period and area under consideration. But we can,
I think, usefully single out certain recurrent factors that together
create the conditions and promote the sentiments that underlie the
proliferation and renewal of ethnic nationalisms all over the world.
It is these factors, and the prospects for 'national identity' in the
next century, that we need finally to address.
 CHAPTER 7
Beyond National Identity?

Of all the collective identities in which human beings share today,

national identity is perhaps the most fundamental and inclusive. Not
only has nationalism, the ideological movement, penetrated every
corner of the globe; the world is divided, first and foremost, into
'nation-states' — states claming to be nations — and national identity
everywhere underpins the recurrent drive for popular sovereignty
and democracy, as well as the exclusive tyranny that it sometimes
breeds. Other types of collective identity — class, gender, race, re-
ligion - may overlap or combine with national identity but they
rarely succeed in undermining its hold, though they may influence
its direction. Governments and states may muzzle the expression of
national aspirations for a time, but it is likely to be a costly and
ultimately fruitless expedient. For the forces that sustain national
allegiances have proved, and are likely to prove, stronger than any
countervailing trends.
Why have national identity and nationalism become so funda-
mental in the modern world? First, because of their ubiquity. If any
phenomena are truly global, then it must be the nation and
nationalism. There is scarcely an area of the world that has not been
marked by ethnic and national conflicts or witnessed the rise of
movements claiming national independence for their chosen popula-
tions. The nationalist dream of a world of nations, each homo-
geneous, united and free, even if far from realization, has been taken
up by peoples across the globe, and has inspired popular resistance,
effort and conflict. The globalization of nationalism, if not yet of
the homogenous nation, is a powerful reality, one that conditions
our cultural outlook and political endeavours.'
But national identity today is not only global, it is also pervasive.
Though there are some situations in which it is felt to be more
important than in others, it may also be said to pervade the life of
individuals and communities in most spheres of activity. In the
cultural sphere national identity is revealed in a whole range of

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

assumptions and myths, values and memories, as well as in language,

law, institutions and ceremonies. Socially, the national bond
provides the most inclusive community, the generally accepted boun-
dary within which social intercourse normally takes place, and the
limit for distinguishing the 'outsider'. The nation may also be seen
as the basic unit of moral economy, in terms both of territory and
of resources and skills.
In political terms national identity today determines not only the
composition of the regime's personnel, but also legitimates and
often influences policy goals and administrative practices that regu-
late the everyday lives of each citizen. Finally the nation and national
identity, by commanding the basic political allegiance of citizens,
have become the only recognized source of 'inter-national' legit-
imacy, of the validity of a system of states in each region and
continent, and ultimately in the world as a whole. Such order as
may be found in the community of states is premissed on the norm
of the nation as the sole unit of political loyalty and action.
Third, there is the sheer complexity and variety of the 'nation'
and 'national identity'. As we saw in the first chapter, national
identity is an abstract and multidimensional construct that touches
on a wide range of spheres of life and manifests many permutations
and combinations. Historians today tend to curtail the range of
'nationalism', reacting to the tendency of an earlier generation of
scholars to inflate the concept. But the nation and nationalism should
not be regarded as conceptual refuges of the 'lazy historian', nor
should we underestimate their chameleon-like nature and their
facility in combining with, and often subsuming, other issues and
ideologies. Chinese communism was at first treated as a genuine
variety of western Marxism, until it was realized how much Mao's
movement owed to Chinese nationalism, both doctrinally and in
practice. Today it is the nationalist component of Maoism that is
stressed, and the way in which Mao accommodated his Marxism to
the national outlook of the Chinese peasantry in its resistance to the
Japanese invasion in 1937. Conversely, the anti-communist move-
ments in Eastern Europe in 1989 were at first treated as western-
style movements of political and economic liberalism, until it was
realized how powerful were the nationalist dimensions of popular
mobilization. 2

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

The point that is often missed is that national aspirations tend to

combine with other non-national economic, social or political issues,
and the power of the movement often derives from this combina-
tion. It is not that nationalism feeds on other 'rational' issues and
interests, as is sometimes assumed. Rather, neglected, oppressed or
marginalized ethnic communities or categories fuse their national
grievances and aspirations with other non-national aspirations and
grievances; so that at a particular point in time there is often a single
set of interests being pursued by a given population, which we
divide for analytic purposes into 'national' and 'non-national' categ-
ories, to isolate the 'national factor'. 3

SUPRA-NATIONALISM: FEDERAL AND REGIONAL

IDENTITIES?
Ubiquitous, pervasive and complex, national identity and national-
ism remain powerful and explosive global forces as we approach the
third millennium. But are they strong enough to resist the trends of
increasing global interdependence? May we not look forward to an
early 'supersession of nationalism'?
This was undoubtedly the hope and expectation of liberals and
socialists from the early nineteenth century till today. From Comte
and Mill to modernization theorists, the evolutionary perspective
promised both the attainment of nationhood and its overcoming, as
humanity forged ever larger, more inclusive and more powerful
units of resource. The erosion of familism, localism and religion
would allow the state to oversee humanity's progress towards a
global society and culture. Similarly, Marxists envisaged the 'wither-
ing away' of the state and the 'transcendence' of nations and
nationalism; though national cultures might remain, they would be
infused with proletarian values, retaining only their national form. 4
In support of these hopes liberals and socialists, including many
scholars, have pointed to two sets of evidence. The empirical evi-
dence is drawn from various experiments in multinational states, as
well as various kinds of regional federation. The theoretical support
is sought in the consequences of the new transnational forces and
technologies that are spawning a 'post-national' world. Let us con-
sider the two kinds of argument and evidence in turn.

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

We may start .from the oft-remarked fact that most states today
arc ethnically heterogeneous and plural. For some this means that a
new kind of nation is in the making, a 'multinational nation'; for
others it means that the nation is being superseded. Clearly, the
view one takes will depend largely on the definition of nation
adopted, or at any rate the premise of 'homogeneity' of the nation.
Even if one assumes that the concept of the nation is a construct
exclusively of the nationalists (and I have argued that nationalists
were constrained by particular ethno-histories), it is not clear that
the demand for a 'homogeneous nation' possessed the same meaning
for all nationalists. What all nationalists demanded was autonomy,
unity and identity; but neither unity (meaning social, territorial and
political union), nor identity (meaning distinctiveness and historical
individuality) entailed complete cultural homogenization. Not only
have the Swiss managed to achieve political unity; they have also
retained a clear sense of historical individuality, despite their linguis-
tic, religious and cantonal divisions. The Swiss have resisted cultural
homogenization, despite powerful sentiments of national identity
amounting to armed neutrality. Nor are the Swiss entirely alone in
this. In both Germany and Italy regionalism has been permitted to
flourish, often with strong local institutions, but in neither case has
there been a diminution of the sense of national identity and periodic
surges of national sentiment. 5
This means that while some Romantic nationalists have called for
complete cultural homogeneity, many others have been content
with unification and identification around core values, myths,
symbols and traditions, expressed in common customs and institu-
tions, as well as a common homeland. This in turn allows for the
possibility of constructing 'territorial nations', as we saw, from
polyethnic populations, as so many Third World national élites
seek to do.
But if the nation need not be culturally homogeneous, can there
be such a thing as a nation that subsumes several incorporated
nations? How flexible can the concept of the nation be without
losing its fundamental features, particularly those of common culture
and history?
Here the Yugoslav model springs to mind. Yugoslavia was built
around two concepts: a federation of nations, and a common

146
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

cultural-historical experience. The latter was sometimes dubbed

'Illyrianism'; but as even its ideologues conceded, it was less the
political history that held South Slavs together than cognate languages
and geographical proximity, and perhaps foreign occupation (albeit
by different powers). On the other side the separate histories of
Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Macedonians and Montenegrins, as well
as religious differences, have suggested the possibility of Yugoslavia
providing a model of the 'transcended nation' in the form of a
federation of nations, which could be replicated on a larger scale else-
where. 6
Unfortunately, the history of Yugoslavia to date has not lived up
to the hopes entertained for it and for other federations. The division
of the Communist Party into national parties, the centrality of the
nations in constitutional arrangements and in economic allocation,
and the history of national antagonisms, especially during the
Second World War, have all undermined the fragile unity of the
Yugoslav state, first under Tito and now under his successors. The
Croat Spring, the conflicts in Kossovo and the dispute with Slovenia
suggest the abiding power of the constituent nations that compose
the federation rather than the supra-national institutions or any
Yugoslav sentiments. 7
Similar components and experiences, but on a much vaster scale,
mark the history of the Soviet Union. Founded on the ruins of, but
within much the same boundaries as, its predecessor, the tsarist
empire, the revolutionary communist state felt it necessary to make
important concessions to the principle of nationality within both the
Party organization and the Constitution. Following Lenin's decision
to recognize the right to, if not the practice of, national self-
determination and secession, the Soviet leadership set about restruc-
turing the Soviet state as a federation of national republics, each
based on its language and culture, organizing all categories of popula-
tion into recognizable ethnies, selecting, fusing, even inventing appro-
priate languages and ranking them all in a hierarchy of
ethno-national size and strategic importance. Thus small groups like
the Udmurts or Evenki were classified as peoples, while much larger
and more developed communities, like the Georgians or Uzbeks,
were treated as nations with their own sovereign territorial republics,
administrations, Party organizations, languages and cultures. In this

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

way cultural and territorial bases of ethnicity were maintained and

constitutionally safeguarded, while political and economic decision-
making was removed to the political centre. 8
The Soviet Union, therefore, had till the era of perestroïka operated
on two levels. On the military, political and economic planes there
was a high degree of centralization, with the Party in Moscow
holding the levers of power over the republics and their Party
organs. But in the spheres of culture, education and social welfare
the individual republics enjoyed considerable autonomy. This was
reinforced by the policy of drawing administrative recruits for each
republic from the dominant ethnic community (korenisatzia) that
emerged in the 1920s but has been heavily eroded in the era of
perestroika and glasnost. The effect was to separate potential conflicts
through the bifurcation of spheres of relevance and even mutually
to reinforce national and Soviet allegiances. But even before the
lifting of tight Party control the nationalities problem was barely
contained, erupting from time to time in riots and repressive
measures and calling forth policies of Russian settlement and the
elevation of the Russian lingua franca in all areas. The non-Russian
demographic increase, the potential for Muslim instability on the
southern borders, the distribution of resources and posts between
the republics and the centre, the nationalist dimensions of dissent
and the effects of education in activating ambivalent ethnic intelli-
gentsia, above all the postponement of the ideal of national fusion
(sliyanie) and questioning of the present stage of national cooperation
(sblizhenie) — all these developments revealed profound anxiety over
the divisive potential of the 'national question' in the decades after
Stalin's death. 9
In the era of glasnost and perestroika under Gorbachov ethnic
divisions that have lain concealed have become salient. Ethno-
nationalism has mobilized mass support in the Baltic states, the Cau-
casus and Central Asia, and Russian neo-nationalism has aligned
itself more closely with Orthodox religious resurgence, from which
it draws much of its moral and aesthetic inspiration and part of its
ethno-history. In large measure all this follows from the structure of
the Soviet state and Party organization and from Lenin's historic
compromise with the tide of East European ethno-nationalisms,
including the Great Russian variety that he so condemned. Although

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

the federal principle institutionalized national sentiments and

cultures, it also afforded bases for the revival of active nationalism
wherever those sentiments and cultures appeared to their members
to be threatened by neighbours or by the centre. Given the long
exclusion of a genuine popular voice from political organization,
the most likely beneficiary of pent-up resentments and aspirations
for real participation was the nation or ethnic community. As a
result the attempt to encourage more open political participation
carried with it a content of self-expression that was national as well
as democratic, revealing once again that, as in other communist
states, ethnic ties and nationalist aspirations have proved more dur-
able and resilient than Marxist ideologies and parties. 10
What the Soviet experience suggests is that even revolutionary
'invented traditions' must harness or forge (often both) a national
cultural and political identity if they are to strike deep popular
roots.
It is instructive to compare the American experience in this re-
spect. There too national aspirations have been continental but have
had to operate in a polyethnic environment. In the United States,
however, what is often termed 'neo-ethnicity', though often vital,
has remained (or become) symbolic and organizational. Unlike their
Soviet counterparts, American ethnic communities and categories
have been largely divorced from any territorial dimensions and
have instead been transformed into the most effective vehicles of
mass mobilization and some of the most powerful pressure groups
in the American political system. With rare exceptions, ethnic aspira-
tions are at most 'communal', in the sense of demanding a control-
ling voice for ethnies in cities and localities. Blacks, Chicanos and
Native Americans apart, 'national' goals and symbols have been
reserved exclusively for the all-American political community and
its culture."
What is this community and culture, and has it managed to
transcend the nation and nationalism, as Soviet man and society was
intended to? The content of the all-American identity and culture
clearly reveals its ethnic roots in the Anglo-American Protestant
traditions of the original settlements. By the late eighteenth century
we may describe the dominant myth and culture in the colonies as a
'vernacular ancestralism' that looked back to the Americanized

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

forefathers against the 'wicked British step-mother' and proclaimed a

unique destiny for the new 'chosen people' in the New Jerusalem. 12
This Anglo-American myth of Puritan election was reinforced by
the secular Romanizing myths of the Revolution, the Constitution
and the heroic age of the Founding Fathers. It was only after the
content of the new nation's cultural identity had been formed by
stages that the great influx of European immigrants began, and it
was into this underlying but flexible cultural pattern, founded on
the supremacy of Anglo-American language and culture, that they
were required to integrate themselves. But this 'supersession of
ethnicity' did not entail a transcendence of the nation. Quite the
contrary: the United States became a prime example of the territorial
national type of political community and of the power of territorial
nationalism. In these respects it has been, so far, more successful
than the Soviet Union, whose own attempt to forge a 'territorial
nation' had to fall back in extremis on the evocation of the very
Great Russian nationalism that it wished to transcend. Even before
that, during the Civil War and in the period of 'building socialism
in one country', the language and symbolism of nationalism had to
be appropriated by Lenin and Stalin to mobilize the 'masses' to
make the necessary sacrifices to realize the new socialist and supra-
national society. So where the Soviet experiment was flawed by an
historic compromise with the forces of national identity and
nationalism, the United States has attempted to move, with some
hesitancy, to a state of full acculturation on the basis of an Anglo-
American culture and providential myth and its territorial political
community.' 3
Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States can be said to
have transcended the nation or superseded nationalism, though for
different reasons. As a result, cosmopolitans have recently shifted
their hopes to another, more 'regional', groupings of states — from
the Scandinavian experiment in cooperation to the inter-African,
-Arab and -Latin American regional blocs. Perhaps the most promis-
ing of these experiments in regional cooperation has been the move
towards a European Community, based originally on the Treaty of
R o m e signed by six West European states in 1956, after an earlier,
successful but more limited experiment in cooperation, the European
Coal and Steel Community of 1950. As has often been pointed out,

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

these origins betray the functional grounds for inter-state cooperation

in Europe and the incremental and institutional mode of European
unification, punctuated by periodic crises over conflicts of interest.
The economic content of the Community's basis has also frequently
been underlined and a sharp dividing line drawn between a 'customs
union' and a 'political community'. Memories of an earlier Zollverein
leading to national unification, however, raise doubts about such
'boundaries'; do they not conceal more than they illuminate?' 4
For many the prime motivation for European unification was,
from the first, political, even military: the rejection of war as an
instrument of state policy and a reading of recent European history
as the futile carnage of civil wars unleashed by the blind forces of
unbridled nationalism, culminating in the holocaust of Nazism. On
this reading the European Community will represent the triumph
of political reason over national passions and selfish interests; the
economic dimensions are seen as means rather than contents or
goals. It was just this reading that de Gaulle resisted with his concept
of a Europe des patries from the Urals to the Atlantic (excluding
Britain) and that the European movement, founded in The Hague
in 1948, set out to promote in the European Parliament, in the
Commission and in popular sentiment. I5
Even after, perhaps because of, the opening up of Eastern Europe
under the influence of Soviet perestroika these two political currents
remain at the heart of the debate over 'Europe'. For the proponents
of the concept of the European Community as a customs union of
associated nation-states, national identity remains the natural form
of modern political and cultural community, the nation-state the
most beneficial and cohesive type of political unit and a moderate,
'healthy' nationalism the sole means of achieving solidarity and
collective prosperity. An economic association of European patries
will enable each to realize these ends, or it is worth nothing. For
those who press for a political union of European states the national
type of collective identity has ceased to be viable and desirable. The
nation-state is fast becoming obsolete, and nationalism, which
brought humanity to the brink of ultimate catastrophe, must be
expunged from human consciousness or at least rendered forever
harmless. Instability in the East can only make the political unifica-
tion of Europe more necessary and more urgent.

