Imagined Communities

Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism

BENEDICT ANDERSON
Revised Edition
First published b !erso "#$%
This re&ised and e'tended edition published b !erso "##"
Se&enth impression "##(
!erso ) Ne* +eft Boo,s
-./ ( 0eard Street1 +ondon 2l ! %3R
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Anderson1 Benedict1 1936-
Imagined communities/ reflections on the origin and
spread of nationalism87re&8 ed8
"8 Nationalism8 3istor
I8 Title
320.5409
ISBN 47$(4#"7%9#7: ISBN 47$(4#"7:6(7$ ;<b,=
US Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson1 Benedict R8 O>?8 ;Benedict Richard O>?orman=8 "#%(7
Imagined communities/ reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism)Benedict
Anderson87Re&8 and e'tended ed81 9nd ed8
p8 cm8
Includes bibliographical references ;p8 = and inde'8
ISBN 47$(4#"7%9#7:87ISBN 47$(4#"7:6(7$ ;pb,8=
"8 Nationalism@3istor8 I8 Title8
AC%""8A(:( "##"
%948:>6@dc94
Tpeset b ?CS1 +eighton BuBBard1 Beds8 <rinted in the -SA b Courier Companies1 Inc8
Scanners note : Index is omitted from this digital version.
Page nm!ers in the original edition is referred to in s"are !rac#ets $%&.
Contents
<reface to the Second Edition 'i
" Introduction "
9 Cultural Roots #
% The Origins of National Consciousness %C
6 Creole <ioneers 6C
: Old +anguages1 Ne* 0odels (C
( Official Nationalism and Imperialism $%
C The +ast 2a&e ""%
$ <atriotism and Racism "6"
# The Angel of 3istor "::
"4 Census1 0ap1 0useum "(%
"" 0emor and Forgetting "$C
Bibliograph 94C
Inde' 9"%
Ac,no*ledgments
Di'E As *ill be apparent to the reader1 m thin,ing about nationalism has been deepl affected
b the *ritings of Erich Auerbach1 2alter BenFamin and !ictor Turner8 In preparing the boo,
itself1 I ha&e benefitted enormousl from the criticism and ad&ice of m brother <err
Anderson1 Anthon Barnett1 and Ste&e 3eder8 A8 A8 Ballard1 0ohamed Chambas1 <eter
.atBenstein1 the late Re' 0ortimer1 Francis 0ulhern1 Tom Nairn1 Shiraishi Ta,ashi1 Aim
Siegel1 +aura Summers1 and Esta -ngar also ga&e me in&aluable help in different *as8
Naturall1 none of these friendl critics should be held in an *a accountable for the te't>s
deficiencies1 *hich are *holl m responsibilit8 I should perhaps add that I am b training
and profession a specialist on Southeast Asia8 This admission ma help to e'plain some of
the boo,>s biases and choices of e'amples1 as *ell as to deflate its *ould7be7global
pretensions8
D'E 3e regards it as his tas, to brush histor against the grain8
2alter BenFamin1 Illminations
Thus from a 0i'ture of all ,inds began1
That 3et>rogeneous Thing1 'n Englishman:
In eager Rapes1 and furious +ust begot1
Bet*i't a <ainted (ritton and a Scot:
2hose gend>ring Offspring Guic,l learnt to bo*1
And o,e their 3eifers to the Roman <lough/
From *hence a 0ongrel half7bred Race there came1
2ith neither Name nor Nation1 Speech or Fame8
In *hose hot !eins no* 0i'tures Guic,l ran1
Infus>d bet*i't a Saxon and a )ane.
2hile their Ran, Daughters1 to their <arents Fust1
Recei&>d all Nations *ith <romiscuous +ust8
This Nauseous Brood directl did contain
The *ell7e'tracted Blood of Englishmen . . .
