Understanding India; Major

Discourses UNIT 3 NATIONALIST DISCOURSE*

Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Concept of Nation and Nationalism
3.3 Indian Nation and Nationalism: Some Major Discourses
3.3.1 A.R. Desai’s Views on Nationalism
3.3.2 Partha Chatterjee’s Views on Nationalism
3.3.3 M. Chaudharis Views on Nationalism
3.4 Post Independent India and its Challenges
3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.6 References
3.7 Specimen Answers to Check Your Progress

3.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this Unit, you will be able to:
discuss the concept of nation and nationalism;
explain the Nationalist discourse in both colonial and post-colonial India;
describe views of leading Indian scholars on Indian nationalism; and
analyze post-colonial nationality discourse.

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the previous unit, we discussed colonial discourse in which we tried to explain
how Britishers viewed Indian society. You learnt about the administrative
perspective and the missionary perspectives.

This unit will discuss the nationalist narrative to understand Indian society. To
begin with, we will discuss the concept, and idea of nation and nationalism and
its definitions. Further, we will discuss the various approaches to understand
Indian society through nationalistic perspective. We will elaborate Indian
nationalism during the colonial period and the different debates on Indian
nationalism during colonial period. Finally, we will discuss nationalism and the
post independence situation of India especially the nationalist movements on
the lines of ethnicity, caste, region etc.

3.2 CONCEPT OF NATION AND NATIONALISM

The concept of a nation was a 19th century phenomenon, which emerged in the
West and later spread to other colonies of Europe i.e. Asia, Africa etc. A nation
can be defined as a group of people who share common territory, history,
language, psychological make-up, etc. The most important elements of a nation
is that it is always sovereign/ independent/ autonomous. Hence, in classical

30 * Contributed by Prafulla Kumar Nath, Assistant Professor, Assam University

understanding of nation, a nation is recognised only when it is independent. At Nationalist Discourse
the same time, in the sovereign territory the members share a common history,
language, culture etc. It is the considered view of historians that nationalism in
the modern sense emerged with the growth of industrial capitalism or print
capitalism and was then sustained by a variety of factors – by notions of
community based on language, ethnicity or religion or by the rivalry and
competition among states and imagined communities. As such in 19 th century or
till the 1950s decade of the 20th century the terms nation and state many a times
were used synonymously. It implies that to form a sovereign state there must be
a nation or conversely only a nation can be formed if it is a sovereign state. Such
classical definition holds that a nation should govern itself.

The most accepted classical definition of nation was given by Stalin who defined
nation as a “historically evolved, stable community of language, territory,
economic life and psychological make-up manifested in community of culture”
(Stalin 1991:6).

A definition of nation is not easy. It is both difficult and contentious. The main
trouble with any attempt to define nation is that at any given time, we would
find a large number of nations that do not conform to that definition. It would
thus appear that the actual world of nations is so diverse (in spite of their
commonalities) that no single definition can hope to include them all. It is partly
for this reason that scholars have generally refrained from providing a universal
definition of nation, applicable to all situations. They have found it easier to
describe specific nations. It has been much more difficult to abstract certain
broad principles on the basis of specific experiences. Ernest Gellner, another
important theorist on this subject, identified two attributes that could possibly
form part of the generic definition:
a) culture, and
b) will.
But he was himself aware of the inadequacy of either, and indeed both of them
in correctly identifying all types of nations. To quote him again:

“What then is this contingent, but in our age seemingly universal and normative,
idea of the nation? Discussion of two very makeshift, temporary definitions will
help to pinpoint this elusive concept.
1) Two men are of the same nation if and only if they share the same culture,
where culture in turn means a system of ideas and signs and associations
and ways of behaving and communication.
2) Two men are of the same nation if and only if they recognize each other as
belonging to the same nation.
In other words, nations make the man; nations are the artefacts of men’s
convictions and loyalties and solidarities. A mere category of persons (say,
occupants of a given territory, or speakers of a given language, for example)
becomes a nation if and when the members of the category firmly recognise
certain mutual rights and duties to each other in virtue of their shared membership
of it. Each of these provisional definitions, the cultural and the voluntaristic, has
some merit. Each of them singles out an element which is of real importance in
the understanding of nationalism. But neither is adequate. Definitions of culture,
31
Understanding India; Major presupposed by the first definition, in the anthropological rather than the
Discourses
normative sense, are notoriously difficult and unsatisfactory. It is probably best
to approach this problem by using this term [nation] without attempting too
much in the way of formal definition.” (1983, p. 7)
‘Modern idea of nationalism emerged from the early 19th century Western Europe
out of a combination of three strands which composed it:
1) Enlightenment as a liberal conception of political self determination
(Rousseau, JS Mills and others),
2) The French revolutionary idea of the community of equal citizens, and
3) The German conception of a people formed by history, tradition and culture.
As a final process-product, nationalism was thus found tied to principles of
freedom, equality and collective sharing of history and culture.’ (Diaspora and
Transnational Communities, MSOE-002 Book 2 pg. 148).
Nationalism on the other hand is the sense of belongingness of individual(s) to
the nation and loyalty to the nation. Such sense of belongingness or loyalty
come(s) because of his/her birth, in that language, culture etc.
Ernest Gellner (1983) defined these terms in the opening paragraph of his book:
“Nationalism is primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and
the national unit should be congruent. Nationalism as a sentiment, or as a
movement, can best be defined in terms of this principle. Nationalist sentiment
is the feeling of anger aroused by the violation of the principle, or the feeling of
satisfaction aroused by its fulfilment. A nationalist movement is one actuated by
a sentiment of this kind” (Ernest Gellner 1983: 1).
Box 3.0
The core themes of Nationalist Ideology
1) Humanity is naturally divided into nations.
2) Each nation has its peculiar character.
3) The source of all political power is the nation, the whole collectivity.
4) For freedom and self realization, men must identify with a nation.
5) Nations can only be fulfilled in their own states.
6) Loyalty to the nation states over rides other loyalties.
7) The primary condition of global freedom and harmony is the
strengthening of the nation-state.
(Ref. – Adam Smith)

Check Your Progress I

1) What is a nation?
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2) What are the three strands through which modern idea of nationalism Nationalist Discourse
emerged?
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3.3 INDIAN NATION AND NATIONALISM: SOME

MAJOR DISCOURSES
Before colonial power came to India, the region India was divided into various
small state principalities and dynasties. Due to its diversity in terms of religion,
culture, language, and region it was widely believed that India cannot form a
nation as it did not have a common culture, language or a common history rather
it had too many diversities. Factors which helped India’s ‘nationhood’:

1) The British brought those various segments under a singular administrative

purview as well as introduced various modern institutions such as
bureaucracy, western education, law, court, modes of communication,
printing press etc. (Such establishments though brought changes to Indian
society but conversely it helped the colonial power to exploit the Indian
people as well as other natural resources).

2) The rise of anti-colonial movement the then leadership left no stone unturned
to establish India as a nation. After the formation of the Indian National
Congress in 1885, it accelerated the movement and mobilised people of
various regions to bring unity.

3) They created some symbols to bind those diversities such as common

language (Hindi), common flag, national song/anthem, etc. Thus despite
the diversities a common sentiment was created among the diverse sections.
These are widely known as unity in diversity. However, later different
freedom fighters like Gandhi, Nehru and others added new narratives in
nationalist movement of India such as non-violence, non-cooperation, civil
disobedience movement etc. to accelerate the movement.

4) In the context of Indian nationalism as opposed to European model of

nationalism, anti-colonial movement also played a big role. Many scholars
argue that the freedom struggle of India was more anti-colonial than national.
The struggle could bring all the sections of society on a single platform
against the British.

During last 200-250 years or so, Indian nationalism has undergone various
changes. In the colonial period, the nationalism was basically anti-colonial and
the leaders of the freedom struggle could bring all the sections under one umbrella
although there were contestations in various phases. Such contestations came
from both right wing Hindu and Muslim leaders. As such, a kind of religious
nationalism in the line of culture emerged during the colonial period. Moreover,
33
Understanding India; Major contestation also came from the Dalits and the lower castes groups especially
Discourses
under the leadership of Ambedkar. The unaddressed issues especially of the
Dalits, and smaller nationalities, later included as Indian state has to face in the
form of resistance and protest those are largely known as ethnicity movements.
At the same time radical right wing Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism also
grew where these groups tried to narrate nationalism religious lines.

In the post-colonial period, the various sub-nationals, regional and tribal

movements across India challenged the very idea of India as a nation state or
India as a nation. Many a times the nationalist discourse of various groups gives
us the scope to understand the regional disparity, diversity etc. Hence, the
nationality discourse is an important theory to understand Indian society both in
the colonial and postcolonial period.

