In the treatise ‘Imagined Communities’, Benedict Anderson the social thinker and political scientist, rediscovers nationalism. The theory he puts forward here is quite contrary to the Marxist theory of the origin of the state – “the emergence of the state is a product of the social division of labour”, and relies heavily on capitalism, especially print-capitalism, (the technology of print, according to him cannot singularly, by itself, do great exploitation; for example in China the print technology, for thousands of years, lay hidden, dormant and un-evolving whereas when printing technology came to Europe it combined with capitalism to create a huge wave of awareness and consciousness, which in turn created the modern nations as we see them).
The book also bears the perfect self-explanatory name as Anderson attributes the origin and growth of the nation to people’s imagination – “it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign”. Partly because he sees it important to address the fact that in a nation people cannot know every citizen personally and yet would be aware of the particular ‘mental image of their affinity’, which is true and simple, but which can also be interpreted and used for other derivations as well.
How the decline of Religion (its grasp on people’s imagination) and Monarchy (its command over people’s resources) commingled with the growth of a ‘sense of history’ and a ‘concept of temporality’ in the universe, and together, blended and fused to form the idea of nation and nationalities makes an interesting and intriguing read. But nevertheless the question as to which came first, whether nations or nationalisms, even though it remains none-so-more mysterious than a veritable guess, is explicitly left out of the text.
Having attributed the nativity of nations to ‘social and scientific discoveries’ (due to the spread of imperialism and colonialism) and to the ‘development of communication’ (due to the invention and use of print in the medium of the vernacular and the fixation of languages) he proceeds to narrate and explain the emergence of nationalism in the Americas where Spanish American nationalism is pitted against the North American Creoles, and consequently the result of which is as clever as dependable, and accordingly as reliable as the sole truth – ‘..their populations were relatively tightly linked by print as well as commerce’ – thus speaking about the USA, he shows us one good reason as to why the North American states came together as one, and as to how the ‘Protestant, English speaking creoles to the north’ retained the ‘everyday title of Americans’ – a classic insight.
Being a disciple of the ‘modernist and historicist’ school of nationalism he treats contemporary issues as well. The chapter titled “Patriotism and Racism” therefore receives a blatant and hardhearted treatment whose tonality seems to lace the riches of the Europeans (colonists) with their ‘moral values’ and ‘daily conduct’ in some self-explanatory manner, and it therefore serves only as an appalling reckoning for any Indian whose arduous existence today has been blamed on the mire colonialism (European exploitation) brought. But eventually all these according to him is some ‘imagined’ attachment, in other words ‘racism’ is ‘imagined’, which is soothing, yes, but disturbing as well, because it tends to allow the former racist colonists to get away without scrutiny or aversion of any kind. Such is the subliminal undertow of the reading.
Anderson covers the entire globe, citing examples, and thus it might be a good idea to keep handy the tit-bits of daily world history, from Mayans to Vietnam and from Russia to Cambodia. He has exhaustively studied South East Asia, and being born in China, he covers a lot from this part of the world and his affections for it are quite visible and are often in good taste. His understanding of Communism and its concern with nationalism requires a double read, as sometimes it feels as if both sides of the coin needs to be seen and heard. And often, the romantic idea of down-speaking to the Marxist or communist countries prods out the capitalist’s doctrine of ‘we-are-the-best’ which is also, often citied with imposing examples, within the book.
There is one more minor theory in the book - “Census, Map & Museum” - which talks about categorisation, fixation and recalling of antiquity, for nation building and sustainment in modern times. It is enlightening to see the use of census for bringing peoples together, the use of maps for setting these peoples inside a fixed geographical boundary and finally the using of ‘museumizing’ to give them an idea of oneness; all of them, thus, contributing to the forming of a nation. Its interestingness for the Indian reader is also boosted by the sole study and sole use of South East Asian examples, the familiarity of which also aids a good understanding. This theory of the ‘trinity’ is truly far from catastrophe.
Anderson, through this book has given us new grounds to explore and consider, without negating much of what has already been spoken about nations and nationalisms. His ideas are as genuine as provoking, and demands sufficient time, attention and intellect. Also, he leaves us enough space to breathe between sentences and to ponder between reflections, making us aware of the true nature of the nation, while making us juxtapose all those uncanny happenings and examples from around the world, so as to get to the clearer picture.