*rom Daniel Defoe1 +he +re-(orn Englishman
<reface to the Second Edition
D'iE 2ho *ould ha&e thought that the storm blo*s harder the farther it lea&es <aradise
behindH
The armed conflicts of "#C$7C# in Indochina1 *hich pro&ided the immediate occasion for the
original te't of Imagined ,ommnities- seem alread1 a mere t*el&e ears later1 to belong to
another era8 Then I *as haunted b the prospect of further full7scale *ars bet*een the
socialist states8 No* half these states ha&e Foined the debris at the Angel>s feet1 and the rest
are fearful of soon follo*ing them8 The *ars that the sur&i&ors face are ci&il *ars8 The
li,elihood is strong that b the opening of the ne* millennium little *ill remain of the -nion
of So&iet Socialist Republics e'cept888 republics8
Should all this ha&e someho* been foreseenH In "#$% I *rote that the So&iet -nion *as >as
much the legatee of the prenational dnastic states of the nineteenth centur as the precursor
of a t*ent7first centur internationalist order8> But1 ha&ing traced the nationalist e'plosions
that destroed the &ast polglot and polethnic realms *hich *ere ruled from !ienna1
+ondon1 Constantinople1 <aris and 0adrid1 I could not see that the train *as laid at least as
far as 0osco*8 It is melanchol consolation to obser&e that histor seems to be bearing out
the >logic> of Imagined ,ommnities better than its author managed to do8
It is not onl the *orld that has changed its face o&er the past D'iiE t*el&e ears8 The stud of
nationalism too has been startlingl transformed 7 in method1 scale1 sophistication1 and sheer
Guantit8 In the English language alone1 A8 A8 Armstrong>s .ations (efore .ationalism
;"#$9=1 Aohn (rei//01s .ationalism and the State ;"#$9=1 Ernest ?ellner>s .ations and
.ationalism ;"#$%=1 0irosla& 3roch>s Social Preconditions of .ational Revival in Ero%e
;"#$:=1 Anthon Smith>s +he Ethnic 2rigins of .ations ;"#$(=1 <8 ChatterFee>s .ationalist
+hoght and the ,olonial 3orld ;"#$(=1 and Eric 3obsba*m>s .ations and .ationalism
since 1455 ;"##4=7 to name onl a fe* of the ,e te'ts7ha&e1 b their historical reach and
theoretical po*er1 made largel obsolete the traditional literature on the subFect8 In part out of
these *or,s has de&eloped an e'traordinar proliferation of historical1 literar1
anthropological1 sociological1 feminist1 and other studies lin,ing the obFects of these fields of
enGuir to nationalism and nation8
"
To adapt Imagined ,ommnities to the demands of these &ast changes in the *orld and in the
te't is a tas, beond m present means8 It seemed better1 therefore1 to lea&e it largel as an
>unrestored>period piece1 *ith its o*n characteristic stle1 silhouette1 and mood8 T*o things
gi&e me comfort8 On the one hand1 the full final outcome of de&elopments in the old socialist
*orld remain shrouded in the obscurit ahead8 On the other hand1 the idiosncratic method
and preoccupations of Imagined ,ommnities seem to me still on the margins of the ne*er
scholarship on nationalism7in that sense1 at least1 not full superseded8
2hat I ha&e tried to do1 in the present edition1 is simpl to correct errors of fact1 conception1
and interpretation *hich I should ha&e a&oided in preparing the original &ersion8 These
corrections 7 in the spirit of "#$%1 as it *ere 7in&ol&e some alterations of the first edition1 as
*ell as t*o ne* chapters1 *hich basicall ha&e the character of discrete appendices8
In the main te't1 I disco&ered t*o serious errors of translation1 at least one unfulfilled
promise1 and one misleading emphasis8 -nable to read Spanish in "#$%1 I thoughtlessl relied
on +eon 0a8 ?uerrero>s English translation of Aose RiBal>s .oli 6e +angere- although earlier
D'iiiE translations *ere a&ailable8 It *as onl in "##4 that I disco&ered ho* fascinatingl
corrupt ?uerrero>s &ersion *as8 For a long1 important Guotation from Otto Bauer>s )ie
.ationalit7tenfrage nd die So8ial-demo#ratie I laBil relied on Oscar AasBi>s translation8
0ore recent consultation of the ?erman original has sho*n me ho* far AasBi>s political
predilections tinted his citations8 In at least t*o passages I had faithlessl promised to e'plain
*h BraBilian nationalism de&eloped so late and so idiosncraticall b comparison *ith
those of other +atin American countries8 The present te't attempts to fulfil the bro,en pledge8
It had been part of m original plan to stress the Ne* 2orld origins of nationalism8 0
feeling had been that an unselfconscious pro&incialism had long s,e*ed and distorted
theoriBing on the subFect8 European scholars1 accustomed to the conceit that e&erthing
important in the modern *orld originated in Europe1 too easil too, >second generation>
ethnolinguistic nationalisms ;3ungarian1 CBech1 ?ree,1 <olish1 etc8= as the starting point in
their modelling1 no matter *hether the *ere >for> or >against> nationalism8 I *as startled to
disco&er1 in man of the notices of Imagined ,ommnities- that this Eurocentric
pro&incialism remained Guite undisturbed1 and that the crucial chapter on the originating
Americas *as largel ignored8 -nfortunatel1 I ha&e found no better >instant> solution to this