Apart from various classical ideas of Indian nation and nationalism, there are
several other discussions and interpretations to understand the nationalist
discourse in India. Among them A. R. Desai, D.D. Kosambi, Partha Chatterjee
etc. have presented new dimensions to understand Indian nationalism. Desai
interpreted Indian nationalism from Marxist perspective where he looked into
the social background of Indian nationalism. Partha Chatterjee’s thesis on Indian
nationalism is the critique of Benedict Anderson’s idea of nation and nationalism
and he discussed that the formation of Indian nationalism was different from
Western formation of nation. Here we will discuss A. R. Desai and Partha
Chatterjee to understand nationalism in colonial period and Paul Brass to
understand the nationality movement of various ethnic groups in independent
India.
Check Your Progress II
1) What challenges India faced in the formation of ‘nationhood’?
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3.3.1 A.R. Desai is Views on Nationalism

A. R Desai was one of the leading sociologists of India. He represents the Marxist
school of thought in understanding Indian society and analysed the social
background of Indian nationalism through analysing the material conditions.
His book Social Background of Indian Nationalism (1946) was one of the path-
breaking works to understand social conditions of colonial India. Recent Trends
in Indian Nationalism (1960) another important work of Desai.

Desai looked into the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial times to understand
the social background of Indian nationalism from Marxist point of view. During
pre-colonial period in India the feudal class dominated the peasant’ class. This
feudal class, many of which were under the Muslim rulers exploited the peasants.
34
Desai in Social Background of Indian Nationalism (1946) has analysed the Nationalist Discourse
comprehensive understanding of the structural transformations in Indian society
during colonial period. He investigated into the production relations during
feudalism, its transformations, and the rise of capitalist forces and finally how
nationalism emerged in such social conditions. Desai analysed why and how
nationalism in India emerged and what were the social and material conditions.
Desai tried to understand various factors that led to the nation formation in
various corners of the world. For him the development of nationalism in different
countries followed and was determined by various social and cultural history of
the respective country along with “political, economic, and social structures,
and the specific character of the psychological and economic traits of the social
classes which were the vanguard of the struggle for a national social existence
in those countries. Every nation was thus born and forged in a unique way”
(xxxi).

Desai understood the stimulus of national sentiment hence he said such sentiments
are dominant emotion in today’s world. All kinds of contemporary movements
such as economic, cultural, political etc. were inspired by such emotions of
nationalism.

Investigating into the history of Indian nationalism, Desai finds its root in
colonialism. He holds that the actions and inter-actions of several subjective
and objective factors and forces developed in Indian society, helped in formation
of Indian nationalism. But, he argues that the process of development of Indian
nationalism was too complex due to its economic as well as other factors. The
social structure of Indian society was quite unique. Unlike the medieval European
societies and countries the economic base of Indian society was different.
Moreover, the geographical, linguistics, cultural differences make the region
unique and complex. But British rule in India despite such differences provided
the space for rise and development of Indian nationalism. Desai looking into the
relationship between British rule and Indian nationalism argues “about the
conditions of the political subjection of the Indian people under the British rule.
The advanced British nation for its own purpose, radically changed the economic
structure of Indian society, established a centralised state, and introduced modern
education, modern means of communications and other institutions. This resulted
in the growth of new social classes and the unleashing of new social forces
unique in themselves. These social forces by their very nature came into conflict
with British imperialism and became the basis of the motive power for the rise
and development of Indian nationalism” (xxxv). (Ref.)

