Nationalism - Chatterjee Flashcards
(13 cards)
When does Chatterjee write Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World?
1986
What does Plamenatz argue are the two types of nationalism?
- Western
- Eastern
Attempts to imitate Western nationalism
Withheld by contradiction inherent in culture
Culture not equipped for these changes
National culture must be regenerated to adapt to progress while still retaining distinctiveness of ancestral ways that mark identity
What does Plamenatz conclude about Eastern nationalism?
Disturbed and ambivalent
What type of argument does Chatterjee label Plamenatz argument as and why?
Liberal-rationalist paradigmatic where nationalism is alongside reason and liberty (enlightenment)
Sees nationalism as story of liberty (actualising liberty and progress)
Nationalism within the universal history alongside democracy and industrialism
Nationalism as a rational ideological framework for th realisation of rational political ends
What does Chatterjee argue about Plamenatz argument about nationalism?
It gives rise to xenophobia and justifies organised violence
Solution to liberal dilemma
‘Good’ vs ‘Evil’ nationalism
Liberal idea distorted for illiberal movements
Dichotomy between classical (pure, orthodox) nationalism and special nationalism (deviant)
Liberal-rationalists save the purity of their paradigm by designating bad nationalism as deviant to the classical form
What does Chatterjee argue current nationalism is?
Nationalism has been felt in wars (Nazism, Fascism)
Nationalism has become the ideology of racial hatred
Birthed irrational revivalist movements and oppressive regimes
Nationalism and liberty seem opposed
How does Plamenatz argue Eastern nationalism is deviant to classical nationalism?
Eastern nationalists want conditions for science/modern education and follow a liberal model even in the form of an oppressive regime
Urge for progress and freedom
Perverts these aspirations due to cultural contradiction
What does Chatterjee see Eastern nationalism as caused by?
Agitation for freedom from colonialism
Why does Chatterjee see Eastern nationalism as contradictory?
Agitation for independence in many parts of the Eastern world was motivated by nationalism
Attempts to merge the characteristics of eastern nationalism with western nationalism to produce a distinct form of nationalism that contains certain aspects of western civilisation – imitates a model it seeks to repudiate
Hostile and friendly imitation
How does nationalism lead to a new nation state?
- Fight for independence
- Establish new nation
- New nationalists emerge from unified nation
What does Chatterjee argue about the category of nationalism and why?
Nationalism should be discussed as an ideology and not as a phenomenon with sociological determination
Viewing it objectively = no personalised sentiments when discussing nationalism that limits it
What is Chatterjee’s example of Indian nationalism? (as a phenomenon with sociological determination and not an ideology)
Indian nationalism internally it sees itself as fundamentally different from Western nationalism and this creates a tension
Tension between the natural urge for progress in society and the local cultural identifiers that Eastern nationalism values
What is the connection between Indian nationalism and Billig’s idea of banal nationalism?
Liberals see that Eastern society struggles to calm itself into the same mundane healthy nationalistic ideals that the West shows through banal nationalism
These nationalities are facing a fundamental clash between the important customs of their ‘imagined communities’ that holds them together and the supposedly obvious line of progression they must go down to become an established nation