problem than to retitle Chapter 6 as >Creole <ioneers8>
The t*o >appendices> tr to correct serious theoretical fla*s in the first edition8
9
A number of
friendl critics had suggested that Chapter C ;>The +ast 2a&e>= o&ersimplified the process
*hereb earl >Third 2orld> nationalisms *ere modelled8 Furthermore the chapter did not
seriousl address the Guestion of the role of the local colonial state1 rather than the metropole1
in stling these nationalisms8 At the same time1 I became uneasil a*are that *hat I had
belie&ed to be a significantl ne* contribution to thin,ing about nationalism I D'i&E changing
apprehensions of time 7 patentl lac,ed its necessar coordinate/ changing apprehensions of
space8 A brilliant doctoral thesis b Thongchai 2inicha,ul1 a oung Thai historian1
stimulated me to thin, about mapping>s contribution to the nationalist imagination8
>Census1 0ap1 0useum> therefore analses the *a in *hich1 Guite unconsciousl1 the
nineteenth7centur colonial state ;and policies that its mindset encouraged= dialecticall
engendered the grammar of the nationalisms that e&entuall arose to combat it8 Indeed1 one
might go so far as to sa that the state imagined its local ad&ersaries1 as in an ominous
prophetic dream1 *ell before the came into historical e'istence8 To the forming of this
imagining1 the census>s abstract Guantification)serialiBation of persons1 the map>s e&entual
logoiBation of political space1 and the museum>s >ecumenical1> profane genealogiBing made
interlin,ed contributions8
The origin of the second >appendi'> *as the humiliating recognition that in "#$% I had Guoted
Renan *ithout the slightest understanding of *hat he had actuall said/ I had ta,en as
something easil ironical *hat *as in fact utterl biBarre8 The humiliation also forced me to
realiBe that I had offered no intelligible e'planation of e'actl ho*1 and *h1 ne*7emerging
nations imagined themsel&es antiGue8 2hat appeared in most of the scholarl *ritings as
0achia&ellian hocus7pocus1 or as bourgeois fantas1 or as disinterred historical truth1 struc,
me no* as deeper and more interesting8 Supposing >antiGuit> *ere1 at a certain historical
Functure1 the necessar0 conse"ence of >no&eltH> If nationalism *as1 as I supposed it1 the
e'pression of a radicall changed form of consciousness1 should not a*areness of that brea,1
and the necessar forgetting of the older consciousness1 create its o*n narrati&eH Seen from
this perspecti&e1 the ata&istic fantasiBing characteristic of most nationalist thought after the
"$94s appears an epiphenomenonJ *hat is reall important is the structural alignment of post7
"$94s nationalist >memor> *ith the inner premises and con&entions of modern biograph and
autobiograph8
Aside from an theoretical merits or demerits the t*o >appendices> ma pro&e to ha&e1 each
has its o*n more e&erda limitations8 The data for >Census1 0ap1 0useum> are dra*n
*holl from Southeast Asia8 In some *as this region offers splendid opportunities for D'&E
comparati&e theoriBing since it comprises areas formerl coloniBed b almost all the great
imperial po*ers ;England1 France1 3olland1 <ortugal1 Spain and the -nited States= as *ell as
uncoloniBed Siam8 Nonetheless1 it remains to be seen *hether m analsis1 e&en if plausible
for this region1 can be con&incingl applied around the globe8 In the second appendi'1 the
s,etch empirical material relates almost e'clusi&el to 2estern Europe and the Ne* 2orld1
regions on *hich m ,no*ledge is Guite superficial8 But the focus had to be there since it *as
in these Bones that the amnesias of nationalism *ere first &oiced o&er8
(enedict 'nderson *e!rar0 1991
"8 3obsba*m has had the courage to conclude from this scholarl e'plosion that the age of nationalism is near
its end/ 0iner&a>s o*l flies at dus,8
98 The first appendi' originated in a paper prepared for a conference held in .arachi in Aanuar "#$#1 sponsored
b the 2orld Institute for De&elopment Economics Research of the -nited Nations -ni&ersit8 A s,etch for the
second appeared in +he +imes 9iterar0 S%%lement of Aune "%1"#$(1 under the rubric >Narrating the Nation8>
"8 Introduction
D"E <erhaps *ithout being much noticed et1 a fundamental transformation in the histor of
0ar'ism and 0ar'ist mo&ements is upon us8 Its most &isible signs are the recent *ars
bet*een !ietnam1 Cambodia and China8 These *ars are of *orld7historical importance
because the are the first to occur bet*een regimes *hose independence and re&olutionar
credentials are undeniable1 and because none of the belligerents has made more than the most
perfunctor attempts to Fustif the bloodshed in terms of a recogniBable 6arxist theoretical
perspecti&e8 2hile it *as still Fust possible to interpret the Sino7So&iet border clashes of
"#(#1 and the So&iet militar inter&entions in ?erman ;"#:%=1 3ungar ;"#:(=1
CBechoslo&a,ia ;"#($=1 and Afghanistan ;"#$4= in terms of7 according to taste 7 >social
imperialism1> >defending socialism1> etc81 no one1 I imagine1 seriousl belie&es that such
&ocabularies ha&e much bearing on *hat has occurred in Indochina8