Desai has analysed the fundamental economic transformation of Indian society

during colonial period. He behaved that the economic transformation was one
of the important material pre-requisites for uniting the diverse population of the
region. At the same time he also addressed the role of other factors such as
modern transport, new education, press, and others, in contributing towards the
unification of the Indian people and in engendering a nationalist consciousness
among them.
Desai classified the development of Indian nationalism into five phases:
1) The First Phase
In the first phase, the Indian nationalism had a narrow social base. The
educational institutions were established during the first decade of the 19 th 35
Understanding India; Major century by the British could produce a set of new educated Indians who
Discourses
studied western culture and greatly assimilated its democratic and
nationalistic values. Those educated intelligentsia formed the first stratum
of Indian nationalism. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the first exponent of the
idea of Indian nation. He and his group also propagated idea. The various
social Indians were been religious reform movements propagated his ideas.
The idea of the educated remould the “Indian society and religion in the
spirit of the new principles of democracy, rationalism, and nationalism. In
fact, these movements were the expression of the rising national democratic
consciousness among a section of the Indian people” (ibid: 409). They also
spoke about freedom of press as well as put demand for inclusion of voice
in the administration. The first phase ended by 1885 finished with the
formation of Indian National Congress.
2) Second Phase
The second phase roughly covered the period 1885-1905. The liberal
intelligentsia who ran the Congress were the leaders of the national
movement. During this period due to the expansion of western education
as well as growth of trade in India and outside India a new merchant class
and educated elites developed in India. The rise of the modern industrial
set up in India resulted in growth of industrial class. This class started gaining
strength. This class became close to the Congress which adopted the
“programme of industrialisation of the country and in 1905 actively
organised the Swadeshi campaign”. This phase witnessed the Indianisation
of services as well as many Indians associated themselves with the
administrative and state machinery. This phase also saw rise of militancy
in India.
3) Third Phase
The third phase identified by Desai between 1905-1918. In the third phase
liberals were replaced by the extremists. It was a period of militancy and
inclusion of lower middle class. The extremist could instil a feeling of
national self respect and self confidence. Desai sees that during this period
the leaders attempted to base such consciousness on a Hindu philosophy.
Thus, it could weaken the secular character of the movement. At the same
time the upper class Muslims also developed political consciousness and
founded the political organization called Muslim League.
4) Fourth Phase
The fourth phase starts from 1918 until the civil obedience movement 1930-
34. It was a period of expansion of the nationalist movement, which was
earlier limited to the middle class and lower middle class to the inclusion
of masses. Desai sees several factors which brought about national
awakening among the Indian masses. He holds, “The post-war economic
crisis, the disillusionment about the government promises, and the increased
repression by the state had seriously affected the people including the
peasantry and the working-class and they were in a state of great ferment”
(ibid: 412).

Moreover, the democratic movement of many countries as well as socialist

revolution in Russia encouraged the Indian masses. At the same time the
36
 Indian capitalists became economically strong during the war due to Nationalist Discourse
industrial expansions. The swadeshi or the boycott slogan of the Congress
eventually helped the Indian capitalists who financially supported the
movement.

5) Fifth Phase
The fifth phase of Indian Nationalism and the Nationalist movement for
freedom of India covers the period 1934-39, the year of outbreak of the
World War II. This phase shows the disappointment with Gandhi’s ideology
by various groups specially the rise of various groups, inside Congress.
Many Congressmen lost their confidence in Gandhian ideology of Non-
violence and swadeshi. The Socialist Party took the causes of workers and,
peasants on the class lines. The rise of depressed classes, dissidents formed
the Forward Bloc by Subhas Chandra Bose. We also see the rise of Muslim
League during this period.

Thus, Desai presented a Marxist analysis of the Indian nationalism looking into
various aspects of Indian national history.
Check Your Progress III
Fill in the Blanks
a) During pre-colonial period in India the ......................... class dominated
the peasants’ class.
b) Desai classified the development of Indian nationalism into .........................
phases.
c) The first phase ended by ......................... finished with the formation of
Indian National Congress.
d) In the third phase liberals were replaced by the ......................... .
3.2.2 Partha Chatterjee’s Views on Nationalism
Benedict Anderson’s ideas on nation and nationalism are one of the most accepted
theories in the discourse of nation and nationalism. His book Imagined
Communities (1991) opened up new ideas to understand nation and nationalism.
Anderson argues that nation is an imagined community which is imagined into
existence. For him, nation is an imagined community as well as a cultural artifact
“…an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited
and sovereign” (Anderson 1991, 6).

It is imagined because “the members of even the smallest nation will never
know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the
minds of each lives the image of their communion”. Thus nation is an abstract
phenomenon where members of the community imagine themselves as a nation.
It is also limited because “the nation is imagined as limited because even the
largest of them encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite,
if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations” (ibid, 7).

Anderson investigated into the development of the idea of nation in western

countries (Europe). He says that various sociological conditions helped in
formation of the phenomenon. One such factor was the print media capitalism –
the emergence of printing press in Europe. The rise of print media capitalism 37
Understanding India; Major needs a large market for maximizing their profit. Though the spoken language
Discourses
of a group may vary from area to area but the written language is same and
mutually intelligible to each other. Hence newspaper, books in particular and
print media capitalism in general could create a national imagination. (At the
same time such forms of printing technology all printed news of various corners
for which it became easy for a national imagination and was also possible to
comprehending one another. Anderson argues “In the process, they gradually
became aware of the hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people in their
particular language field, and at the same time that only those hundreds of
thousands, or millions, so belonged. These fellow readers, to whom they were
connected through print, formed, in their secular, particular, visible invisibility,
the embryo of the nationally imagined community” (ibid, 44)).