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

But what kind of community and culture is the European project

likely to realize? I shall return later to the question of a European
culture, though it is intertwined with the problems of community.
How shall we envisage a European political community? As a
'super-state'? A 'super-nation'? Something entirely different and sui
generis? Let us take each of these in turn.
1. There is little prospect of a European 'super-state' until each
European state surrenders its control over its military forces
and arsenals and its claims to exercise the monopoly of
violence within its own territory, and that self-denial is
popularly accepted. But it is as yet N A T O and the Warsaw
Pact that limit the legitimate exercise of force in the two
halves of the continent, not the European Community. The
lattcr's institutions specifically exclude any military organs
or jurisdiction. Besides existentially, so long as each Euro-
pean state has the military means to resist external measures
or even to back up a threat of political withdrawal, its
sovereignty is ultimately assured. In such circumstances a
European 'super-state' would be a political impossibility.
There is equally little prospect of a European 'super-nation'
until the majority of each European nation's population
becomes infused with a genuinely European consciousness.
(This may be compatible with remaining national sentiments
and consciousness, but another wider circle of loyalty and
belonging would need to be added to the existing national
ones.)
But here lies a dilemma. Might we not be witnessing
thereby the growth of a new 'super-nation' of Europe? And
a new, even more powerful, nationalism — an expectation
and a fear entertained by some? 10
As yet there is little sign of any diminution of the na-
tionalisms and national identities of individual European
nations or a growth in a truly European political nationalism,
despite the aspirations of members of a more influential
European Parliament. But, on the cultural level, there are
signs of a wider pan-European sentiment; I shall return to
this later.

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

3. If the shape of the European project is neither of a 'super-

state' nor of a 'super-nation', is it a new form of political
association that is sui generis? Might we perhaps speak of a
'condominium' of powers, a voluntary agreement to hand
over certain powers to a series of central institutions, with
overlapping jurisdictions, empowered to take binding decis-
ions for all within carefully circumscribed spheres? If so,
could such a condominium have a profound effect on the
European pattern of individual national identities?
It is difficult to answer such questions with any degree of
confidence. A condominium of this kind, were it to describe
the political pattern of an emerging Europe, would be able
to coexist with individual national identities within Europe.
It might even help to reinforce them, for the conflicts that a
condominium must settle but will be unlikely ever to erase
will probably accentuate existing national aspirations and
consciousness, just as cultural cross-fertilization is likely to
provoke vigorous renewals of national culture and national
identity. On the other hand, depending on the kinds of
condominium leadership, we might see the addition of a
new circle of European allegiance and aspiration in a poly-
centric world of regional associations and power blocs. But
this in turn will hinge on the rise of a sense of specifically
'European' heritage and on the growth of an accepted 'Euro-
pean mythology'.
There is another problem. Could the European experiment
become a model for other areas and associations? Clearly, the specific
institutional arrangements of the new 'Europe' could not be trans-
planted to other continents in the manner of the ill-fated 'Westminster
model'. But the European Community may well serve as a generic
example if and when conditions elsewhere arc ripe; and, as I shall
argue, that ripeness may well depend, paradoxically, on the progress
of certain cultural conditions, notably certain kinds of nationalism.

THE NEW T R A N S N A T I O N A L FORCES

If it is as yet unclear what the European project presages and how
far large-scale polyethnic states and regional groupings have taken

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

root, where else may we look for that global interdependence that
can underpin a cosmopolitan culture that transcends national limita-
tions? Here it is customary to invoke the new transnational forces
that have become so prominent since the Second World War:
regional power blocs, transnational economic corporations and
global telecommunications systems. Let us consider each in turn.
The Second World War saw the growth of vast power blocs
springing out of military confrontations on an unprecedented scale. At
first two great blocs, communist and capitalist, confronted each other
in Europe and elsewhere, drawing various client states and regions into
their orbit. This in turn spawned looser and weaker regional blocs in
Latin America, Africa and the South-east Asia, but militarily and
economically they remained dependent on the two main industrialized
power blocs. In the 1970s and 1980s this polarity was relaxed, first by the
economic and political weight of members of the two blocs — West
Germany, Japan, China — and latterly by the quickening of the pace
towards European economic union and by the impact of perestroika on
both the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The power blocs remain,
but their binding ideologies have become nationally diversified and, in
some cases, have lost any mobilizing power they once possessed. We
have clearly forsaken a bipolar for a polycentric, and shifting, geopol-
itical configuration, one in which the right of 'nation-states' to
choose their own destinies is once more apparent.' 7
The power of the transnational corporations is equally familiar
and recent. With huge budgets, sophisticated technologies and the
ability to plan long-term strategies over several continents these
corporations have proved remarkably flexible instruments of accu-
mulation and control. In many cases they have been able to bypass
or override governments, many of whose budgets and technical
levels are much lower than those of the corporations they con-
front. They have also been able to use domestic operations and
workers to supplement their own skilled personnel in many Third
World countries; such operations enable them to ignore cultural
differences and secure the markets they seek. The result is the forma-
tion of an international division of labour in which states at different
levels of development are inserted, often through the operations of
the transnational corporations, into the world capitalist economy in
a comprehensive economic hierarchy.

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Finally, and perhaps most pervasive of all, there has been a rapid
growth in the range and power of mass telecommunications systems
and a vast expansion of computerized information networks. The
scope and sophistication of such systems make it impossible to limit
information networks to even the largest of national units; at the
same time they provide the material basis for an amalgamation of
national into regional cultures and even for the formation of a
global culture. It is now possible to put out and package global
information and imagery that can swamp more local information
networks and the national messages they emit. In the hands of vast
power blocs and transnational corporations these telecommunica-
tions systems and computerized information networks can act as
powerful vehicles of a new cultural imperialism.
These new transnational forces, to which we may add massive
population movements and the growing importance of environ-
mental pollution and disease on a regional or global scale, figure in
two parallel arguments. The first claims that advanced industrial
capitalism has given birth to giant economic and political units that
render the 'nation-state' obsolete. The agent of such obsolescence is
held to be primarily the enormous transnational corporation, with
its highly diversified capital-intensive operations and sophisticated
technologies able to provide complex computerized networks and
package imagery in a flexibly specialized but effective manner. The
second argument sees the supersession of the nation as part of the
move to a 'post-industrial' society. While nations were functional for
an industrial world and its technological and market needs, the
growth of the 'service society' based on computerized knowledge
and communications systems overleapt national boundaries and
penetrated every corner of the globe. Only continental cultures,
ultimately a single global culture, can fulfil the requirements of a
post-industrial knowledge-based society. 18
To each of these claims, and the observations on which they are
based, there is a standard reply. We have been witnessing the crum-
bling of even the most powerful of political and military blocs in a
manner that has been both sudden and decisive. Even before that
their ideologies, in both the West and the East, had become muted,
ossified and diversified in the face of rapid change and new demands,
such as those of the feminist, ethnic and ecology movements. The

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latter had created new nodes of collective action and organization

that absorbed the spiritual and political energies of many people for
whom the slogans of capitalism and communism had become mean-
ingless. Hence the vitality of these blocs had already been sapped
from within.' 9
Not only new movements but also reformulations of older ones
re-emerged, notably the 'neo-nationalisms' that we discussed in
chapter 6. This renewal fits well Richmond's thesis that the greater
intensity of small-scale communications networks facilitates the pro-
liferation of linguistic and ethnic nationalisms in a post-industrial era.
This resurgence of minority or 'peripheral' ethnic nationalisms may
well provoke a renewal of the majority nationalisms of ethnies that
arc dominant in a given state — among Serbs, Czechs, Germans,
Poles and Russians - often through a reactive and liberating process.
The overall result may well be to strengthen those very 'state-
nations' that had been thought to be obsolete and to give them a
new, more powerful lease of life.20
The same may well be true in the sphere of international econ-
omic relations. Quite apart from the economic competition of
'state-nations' in the Third World and between them and Western
state-nations, the effects of both demographic and economic de-
velopments have, if anything, accentuated national divisions and
aspirations. As populations explode and emigrate, as wars bring mass
death or refugee influxes, the barriers between nations are raised by
immigration policies, nationality laws and dire warnings of popula-
tion explosions. Similarly the impact of the transnational corpora-
tions has been contradictory. They may girdle the world through
their networks of commodities, investments and operations, but
they also provoke national opposition (or partnership) wherever
governments are strong enough to make bargains or impose terms.
Even if we cannot wholly assent to Warren's contention that politi-
cal independence gives Third World countries real political leverage
against the great capitalist corporations, it does allow the more
tenacious and skilful Third World leadership to play the superpowers
and the transnational corporations off against one another and
thereby to increase the chances of more favourable terms. But, more
important for our purposes, it helps to foster a growing sense of
national identity and purpose in the face of external pressures and to

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locate the new 'state-nation' in an international hierarchy of similar

political 'communities-in-the-making'. Paradoxically, therefore,
these transnational economic forces may end up reinforcing the
nations and nationalisms they were expected to supersede. 21

COSMOPOLITANISM AND A 'GLOBAL' CULTURE?

But it is in the cultural sphere that the claims of theorists of advanced
capitalism or post-industrialism are most questionable. Are these
undoubtedly sophisticated and massive telecommunications and com-
puterized information systems fusing national cultures or at least
overlaying them with a new cosmopolitan culture? And what
exactly would be the content of this global culture?
The answers to such questions must be largely speculative, but
the Western experience of post-modern cultures may provide im-
portant clues. Broadly speaking, recent cultural developments in the
West combine a veneer of streamlined modernism with a pastiche
of post-modern motifs, themes and styles. This is essentially an
eclectic culture. On the one hand we are deluged with a torrent of
standardized mass commodities uniformly packaged for mass con-
sumption; on the other hand these commodities — from furniture
and building to TV films and advertising — draw their contents from
revivals of earlier folk or national motifs and styles, torn from their
original contexts and anaesthetized or treated in whimsical or satir-
ical vein. From Stravinsky and Poulenc in the 1920s to Hockney
and Kitaj today, this pastiche of parodied styles and themes has
come to stand for the possibility of a post-modern, even a pseudo-
classical, mass culture. 22
A global culture would therefore be composed of a number of
analytically discrete elements: effectively advertised mass com-
modities, a patchwork of folk or ethnic styles and motifs stripped of
their context, some general ideological discourses concerned with
'human rights and values' and a standardized quantitative and 'scien-
tific' language of communication and appraisal, all underpinned by
the new information and telecommunications systems and their
computerized technologies.
This post-modern global culture would differ from all previous
cultures not only in its worldwide diffusion but also in the degree of

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its self-consciousness and self-parody. Indeed, believing there to be

no place for the 'self outside the particular discourses and language
conventions in which every human being is enmeshed and no van-
tage points of reference, no 'centre' beyond these conventions, the
new cosmopolitanism is inherently eclectic and in motion. Its shape
is constantly changing. Hence it can be 'described' only in very
general terms.
Unlike previous cultural imperialisms, which were rooted in an
ethnic time and place of origin, the new global culture is universal
and timeless. Being eclectic, it is indifferent to place or time. It is
fluid and shapeless. Though currently more advanced in the West
than elsewhere, a post-modern cosmopolitan culture has been carried
by the mass media and telecommunications around the world. It is
here and now and everywhere. It boasts no history or histories; the
folk motifs it uses are quarried for surface decoration of a present-
and future-oriented 'scientific' and technical culture.
It is also a fundamentally artificial culture. Its pastiche is capricious
and ironical; its effects are carefully calculated; and it lacks any
emotional commitment to what is signified. Craft-like and shallow,
the new cosmopolitanism is more interested in means and in re-
formulating dilemmas of value into technical problems with purely
technological solutions. In this it is true to its technological character,
in which intersecting systems of communication and information
create networks of interdependence expressed in a universal quan-
titative and scientific discourse and operated by a technical intelli-
gentsia, whose culture of technical discourse replaces the earlier,
purely critical, discourse of the humanist intellectuals.23
There is little doubt that the lineaments of such a technical global
culture can be discerned, though it is rather unevenly spread across
the planet at present. But can such a cosmopolitan culture survive
and flourish? Can it put down roots among the populations of the
world?
Again, there is little in the past to guide us. In the past there was
never culture, only cultures, that were particular, expressive and
historically specific. Even the most imperial and widely diffused
were bound to the time and place of their origins — be it R o m e or
Byzantium or Mecca - as were their imagery and sense of identity,
which were based on concrete historical traditions that had popular

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resonance over long periods, like the imagery of Caesar and Tsar in
R o m e and Russia. It may be possible to manufacture traditions and
to package imagery, but images and traditions will be sustained
only if they have some popular resonance, and they will have that
resonance only if they can be harmonized and made continuous
with a perceived collective past. All those monuments to the fallen
- ceremonies of remembrance, statues to heroes and celebrations of
anniversaries — however newly created in their present form, take
their meaning and their emotional power from a presumed and felt
collective past.24
Now, in the modern world, that felt and perceived collective past
is still pre-eminently ethnic and national. Identities, images and
cultures remain similarly and obstinately plural and ethnic or
national. This is only to be expected, given the centrality of memory
in forging identities and cultures, which is why the basic motifs,
ideas and styles of post-modern cosmopolitanism arc folk or national
in origin. There is to date no other, except a synthetic neo-classicism
(itself harking back, however tenuously, to antique forebears). There
is no global 'identity-in-the-making'; a global culture could be only
a memory-less construct or break up into its constituent national
elements. But a memory-less culture is a contradiction; any attempt
to create such a global culture would simply accentuate the plurality
of folk memories and identities that have been plundered in order
to constitute this giant bricolage.
Here at last we stumble on the limits of human 'construction' and
'deconstruction', for behind the project of a global culture stands
the premise of culture as a construct of human imagination and art
whose 'text' we have to 'read' and whose assumptions we have to
deconstruct. Just as the nation itself may be regarded as an 'imagined
community', the construct of rulers and intelligentsia, so a global
culture that is a pastiche of the past underpinned by science and
telecommunications is humanity's most daring, all-embracing act of
the imagination. Yet the texts of which such cosmopolitanism is
necessarily composed, the satirized components of this patchwork,
are just those myths, memories, values, symbols and traditions that
form the cultures and discourses of each and every nation and ethnic
community. It is these nations and ethnies that set historical limits to
our discourses. To penetrate their ethno-national forms and to