If the !ietnamese in&asion and occupation of Cambodia in December "#C$ and Aanuar "#C#
represented the first large-scale conventional :ar *aged b one re&olutionar 0ar'ist
regime against another1
"
China>s assault on !ietnam in Februar rapidl confirmed D9E the
precedent8 Onl the most trusting *ould dare *ager that in the declining ears of this centur
an significant outbrea, of inter7state hostilities *ill necessaril find the -SSR and the <RC7
let alone the smaller socialist states 7 supporting1 or fighting on1 the same side8 2ho can be
confident that 5ugosla&ia and Albania *ill not one da come to blo*sH Those &ariegated
groups *ho see, a *ithdra*al of the Red Arm from its encampments in Eastern Europe
should remind themsel&es of the degree to *hich its o&er*helming presence has1 since "#6:1
ruled out armed conflict bet*een the region>s 0ar'ist regimes8
Such considerations ser&e to underline the fact that since 2orld 2ar II e&er successful
re&olution has defined itself in national terms7the <eople>s Republic of China1 the Socialist
Republic of !ietnam1 and so forth 7 and1 in so doing1 has grounded itself firml in a territorial
and social space inherited from the prere&olutionar past8 Con&ersel1 the fact that the So&iet
-nion shares *ith the -nited .ingdom of ?reat Britain and Northern Ireland the rare
distinction of refusing nationalit in its naming suggests that it is as much the legatee of the
prenational dnastic states of the nineteenth centur as the precursor of a t*ent7first centur
internationalist order8
9
Eric 3obsba*m is perfectl correct in stating that >0ar'ist mo&ements and states ha&e tended
to become national not onl in form but in substance1 i8e81 nationalist8 There is nothing to
suggest D%E that this trend *ill not continue8>
%
Nor is the tendenc confined to the socialist
*orld8 Almost e&er ear the -nited Nations admits ne* members8 And man >old nations1>
once thought full consolidated1 I find themsel&es challenged b >sub>7nationalisms *ithin
their borders7nationalisms *hich1 naturall1 dream of shedding this sub7ness one happ da8
The realit is Guite plain/ the >end of the era of nationalism1> so long prophesied1 is not
remotel in sight8 Indeed1 nation7ness is the most uni&ersall legitimate &alue in the political
life of our time8
But if the facts are clear1 their e'planation remains a matter of long7standing dispute8 Nation1
nationalit1 nationalism 7 all ha&e pro&ed notoriousl difficult to define1 let alone to analse8
In contrast to the immense influence that nationalism has e'erted on the modern *orld1
plausible theor about it is conspicuousl meagre8 3ugh Seton72atson1 author of far the best
and most comprehensi&e English7language te't on nationalism1 and heir to a &ast tradition of
liberal historiograph and social science1 sadl obser&es/ >Thus I am driven to the conclusion
that no Kscientific definitionK of the nation can be de&isedJ et the phenomenon has e'isted
and e'ists8>
6
Tom Nairn1 author of the path7brea,ing +he (rea#-% of (ritain- and heir to the
scarcel less &ast tradition of 0ar'ist historiograph and social science1 candidl remar,s/
>The theor of nationalism represents 0ar'ism>s great historical failure8>
:
But e&en this
confession is some*hat misleading1 insofar as it can be ta,en to impl the regrettable
outcome of a long1 self7conscious search for theoretical clarit8 It *ould be more e'act to sa
that nationalism has pro&ed an uncomfortable anomal0 for 0ar'ist theor and1 precisel for
that reason1 has been largel elided1 rather than confronted8 3o* else to e'plain 0ar'>s
failure to e'plicate the crucial adFecti&e in his memorable formulation of "$6$/ >The
proletariat of each countr D6E must1 of course1 first of all settle matters *ith its o:n
bourgeoisie>H
(
3o* else to account for the use1 for o&er a centur1 of the concept >national
bourgeoisie> *ithout an serious attempt to Fustif theoreticall the rele&ance of the
adFecti&eH 2h is this segmentation of the bourgeoisie 7 a *orld7class insofar as it is defined
in terms of the relations of production 7 theoreticall significantH
The aim of this boo, is to offer some tentati&e suggestions for a more satisfactor
interpretation of the >anomal> of nationalism8 0 sense is that on this topic both 0ar'ist and
liberal theor ha&e become etiolated in a late <tolemaic effort to >sa&e the phenomena>J and
that a reorientation of perspecti&e in1 as it *ere1 a Copernican spirit is urgentl reGuired8 0
point of departure is that nationalit1 or1 as one might prefer to put it in &ie* of that *ord>s
multiple significations1 nation7ness1 as *ell as nationalism1 are cultural artefacts of a
particular ,ind8 To understand them properl *e need to consider carefull ho* the ha&e
come into historical being1 in *hat *as their meanings ha&e changed o&er time1 and *h1
toda1 the command such profound emotional legitimac8 I *ill be tring to argue that the
creation of these artefacts to*ards the end of the eighteenth centur
C
*as the spontaneous
distillation of a comple' >crossing> of discrete historical forcesJ but that1 once created1 the