Anderson further argues that in the colonies of Europe, various nations were
formed in the similar line.

Partha Chatterjee, on the other hand, criticising Anderson’s view on imagined

community. He presented a different understanding about formation of the Indian
Nationalism. Chatterjee questioned the view of Anderson that nation was a
‘modular’ form developed in Europe and later adopted by the colonies like India
and others. The problem of such an assumption is that the west left no space for
the colonies to imagine in the name of nation. Chatterjee questions if “the rest of
the world have to choose their imagined community from certain ‘modular’
forms already made available to them by Europe and the Americas, what do
they have left to imagine?” (Chatterjee 1993, 5).

From such assumptions it can be concluded that the colonies of Europe either in
Asia and Africa were only the constant consumers of modernity, they already
had pre-set versions of nationalism available to them. More apparently, the
imagination in relation to the nation is also always colonized.

Chatterjee arguing on the issue holds that Anderson ignores the spirituality – the
space inside the internal domain, where he emphasised much on outside material
domain to understand nationalism. Chatterjee, thus to analyse the Indian
nationalism proposes a new dimension of nationalism i.e. the spiritual domain.
He viewed the spiritual domain which was preserved in the inner space of
households or in society as the fundamental feature of anti-colonial nationalisms
in India. This inner domain carries the cultural markers of society which is
essential for national imagination through culture.

Bringing examples from colonial Bengal to analyse Indian nationalism he gave

the examples of language, culture, drama, schools, family, women etc. and their
role in nation formation. In discussing language Chatterjee accepts Anderson’s
idea of print media capitalism for development of a national language. In Bengal
though the East India Company and Christian Missionaries published first the
books in Bengali language during 18th century but the educated elites of Bengal
who were bi-lingual took it as a project – a cultural project to publish more
books in Bengali later. Chatterjee says, “to provide its mother tongue with the
necessary linguistic equipment to enable it to become an adequate language for
“modern” culture” (ibid, 7). Newspaper, magazine, were published, printing
press was established by 19th century in Bengal. Moreover, literary bodies came
up to give a standard shape of the language. All this happened outside the purview
38
of the colonial state. The language of a group is one of the basic domains for Nationalist Discourse
nationality formation. It also serves as a distinct cultural identity of a group
where the colonial power had hardly any role. From the second half of the 19 th
century the Bengali elites started establishing schools. It also produced “suitable
educational literature” before the state became the contention. Outside the
domain, of the state these schools were the space for generalising and normalising
the new language and literature.

Chatterjee also talks about another inner domain i.e. family. For him, family
played a vital role in preserving the national culture. The European notion of
India and many of its traditions, religious practices was considered as barbaric
were quite dominant during the 19th and the 20th century. Various practices
specially related to women were strongly criticised by them such as the Sati
Pratha . However, newly emerged elites in India were not ready to give the
burden to the Europeans to reform those practices. The members of a nation
must reform – they have the right to reform the problems of a nation themselves.
The nation does not allow outsiders to interfere specially in the cultural domain
of its society. Such notions could keep the cultural practices alive to sustain
their cultural identity. Chatterjee also investigated the role of women in
preserving cultural identity. Women are the carriers of cultural traditions.
However, a new patriarchy emerged out of such practices but it helped in national
imagination. The elites wanted their women to be new women but not like the
women of the West.

Thus criticizing Anderson’s argument on imagined communities Chatterjee offers

us a new model of Indian nationalism which holds that nationalism in India had
a spiritual base. There were certain forms for which imagination of a nation in
colonial period was possible.

3.3.3 M. Chaudharis’ Views on Nationalism

Chaudhuri (1999) looks into Indian anti-colonial nationalism through three
dimensions where she emphasized the role of women in the same. These factors
are:

1) it was based on ‘a well-developed critique of colonialism in its economic

aspects and on an economic programme leading to independent economic
development’ (Chandra B, 999: 17). Economic self- reliance, sovereignty,
growth with equity were part of the very identity of Indian nationalism.

2) the movement was committed to political democracy and civil liberties,

which were seen as building blocs of nation making (Chandra B: ibid).
Political participation of women both in the national movement and then in
the running of the independent state were therefore important.