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challenge their assumptions does not in itself undermine their power

or destroy the hold of national discourses. Bound up, as they are,
with the realities of state power and cultural communication, ethnic
and national discourses and their texts set limits to human im-
aginative construction, for the longue durée of ethno-histories have
furnished the very languages and cultures in which collective and
individual selves and their discourses have been formed and continue
to bind and divide human beings. It is not enough to imagine the
global community; new and wider forms of political association and
different types of cultural community will first have to emerge. It
is likely to be a piecemeal movement, disjointed and largely un-
planned. 25

THE USES OF ' E T H N O - H I S T O R Y '

So far I have suggested one set of reasons for the failure to extinguish,
and the improbability of superseding, nations and nationalism: die
inherent implausibility of the project to construct a global culture,
even so eclectic and technical a culture as 'post-modernism' offers us
with its promise of new 'post-national' styles and languages.
But there is another even more powerful reason for this failure,
namely the continuing hold of ethnic styles and national discourses
themselves over the vast majority of the planet's populations. This is
quite easy to verify on the ground. Most political conflicts, most
popular protests and most state projects have a powerful nationalist
dimension, unless they are specific expressions of national aspirations
and consciousness. Nationalism figures prominently in the most
bitter and intractable of such conflicts and protests, even when it is
linked with other issues of gender, class, race and religion.
The question is: why does national identity remain so ubiquitous,
multifaceted and pervasive, as we said at the beginning of this
chapter? We have seen how nations and nationalism emerged and
spread across the globe. The question now is, what functions does
national identity continue to serve that other types of identity either
fail to cover, or address rather inadequately?
Perhaps the most important of its functions is to provide a satisfy-
ing answer to the problem of personal oblivion. Identification with
the 'nation' in a secular era is the surest way to surmount the finality

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of death and ensure a measure of personal immortality. Even the

Party cannot make so unequivocal a promise; it too must ultimately
fall back on the nation. For the Party has only its short, revolutionary
history; the nation can boast a distant past, even where much of it
must be reconstructed or even fabricated. Even more important, it
can offer a glorious future similar to its heroic past. In this way it
can galvanize people into following a common destiny to be realized
by succeeding generations. But these are the generations of 'our'
children; they are 'ours' biologically as well as spiritually, which is
more than any class or Party can promise. So the promise of life
immortal in our posterity seems genetically vindicated. Can we not
take comfort in the memorials of our posterity, and do these not
assure us of the after-life that secular doubt appeared to destroy? So
the primary function of national identity is to provide a strong
'community of history and destiny' to save people from personal
oblivion and restore collective faith.26
To identify with the nation is to identify with more than a cause
or a collectivity. It is to be offered personal renewal and dignity in
and through national regeneration. It is to become part of a political
'super-family' that will restore to each of its constituent families
their birthright and their former noble status, where now each is
deprived of power and held in contempt. Nationalism promises a
'status reversal', where the last shall be first and the world will
recognize the chosen people and their sacred values. This is where
ethno-history is so vital. Not only, must the nation boast a distant
past on which to base its promise of immortality; it must be able to
unfold a glorious past, a golden age of saints and heroes, to give
meaning to its promise of restoration and dignity. So the fuller and
richer that ethno-history, the more convincing becomes its claim
and the deeper the chord it can strike in the hearts of the nation's
members. The felt antiquity of a community's ethno-history, irres-
pective of its truth-content, as nationalists have long understood,
is the criterion of national dignity and the bar at which they must
make their appeal for national restoration. That is why Finnish
intellectuals like Lonnröt and Snellman, Gallén-Kallela and Sibelius,
felt they had to recreate Finland's lost past, its distant golden age in
the land of heroes, the Kalevala, from the ballads of the Karelian
peasants, and present it as authentic history, so that they and all

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Finns might re-enter the living past of their community and thereby
restore their collective dignity and bind themselves into the chain of
generations that alone could confer immortality. It was under the
abstract construct of 'Finland' that they could renew themselves, but
that construct took its meaning and popular resonance from a per-
ceived kinship with a much longer presumed ethno-history with
which most Finns could identify and that seemed to promise release
from oblivion. J7
A third function of national identity is the prominence it gives to
realizing the ideal of fraternity. The ideal itself suggests the close
relationship between the family, the ethnic community and the
nation, at least on the ideological plane. Ethnie and nation are seen
simply as families writ large, a sum of many interrelated families,
brothers and sisters all. But nationalists also prescribe rituals and
ceremonies to rehearse and reinforce the ideal. By means of parades,
remembrance ceremonies, anniversary celebrations, monuments to
the fallen, oaths, coinage, flags, eulogies of heroes and memorials of
historic events, they remind fellow-citizens of their cultural bonds
and political kinship through reaffirmations of identity and unity.
In many ways this ceremonial and symbolic aspect is the most
decisive to the success and durability of national identity — it is the
area in which individual identity is most closely bound up with
collective identity. There is more than one reason for this affinity.
We should not underrate the importance of aesthetic considerations
— the feelings of beauty, variety, dignity and pathos aroused by the
skilful disposition of forms, masses, sounds and rhythms with which
the arts can evoke the distinctive 'spirit' of the nation. No doubt
this helps to explain why so many poets, composers, painters, sculp-
tors and other artists have found the idea of national identity so
potent and evocative for themselves and their art. But the chief
reason why the symbolic and ritual aspects of nationalism impinge
so directly on the sense of individual identity today lies in its revival
of ethnic ties and ethnic identification, and especially its commemora-
tion of 'the forefathers' and the fallen in each generation of the
community. In this nationalism resembles those religious faiths that,
like Shintoism, set great store by communion with the dead and
worship of ancestors. Like those religions, nations and their remem-
brance ceremonies bring together all those families that have lost

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kinsmen in war and other national disasters, and all who look back
to common forefathers, so as to draw from their example that
strength of purpose and spirit of self-sacrifice that will inspire in
them a similar heroism. 28
Transcending oblivion through posterity; the restoration of collec-
tive dignity through an appeal to a golden age; the realization of
fraternity through symbols, rites and ceremonies, which bind the
living to the dead and fallen of the community: these are the
underlying functions of national identity and nationalism in the
modern world, and the basic reasons why the latter have proved so
durable, protean and resilient through all vicissitudes.
There are also other historical and geo-political reasons. Histori-
cally, the nation-state has proved its worth, ever since the hegemony
of France and Britain showed its efficacy in war and peace. It
became a universal model, albeit one often copied more in externals
than in spirit. Similarly, the success of Germany and Japan suggested
the power and efficacy of ethnic nationalism and an 'ethnic' type of
national identity. The diffusion of Herderian and Fichtean concepts
is evidence of the wide influence of the German model. Given the
demotic nature of many ethnies, this ethnic model of the nation has
proved even more successful; there are few areas of the world that
have been free of often violent ethnic nationalisms.
Ethnic violence, though it has several causes, is also a function of
the uneven distribution of 'ethno-history'. There are considerable
differences in the nature, depth and richness of each community's
historical memories. Some communities claim a long, well-
documented and powerfully evocative ethno-history; others can
find few records of communal exploits, and of those most are
recent; for still others, mostly ethnic categories, only a recent history
of oppression and struggle is available for collective use, and perhaps
some fragments of memory of earlier cultures in the area, which
can be appropriated. In early modern Eastern Europe, for example,
we could have found distinctive ethnies such as the Poles, Hungarians
and Croats in their historic states, boasting long and rich histories;
submerged ethnic communities like the Serbs, Romanians (Wallach-
ians and Moldavians) and Bulgarians, whose medieval histories had
to be rediscovered and aligned with their recent memories of O t t o -
man oppression; and ethnically mixed areas and categories of

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Macedonians and Ruthenians, the major part of whose memories

are fairly recent and who, together with the Slovaks, had to dig
deep into the past for genealogical filiation and shadowy ancestor-
heroes. 29
N o w a rich ethno-history can be a significant source of cultural
power and a focus of cultural politicization. Communities able to
boast such histories have a competitive advantage over others where
that history is scanty or doubtful. In the latter case the intellectuals
have a double task: they must recover a sufficiently large quantity
of communal history to convince their own members that they
have an illustrious past, and they must authenticate it sufficiently to
convince sceptical outsiders of its merits. Nationalist intellectuals
have, rightly, been more concerned with the first of these tasks than
the second; the truth-content of the unearthed memories is less
important culturally and politically than their abundance, variety
and drama (their aesthetic qualities) or their example of loyalty,
nobility and self-sacrifice (their moral qualities) that inspire emula-
tion and bind present generations to the 'glorious dead'.
Generally speaking it is the smaller, submerged communities and
categories that have to offset their lack of a long, rich, continuous
ethno-history through 'cultural wars' in which philology, archae-
ology, anthropology and other 'scientific' disciplines are used to
trace uncertain genealogies, to root populations in their native ter-
rains, to document their distinctive traits and cultures, and to annex
earlier civilizations. So Iraqis appropriated much earlier civilizations
like those of the Sumerians and Babylonians because they flourished
in Mesopotamia, and Turks laid claim to the Hittite empire of the
second millennium BC. Greeks and Bulgarians engage in dispute
over the 'national' provenance of the royal tombs of ancient Macedo-
nia, while Jews and Palestinians wage war over the area of Nablus
and Samaria, and Hungarians and Romanians over the mixed area
of Transylvania. 30
More generally, the cultural competition fostered by the uneven
distribution of ethno-history has been a driving force in the wide-
spread processes of vernacular mobilization and cultural politiciza-
tion traced in earlier chapters. The example of other successful
ethno-nationalisms, together with the fear of domination by
culturally more advanced neighbours, has helped to inspire ethnic

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movements and promote ethnic conflicts all over the globe, from
Fiji and Sri Lanka to the Horn of Africa and the Caribbean. Given
the number of ethnic communities and categories that can be
mobilized through the recovery of even indistinct ethno-histories,
the likelihood of an end to the cultural wars of ethnies and nations,
and of the supersession of nationalism, seems remote.

GEO-POLITICS AND NATIONAL CAPITALISM

To these cultural and psychological reasons for the pervasive and

ubiquitous nature of national identity must be added equally power-
ful economic and geo-political grounds, whose combined effect is to
intensify existing ethnic and national differences and globalize their
impact. We often hear that advanced capitalism has rendered
nationalism obsolete and that, by overleaping national boundaries, it
is creating a single, interdependent world. This is sometimes coupled
with the Marxist assertion that nations and nationalism were products
(and instruments) of early capitalism. Yet, in a world of transnational
corporations and the international division of labour, nations and
nationalism continue to flourish. Clearly, careful analysis is not
served by continuing to see nations and nationalism as phenomena
dependent upon changes within the capitalist mode of production.
In fact the two trajectories of the rise of capital and the emergence
of the nation are better kept apart, even though they often crossed
each other's paths in specific historical instances. Capitalism, after its
early banking phase in northern Italy and Flanders, soon became
merchant capital, becoming gradually dominant through its role in
the competition of a few 'core' states in northwest Europe from the
late fifteenth century. By the eighteenth century it had drawn con-
siderable areas of Western and Central Europe, as well as coastal
areas and enclaves in Asia, Africa and Latin America into its peri-
phery even before the Industrial Revolution gave it world hege-
mony in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Meanwhile the
first modern (rationalized, professional bureaucratic) states had
emerged in the same area of northwest Europe in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, on the basis, as we have seen, of pre-existing
ethnic communities in the heartlands of France, England, Spain,
Holland and Sweden. It was in these areas, on the basis of these

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'ethnic states' (never homogenous, however), that the first modern

nations arose, soon to be emulated in different parts of Europe and
the globe from the late eighteenth century onwards, to become the
political norm in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There is, indeed, a close parallel in the periodization of the rise
both of the nation and of capital to world hegemony, and it is not
an accidental one. The fact is that the new forces of bourgeois
capitalism operated within a pre-existing framework of ethnic com-
munities and states that were frequently locked in rivalry and war-
fare. The advent of first merchant, then industrial, capitalism
intensified and expanded these rivalries. War in turn cemented both
the state and its dominant ethnic population into the compact,
territorial and legally unified nation. The impact of expanding capi-
talism, then, was to strengthen the existing inter-state system in
Europe, and through its wars and rivalries to help the process of
crystallizing national sentiment in the state's dominant ethnie.31
There were at times, in fact, close links between the operations of
capital and the rise of particular nations. If trade rivalries sharpened
the sense of national difference, and provided economic content for
national conflicts, so equally the rising national sentiment of the
bourgeoisie gave a new edge to their competitive drive overseas. If
capital furnished the economic instruments of the modern states, so
the framework of ethnically based states and their loyalties often
dictated the direction of trade and the competition between mer-
chants and (later) industrialists.
The prime contribution of capitalism to the nation has been to
furnish states with new classes, notably the bourgeoisie, workers and
professionals, which can exercise leadership and promote its interests
in the face of rival states and nations. It does so, however, within
the confines of pre-existing ethnic communities and state systems.
Capitalism creates a new class structure, often superimposed on
the old agrarian ones, which furnishes the rising nation with the
necessary complement of occupational skills and diversified econ-
omies. But the nation should not be seen as the 'product' of the new
classes. Rather, different classes become the agents of the formation
of nations out of pre-existing lateral or vertical ethnies; or, in the
case of the intelligentsia in ethnic categories, the promoter of a new
ethnic community in the image of neighbouring ethnies.

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During successive historical periods different classes and strata

took the lead in turning the old ethnic community into a modern
nation. In the early modern West the monarch and aristocracy, and
later the gentry, were the prime agents of the bureaucratic incorpora-
tion of the lower classes and outlying communities into the 'national
state' that they, along with the Church, helped to create. This was a
long, slow and discontinuous process, which can be traced back to
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in England and France. Later, as
diaspora ethnic communities - Catalans, Germans, Armenians, Jews
— helped to spread early merchant capitalism, the indigenous merchant
and trading classes in France, Spain, England, Holland and Sweden
helped the Crown to continue the task of bureaucratic incorporation,
often in conflict with aristocratic and clerical interests.
In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, with the exception of
Poland and Hungary, the role of the aristocracy and gentry was
taken by a small professional and intellectual stratum, sometimes as
in Greece or Serbia in conjunction with a merchant class, but often
with very little backing from a tiny commercial stratum. In most
cases it would be premature to speak of the penetration of capitalism
when the wage-earning element was so minute a fraction of the
population. Outside Europe, with a few exceptions like India and
southern Africa, both territorial and ethnic nationalisms pre-dated
the penetration of capitalist relations of production, though coastal
trade often acted as a catalyst and facilitated the rise of an educated
urban class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But
here, too, the parameters of capitalist influence were set by the
political and administrative framework of European colonialism,
and by territorial boundaries dictated by strategic and prestige re-
quirements. 32
If capitalism per se can be credited with only a powerful con-
tributory role in the rise of nations and nationalism, the same cannot
be said for the role of bureaucratic states and regional inter-state
systems. If the bureaucratic state and inter-state system was decisive
for the rise of capitalism, it was equally vital for the diffusion of
national identity and nationalism, both through the wars it generated
and through its impact on diverse ethnic populations and classes.
That impact was often fraught with conflict, as centralizing states
provoked protest and opposition, sometimes revolution. Here the