became >modular1> capable of being transplanted1 *ith &aring degrees of self7consciousness1
to a great &ariet of social terrains1 to merge and be merged *ith a correspondingl *ide
&ariet of political and ideological constellations8 I *ill also attempt to sho* *h these
particular cultural artefacts ha&e aroused such deep attachments8
CONCE<TS AND DEFINITIONS
D:E Before addressing the Guestions raised abo&e1 it seems ad&isable to consider briefl the
concept of >nation> and offer a *or,able definition8 Theorists of nationalism ha&e often been
perple'ed1 not to sa irritated1 b these three parado'es/ ;"= The obFecti&e modernit of
nations to the historian>s ee &s8 their subFecti&e antiGuit in the ees of nationalists8 ;9= The
formal uni&ersalit of nationalit as a socio7cultural concept 7 in the modern *orld e&erone
can1 should1 *ill >ha&e> a nationalit1 as he or she >has> a gender7&s8 the irremediable
particularit of its concrete manifestations1 such that1 b definition1 >?ree,> nationalit is sui
generis8 ;%= The >political> po*er of nationalisms &s8 their philosophical po&ert and e&en
incoherence8 In other *ords1 unli,e most other isms1 nationalism has ne&er produced its o*n
grand thin,ers/ no 3obbeses1 TocGue&illes1 0ar'es1 or 2ebers8 This >emptiness> easil gi&es
rise1 among cosmopolitan and pollingual intellectuals1 to a certain condescension8 +i,e
?ertrude Stein in the face of Oa,land1 one can rather Guic,l conclude that there is >no there
there>8 It is characteristic that e&en so smpathetic a student of nationalism as Tom Nairn can
nonetheless *rite that/ > KNationalismK is the patholog of modern de&elopmental histor1 as
inescapable as KneurosisK in the indi&idual1 *ith much the same essential ambiguit attaching
to it1 a similar built7in capacit for descent into dementia1 rooted in the dilemmas of
helplessness thrust upon most of the *orld ;the eGui&alent of infantilism for societies= and
largel incurable8>
$
<art of the difficult is that one tends unconsciousl to hpostasiBe the e'istence of
Nationalism7*ith7a7big7N ;rather as one might Age7*ith7a7capital7A= and then to classif >it>
as an ideolog8 ;Note that if e&erone has an age1 Age is merel an analtical e'pression8= It
*ould1 I thin,1 ma,e things easier if one treated it as if it belonged *ith >,inship> and
>religion>1 rather than *ith >liberalism> or >fascism>8
In an anthropological spirit1 then1 I propose the follo*ing D(E definition of the nation/ it is an
imagined political communit 7 and imagined as both inherentl limited and so&ereign8
It is imagined because the members of e&en the smallest nation *ill ne&er ,no* most of their
fello*7members1 meet them1 or e&en hear of them1 et in the minds of each li&es the image of
their communion8
#
Renan referred to this imagining in his sua&el bac,7handed *a *hen he
*rote that >Or l>essence d>une nation est Gue tous les indi&idus aient beaucoup de choses en
commun1 et aussi Gue tous aient oublie bien des choses8>
"4
2ith a certain ferocit ?ellner
ma,es a comparable point *hen he rules that >Nationalism is not die a*a,ening of nations to
self7consciousness/ it invents nations *here the do not e'ist8>
""
The dra*bac, to this
formulation1 ho*e&er1 is that ?ellner is so an'ious to sho* that nationalism masGuerades
under false pretences that he assimilates >in&ention> to >fabrication> and >falsit>1 rather than to
>imagining> and >creation>8 In this *a he implies that >true> communities e'ist *hich can be
ad&antageousl Fu'taposed to nations8 In fact1 all communities larger than primordial &illages
of face7to7face contact ;and perhaps e&en these= are imagined8 Communities are to be
distinguished1 not b their falsit)genuineness1 but b the stle in *hich the are imagined8
Aa&anese &illagers ha&e al*as ,no*n that the are connected to people the ha&e ne&er
seen1 but these ties *ere once imagined particularisticall 7 as indefinitel stretchable nets of
,inship and clientship8 -ntil Guite recentl1 the Aa&anese language had no *ord meaning the
abstraction >societ8> 2e ma toda thin, of the French aristocrac of the ancien regime as a
classJ but surel it *as imagined DCE this *a onl &er late8
"9
To the Guestion >2ho is the
Comte de LH> the normal ans*er *ould ha&e been1 not >a member of the aristocrac1> but >the
lord of L1> >the uncle of the Baronne de 58>or >a client of the Due de M8>
The nation is imagined as limited because e&en the largest of them1 encompassing perhaps a
billion li&ing human beings1 has finite1 if elastic1 boundaries1 beond *hich lie other nations8
No nation imagines itself coterminous *ith man,ind8 The most messianic nationalists do not
dream of a da *hen all the members of the human race *ill Foin their nation in the *a that
it *as possible1 in certain epochs1 for1 sa1 Christians to dream of a *holl Christian planet8
It is imagined as sovereign because the concept *as born in an age in *hich Enlightenment
and Re&olution *ere destroing the legitimac of the di&inel7ordained1 hierarchical dnastic
