IMAGINED COMMUNITIES BENEDICT ANDERSON both Marxist and liberal

IMAGINED COMMUNITIES BENEDICT ANDERSON both Marxist and liberal attempts to explain nationalism were unsatisfactory. n nationalism according to Anderson: is an imagined political community that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. n Cultural roots of nationalism : (i) religious community and (ii) the dynastic realm n Decline of religious community because of the explorations of the non. European world and the gradual waning of the sacred language. n Dynastic realm - centered on kinship, and its legitimacy is derived from divinity rather than populations. n

n Conception of temporality in which cosmology and history were indistinguishable. n In the 18 th century Europe saw the rise of newspapers and novels. n Resorted to the vernacular languages rather than the old privileged languages. n Print languages created national consciousness in three different ways (i) created unified models of exchange and communication (ii) gave a fixity to language (iii) created “languages of power” different from the older administrative vernaculars

n Creole communities developed early conceptions of nation-ness well before most of Europe n 2 most common explanations for this are : (i) Madrid's tightening control (ii) spread of Enlightenment ideas n A Creole rising to a position of importance in Spain was almost unheard of n Emergence of local presses, the Creole print-men, played a vital historical role.

n Close of the era of successful national liberation movements in the America coincided with the onset of the age of nationalism in Europe. n “new nationalism” was different in two aspects : (i) “national print languages were of central ideological and political importance (ii) they were able to work with existing models provided by the Creole pioneers n State of bureaucracy underwent a rapid expansion which led to the rise of a bureaucratic middle class.

n Official nationalism developed after, and in reaction to, popular nationalist movements n These nationalisms were conservative, even reactionary, policies adapted from the popular nationalism that proceeded them n Pursued by the colonial powers in Asia and Africa n Official nationalism was later on also picked up by non-European countries (eg Japan and Siam)

n “last wave” of nationalism – transformation of the colonial state to the national state n One important aspect of the expansion of the state functions was the generation of centralized and standardized school system n Nation-ness is “natural” in the sense that it contains something that is unchosen (gender, color, parentage) n Racism and anti-Semitism does not derive from nationalism n Racism erases nation-ness

n Imagined Communities came under criticism (notably from Partha Chatterjee), for its assumption that nationalism could be unproblematically exported from Europe to post-colonial societies n Anderson’s theory of nationalism took on a universal form, and failed to consider adequately the subjectivities of the post-colonial experiences n In response to this criticism Anderson added the chapter Census, Map, and Museum

n The census, maps and museums created something bounded, determinate and countable n The census - created identities n The map - totalizing classification n Museums - state appeared as a guardian of traditions