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role of alienated intellectuals was often crucial. They alone could

formulate the ideals of a 'genuine' national community, which
would replace the despotism of élites and the absolutism of the state.
At the same time they were able to attract a following among the
educated 'public' in the middle classes, notably the very professionals
whom the state needed, recruited and trained for its purposes. 33
As a result the sovereign bureaucratic state increasingly set the
boundaries of territorial and political units, as well as economic and
military forces. By the early twentieth century it had become the
recognized norm of political association in most parts of the world,
under the aegis of nationalist principles. As guardian of national
identity the state derived its legitimacy from the nation it sought to
embody and represent; just as only nations with states of their own
could feel secure and autonomous in a world of 'nation-states'. In
this way state and nation became fatefully confused.
But, though this confusion has brought much conflict and misery
in many lands, it has only served to strengthen both the state and
the nation. Their symbiosis has proved irreversible. It has entrenched
the hold of national identity and the ideals of nationalism as firmly
as any nationalist could wish and any cosmopolitan must lament.
But it has also strengthened the legitimacy of the state and its
bureaucratic apparatus; regimes that play the nationalist card effec-
tively can survive for long periods, despite growing unpopularity.
Together, state and nation (under the frequent misnomer 'nation-
state') have marched forward in triumphant unison as the sole
acknowledged constituents of the equally misnamed 'inter-national'
community. 3 4
Today, the world is divided into 'nation-states' loosely grouped
in regional inter-state systems. These systems and their constituent
states put a premium on the solidarity and political commitment of
their citizens, and on the sovereign jurisdiction of the nation-state
within its own boundaries. Despite infringements (Czechoslovakia,
Grenada, Panama), the international community generally rejects
external intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign states, on
the grounds that such affairs are the province of the citizens and
subject to the national 'will of the people'. In this respect étatisme
reinforces the nation and its moral boundaries. So increasingly do
the various regional inter-state systems. For these systems the only

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

collective actors are nation-states, states that are legitimated by clear

expressions of the national will and of national identity. To be
legitimate in these terms a nation-state must show that its citizens
are sharply differentiated from 'foreigners', but equally undiffer-
entiated from each other internally, as far as is possible. In other
words legitimation in a world of 'nation-states' requires a measure
of internal homogenization; geo-political demarcations now take
priority over other differences.
But, while geo-political demands can reinforce ethnically rela-
tively homogenous states, they are just as likely to undermine the
cohesion of ethnically plural states. The very demands for solidarity,
commitment and homogeneity that the inter-state system presents
often provoke just that ethnic resistance that was to be suppressed
for the sake of the system's stability. Given the prior existence of
ethnies and ethnic categories in many areas, the drive to superimpose
on surviving ethnic mosaics and patchworks a system of compact,
rational, bureaucratic states is bound to produce grave instability
and deep ethnic conflicts wherever such states fail to fit the pre-
existing ethnic map. As the interventionist bureaucratic state tends
to provoke protest from suppressed classes and regions in any case,
protests that are often led by alienated intellectuals, it is not difficult
to see how suppressed ethnic communities and categories can be
roused in opposition to the homogenizing demands of the new type
of state and inter-state system. And once the conflict between cen-
tralizing territorial 'nation-states' and ethnic communities has
erupted, the geo-politics of the modern state can only make the
claims of two (or more) nationalisms in perpetual, if sometimes
latent, conflict more intractable. 35
So, contrary to much current thinking, it is the very political
configuration of states into wider regional systems that helps to
entrench the power of the nation and fan the flames of nationalism
everywhere. It is therefore not to any new regional alignments or
'supra-national' blocs of 'nation-states' that we must look for the
super-session of nations or nationalism; for such inter-state groupings,
be they Leagues, Communities or Organizations, only help to per-
petuate, if they do not inflame, the hold of national identities and
nationalist aspirations, as do the new classes of international capi-
talism.

169
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

NATIONALISM BEYOND NATIONS?

Today national identity is the main form of collective identification.
Whatever the feelings of individuals, it provides the dominant criter-
ion of culture and identity, the sole principle of government and the
chief focus of social and economic activity. The appeal of the nation
and nationalism is global; there is no area free from ethnic protests
and nationalist uprisings. Praised or reviled, the nation shows few
signs of being transcended, and nationalism does not appear to be
losing any part of its explosive popular power and significance.
There is nothing random or recent in this state of affairs. It is
rooted in a long history of ethnic ties and sentiments that reach back
long before the birth of our modern world, but that have been
unexpectedly and powerfully revitalized by modern bureaucratic
state systems, capitalist class structures and the widespread longing
for immortality and dignity in a community of history and destiny
in a secular age. Through the rediscovery of an ethnic past and the
promise of collective restoration of the former golden age, national
identity and nationalism have succeeded in arousing and inspiring
ethnic communities and populations of all classes, regions, genders
and religions, to claim their rights as 'nations', territorial com-
munities of culturally and historically cognate citizens, in a world of
free and equal nations. Here is an identity and a force with which
even the strongest of states has had to come to terms, and it is one
that has shaped, and is likely to shape, our world in the foreseeable
future.
For many this is a bleak conclusion. It suggests no way out of the
world of nationalism, no possibility for transcending the nation and
surmounting the many bitter conflicts that nationalism helps to
generate. The conflicts between nation-states, and between states
and their constituent ethnies, are likely to continue and perhaps
proliferate, mobilizing tomorrow ethnic communities and categories
that are dormant today. From the standpoint of global security and
a global culture this conclusion offers no way out of the impasse of
endemic division, mistrust and war.
But are we justified in delivering such a harsh and unmitigated
verdict? Did not our earlier remarks about the significance of the
new global forces (trans-national corporations, telecommunications

170
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

systems, etc.) point in a quite different direction? Was our discussion

of recent federal systems in some states, and of the European project,
really so negative? If the wilder dreams of cosmopolitans must be
discounted, if a memory-less global culture lacks conviction, may
there nevertheless not remain some sober expectations for a gradual
remaking of our collective identities at the regional level? I think
there arc grounds for such more limited hopes, in the sphere of
culture rather than politics and in ways that are something of a para-
dox.
The burden of my argument throughout has been the interplay
between the forces that shape not only modern collective identities,
notably ethnic ties and ethno-history, but also states and classes, and
the ways in which human beings, usually nationalist intelligentsia,
have tried to reconstruct and reshape their heritages into 'old-new'
national identities. This duality continues to inform recent visions
and endeavours to reshape national identities into something 'beyond
the nation'. It means that serious attempts to move beyond the
nation have to start from its principles and use them to go further.
The principles of the nation are those of nationalism. Hence it
may only be possible to transcend the nation through a form of
nationalism, one that is paradoxically broader than the compact
nation that has usually been the object of its endeavours.
There is a form of nationalism that is broader in extent and scope
than the 'normal' compact nation. I refer to 'Pan-nationalisms'. These
can be defined as movements to unify in a single cultural and
political community several, usually contiguous, states on the basis
of shared cultural characteristics or a 'family of cultures'. Yugo-
slavism was one of the earliest examples of Pan-nationalism, and it
was soon followed by various irredentist movements (Pan-
Germanism, Pan-Bulgarianism, -Italianism, etc.) that usually aspired
to include certain ethnically similar parts of other states, and by the
larger-scale 'Pan' movements proper, like Pan-Turkism, Arabism,
Africanism, Latin Americanism, etc., which range from serious at-
tempts at political unification to looser political associations on the
basis of common colonial experience and culture.
None of these movements has been politically successful (except
the smaller-scale irredentist movements, to varying degrees). But
their importance lies elsewhere. Pan-Slavism got nowhere near

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 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

unifying the Slavs in a single political community, let alone a single

territorial state. But it did inspire a cultural renaissance among
speakers of Slavic languages, and promoted various common ideas
and sentiments, as well as meetings of writers and artists, in a wide
culture area. 36
Pan-Arabism was never strong enough to prevent internecine
Arab wars, let alone convey the sense of a political community for
all Arabs. Yet it has inspired some inter-Arab projects, as well as
broader cultural and philanthropic links. Similarly, Pan-Turkism,
though it had a disastrous military end, did manage to foster a
cultural renaissance among Turks both in Turkey and outside, a
renewed interest in Turkic languages and history, and various links
between Turkic-speaking peoples. 37
The importance of Pan-nationalisms lies in their ability to
counteract, or at least suggest an alternative to, the fissiparous ten-
dencies of proliferating ethnic nationalisms. While Pan-Africanism
did not manage to restrain a succession of minority ethnic na-
tionalisms from staking their claims in the new post-colonial states,
it did give them a new sense of pride in past African achievements
and a sense of wider community in which all Africans could share.
Hence its importance lies less in the political endeavours of the
Organization of African Unity that it helped to create than in
raising the horizons and restoring the dignity of Black Africans, so
often scorned by their colonial masters, through the rediscovery of
a shared African past and 'family of cultures'. 38
The concept of a 'family of cultures' is significant here. Whereas
political and economic unification today is willed, constructed and
institutional, a 'culture area' containing a family of related cultures
is usually a product of long-term processes, and is mostly unantici-
pated, unintended and undirected. Whereas political and economic
unities are planned and organized, families of cultures and culture
areas appear inchoate and uninstitutionalized but are no less real and
potent for those in their orbit. Islamic, American and Soviet Russian
identities and cultures possess an attraction for their members far
beyond the political and social institutions that are their official
mouthpieces.
One reason for this appeal is the re-emergence of the lingua franca.
In the high middle ages, Latin and Arabic achieved a genuinely

172
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

trans-territorial and trans-cultural sway. But, in those cases, there

was a corporate identity — the medieval clergy and ulema — with a
transterritorial function that a lingua franca could serve. Today, with
many oral 'low' cultures turned into literary 'high' cultures for
mass, standardized public education, national languages have
replaced the earlier lingua franca. But not entirely - the extension of
certain prestige languages to facilitate communication and exchange
over wide areas has promoted a sense of loose cultural kinship
within culture areas and sometimes even beyond them. The import-
ance of English in North America, Spanish in Latin America, Arabic
in the Middle East and Russian in the Soviet Union, though not
unchallenged or unproblematic, does afford new vehicles for remak-
ing identities on a broader scale than existing compact national
identities, if and when other conditions prove favourable. 39
Another reason is the new perception of common regional prob-
lems, notably in the ecological sphere. Geo-political location and
proximity, made visible by the mass media, help to forge a new
awareness of dangers beyond national frontiers yet common to all
nations in the region and culture area. Often the impact of an
ecological disaster is wider still; a Chernobyl, Sahel famine or Braz-
ilian rain forest decimation penetrate human consciousness far
beyond the culture areas they immediately affect. In other cases the
problems are regional (Mediterranean pollution, Californian earth-
quakes, floods in Bengal), and they help to evoke a cultural aware-
ness of the region's common needs.
Yet a third reason for the growing attraction of culture areas and
families of cultures is the frequent kinship in their social and political
mores and institutions, including their basic political values. In cer-
tain areas military dictatorships with low levels of civil rights and
political freedoms have become the norm, reflecting not just levels
of economic development but also cognate political cultures based
on a family of political values. In other areas processes of mobiliza-
tion and democratization may sweep away previous authoritarian,
single-party regimes; and while economic explanations can be prof-
fered, the importance of related historical experiences and political
cultures should not be underestimated.
These are some of the historical processes that have created the
context for the European project in the western half of Europe.

173
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

Though the will to European cooperation has been mainly economic

in content and political in form, it is of course premised on wider
cultural assumptions and traditions. A single lingua franca may be
lacking (though French and English may well serve that function),
but both ecological awareness of common dangers and kinship of
political mores and institutions help to buttress a sense of related
European cultures within a distinctive culture area. The boundaries
of that area have been notoriously difficult to demarcate; defined
negatively at first by the Cold War's divisions, they have become
more fluid and open as political changes have swept through Eastern
Europe. The motive for unity has also subtly shifted towards the
political federation favoured by the Pan-Europeans. But what has
remained fairly constant has been the conviction of a European
pattern or patterns of culture.
These patterns of European culture — the heritage of Roman law,
Judeo-Christian ethics, Renaissance humanism and individualism,
Enlightenment rationalism and science, artistic classicism and ro-
manticism, and, above all, traditions of civil rights and democracy,
which have emerged at various times and places in the continent —
have created a common European cultural heritage and formed a
unique culture area straddling national boundaries and interrelating
their different national cultures through common motifs and tra-
ditions. In this way an overlapping family of cultures has been
gradually formed over the centuries, despite many breaks and
schisms. This is not the planned 'unity in diversity' beloved of
official Europeanism, but a rich, inchoate mélange of cultural assump-
tions, forms and traditions, a cultural heritage that creates sentiments
of affinity between the peoples of Europe. It is here, rather than in
the mythology of medieval Christendom (despite current ecumeni-
cal efforts) or a Rhine-based Holy Roman Empire (despite the
location of Strasbourg), that we must look for the basis of a cultural
Pan-European nationalism that may paradoxically take us beyond the
nation. 40
For it is clear that, whatever else European Pan-nationalism may
help to create, it will not be a European super-nation, a nation like
all other nations but writ large. Neither will it resemble the United
States of America, whose ethnic communities lack separate historic
homelands; nor a Soviet Union whose national republics and com-

174
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

munitics may feel little cultural kinship beyond the common recent
Soviet political experience. The new Europe will not even approxi-
mate to the British or Belgian models, if only in those cases
one ethnie or nation dominates the others, though in these cases a
greater cultural and historical affinity is apparent. If a European
political community is created that will have an popular resonance,
then we may be sure that it will be founded on the basis of a
common European cultural heritage by a Pan-European nationalist
movement that is able to forge common European myths, symbols,
values and memories out of this common heritage, in such a way
that they do not compete with still powerful and vigorous national
cultures. Only in this way can Pan-nationalism create a new type of
collective identity, which overarches but does not abolish individual
nations.

CONCLUSION

It must be apparent by now that the chances of transcending the

nation and superseding nationalism are at present slim. It is simply
not enough to point to the powerfully trans-national impact of the
new economic, political and cultural forces at work today, nor to
the various global interdependencies that they undoubtedly create.
A growing cosmopolitanism does not in itself entail the decline
of nationalism; the rise of regional culture areas does not diminish
the hold of national identities. As I said at the outset, human beings
have multiple collective identifications, whose scope and intensity
will vary with time and place. There is nothing to prevent in-
dividuals from identifying with Flanders, Belgium and Europe
simultaneously, and displaying each allegiance in the appropriate
context; or from feeling they are Yoruba, Nigerian and African, in
concentric circles of loyalty and belonging. It is, in fact, quite
common, and very much what one would expect in a world of
multiple ties and identities.
This does not mean that such ties and identities are entirely
optional and situational, nor that some among them do not exercise
a greater hold and exert a more powerful influence than others. It is
the thesis of this book that what I have defined as national identity
does in fact today exert a more potent and durable influence than

175
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

other collective cultural identities; and that, for the reasons I have
enumerated - the need for collective immortality and dignity, the
power of ethno-history, the role of new class structures and the
domination of inter-state systems in the modern world - this type
of collective identity is likely to continue to command humanity's
allegiances for a long time to come, even when other larger-scale
but looser forms of collective identity emerge alongside national
ones. In fact, as the European case suggests, a cultural Pan-nationalist
movement to create large-scale continental identities may actually
reinvigorate the specific nationalisms of ethnies and nations within
the demarcated culture area; as if the individual members of a
'family of cultures' drew strength from their kinship bonds. Even
the mingling of formerly more homogeneous cultures through im-
migration, guest-workers and waves of refugees can provoke strong
ethnic reactions from indigenous peoples and cultures.
There is both danger and hope in the division of humanity into
nations and the persisting power of national identity throughout the
world. The dangers are clear enough: destabilization of a fragile
global security system, proliferation and exacerbation of ethnic con-
flicts everywhere, the persecution of 'indigestible' minorities in the
drive for greater national homogeneity, justification of terror, ethno-
cidc and genocide on a scale inconceivable in earlier ages. National-
ism may not have been responsible by itself for the endemic
instability, conflict and terror of the present century, but its presence
among the prime causes, or in an accompanying role, is too frequent
to be dismissed or excused.
At the same time a world of nations and national identities is not
without hope. Nationalism may not be responsible for the many
instances of reform and democratization of tyrannical regimes, but
it is a frequent accompanying motive, a source of pride for down-
trodden peoples and the recognized mode for joining or rejoining
'democracy' and 'civilization'. It also provides the sole vision and
rationale of political solidarity today, one that commands popular
assent and elicits popular enthusiasm. All other visions, all other
rationales, appear wan and shadowy by comparison. They offer no
sense of election, no unique history, no special destiny. These are
the promises which nationalism for the most part fulfils, and the
real reasons why so many people continue to identify with the