realm8 Coming to maturit at a stage of human histor *hen e&en the most de&out adherents
of an uni&ersal religion *ere inescapabl confronted *ith the li&ing %lralism of such
religions1 and the allomorphism bet*een each faith>s ontological claims and territorial stretch1
nations dream of being free1 and1 if under 8?od1 directl so8 The gage and emblem of this
freedom is the so&ereign state8
Finall1 it is imagined as a commnit0- because1 regardless of the actual ineGualit and
e'ploitation that ma pre&ail in each1 the nation is al*as concei&ed as a deep1 horiBontal
comradeship8 -ltimatel it is this fraternit that ma,es it possible1 o&er the past t*o centuries1
for so man millions of people1 not so much to ,ill1 as *illingl to die for such limited
imaginings8
These deaths bring us abruptl face to face *ith the central problem posed b nationalism/
*hat ma,es the shrun,en imaginings of recent histor ;scarcel more than t*o centuries=
generate such colossal sacrificesH I belie&e that the beginnings of an ans*er lie in the cultural
roots of nationalism8
"8 This formulation is chosen simpl to emphasiBe the scale and the stle of the fighting1 not to assign blame8 To
a&oid possible misunderstanding1 it should be said that the December "#C$ in&asion gre* out of armed clashes
bet*een partisans of the t*o re&olutionar mo&ements going bac, possibl as far as "#C"8 After April "#CC1
border raids1 initiated b the Cambodians1 but Guic,l follo*ed b the !ietnamese1 gre* in siBe and scope1
culminating in the maFor !ietnamese incursion of December "#CC8 None of these raids1 ho*e&er1 aimed at
o&erthro*ing enem regimes or occuping large territories1 nor *ere the numbers of troops in&ol&ed
comparable to those deploed in December "#C$8 The contro&ers o&er the causes of the *ar is most
thoughtfull pursued in/ Stephen <8 3eder1 >The .ampuchean7!ietnamese Conflict1> in Da&id 28 <8 Elliott1 ed81
+he +hird Indochina ,onflict- pp8 9"7(CJ Anthon Barnett1 >Inter7Communist Conflicts and !ietnam1> (lletin of
,oncerned 'sian Scholars- ""/6 ;October7December "#C#=1 pp8 97#J and +aura Summers1 >In 0atters of 2ar
and Socialism Anthon Barnett *ould Shame and 3onour .ampuchea Too 0uch1K ibid81 pp8 "47"$8
98 Anone *ho has doubts about the -.>s claims to such parit *ith the -SSR should as, himself *hat
nationalit its name denotes/ ?reat Brito7IrishH
%8 Eric 3obsba*m1 >Some Reflections on KThe Brea,7up of BritainK>1 .e: 9eft Revie:- "4: ;September7October
"#CC=1 p8 "%8
68 See his .ations and States- p8 :8 Emphasis added8
:8 See his >The 0odern Aanus>1 .e: 9eft Revie:- #6 ;No&ember7December "#C:=1 p8 %8 This essa is included
unchanged in +he (rea#-% of (ritain as chapter # ;pp8 %9#7(%=8
(8 .arl 0ar' and Friedrich Engels1 +he ,ommnist 6ani;esto- in the Selected 3or#s- I1 p8 6:8 Emphasis added8
In an theoretical e'egesis1 the *ords >of course> should flash red lights before the transported reader8
C8 As Aira .emilainen notes1 the t*in >founding fathers> of academic scholarship on nationalism1 3ans .ohn
and Carleton 3aes1 argued persuasi&el for this dating8 Their conclusions ha&e1 I thin,1 not been seriousl
disputed e'cept b nationalist ideologues in particular countries8 .emilainen also obser&es that the *ord
>nationalism> did not come into *ide general use until the end of the nineteenth centur8 It did not occur1 for
e'ample1 in man standard nineteenth centur le'icons8 If Adam Smith conFured *ith the *ealth of>nations1> he
meant b the term no more than >societies> or >states8> Aira .emilainen1 .ationalism- pp8 "41 %%1 and 6$76#8
$8 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- p8 %:#8
#8 Cf8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 :/ >All that I can find to sa is that a nation e'ists *hen a significant
number of people in a communit consider themsel&es to form a nation1 or beha&e as if the formed one8> 2e
ma translate >consider themsel&esK as >imagine themsel&es8>
"48 Ernest Renan1 >Nu>est7ce Gu>une nationH> in 2Evres ,om%l<tes- 1- p8 $#98 3e adds/ >tout citoen franOais
doit a&oir oublie> la Samt7BarthPlem1 les massacres du 0idi an L3Ie siecle8 Il n> a pas en France di' families
Gui puissent fournir la preu&e d>une origine franGue 888K
""8 Ernest ?ellner1 +hoght and ,hange- p8 "(#8 Emphasis added8
"98 3obsba*m1 for e'ample1 >fi'es> it b saing that in "C$# it numbered about 6441444 in a population of
9%144414448 ;See his +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 C$=8 But *ould this statistical picture of the noblesse ha&e been
imaginable under the ancien regime=
98 Cultural Roots
D#E No more arresting emblems of the modern culture of nationalism e'ist than cenotaphs and
tombs of -n,no*n Soldiers8 The public ceremonial re&erence accorded these monuments
precisel !ecase the are either deliberatel empt or no one ,no*s *ho lies inside them1
has no true precedents in earlier times8
"
To feel the force of this modernit one has onl to
imagine the general reaction to the busbod *ho >disco&ered> the -n,no*n Soldier>s name
or insisted on filling the cenotaph *ith some real bones8 Sacrilege of a strange1 contemporar