This book, as such, is citable and critical for the thorough understanding of nationalism (and the emergence of nations), while also it may well be said that to understand ‘Imagined Communities’ one requires to have a profound ‘imagination’ - as imaginable as possible.
The book also bears the perfect self-explanatory name as Anderson attributes the origin and growth of the nation to people’s imagination – “it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign”. Partly because he sees it important to address the fact that in a nation people cannot know every citizen personally and yet would be aware of the particular ‘mental image of their affinity’, which is true and simple, but which can also be interpreted and used for other derivations as well.
How the decline of Religion (its grasp on people’s imagination) and Monarchy (its command over people’s resources) commingled with the growth of a ‘sense of history’ and a ‘concept of temporality’ in the universe, and together, blended and fused to form the idea of nation and nationalities makes an interesting and intriguing read. But nevertheless the question as to which came first, whether nations or nationalisms, even though it remains none-so-more mysterious than a veritable guess, is explicitly left out of the text.
Having attributed the nativity of nations to ‘social and scientific discoveries’ (due to the spread of imperialism and colonialism) and to the ‘development of communication’ (due to the invention and use of print in the medium of the vernacular and the fixation of languages) he proceeds to narrate and explain the emergence of nationalism in the Americas where Spanish American nationalism is pitted against the North American Creoles, and consequently the result of which is as clever as dependable, and accordingly as reliable as the sole truth – ‘..their populations were relatively tightly linked by print as well as commerce’ – thus speaking about the USA, he shows us one good reason as to why the North American states came together as one, and as to how the ‘Protestant, English speaking creoles to the north’ retained the ‘everyday title of Americans’ – a classic insight.
Being a disciple of the ‘modernist and historicist’ school of nationalism he treats contemporary issues as well. The chapter titled “Patriotism and Racism” therefore receives a blatant and hardhearted treatment whose tonality seems to lace the riches of the Europeans (colonists) with their ‘moral values’ and ‘daily conduct’ in some self-explanatory manner, and it therefore serves only as an appalling reckoning for any Indian whose arduous existence today has been blamed on the mire colonialism (European exploitation) brought. But eventually all these according to him is some ‘imagined’ attachment, in other words ‘racism’ is ‘imagined’, which is soothing, yes, but disturbing as well, because it tends to allow the former racist colonists to get away without scrutiny or aversion of any kind. Such is the subliminal undertow of the reading.
Anderson covers the entire globe, citing examples, and thus it might be a good idea to keep handy the tit-bits of daily world history, from Mayans to Vietnam and from Russia to Cambodia. He has exhaustively studied South East Asia, and being born in China, he covers a lot from this part of the world and his affections for it are quite visible and are often in good taste. His understanding of Communism and its concern with nationalism requires a double read, as sometimes it feels as if both sides of the coin needs to be seen and heard. And often, the romantic idea of down-speaking to the Marxist or communist countries prods out the capitalist’s doctrine of ‘we-are-the-best’ which is also, often citied with imposing examples, within the book.
There is one more minor theory in the book - “Census, Map & Museum” - which talks about categorisation, fixation and recalling of antiquity, for nation building and sustainment in modern times. It is enlightening to see the use of census for bringing peoples together, the use of maps for setting these peoples inside a fixed geographical boundary and finally the using of ‘museumizing’ to give them an idea of oneness; all of them, thus, contributing to the forming of a nation. Its interestingness for the Indian reader is also boosted by the sole study and sole use of South East Asian examples, the familiarity of which also aids a good understanding. This theory of the ‘trinity’ is truly far from catastrophe.
Anderson, through this book has given us new grounds to explore and consider, without negating much of what has already been spoken about nations and nationalisms. His ideas are as genuine as provoking, and demands sufficient time, attention and intellect. Also, he leaves us enough space to breathe between sentences and to ponder between reflections, making us aware of the true nature of the nation, while making us juxtapose all those uncanny happenings and examples from around the world, so as to get to the clearer picture.
This book, as such, is citable and critical for the thorough understanding of nationalism (and the emergence of nations), while also it may well be said that to understand ‘Imagined Communities’ one requires to have a profound ‘imagination’ - as imaginable as possible.
pardon me, if not even
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