176
 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

nation. Until these needs are fulfilled through other kinds of identifi-
cation, the nation with its nationalism, denied or recognized, op-
pressed or free, each cultivating its own distinctive history, its golden
ages and sacred landscapes, will continue to provide humanity with
its fundamental cultural and political identities well into the next cen-
tury.
 Notes

1 NATIONAL AND O T H E R IDENTITIES

1. Sophocles (1947, 55)-

2. Sophocles (1947, 71-124).
3. Sophocles (1947, 66, 74, 79, 117-121).
4. Usually those of class or nation, with feminist movements ally-
ing themselves with socialist and/or nationalist movements.
5. For the revolt in the Vendée, see Tilly (1963); on ethno-regional
movements in the modern West, see Hechter and Levi (1979).
6. The divisions within the Tiers Etat are discussed in Cobban
(1965); the infrequency of non-nationalist workers' socialist rev-
olutions is examined in Kautsky (1962, Introduction); but cf.
Breuilly (1982, ch. 15) for a different view.
7. For the revolutionary Mazdakite sectarian movement, see Frye
(1966, 249—50). For Weber's analysis of the relationship between
strata and classes and different kinds of religious experience, see
Weber (1965, ch. 8).
8. See M. Spiro: 'Religion: Problems of definition and explana-
tion', in Banton (1966).
9. For the Druse, see Hitti (1928, especially 12) and H. Z. (J. W.)
Hirschberg: 'The Druses', in Arberry (1969).
10. For this argument, see the seminal study by Armstrong (1982,
especially chs. 3,7).
11. A striking case of religion reinforcing ethnicity is the role of
Burmese Buddhism, on which see Sarkisyanz (1964); cf. also de
Silva (1981) for the Sinhalese case. For the Anglo-Saxon fusion,
see the interesting argument by P. Wormald: 'The emergence
of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms', in L. Smith (1984).
12. See the argument in Finley that covers Meinecke's points (1986,
ch. 7); cf. Fondation Hardt (1962).
13. For early Western definitions of the nation, see Kemilainen
(1964).

179
 NOTES

14. For the early Dutch case, see Schama (1987, ch. 1); for the various
meanings of'national territory', see A. D. Smith (1981b).
15. Schama (1987, ch. 2); and for persisting regionalism in late
nineteenth-century France, see E. Weber (1979).
16. On these 'political cultures', see for example Almond and Pye
(1965).
17. Nairn (1977, chs. 2, 9) emphasizes this 'inter-class', populist role,
cf. also Gellner and Ionescu (1970).
18. For such linguistic revivals, see Fishman (1968); and for revivals
in some Northern countries, including Ireland and Norway, see
Mitchison (1980).
19. On French linguistic nationalism during the Revolution, see
Lartichaux (1977); for rival myths of French descent, see Polia-
kov (1974, ch. 2).
20. For some of the many discussions of the problems of defining
the nation and nationalism, see Deutsch (1966, ch. 1), Rustow
(1967, ch. 1), A. D. Smith (1971, ch. 7) and Connor (1978).
21. See for example Tivey (1980).
22. Connor (1972) for this calculation; see also Wiberg (1983).
23. For economic aspects of nationalism, see Johnson (1968) and
Mayall (1984).
24. An aspect stressed by Gellner (1983).
25. Klausner (i960) provides an interesting example of this conse-
quence.
26. See the well-known critique of Kedourie (i960). A demonstra-
tion of the empirical multiplicity of national selves in modern
Africa is provided by Neuberger (1986, ch. 3).
27. Kedourie (i960) and (1971, Introduction).

2 THE ETHNIC BASIS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

1. The nationalist salvation drama is critically portrayed by Kedou-

rie (i960) and Breuilly (1982).
2. For more extended discussions of these rival approaches, see the
essay by Paul Brass in Taylor and Yapp (1979) and A. D. Smith
(1986a, ch. 1).
3. For the Turks, see B. Lewis (1968, especially ch. 10); for the
Slovaks, the essay by Paul in Brass (1985).

180
 NOTES

4. For fuller discussions, sec Horowitz (1985, chs. 1-2) and A. D

Smith (1986a, ch. 2).
5. For this distinction, see Van den Berghe (1967).
6. See, for example, the discussions in Dobzhansky (1962), and
Banton and Harwood (1975) and Rex (1986).
7. Horowitz (1985, ch. 2); cf. Schermerhorn (1970, ch. 1).
8. For the Roman case, see Tudor (1972, ch. 3); for the Swiss
myths, see Steinberg (1976).
9. The significance of attachment to the land is discussed in Arm-
strong (1982, ch. 2).
10. On this, see Gellner (1973); for the symbolic use of these
markers as 'boundary mechanisms' separating ethnic groups, see
Barth (1969, Introduction).
11. To which we should add that ethnic traditions and their guar-
dians, as well as the cultural modes in which they are expressed
(languages, customs, styles, etc.), may exert a powerful and
continuing, and shaping, influence for long periods; on all of
which, see Armstrong (1982, passim).
12. Horowitz (1985, 64-74).
13. See Alty (1982); and Finley (1986, ch. 7).
14. The use of the concept of concentric circles of ethnicity had
been pointed out in the African context long ago by Coleman
(1958, Appendix); cf. Anderson, von der Mehden and Young
(1967).
15. See on this Horowitz (1985, 51—4, 66-82); A. D. Smith (1984b).
16. For an attempt to synthesize the primordialist with the instru-
mentalist or mobilizationist approaches, see McKay (1982).
17. On which, see Cambridge History of Iran (1983, Vol. III,
ch. 1).
18. See, on early Armenian history, Lang (1980); also Armstrong
(1982, ch. 7).
19. Weber (1968, Vol. I, Part 2, ch. 5, 'Ethnic Groups').
20. For the western cases, see Tilly (1975, Introduction); for other
pre-modern cases, see Mann (1986).
21. See Tilly (1975, especially the essays by Tilly and Finer); cf.
A. D. Smith (1981c) and for the Great War, Marwick (1974).
22. For further details, see Armstrong (1982, chs. 3, 7) and A. D.
Smith (1986a chs. 2-5).

181
 NOTES

23. For a brief account, see Woodhouse (1984, 36—8); cf. Ostrogorski
(1956, 93-4, 192—4); for the Hellenic myth, see Campbell and
Sherrard (1968, ch. 1).
24. On this revival, see Baynes and Moss (1969, Introduction) and
Armstrong (1982, 174-81); and more generally, Sherrard
(1959)-
25. This is the argument presented by Carras (1983).
26. For the Nazi extermination of the Gypsies, see Kenrick and
Puxon (1972); for the much-contested Turkish actions in 1915,
see Nalbandian (1963).
27. On genocide generally, see Kuper (1981) and Horowitz (1982).
28. On which, see Moscati (1973, Part II, especially 168-9); other
Punic cities were spared and so a Punic culture survived.
29. See R o u x (1964, 301—4); and more generally on Elam and
Elamite culture, sec Cambridge Ancient History (1971, Vol. I,
Part 2, ch. 23).
30. Sec Saggs (1984, 117-21); R o u x (1964, 374).
31. As Assyrian art reveals, the object of Assyrian efforts and cult was
increasingly the Assyrian state itself, rather than the culture or
community; see the essay by Liverani in Larsen (1979). For the
probable causes of Assyria's downfall and demise, see R o u x
(1964, 278, 290); and the discussion in A. D. Smith (1986a, 100-4).
32. On the Babylonian revolts, see J. M. Cook (1983, 55-6, 100);
cf. Oates (1979).
33. See the essay by Werblowski in Ben-Sasson and Ettinger (1971);
cf. Seltzer (1980) and Yerushalmi (1983).
34. Armstrong (1976) and (1982, ch. 7).
35. On the Samaritans in recent times, see Strizower (1962, ch. 5);
for the Falasha of Ethiopia, see Kessler (1985).
36. On late Pharaonic religion, see Grimal (1968, 211-41).
37. On the Orthodox case, see Arnakis (1963).
38. For the Deuteronomic and Prophetic movements, see Seltzer
(1980, 77—in); for the Mishnaic period, see Neusner (1981).
For religious reform in the modern period, see Meyer (1967).
39. On which see Frazee (1969) and Kitromilides (1979).
40. See Tcherikover (1970) and Hengel (1980).
41. See Cambridge History of Iran (1983, Vol. III/i, ch. 3, and III/
2, ch. 27) and Frye (1966, ch. 6).

182
 NOTES

42. See, for example, Saunders (1978); and in today's Iran, Keddie
(1981).
43. Exodus 19: 5-6; Deuteronomy 7: 6-13.
44. A start has been made in O'Brien (1988); cf. Armstrong (1982).
45. For the role of priesthoods and religion in empires, see Coulborn
and Strayer (1962) and Eisenstadt (1963); on their ethnic role,
see Armstrong (1982, chs. 3, 7) and A. D. Smith (1986a,
especially chs. 3,5).
46. Armstrong (1982, ch. 7).
47. On these regna, see Reynolds (1984, ch. 8).
48. For a general outline of these processes, see Seton-Watson (1977,
ch. 2); and the next chapter for fuller discussion.
49. For a general account of nationalism in Latin America, see Masur
(1966); and the stimulating analysis in Anderson (1983, ch. 3).
50. The model here is less Yugoslav than Swiss or British, though
without the required time-span that these two national states
had at their disposal, but with the resources of a nationalist
ideology that the Swiss and British possessed only in the later
stages of their national formation. This will be discussed more
fully in Chapter 4 below. For the general sub-Saharan African
picture, see Rotberg (1967) and Horowitz (1985).

3 THE RISE OF NATIONS

1. See Reiss (1955) for the German Romantic belief in the organic
'national soul' (Volkseele); for earlier scholars who upheld a
'perennialist' view of nations, see Walek-Czernecki (1929).
2. Good examples of the 'modernist' approach are Kedourie (1960)
and Breuilly (1982); for a critique, see A. D. Smith (1988a).
3. See Gellner (1983, ch. 2).
4. For early intimations of democracy in Sumerian city-states, see
R o u x (1964, 105); for the early Swiss cantons, see Kohn (1957).
The question: When was/is the nation? has only recently begun
to receive attention; see Connor (1990).
5. See, for example, Frankfort (1954, ch. 4) and David (1982).
6. For these legal and educational differences between classes in
ancient Egypt, see Beyer (1959); on the decline of ancient Egyp-
tian religion, sec Grimal (1968, 211 —41 ).

183
 NOTES

7. Sec Moscati (1962, n o ) for this inscription; cf. Pritchard (1958,

173-5). On early Egyptian sentiment, see Trigger et al. (1983,
188-202).
8. On the Dorian—Ionian dichotomy, see Alty (1982); and for its
cultural ramifications, see Huxley (1966) and Bum (1960,
especially 6-7, 48-50, 98-100, 210-14).
9. For Pan-Hellenic sentiments, see the essays by H. Schwabl and
H. Ditter in Fondation Hardt (1962), and the essay by Andrewes
in Lloyd-Jones (1965); for inter-city and social conflicts within
the polis, see Forrest (1966) and Burn (1978, chs. 9-10).
10. For the hellenization crisis, see Tcherikover (1970); for the role
of the prophetic and priestly movements in 7th century BC
Judah, see Seltzer (1980, chs. 2-3); also Zeitlin (1984).
n. For these Zealot conceptions, see Brandon (1967, ch. 2) and
Maccoby (1974); for an evaluation of the Brandon thesis, see
Zeitlin (1988, ch. 10).
12. For such religious nationalisms, see the examples in D. E. Smith
(1974)-
13. For some Jewish conceptions of the Second temple and Mishnaic
periods, see the essay by Werblowski in Ben-Sasson and Ettinger
(1971) and Neusner (1981); for the political and economic his-
tory of late Roman and Talmudic Judea, see Avi-Yonah (1976)
and especially Alon (1980, Vol. I, chs. 1, 4, 7-8).
14. Notably for Armenians, Ethiopians, Jews, Byzantine Greeks,
Orthodox Russians, Catholic Poles, Irish, Welsh, English and
French.
15. On these early medieval regna, see Reynolds (1983) and
Wallace-Hadrill (1985).
16. On Poland and Russia generally, see Seton-Watson (1977,
chs. 2-3); on Poland, see Davies (1982) and on Russia, Pipes
(1977); cf. also Portal (1969).
17. We do find some earlier expressions in the sixteenth century, on
which see Marcu (1976); but cf. the critique in Breuilly (1982,
Introduction). For the debate on medieval nationalism, see
Tipton (1972) and Reynolds (1984, ch. 8).
18. For the Declaration of Arbroath, see Duncan (1970); for the
Swiss Eidgenossenschaft and Oath of the Riitli, see Thürer
(1970).

184
 NOTES

19. On the Normans and their myth, see Davis (1976) and more
generally Reynolds (1984, ch. 8).
20. A fuller discussion of the differences between lateral and vertical
ethnie can be found in A. D. Smith (1986a, ch. 4); for the early
Israelite confederacy, see Zeitlin (1984, chs. 3-5).
21. See Frye (1966, ch. 6); cf. Herrmann (1977). The Mazdakite
movement of the fifth century AD was both social and religious,
involving class protest and a Manichaean heresy in doctrinal
matters; for Manichaean doctrines, see Runciman (1947).
22. The classic account is Lewis (1970); see also Saunders (1978).
23. For the feudal period in Armenia, see Lang (1980, chs. 7-8); for
the later Armenian diaspora communities, see Nalbandian
(1963).
24. For this transformation in Persia after the Arab conquest of the
seventh century, see Frye (1966, ch. 7); for the Islamization (and
Arabization) of Egypt from the seventh century AD on, see
Atiyah (1968, Part I).
25. On which, see Levine (1965, ch. 2) and Ullendorff (1973, ch. 4).
26. For the political (state) aspects of this complex process, see Tilly
(1975); cf. Seton-Watson (1977, ch. 2).
27. On which, see Geoffrey of Monmouth (1966) and Mason
(1985).
28. For the growth of legal, economic and territorial unity, see
Corrigan and Sayer (1985); cf. Brooke (1969) for the earlier
period, and Keeney (1972) for the Anglo-French Wars.
29. For the 'Saxon' myth, see MacDougall (1982); for middle class
religious and national sentiment in the sixteenth century, sec
Corrigan and Sayer (1985, chs. 2—3).
30. See Reynolds (1984, 276-89); cf. Bloch (1961, II, 431^7).
31. See Armstrong (1982, 152—9); cf. A. Lewis (1974, 57^70).
32. See on this E. Weber (1979); on French linguistic unification
and standardization, see Rickard (1974) and, for the Revolution,
Lartichaux (1977).
33. For a general account, see Atkinson (1960); cf. also Poliakov
(1974, ch. 1).
34. For recent Basque and Catalan ethno-nationalisms, see Payne
(1971), and Greenwood's essay in Esman (1977) and Llobera
(1983).