,indQ 5et &oid as these tombs are of identifiable mortal remains or immortal souls1 the are
nonetheless saturated *ith ghostl national imaginings8
9
;This is *h so man different
nations D"4E ha&e such tombs *ithout feeling an need to specif the nationalit of their
absent occupants8 2hat else could the be !t ?ermans1 Americans1 Argentinians888 H=
The cultural significance of such monuments becomes e&en clearer if one tries to imagine1
sa1 a Tomb of the -n,no*n 0ar'ist or a cenotaph for fallen +iberals8 Is a sense of absurdit
a&oidableH The reason is that neither 0ar'ism nor +iberalism are much concerned *ith death
and immortalit8 If the nationalist imagining is so concerned1 this suggests a strong affinit
*ith religious imaginings8 As this affinit is b no means fortuitous1 it ma be useful to begin
a consideration of the cultural roots of nationalism *ith death1 as the last of a *hole gamut of
fatalities8
If the manner of a man>s ding usuall seems arbitrar1 his mortalit is inescapable8 3uman
li&es are full of such combinations of necessit and chance8 2e are all a*are of the
contingenc and ineluctabilit of our particular genetic heritage1 our gender1 our life7era1 our
phsical capabilities1 our mother7tongue1 and so forth8 The great merit of traditional religious
*orld7&ie*s ;*hich naturall must be distinguished from their role in the legitimation of
specific sstems of domination and e'ploitation= has been their concern *ith man7in7the7
cosmos1 man as species being1 and the contingenc of life8 The e'traordinar sur&i&al o&er
thousands of ears of Buddhism1 Christianit or Islam in doBens of different social
formations attests to their imaginati&e response to the o&er*helming burden of human
suffering @ disease1 mutilation1 grief1 age1 and death8 2h *as I born blindH 2h is m best
friend paralsedH 2h is m daughter retardedH The religions attempt to e'plain8 The great
*ea,ness of all e&olutionar)progressi&e stles of thought1 not e'cluding 0ar'ism1 is that
such Guestions are ans*ered *ith impatient silence8
%
At the D""E same time1 in different *as1
religious thought also responds to obscure intimations of immortalit1 generall b
transforming fatalit into continuit ;,arma1 original sin1 etc8= In this *a1 it concerns itself
*ith the lin,s bet*een the dead and the et unborn1 the mster of re7generation8 2ho
e'periences their child>s conception and birth *ithout diml apprehending a combined con7
nectedness1 fortuit1 and fatalit in a language of >continuit>H ;Again1 the disad&antage of
e&olutionar)progressi&e thought is an almost 3eraclitean hostilit to an idea of continuit8=
I bring up these perhaps simpleminded obser&ations primaril because in 2estern Europe the
eighteenth centur mar,s not onl the da*n of the age of nationalism but the dus, of
religious modes of thought8 The centur of the Enlightenment1 of rationalist secularism1
brought *ith it its o*n modern dar,ness8 2ith the ebbing of religious belief1 the suffering
*hich belief in part composed did not disappear8 Disintegration of paradise/ nothing ma,es
fatalit more arbitrar8 Absurdit of sal&ation/ nothing ma,es another stle of continuit
more necessar8 2hat then *as reGuired *as a secular transformation of fatalit into
continuit1 contingenc into meaning8 As *e shall see1 fe* things *ere ;are= better suited to
this end than an idea of nation8 If nation7states are *idel conceded to be >ne*> and
>historical1> the nations to *hich the gi&e political e'pression al*as loom out of an
immemorial past1
6
and1 still more important1 D"9E glide into a limitless future8 It is the magic
of nationalism to turn chance/ Fnto destin8 2ith Debra *e might sa1 >5es1 it is Guite
accidental that I am born FrenchJ but after all1 France is eternal8>
Needless to sa1 I am not claiming that the appearance of nationalism to*ards the end of the
eighteenth centur *as >produced> b the erosion of religious certainties1 or that this erosion
does not itself reGuire a comple' e'planation8 Nor am I suggesting that someho* nationalism
historicall >supersedes> religion8 2hat I am proposing is that nationalism has to be
understood b aligning it1 not *ith self7consciousl held political ideologies1 but *ith the
large cultural sstems that preceded it1 out of *hich7as *ell as against *hich7it came into
being8
For present purposes1 the t*o rele&ant cultural sstems are the religios commnit0 and the
d0nastic realm. For both of these1 in their hedas1 *ere ta,en7for7granted frames of
reference1 &er much as nationalit is toda8 It is therefore essential to consider *hat ga&e
these cultural sstems their self7e&ident plausibilit1 and at the same time to underline certain
,e elements in their decomposition8
T3E RE+I?IO-S CO00-NIT5
Fe* things are more impressi&e than the &ast territorial stretch of the -mmah Islam from
0orocco to the Sulu Archipelago1 of Christendom from <aragua to Aapan1 and of the
Buddhist *orld from Sri +an,a to the .orean peninsula8 The great sacral cultures ;and for
our purposes here it ma be permissible to include >Confucianism>= incorporated conceptions
