Nation and civilisation By Gail Omvedt (Visiting Professor University of Pune)
Hi Satish,
Interesting article here.
'...The argument that beyond all the diversities in India, even those of language communities, have lain common traditions, linguistic similarities and widespread cultural linkages could never be adequately answered in a framework that included only ''nations'' and ''nation- states.''......
From a near-21st century perspective, there is something unreal about the ''nationality'' debates. It is clearly a historical fact that powerfully articulated communities based on linguistic- cultural identities have been a salient social reality in India.
The existence of a broader, encompassing ''India'' is also a reality; it is not for nothing that soldiers fighting and dying to recapture the snow-bound peaks in the far north evoke emotions everywhere. The question is that of the best ways to conceptualise and analyse these diverse identities, one regional and language-based and the other pan-Indian.
The concepts of ''nationality,'' ''nation'' and ''nation-state'' have arisen out of the political, economic and cultural developments connected with industrialisation and Enlightenment, and are too impoverished to capture the complexities of world culture today. Though works like Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilisations may be flawed, it might be argued that the best concept to capture the reality of India is not that of ''nation'' but that of ''civilisation.'' India has been a civilisational entity of great power and age, like Europe encompassing various languages and nationalities but retaining its uniqueness....
hinduonline.com |