185
 NOTES

35. See the thesis of Bendix (1964) that is also implicit in Tilly
(1975, Introduction and Conclusion); cf. Poggi (1978).
36. This is true also in Germany, despite Prussia's vital role; we
cannot overlook the parts played by memories of former ethnic
ties - myths, symbols, customs, languages — or by the intelli-
gentsia and bourgeoisie in the Customs Union; see Hamerow
(1958) and Kohn (1965, especially ch. 8).
37. See Wallerstein (1974, eh. 3) and the essays by Tivey and
Navarri in Tivey (1980).
38. For the position of the intellectuals, see Gouldner (1979) and
Anderson (1983).
39. For fuller discussion of this process, see Strayer (1963) and A. D.
Smith (1986a, chs. 6-7).
40. For examples of the problems of ethno-religious communities,
see Arnakis (1963) on the Greeks under Ottoman rule, and
A. D. Smith (1973b) on the nineteenth-century Arabs and Jews.
41. For these problems, as revealed in the writings of Arabists and
others, see Haim (1962); for the institutional differences, see
Rosenthal (1965).
42. See Sharabi (1970) for the Arab case, andjankowski (1979) for
Egyptian responses to these problems.
43. See Kedourie (1971, Introduction) and A. D. Smith (1971,
ch. 10).
44. For discussions of these orientations among intellectuals, see the
essay by Matossian in Kautsky (1962) and A. D. Smith (1979a,
ch. 2). These debates dominated nationalist movements in
Russia, India, Persia, Greece, Israel, Ireland and among Arabs
and West Africans; see on the latter the fine study by July
(1967); and Geiss (1974).
45. See on this Kedourie (1971, Introduction). The nineteenth-
century Russian intelligentsia provided a classic example of this
'return to the people' and its ethno-history; see Thaden (1964).
46. For fuller discussion, see A. D. Smith (1984a); and Hobsbawm
and Ranger (1983).
47. See Steinberg (1976) for the Swiss use of legends.
48. For the romantic interest in Stonehenge, see Chippindale (1983,
chs. 6-7).
49. See A. D. Smith (1984b) and (1986a, ch. 8).

186
 NOTES

50. The visions of the Gaelic revival are analysed in the illuminating
study of Hutchinson (1987); cf. also the subtle account in Lyons
(1979)-
51. See the Introduction by Branch to Kirby's translation of the
Kalevala of 1907 (Branch 1985); for the wider political context,
see Jutikkala (1962, ch. 8) and the essay by M. Klinge in
Mitchison (1980).
52. See Honko (1985), who connects the historical interpretation of
the Kalevala with periods of threat to national identity; for
Sibelius and the Kalevala, see Layton (1985) and for Akseli
Gallén-Kallela's art, see Arts Council (1986, esp. 104—15 and the
essays by Sarajas-Korte and Klinge).
53. For some East European examples of these cultural crusades, see
the essays in Sugar (1980) and, on the Slovaks, the essay by Paul
in Brass (1985).
54. But not always. In Japan, tsarist Russia, Ethiopia and Persia,
aristocrats and clergy held on for a long time. This is even true
of some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, on which see Markovitz
(1977, chs. 2-3).
55. It certainly made the division of the globe into 'nations' un-
necessary, even where particular ethnies became the basis for
kingdoms; the hold of often broad religious communities (Islam,
Buddhism, Christendom), for all their ethnic sub-divisions, sug-
gested a more universal basis for political loyalty, tied as it
sometimes was to the concept of empire, as in Dante's vision
(see Breuilly 1982, Introduction).
56. For the territorial aspects of the nation and nationalism, see
Kohn (1967b) and A. D. Smith (1981b).

4 NATIONALISM AND C U L T U R A L IDENTITY

1. Gellner (1964, 168).

2. Kedourie (i960, 1).
3. For nationalism in England, see Kohn (1940) and the essays by
Christopher Hill and Linda Colley in Samuel (1989, vol. I). For
West African nationalism, see July (1967) and Geiss (1974); for
Arab nationalism, see Binder (1964).
4. On which, see Hutchinson (1987, 158-61, 285-90).

187
 NOTES

5. For fuller discussions of the problems of defining 'nationalism',

see Deutsch (1966, ch. 1), Rustow (1967, ch. 1), A. D. Smith
(1971, ch. 7) and Connor (1978).
6. These propositions are adapted and modified from A. D. Smith
(19733,2.1).
7. For the 'nation'/'state' distinction, see Connor (1972) and Tivey
(1980, Introduction).
8. See Akzin (1964, ch. 3).
9. Shaftesbury (1712, 397-8); see also Macmillan (1986, ch. 3).
10. Rousseau (1915, II, 319, Projet Corse).
11. Cited in Berlin (1976, 182); cf. Barnard (1965).
12. For irredentist movements in the Third World, see Horowitz
(1985, ch. 6); also Lewis (1983).
13. For discussion of David's Horatii, see Brookner (1980, ch. 5) and
Crow (1978); for fraternité during the French Revolution, see
Cobban (1957-63, Vol. I, Part 3) and Kohn (1967b).
14. For the case of the French Third Republic, see E. Weber (1979);
for some early post-independence African regimes, see Apter
(1963) and Rotberg (1967).
15. Josephus: Jewish War, II, 53 cited in Yadin, Y. (1966) Masada,
London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Thucydides: Peloponnesian
WarU, 71, 2.
16. See Kedourie (i960, chs. 2—4) for Kant's influence; cf. A. D.
Smith (1971, ch. 1).
17. The field of nationalist symbolism merits more intensive in-
vestigation; see Doob (1964) on Tyrolean symbolism, Dowd
(1948) on the fetes of the French Revolution, Mosse (1976) on
the ceremonial of German nationalism, and Thompson (1985)
on Afrikaner ceremonial.
18. For the self-referential quality of nationalism, see Breuilly (1982,
ch. 16); on Durkheim and nationalism, see Mitchell (1931).
19. A point made by Debray (1977); see also Anderson (1983,
ch. 1).
20. For the ethnic group as a 'super-family', see Horowitz (1985,
chs. 1—2); for the masculine/feminine split in David's historical
painting, see Herbert (1972).
21. An argument found in Kedourie (i960) and (1971), in Sathya-
murthy (1983) and to some extent in Breuilly (1982).

188
 NOTES

22. For some earlier typologies, see Snyder (1954), Seton-Watson

(1965), Symmons-Symonolcwicz (1965) and (1970); cf. the
recent typology in Gcllner (1983).
23. Kohn (1955) and (1967a).
24. See the more detailed discussion in Hutchinson (1987, ch. 1).
25. See Pulzcr (1964) and Mosse (1964) on support for Pan-
Germanism; for Russian bourgeois support for Russian cultural
nationalism, see Gray (1971).
26. See the essay by Plamenatz in Kamenka (1976).
27. This is a modified and simplified version of A. D. Smith (1973a,
3-4-7)-
28. For Maurras' integral nationalism, see Nolte (1969); for Latin
American populism, sec Mouzelis (1986).
29. See Kohn (i960) and Davies (1982, Vol. II, ch. 1); on Jasna
Gora, see Rozanow and Smulikowska (1979).
30. See Kedourie ( 1971, Introduction); cf. the essays by Crane and
Adenwalla in Sakai (1961) for the nationalist use of the Hindu
past.
31. For late medieval 'nationalisms', see Tipton (1972); for the
Dutch example, see Schama (1987, I/2).
32. See especially the detailed work by Kemilainen (1964), to which
the subsequent discussion is indebted; cf. also Barnard ( 1965, ch. 1 ).
33. Richardson (1725, 222-4).
34. Both cited in the essay by W. F. Church on 'France' in Ranum
(1975).
35. La Font de Saint-Yenne (1752, 305-6); on which see Crow
(1985, ch. 4).
36. Barry (1809, II, 248).
37. On this change in the meaning of the concept of nation in
Europe, see Zernatto (1944); see also Bendix (1964).
38. See Poliakov (1974, esp. ch. 8); Nisbet (1969).
39. For the neo-classical style and movement, see Honour (1968).
40. Rousseau (1924-34, X, 337—8), cited in Cobban (1964); cf.
Cohler (1970).
41. For Rousseau's Genevan attachments, see Kohn (1967a, 238-45)
and Baron (i960, 24—8). On the Greco-Roman models in the
French Revolution, see Rosenblum (1967, ch. 2) and Herbert
(1972).

189
 NOTES

42. On the German Gothic revival, see Robson-Scott (1965).

43. See Macmillan (1986, eh. 3) on the 'poet of nature'; for British
literary medievalism, see Newman (1987, ch. 5) and for some
contrasts between French and British artistic trends, see A. D.
Smith (1979b).
44. For this 'language', see Berlin (1976).
45. On national romanticisms, see Porter and Teich (1988); for its
national uses in the later nineteenth century, see Hobsbawm's
concluding essay in Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983).
46. For the artists' 'moral historicism' and 'archaeological drama',
see Rosenblum (1967) and A. D. Smith (1987) and (1989); see
also the catalogue of La France (1989).
47. For national feeling in music, see Einstein (1947, esp. 266-9,
274—82); for nationalist romanticism in art, see Vaughan (1978,
ch. 3); for its imprint in Europe's cultural heritage, see H o m e
(1984). Many artists who were in no way nationalistic, could
find their works of art appropriated for a particular nationalism,
because of the 'evocative' aura of such works for those already
permeated by nationalist feeling; such has been the fate of Con-
stable and Delacroix, of Schumann and even Beethoven.
48. On the intellectuals, see Shils (1972) and Gella (1976).
49. See Baron (i960, ch. 2) and Anderson (1983, ch. 5).
50. See Kedourie (i960); and Breuilly (1982, Introduction and
chs. 15-16).
51. See on the German Romantic contribution, Reiss (1955) and
Kedourie (i960); for Kant, see also Gellner (1983).
52. See Cobban (1957-63, vol. I, Part 3) and Palmer (1940); on the
cahiers de doléances and French nationalism in 1789, see Shafer
(1938).
53. For the thesis that intellectuals are required for dieir moderniz-
ing skills, see Kautsky (1962, Introduction) and Worsley (1964).
But Kautsky's 'intellectuals' are really the intelligentsia, the pro-
fessionals. The same is true for some of the cases cited by
Kedourie (1971, Introduction) including those of Gandhi and
Kenyatta.
54. For Hess, see Hertzberg (i960, Introduction); for the European
links between the intellectuals and nationalism, see A. D. Smith
(1981a, ch. 5).

190
 NOTES

55. For the 'identity crisis' thesis, see Ayal (1966); and Kedourie
(i960) and (1971, Introduction); for a critique, see Breuilly
(1982,28-35).
56. For this wider cultural crisis, see A. D. Smith (1971, ch. 10).

5 NATIONS BY DESIGN?

1. See Tilly (1975, Introduction and Conclusion); and Seton-

Watson (1977, chs. 2-3).
2. See, inter alia, Corrigan and Sayer (1984, chs. 2-4); Newman
(1987, chs. 5-6); and the essays by Hill and Colley in Samuel
(1989, Vol. I).
3. See Pipes (1977, chs. 9-10); cf. Seton-Watson (1967).
4. See Dunlop (1985) and the essay by Pospielovsky in Ramet
(1989).
5. See, for example, G. E. Smith (1989).
6. On Ottomanism, see Mardin (1965) and Berkes (1964); and the
essay by Karpat in Brass (1985).
7. On which, see Lewis (1968, ch. 10); and Kushner (1976).
8. For modern Pan-Turkism, see Landau (1981).
9. On this history, see Ollendorff (1973); for the Dergue's prob-
lems, see Halliday and Molyneux (1981).
10. For some brief accounts, see J. Hall (1962) and A. Lewis (1974).
11. See Brown (1955).
12. For a detailed discussion of nihonjinron and its exponents, see
Yoshino (1989).
13. See Alavi (1972); cf. Saul (1979).
14. See Horowitz (1985, ch. 2); cf. the essays by Asiwaju and Har-
greaves in Asiwaju (1985).
15. For French policies in Africa, see W. H. Lewis (1965); and,
more generally, Crowder (1968).
16. See Wallerstein (1965) and Lloyd (1966); cf. Geiss (1974) and
Kedourie (1971, Introduction).
17. See W. H. Lewis (1965); Geiss (1974, ch. 15); and Legum (1964).
For this selective colonial perception, see Enloe (1980).
18. See, inter alia, J. H. Kautsky (1962, Introduction), Kedourie
(1971, Introduction) and Seton-Watson (1977).
19. See Kedourie (1971, Introduction); McCulley (1966).

191
 NOTES

20. There were also more general political and economic factors
which continue to maintain the civic-territorial nation in Africa,
Asia and Latin America, notably geo-political forces; see Neu-
berger (1986). On Négritude, see Geiss (1974).
21. For these influences, see Hodgkin (1964); for the Indian case, see
Heimsath (1964).
22. See Sharabi (1970); and Vital (1975).
23. Sec Kedourie (1971, Introduction), Kushner (1976) and Hut-
chinson (1987).
24. See Vatikiotis (1969); and Jankowski (1979).
25. On Burmese Buddhism, see Sarkisyanz (1964).
26. See the essay by Rothchild on Kenya in Olorunsola (1972); on
Zimbabwe's minorities and their environments, see Ucko
(1983).
27. On the Nigerian ethnic background, see Hodgkin (1975, Intro-
duction); see also Panter-Brick (1970) and Markovitz (1977).
28. See Gutteridge (1975).
29. On the early Ba'ath ideology, see Binder (1964); cf. Sharabi (1966).
30. For an account of the principal ethnie and their nationalisms in
Pakistan, and of Islam's role there, see the essays by Harrison
and Esposito in Banuazizi and Weiner (1986). For the Indian
ethnic-linguistic mosaic, see Harrison (i960) and Brass (1974).
31. See McCulley (1966) and D. E. Smith (1963).
32. As the Pakistani case illustrates; see the essays by Binder and
Harrison in Banuazizi and Weiner (1986). For African anxieties
on this score, see Neuberger (1976).
33. On this O A U stand, see Legum (1964) and Neuberger (1986).
34. See the essay by Young in Brass (1985); and for the earlier
mass-mobilizing African regimes, see Apter (1963).
35. For the Angolan resistance, see Davidson, Slovo and Wilkinson
(1976); cf. also Lyon (1980) for Guinea-Bissau.
36. For a brief account of the Great Zimbabwe debate, see Chamber-
lin (1979, 27—35); and for the nationalist significance of the
'homeland', see A. D. Smith (1981b).
37. For the Ghanaian C P P , see Austin (1964).
38. See Gellner (1983) for the new importance accorded to public
education; but it is as much a consequence as a cause of nationalist
ideology and consciousness.

192
 NOTES

39. For linguistic education during the French Revolution, see Lar-
tichaux (1977), and during the Third Republic, E. Weber
(1979).
40. See Markovitz (1977, ch. 6).
41. Mannheim (i94o);J. H. Kautsky (1962, Introduction); Gouldner
(1979)-
42. For the social composition of nationalist movements, see Seton-
Watson (i960), the essay by Kiernan in A. D. Smith (1976) and
Breuilly (1982, ch. 15); for a critique, see Zubaida (1978).
43. For the role of professionals, see Hunter (1962), Gella (1976)
and Pinard and Hamilton (1984).
44. See, for example, Hodgkin (1956).