3) Indian nationalism was also a cultural critique of colonialism and an assertion

of ‘national culture’. In this assertion the image of ‘Indian womanhood’
was significant’’. As nation and nationalism demand certain kinds of culture
and tradition through which individual or group can connect himself/herself
to its group. As Chatterjee argues in case of Indian nationalism, that Indian
elites did not want the outsiders to intervene in the inner domain which was
part of culture and women were largely its keepers. If any reform is needed
it would be done by the nation itself not by outsiders.
39
Understanding India; Major Check Your Progress IV
Discourses
1) How was Indian nationalism different according to Partha Chatterjee?
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3.4 POST INDEPENDENT INDIA AND IT’S

CHALLENGES
In the post independent India, the idea of India as a nation state faced serious
challenges as various sub-national, ethnicity movements emerged in various
parts of the country. Among them in the early years of independence serious
movements were the Dravidian movement and the movement among the Nagas.
They wanted an autonomous Nagaland. There have been movements for
independent Khalistan and Kashmir. These different kinds of identity movements
emerged in the post independence period, and can be divided on the lines of
language, region, religion, caste and tribe. Indian constituent states were divided
on linguistic lines after independence. However, new demands started coming
for creation of more states. Similarly, in many parts of the country tribal
movements also occurred at different time periods for separate state/for their
autonomy. Among them, the movement in Northeastern India of various ethnic
groups and movement of the Gorkhas of West Bengal got considerable attention
at the national level.
Check Your Progress V
1) What are the different challenges to Indian nation?
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3.5 LET US SUM UP

We have discussed above some of the points of Indian nationalism during colonial
period as well as some issues related to ethnicity and nationalism in the post-
colonial period. Nationalism is an important ideology to understand the dynamics
of Indian society. In the present day context also to analyse various sub-national,
regional, tribal and ethnic movements, it is imperative to understand the
nationalist discourse. We have explained some of the major discouse’s on
nationalism provided by different scholars such as by A.R Desai, Partha
Chatterjee and Maitreyi Chaudhari on nationalism in India. We also discussed
40 Benedt Anderson’s concept of ‘Imagined Community’ and concept of nation.
 Nationalist Discourse
3.6 REFERENCES
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Brass, Paul R. 1991. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison. New
Delhi: Sage Publication.
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial
Histories. New Jersey : Princeton University Press.
Chaudhuri, Maitrayee. 1999. “Gender in the Making of the Indian Nation-State”.
Sociological Bulletin. Vol. 48, No. ½. 113-133
Desai, A.R. 2000. Social Background of Indian Nationalism. New Delhi: Popular
Prakashan.
Gellner, Ernest 1983. Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca and London: Cornell
University Press.
Mukherji, Partha N.1994. ‘‘The Indian State in Crisis?Nationalism and Nation
Building’’. Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 43, No. 1 (March 1994), pp. 21-49
Omvedt, Gail. 1994. ‘‘Reconstructing the Methodology of Exploitation: Class,
Caste and Gender as Categories of Analysis in Post-colonial Societies’’,
Understanding the Post-colonial World: Theory and Method. Neera Chandhoke
(ed.). New Delhi: Sterling Publishers
Stalin, Joseph. 1991. Marxism and the National and Colonial Question. New
Delhi.: Kanishka Publishing House
Diaspora and Trans National Communities, 2010, MSO E-002, Book 2 IGNOU,
New Delhi
Nation and Nationalism, 2018, MHI- 09-B1E. Pg.65

3.7 SPECIMEN ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR

PROGRESS
Check Your Progress I
1) Stalin defined nation as a “historically evolved, stable community of
language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up manifested
in community of culture”.
2) Modern idea of nationalism emerged from the early 19th century Western
European combination of three strands:
a) Enlightenment b) The French revolutionary idea of the community of
equal citizens, and c) The German conception of a people formed by history,
tradition and culture.
Check Your Progress II
1) Challenges faced in formation of nationhood in India were that India was
divided into various principalities and dynasties. Due to its diversity in
terms of religion, culture, language, and region it was widely believed and
41
Understanding India; Major there was a perception that India cannot form a nation as it did not have a
Discourses
common culture, language or a common history.

Check Your Progress III

1) Fill in the Blanks
a) feudal
b) five
c) 1885
d) extremist

Check Your Progress IV

1) Nationalism in India was different from the western nationalism as it a
spiritual base.

Check Your Progress V

1) The different kinds of challenges that India faced after Independence were
that different kinds of identity movements emerged in the post independence
period and can be divided on the lines of language, region, religion, caste
and tribe.

42