Nation, according to Stalin, was a human collectivity sharing a common territory, language, economic life and a psychological make-up.
Joseph Stalin offered a much sharper and comprehensive understanding of nations. The strength of Renan’s definition lay in providing a voluntaristic (as against naturalistic) component to the understanding of nation. He called the nation as an exercise in everyday plebiscite.
He defined nation, as a human collectively brought together by will, consciousness and collective memory (and also common forgetfulness, or a collective amnesia). Perhaps the earliest attempt to define a nation was made in 1882 by Ernest Renan, a French scholar.
These nations, according to nationalist perception, only needed to be aroused from their deep slumber by the agent called nationalism. Īpproach – Introduction, Define Ethno-nationalism, How is ethno-nationalism expressed in India, List and analyse the factors for tribal discontent in India, Give examples, Conclusion.Īre nations formed or is humanity inherently blessed with nations? In other words, are nations a contingency or are they an integral part of human condition? Understandably most nationalists (nationalist ideologues, writers, poets or practitioners of nationalist politics) have tended to look upon nations as given and somewhat perennial. Practice Question – What is ethno-nationalism? Examine the critical factors responsible for tribal discontent in India.