6 SEPARATISM AND MULTI-NATIONALISM

1. For this 'official' nationalism, see Anderson (1983, ch. 6); for
some of the Eastern European classic ethnic nationalisms, see
Sugar and Lederer (1969).
2. For the alien, metropolitan origins of the post-colonial state, see
Alavi (1972); for some of these Third World ethnic movements,
see R. Hall (1979).
3. For general surveys of the Western movements, see Esman
(1977) and Allardt (1979).
4. See Deutsch (1966); and the classic critique in Connor (1972).
5. Connor (1984a).
6. For the Irish case, see Boyce (1982); for the Norwegian case, see
Elviken (1931) and Mitchison (1980, 11-29); for Finland, see
Jutikkala (1962); all flourished in the mid-nineteenth century.
7. A good example is the veneration accorded to the monastery of
Yasna Gora in southern Poland with its Byzantine image of
Our Lady, placed there in the late fourteenth century, a place of
national pilgrimage ever since; see Rozanow and Smulikowska
(1979). See also pp. 65-7 above.
8. For musical nationalism, see Einstein (1947, 266—9, 274—82) and
Raynor (1976, ch. 8). See also pp. 92-3 above.
9. Weber (1968, Part I/2, ch. 5, p. 396).
10. For this process, see Kedourie ( 1971, Introduction).
11. For the 'culture of critical discourse', see Gouldner (1979). For

193
 NOTES

the role of the intelligentsia in classic European nationalisms, see

Barnard (1965, ch. 1) and Anderson (1983, ch. 5).
12. See on this Nairn (1977, ch. 9); also Pech (1976).
13. For this Gaelic nationalism, see Lyons (1979); for 'Karelianism*
in Finland, see Laitinen (1985) and Boulton Smith (1985).
14. See, for example, Kedourie (i960, chs. 5-6); Pearson (1983).
15. See, for example, Berkes (1964) for the impact of the French
Revolution on Ottoman Turkey; for the Greek case, see
Kitromilides (1980).
16. For the Kurdish struggles, see Edmonds (1971) and Chaliand
(1980, 8-46).
17. For an overview of ethnic politics in Pakistan, including the
Baluch, Sindhi and Pashtun movements, see the essay by Selig
Harrison: 'Ethnicity and Political Stalemate in Pakistan', in
Banuazizi and Weiner (1986, 267—98).
18. In the Eritrean case this has been particularly problematic: a
common experience of Italian colonialism and Ethiopian re-
pression undoubtedly helped to foster some sense of unity
among the nine or more ethnic categories in the region. But
divisions between predominantly Christian Tigrinnya-speaking
peoples and the mainly Muslim 'Tigre' and other peoples led to
periodic civil war which has only recently been contained by
the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front; see Cliffe (1989, 131-47).
For the Palestinian experience, see Quandt et al. (1973).
19. For Biafra, see V. Olorunsola: 'Nigeria', in Olorunsola (1972)
and Markovitz (1977, ch. 8). For an example of the use of a
dominant ethnie, see D. Rothchild: 'Kenya', in Olorunsola
(1972). For a careful analysis of the patterns of ethnie-state rela-
tions in Africa and Asia, see Brown (1989, 1—17).
20. Gellner, in fact, claims that nationalism is 'weak' precisely be-
cause there are many more 'objective' cultural differences than
ethnic nationalisms. Only some differences become the sites for
ethnic mobilization; the others 'fail' to provide bases for the
development of nationalisms; see Gellner (1983, ch. 5). For Af-
rican examples of 'tribes' that to date have 'failed' to produce
correlative nationalisms, see King (1976).
21. Horowitz (1985, ch. 6) for the detailed exposition of his argu-
ment. My discussion is necessarily limited, since its main concern

194
 NOTES

is with the consequences for the construction of'national identity'

of separatist ethnic nationalisms.
22. These factors are prominent in the essays on Pakistan and Iran
in the volume edited by Banuazizi and Weiner (1986).
23. For other discussions of the incidence and geo-politics of ethnic
secession and irredentist nationalisms in Africa and Asia, sec
Buchcit (1981), Wibcrg (1983) and Mayall (1985).
24. For ethnocide among such smaller groups, see Svensson (1978).
For the partial loss of indigenous traditions among the Indian
populations of Central and Latin America, see Whitaker and
Jordan (1966).
25. For the Kurds, see Chaliand (1980) and Entessar (1989, 83-100).
On pre-colonial ethnic categories in what is now Nigeria, see
Hodgkin (1975, Introduction).
26. For the community-creating nature of ethnic nationalist move-
ments, see Hutchinson (1987) and Cliffe (1989, 131-47).
27. See the essays by Connor and Lijphart in Esman (1977); also
Allardt (1979).
28. For the renewal of nationalism in Lithuania, see Vardys (1989,
53-76).
29. For the Scots, see MacCormick (1970) and Webb (1977); for
the problem of 'dual loyalties' in Western democracies, see
A. D. Smith (1986c).
30. For the 'underdeveloped' ethno-regions of the West, see the
essays by Reece, and by Hechter and Levi, in Stone (1979); for
the lack of fit between ethno-nationalisms and particular econ-
omic backgrounds, see Connor (1984a).
31. For ethnic sentiment and mobilization in the Soviet Union, see
Szporluk (1973) and G. E. Smith (1985).
32. The popular aspect of ethnic nationalism is stressed by Nairn
(1977, chs. 2, 9), who speaks of recent 'neo-nationalisms'.
33. For a fuller discussion of the processes involved, see A. D. Smith
(1986a, chs. 7-8); see also Brock (1976) and Hutchinson (1987)-
34. See in particular the role of intellectuals like Lonnröt and R u n e -
berg in Finnish nationalism; see Branch (1985). For the Irish
case, see Lyons (1979); for the Breton revival, see Mayo (i974)
and the essay by Beer in Esman (1977).
35. On which see Schama (1987) and Hill (1968).

195
 NOTES

36. For details, see A. D. Smith (1981a, chs. 1, 9); for Catalonia, see
Conversi (1990).
37. This is well illustrated in the detailed study by Hechter (1975)
of the impact of the British state on ethnic regions.
38. This is the frequent charge of ethnic minorities against the
centralized states of France, Britain and till recently Spain; see
Coulon (1978).

7 BEYOND NATIONAL IDENTITY?

1. National movements have emerged in such apparently unlikely

areas as Siberia, Papua—New Guinea and Melanesia; see, for
example, Kolarz (1954) for Siberia and Central Asia, and May
(1982) for Papua—New Guinea.
2. For a critique of the inflation of nationalism, see Breuilly (1982,
8—11). For the Chinese communist case, see Johnson (1969).
3. A point also made by Daniel Bell (1975) in respect of the
conjunction of'affinity' and 'interest' in ethnic mobilization.
4. For this evolutionary perspective in liberal sociology, see Parsons
(1966) and Smelser (1968); and in Marxism and Marxist politics,
see Cummins (1980) and Connor (1984b).
5. The strength of Italian regions and German Länder to this day,
despite Italian irredentism and the desire for German reunification,
is clear evidence of this. For the Swiss case, see Steinberg (1976).
6. For the history of Illyrianism and the Yugoslav struggle for
independence, see Stavrianos (1961, esp. ch. 9) and Singleton
(1985, ch. 5).
7. See Schöpflin (1980) and Djilas (1984).
8. See Fedoseyev et al. (1977); Bennigsen (1979).
9. See the analyses of these questions in Goldhagen (1968) and
G. E. Smith (1985).
10. For Russian neo-nationalism, see Dunlop (1985) and, more gen-
erally, the essays in Ramet (1989).
u. See Kilson (1975) for 'neo-ethnicity' among the Whites; and
Gans (1979) for its largely symbolic nature.
12. See Burrows (1982).
13. On the centrality of the providential Puritan myth in America,
see Tuveson (1968) and O'Brien (1988).

196
 NOTES

14. As in the nineteenth-century German case; see Kahan (1968).

For an earlier 'functional' analysis of the EC, see Haas (1964).
15. For this European debate, re-echoed today in Britain, see Camps
(1965). De Gaulle might well have adduced the strong evidence
of the continuing power of national sentiments and policies in
the 1960s throughout Western Europe, presented by Benthen
van den Berghe (1966). Even if a new generation is today more
'European' than its predecessors, is it any less nationalistic?
16. Notably by Galtung (1973) in his successful plea to the N o r -
wegians not to join the enlarged Community. But the argu-
ments for or against Europe becoming a 'super-state' should not
be confused with those that portray it as a likely 'super-nation'.
This is to confuse loss of sovereignty with loss of identity. The
history of ethnic survival without sovereignty disproves any
necessary connection; see A. D. Smith (1988b). As far as a purely
political European nationalism is concerned, this is as yet confined
to segments of the political, economic and cultural élites in each
European nation; it has as yet no deep popular base.
17. For the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and the
rise of giant power blocs, see Barraclough (1967) and Hinsley
(1973).
18. See Bell (1973) and Kumar (1978) on this 'service society'.
19. For an analysis of these new movements — feminism, ecology,
student and ethno-national movements, see Melucci (1989,
chs. 3-4).
20. See Richmond (1984); and cf. Melucci (1989, 89-92).
21. See Warren (1980, ch. 7); cf. also Enloe (1986).
22. For a discussion of the media critics (Mattelaart, Morley, Hall)
who demonstrate the role of ethnicity and class in structuring
popular responses to modernist American media products, see
Schlesinger (1987).
23. For the 'culture of critical discourse' of the humanistic in-
tellectuals and their technical counterparts, see Gouldner (1979).
24. On these monuments and ceremonies, see Hobsbawm and
Ranger (1983, especially the essay by Hobsbawm) and Home
(1984). For earlier imperial imagery, see Armstrong (1982,
ch. 5).
25. For this idea of the nation as an imagined community whose

197
 NOTES

texts have to be deconstructed and read, see Anderson (1983); for

an application to the British case, see Samuel (1989, esp. Vol. III).
26. Sec the parallel view in Anderson (1983, ch. 1); for these mem-
orials, see Rosenblum (1967, eh. 2).
27. On Finnish national history, see Branch (1985) and Honko
(1985).
28. For the rituals of nationalism, see Mosse (1976) and Home
(1984); on art and nationalism, see Rosenblum (1967).
29. For Slovak history, see Brock (1976); on the East European
mosaic, sec Pearson (1983).
30. For Iraqi and Turkish 'roots', see Zeine (1958); for royal tombs
in ancient Macedon, see Yalouris (1980); on Transylvania,
Giurescu (1967).
31. On these processes, see Wallerstein (1974, eh. 3) and Tilly
(1975)-
32. For Balkan nationalism, see Stavrianos (1957); for capitalism
and nationalism in Africa, see Markovitz (1977) and A. D. Smith
(1983, chs. 3,5).
33. For this process, see A. D. Smith (1981a, ch. 6).
34. For this confusion, see Connor (1978); also Tivey (1980).
35. For state systems and non-interference, see Beitz (1979, Part II).
36. On which, see Kohn (i960).
37. For its recent history, see Landau (1981).
38. On which, see Geiss (1974).
39. For medieval sacred languages, see Armstrong (1982, ch. 8); on
language and nationalism today, see Edwards (1985, ch. 2).
40. For this mythology, see, for example, de Rougemont (1965).
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 Select Index

Italic page numbers indicate a main entry

Aborigines 30,31,77 127, 137, 141, 157, 159, 162,

Acton, Lord 85 172, 174, 190 n. 47
Africa ix, 22, 41, 60, 72, 81, 90, Asia ix, r i , 12-13, 22, 41, 60, 80,
100, 105,107-9, 110-12, 115-16, 90, 100, 104 107, n o , i n , 121,
121, 124, 131, 136, 139, 150, 124, 131, 139, 148, 154, 165
154, 165, 167,171-2, 175 Assyria, -ians 27, 28, 31-2, 37, 44,
Alavi, Hamza 107 45-6, 54, 182 n. 31
Alsace 13, 83, 128 Athens 1-3, 8, 28, 87
America, North vii, 30, 40, 60, 80, Australia 30, 40, 77
85-6, 90, 112, 138, 149-50, autarchy 10, 16, 90
172-3 authenticity 16,17,73,76-7,90,
South/Latin 4 0 , 6 0 , 8 1 , 8 3 , 9 0 , 91, 130, 140, 161
100, n o , 136, 150, 154, 165, autonomy 51,73,74,76-7,90,91,
171, 173 125, 133, 136, 138-9, 141-2,
American Indian 30, 125, 149 146, 148
Amhara, see Ethiopia Aztec, see Mexico
ancestry/descent viii, 7, 11-13, 15,
20—21, 39, 50, 52, 56-8, 66, 70, Baltic 135, 148
76, 81-2, 101, 104, 117, 123, Baluchi 132
140, 149, 162, 164 Bangladesh 24, 134, 135-6, 173
Anderson, Benedict 85 Basques 53,55-9,125,126,135,
Angola 116, 122, 136 138, 139, U i
anthropology 21, 74-5, 164 Belgium 175
Arabia, Arabs, Arabism 6, 7, 26, Bengal, see Bangladesh
27, 54,62-3,73, 103, 109, Biafra, see Nigeria
110-11, 113, 128, 132, 150, 171, Bible 27, 50
172, 173 Blacks, American 149
Aramaic, Aramean 28, 32, 49 Bolivia 40
Argentina 40, 76, 83 Brazil 83, 173
aristocracy ix, 5, 45-6, 53, 54-5, 66, Britain,-ish 5,46,56-7,59,66,73,
68, 81, 89, 100, 101-3, 105, 120, 75, 80, 87, 89, 100, 107, 113—
123, 129. 167 14, 137, 138, 150, 151, 163, 174,
Armenia, -ians 6, 23, 26, 27, 30, 183 n. 50; see also England
33-4, 37, 38-9, 54, 62, 124, 167 Brittany, Bretons 58, 125, 126-7,
Armstrong, John 7, 34, 38 138-9, 141
art, artists 83, 85-7, 89, 92-3, 119, Buddhism 8,28

221
 SBLECT INDEX

Bulgaria,-ians 163,164,171 Croat, -ia 7, 139, 147, 163

bureaucracy ix, 15, 38, 45, 53, culture passim
55 -63, 68, 79, 87, 96, 100, 101, customs ix, 6, 12, 16, 20, 23, 27,
107-8, 113, 120, 124, 140-1, 16$, 38-9. 45, 50-3, 77-8, 83, 113,
167-9, T 7° 140, 146
Burgundy 26 Czechoslovakia, Czechs, 27, 67,
Burma 8, 106, 107, 111, 116, 134 81, 84,««, 127, 128, 156, 159,
Byzantium,-ine 26, 27-9, 158; see 162-3, 168
also Christianity and Greece
David, Jacques-Louis 76, 78—9, 87,
Canaan, -ite 48, 53 92
Canada 125, 132; see also Québec democracy 1 5 , 4 4 , 1 4 3 , 1 4 9 , 1 7 3 -
capitalism 33, 60, 109, 119, 134, 4, 176
154-7. 165-7, I O 9 , 170 demotic {ethnie) 36, 41, 53-4, 61-4,
Carthage, -inian 28, 31 67-8,78,90, t o i - 3 , 110-11,
Catalonia, -an 54, 58-9, 74, 125-6, 114, 123, 126, 129—31, 136,
139, 141, 167 137-41, 163, 166
ceremony, see custom Denmark 56
Chile 40, 83 descent, see ancestry
China 27, 34, 101, 136, 144, 154 Deutsch, Karl 125
Christianity 7, 8, 13, 22, 26, 28, diaspora 23, 34, 38, 54, 82
34,37,46, 51, 54,56-5,62, Druze 7, 34, 37, S3, 62
66-7, 82, 103, 104-5, 121, 137, Durkheim, Emile 77
148, 149. 174 Dutch, see Holland
citizen, -ship 10, 13, 16, 44, 45, 59,
63-4, 69, 76, 79, 91, 94, 97. 103, education n, 13, 16, 45, 50, 56,
117-18, 119, 121, 144, 168 58, 61, 63, 65, 69, 77, 81, 91,
city, city-state 8, 10, 24, 32-3, 44, 107, 115, 118-19, 121. I 2 9 , 132,
47, 54, 88, 149. 167 148, 167-8, 173
class 4-6, 12, 14, 16, 24-5, 35, 4 5 - Egypt,-ian 7,27,35-6,38,44-«,
6, 53, 57-61, 68, 73, 80-1, 86, 51, 55, 106, 110-11, 115
96, 102, 115, 119-121, 124, 129, Elam, -ite 31-2
133, 143, 160, 166-7, 169, 170 election (myth) 36-7,39, 50,57-8,
classicism, neo-classicism 85, 62, 64, 66, 70, 84, 127, 150,
86-91, 100, 157, 159, 174 176
clergy 13, 23, 28, 35-8, 45-6, 48, empire, imperialism ix, 32, 38, 40,
53-4, 62, 68, 101, 120, 167 46, 50, 59, 101—6, 124, 130, 139,
colony, colonialism 101, 106-110, 147, 150, 155, 158-9
112, 114-5, 120-1, 124, 131, Engels, Friedrich 32
133-6, 137, 167, 171, 172 England,-ish 6 , 8 , 2 7 , 3 9 , 5 1 ,
communism, see Marxism 55-61, 67, 72, 85—6, 92, 100,
Connor, Walker 15, 125 132, 141, 150, 165, 167, 173
Constantinople 29, 35 Eritrea 104, 124, 132-3, 135, 136-
Copts, Coptic 6, 62, no 7, 194, n. 18
Corsica 125 ethnic, ethnicity, passim

222
 SELECT INDEX

ethnic core 38—42, 54, 57, 61, 68, 92, 94, 100, 107-8, 118, 128,
102-3, n ò - l i 138, 163, 165, 167
ethnie, ethnie community, passim French Revolution 4, 5, 10, 18, 44,
ethnocide 30—2, 137, 176 58, 76, 89, 94, 118, 128, 130
'cthno-nationalism' ix, 82-3, Gellncr, Ernest 71,194«. 20
123-42 genealogy, see ancestry
Ethiopia 6, 33-4, 37, 55, 62, 101-2, gender 4-5, 24-5, 44, 60, 143, 160,
104-5, 116, 136 170
exile 23, 26, 33, 66 genocide 26,30-1,176
Europe viii, ix, 7, 9-11, 12-13, 22< Georgia, -ians ( U S S R) 147
27. 30. 32, 34, 37. 40, 44. 49, German, Germany 7,26,57,76,81,
50, 60, 63, 71, 75-6, 8o~l, 84, 85-6,89,91-2,107,128,146,154,
86, 88-91, 91-4, 97, 106-7, 156, 163, 167, 171, 186
109-110, i n , 112,124-6, 130-1, n. 36
138-9, 150-4, 165, 167, 171, global, -ism, see internationalism
173-é, 197n. 15, 16 Gold Coast, see Ghana
Western vii, ix, 9-12, 15, 51-2, 'golden age' 33, 39, 64, 66—7, 69,
55. 59, 60—1, 63-4, 67-9, 80-1, 78, 89, 91-2, 119, 127, 161, 163,
86, 87, 90, 100—1, 108—9, u 4> 170, 177
116, 118, 121, 125, 131, 133-4, Gouldner, Alvin 119
139, 155-6, 157, 165, 167, 173 Greece, Greek 3-4, 8, 24, 27—30,
Eastern vii, ix, 11-13, 80-1, 86, 3Î-7, 45, 47-8, 62, 76, 85, 87,
90, 100, 124, 126, 128, 130-1, 164, 167
141, 144, 148, 151, 154-5, Gypsy 30,31
163-4, '67 Ghana 72—3, 106, 115, 117

Falasha 34 Habsburg 10, 124, 131

Fallmereyer, Jacob 29 Hebrew, see Israel
family, -ial 4, 12, 21—2, 24, 29, 76, Hellas, see Greece
78-9, 91, 105, 117, 145, 161-3, Herder, Johann Gottfried 74,75,
172-4, 176 86, 93, 109, 163
fascism 14, 30, 83,96,103, 106,151 hero,-ism 3,9,27,38,66-7,73,
federal, -ism 10, 103, 145-6, 147, 77, 83, 87, 88-9, 91-2, 117, 119,
149,174 128, 199, 161-3
feminism 4, 155; see also gender Hesiod 27
Fichte, J. G. 76, 85, 93, 94, 163 Hindu,-ism 83,113—14
Finns, Finland 67, 126, 127-8, 130, history,-icism ix, 9, 11-14, 18, 20,
141, 161-2, 187 n. 52 22, 25-6, 40, 56, 63, 64-8,
Flanders, Flemish 74, 125, 165, 69-70, 74-5, 78, 86-90, 91-3,
165, 175; see also Belgium 96-7, i n , 119, 126-7, 129, 134,
folk, folklore 12, 77, 129, 132, 140-1, 146-^7, 158-9,160-5, 170,
157-9 172, 176-7
foundation myth 22, 39 Holland 9, 10, 59, 84, 86, 141, 165,
France, Franks 10, 13, 27, 39, 46, 167
50-2,56-9, 61, 76, 80, 83, 85-9, homeland 9, 11, 14-15, 21, 23, 26,

223
 SELECT INDEX

33. 39. 49-50, 56, 64-5, 70, 75, Kautsky.John 119

82, 9 0 - 1 , 130, 146, 174 Kedourie, Elie 85
Horowitz, Donald 22, 24, 134-5 Kenya 106, 107, in
Hungary,-ians 53,81,127,163, Khmers 27
164, r67 Kiev, see Russia
Ibo 112, 124, 33, 136-7; see also Kohn, Hans 80
Nigeria Korea 47, 103
identity viii, 1,3-8, 13-14, 17-18, Kosovo 39, 147; see also Yugoslavia
20, 24-5, 73-6, 96-7, 105, 112— Kurdistan, Kurds 7, 27, 124, 131-2,
3, 140, 143, 146, 151-2, 158-9, 134, 136-7
160, 162, 170, [73, 175, 176-7;
see also national identity language vii, ix, 12—13, 20, 23~4,
imperialism, see empire 26, 29-31, 34, 40, 49-50, 52, 56,
India, -ans 83-4, to6, 107-9, >73~4 58, 63, 68, 73-5, 78, 84, 88-90,
Indonesia 106, no 99, 104, 109, 113, 119, 132, 136,
intellcctaul, intelligentsia ix, 12, 140-1, 144, 147, 150, 156, 160,
60-1, 63-4, 73, 78, 81, 84, 89, 172-3. 174
93-6, 103-4,106-10, 114,119-23, lateral (ethnie) 5 2 - 5 , 6 1 , 6 5 , 6 8 ,
127-32, 134-5, HO, 148. 158-9, 100-1, 106, 123, 166
160, 164, 166-9, 190 n- 53 Latin America, see America, South
internationalism 17, 123, 126, law 9-12, 14, 40, 45, 50-1, 58, 6 2 -
144-5, 154-9, 166, 168-70, 176-7 3 , 6 5 , 6 9 , 7 7 , 118, 144, 174
Iran, see Persia Lebanon 7, 31, 34
Iraq 106, 1 [7, 132, 164 Lerner, Daniel 125
Ireland, Irish 7, 12, 28, 33, 52—4, liberalism 14, 109, 144, 145
62, 66-7, 73, 76, 81, 126, 130, Lithuania 138
141 Lombard 39
irredentism ix, 75-6, 83, 104, 171
Islam 7, 21, 26, 36, 54-5, 58, 63, Macedonia 147, 164
73, 104-5, 110-11, 113, 115, Malay, -sia 14, 24
118, 148, 172 Mannheim, Karl 119
Israel 27, 33-4, 39, 47-50, 53. 58, Markovitz, I. L. 119
81, 109 . Maronite 7, 34, see also Lebanon
Italy,-ian 76, 81, 86, 107, 146, 165, Marx, Marxism 5, 14, 95, 97,
171 103-5, 116, 119, 144-5, 149 154,
156, 165
Japan 27,36,45-7,68,91,101-2, Mayall, James viii
105-6, 144, 154, 163 Mazdakism 6, 36, 54, 1S5 n. 21; see
Jerusalem 32, 48, 150 also Persia
Jews, Judaism 6, 30, 33—7, 48-50, McKay, James viii
54, 58, 62, 164, 167, 174 media 11, 157-8, 173
medieval,-ism 88—91, 172-3, 174,
Kant, Immanuel 76, 94 197 n. 22
Karen 7, i n , 124, 134; see also Meinecke, Friedrich 8
Burma memory 9, n, 14—15, 19-22, 25,

224
 SELECT INDEX

27-9, 31, 33, 39-4', 43, 45, Pakistan 73, 113, 122, 132, 134
48-52, 65, 70, 89, 104, 113, 119, Palestine, -ians 39, 124, 132—3, 164
129, 138, 144, 159, 163, 175; see 'Pan' nationalisms ix, 81, 82,
also history 171-2, 174-5, 176
Mexico 30,40 patria, patriotism 10, 13, 76, 85, 88,
Middle East ix, 7, 12, 27, 90, 124, "7
126, 128, 130, 173 Pericles 1, 8, 48
migration 11, 22, 26, 29, 40, 55, Persia 6-7, 26-8, 31-2,36, 38, 45-6,
66, 150, 156, 176 48, 54S, 101, 132
minorities 7, 18, n o , 112-14, 137- Philistine 31, 37, 48,53-4
8, 141, 156, 172, 176 Phoenicia 31-2, 37
mobilization ix, 4, 12, 18, 20, 27, Plamenatz, John 81
53, 60, 64, 68-9, 76, 78, 90-1, Poles, Poland 7, 50-1, 62, 83—4,
101, 112, 113-15. 123. '24-33. 85-6, 125, 128, 156, 163, 167
135^7, 140-1, 144, 150. 164-5, political community viii, ix, 9—14,
170, 173 18, 26, 41, 64, 76, 82, 97, 99,
modernism, -ization 44, 63-4, 69, 101, 103-4, 105-6, 107, n o ,
71, 101, 103s, 119, 124, 145 112, 116-17, !22, 150-2, 172
Mongol, -ia 30, 51, 54 populism 12, 75, 92, 109, 117
Montesquieu 75, 86, 88 primordialism 20, 23—5, 69
Moses 27,36 Prussia, see Germany
Mozambique 116
Muhammad 27, 54 Quebec,-ois 125; see also Canada
Moslem, see Islam
myth, mythology 6,11-12,14-15, race, racism 17, 21-2, 83, 95, 108,
19-22, 25, 27-9, 31, 33,39-41, 143, 160
45, 48-9, 52-3,56-7, 66, 70, 91, region, -alism ix, 4, 10, 21, 24,
94, 104, 113-14, 119, 127, 129, 45-6, 48, 55, 56, 58-9, 73,76,
144, 146, 150, 153, 159. 175 112, 113-14, '34, 137, 139,
'45-6, 153, 169, 170, 173
nation passim regna 39, 50, 57
national identity passim religion 4, 6-8, 14, 17-18, 20-1,
nationalism passim 23-9,31-8, 40,45-6,48-51, 54-5.
Nazism, see fascism 58, 62, 64, 68, 84, 96, 101, 103,
Netherlands, see Holland 113-14, 115, 117, 123, 143, '45,
Nigeria 72-3, 106-^7, 112, 115, 122, 147, 160, 162, 170, 187 n. 55
'32, 175 revolution 5,59-61, 64, 90, 96,
Normans, -dy 28, 50, 52-3, 55-7, 147, '49, 167
67 Richmond, Anthony 156
Norway 12, 126 Romania 125, 163, 164
Romanticism 66,91,100,146,
Occitanie 33 174
Oedipus 1-4, 19 R o m e , Romans 2 2 , 2 7 , 2 9 , 3 1 - 2 ,
Ottoman 21, 35, 101—4, I 2 4 . 131, 35, 50, 57, 85, 87-8, 92, 109-
163 10, 150, 158-9, x 74

225
 SELECT INDEX

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 74, 75, Switzerland, Swiss 7, 22, 27-8, 44,

«7-». 9 3 . 9 4 - 5 , 109 65, 86, 146, 183 n. 50
Russia 36-7, 50-1, 62, 67, 81, 86, symbol, -ism vii, 6, 11, 16, 20, 25,
101-3, , 0 7 . I 0 9 . I 2 7 , '39' '4S< 28-31, 33, 40-1, 63, 70, 73-4,
150, 156, 173; see also Soviet 77-8, 79. 83-4. 9 0 - 1 , 94. 96,
Union 104, 113, 115, 119, 129, 132,
146, 149-50, 159, 162, 163, 175,
Samaritans 34 188 n. 17
Saxons 39, 50, 55, 56 Syria 112, 113
Scots, Scotland 3 9 , 5 1 , 5 6 , 7 4 ,
138-9, 141 Tanzania 112, 115
secession ix, 41, 82, 104, 115, 124, Tartar 68
126, 131, 133-6, 137, 138-9, 142, Taylor, David vii
147 Tell, William 22
Serbia, Serbs 7, 139, 147, 156, 163, territory viii—ix, 4, 7, 9, II, 13-16,
167 22-3, 25, 27, 39-40, 45, 48-9,
Shaftesbury Lord 75, 85, 86, 88 64-5, 69, 78-9, 80-2, 99, 104-5,
Shi'ism, see Islam 107, I I I , 113-14, 117-18, 120-
Sikhs 7, 27, 34, 37, 53, 62, 124, 2, 123, 129, 133-4, 137, 140,
t34. 136 144, 147, 150, 152, 166-8
Simmel, Georg 27 Tilly, Charles 27
Singapore 135-6 tradition 6, 11-12, 15-16, 20, 27-8,
Sinhala, see Sri Lanka 35. J«. 48-9, 53. 63, 64-5, 68, 96,
Slavs, Slavism 29, 51, 171-2 129, 141, 146, 149, 139, 181 n. 11
Slovak, -ia 21, 67, 164; see also transnational, see international
Czechoslovakia, Czechs Turkey, Turk 21, 26, 30, 101-4,
Slovenia,-enes 125,139,147 128, 132,164, 171, 172, see also
Smith, A. D. viii Ottoman
Somalia, -i 76, 104, 108, 124
Sophocles I, 3, 8 Ukraine, -ians 67; see also Soviet
sovereignty 8, 15, 18, 51, 94, 101, Union
129, 130, 152, 168 Ulster, see Ireland
Soviet Union viii, ix, 30, 103-4, United States of America 10,90,
125, 138-9, 141, 147—9, I S O - I , 119, 125,149-50, 174; see also
154, 172-3, 174-5; see also America, North
Russia U S S R see Russia and Soviet Union
Spain, Spanish 10, 27, 30, 57-9, Uzbeks 67; see also Soviet Union
138, 165, 167, 173
Sri Lanka 7, 8, 136, 165 Vietnam 27
Stack, John viii Visigoths 39, 50
state passim
Sudan 115, 137, 139 Wales, Welsh 39, 56-7, 135, 141
Sumcrians 44 war, warfare 8, 10, 26-8, 31, 34,
Sunni, see Islam 47-8, 53, 56, 60, 77. 116, 136-
Sweden 59, 67, 86, 165, 167 7, 151, 156, 163, 166

226
 SELECT INDEX

Warren, Bill 156 Yoruba 24, 112, 135, 175; see also
Weber, Max 5, 6, 26, 128 Nigeria
West Indies 108
Zaire 112, 113
Yapp, Malcolm viii Zimbabwe 111, 117
Yugoslavia 125, 146-7, 171; see Zionism, see Israel
Croat, Serb Zoroaster 27, 36, 54