of immense communities8 But Christendom1 the Islamic -mmah1 and e&en the 0iddle
.ingdom @ *hich1 though *e thin, of it toda as Chinese1 imagined itself not as Chinese1
but as D"%E central @ *ere imaginable largel through the medium of a sacred language and
*ritten script8 Ta,e onl the e'ample of Islam/ if 0aguindanao met Berbers in 0ecca1
,no*ing nothing of each other>s languages1 incapable of communicating orall1 the none7
theless understood each other>s ideographs1 !ecase the sacred te'ts the shared e'isted onl
in classical Arabic8 In this sense1 *ritten Arabic functioned li,e Chinese characters to create a
communit out of signs1 not sounds8 ;So toda mathematical language continues an old
tradition8 Of *hat the Thai call R Rumanians ha&e no idea1 and &ice &ersa1 but both
comprehend the smbol8= All the great classical communities concei&ed of themsel&es as
cosmicall central1 through the medium of a sacred language lin,ed to a superterrestrial order
of po*er8 Accordingl1 the stretch of *ritten +atin1 <ali1 Arabic1 or Chinese *as1 in theor1
unlimited8 ;In fact1 the deader the *ritten language7the farther it *as from speech7the better/
in principle e&erone has access to a pure *orld of signs8=
5et such classical communities lin,ed b sacred languages had a character distinct from the
imagined communities of modern nations8 One crucial difference *as the older communities>
confidence in the uniGue sacredness of their languages1 and thus their ideas about admission
to membership8 Chinese mandarins loo,ed *ith appro&al on barbarians *ho painfull learned
to paint 0iddle .ingdom ideograms8 These barbarians *ere alread half*a to full
absorption8
:
3alf7ci&iliBed *as &astl better than barbarian8 Such an attitude *as certainl not
peculiar to the Chinese1 nor confined to antiGuit8 Consider1 for e'ample1 the follo*ing
>polic on barbarians>formulated b the earl7nineteenth7centur Colombian liberal <edro
Fermin de !argas/
To e'pand our agriculture it *ould be necessar to hispaniciBe our Indians8 Their idleness1
stupidit1 and indifference to*ards normal endea&ours causes one to thin, that the come from a
degenerate race *hich deteriorates in proportion to the distance from its origin 888 it :old !e ver0
desira!le that the Indians !e extingished- !0 miscegenation :ith $1>& the :hites- declaring them
free of tri!te and other charges- and giving them %rivate %ro%ert0 in land.
6
3o* stri,ing it is that this liberal still proposes to >e'tinguish> his Indians in part b >declaring
them free of tribute> and >gi&ing them pri&ate propert in land>1 rather than e'terminating them
b gun and microbe as his heirs in BraBil1 Argentina1 and the -nited States began to do soon
after*ards8 Note also1 alongside the condescending cruelt1 a cosmic optimism/ the Indian is
ultimatel redeemable 7 b impregnation *ith *hite1 >ci&iliBed> semen1 and the acGuisition of
pri&ate propert1 li#e ever0one else. ;3o* different Fermin>s attitude is from the later
European imperialist>s preference for >genuine> 0alas1 ?ur,has1 and 3ausas o&er >half7
breeds1> >semi7educated nati&es1> >*ogs>1 and the li,e8=
5et if the sacred silent languages *ere the media through *hich the great global communities
of the past *ere imagined1 the realit of such apparitions depended on an idea largel foreign
to the contemporar 2estern mind/ the non7arbitrariness of the sign8 The ideograms of
Chinese1 +atin1 or Arabic *ere emanations of realit1 not randoml fabricated representations
of it8 2e are familiar *ith the long dispute o&er the appropriate language ;+atin or
&ernacular= for the mass8 In the Islamic tradition1 until Guite recentl1 the Nur>an *as literall
untranslatable ;and therefore untranslated=1 because Allah>s truth *as accessible onl through
the unsubstitutable true signs of *ritten Arabic8 There is no idea here of a *orld so separated
from language that all languages are eGuidistant ;and thus interchangeable= signs for it8 In
effect1 ontological realit is apprehensible onl through a single1 pri&ileged sstem of re7
presentation/ the truth7language of Church +atin1 Nur>anic Arabic1 or E'amination Chinese8
C
And1 as truth7languages1 imbued *ith an impulse largel foreign to D":E nationalism1 the
impulse to*ards con&ersion8 B con&ersion1 I mean not so much the acceptance of particular
religious tenets1 but alchemic absorption8 The barbarian becomes >0iddle .ingdom>1 the Rif
0uslim1 the Ilongo Christian8 The *hole nature of man>s being is sacrall malleable8
;Contrast thus the prestige of these old *orld7languages1 to*ering high o&er all &ernaculars1
*ith Esperanto or !olapii,1 *hich lie ignored bet*een them8= It *as1 after all1 this possibilit
of con&ersion through the sacred language that made it possible for an >Englishman> to
become <ope
$
and a >0anchu> Son of 3ea&en8
But e&en though the sacred languages made such communities as Christendom imaginable1
the actual scope and plausibilit of these communities can not be e'plained b sacred script
alone/ their readers *ere1 after all1 tin literate reefs on top of &ast illiterate oceans8
#
A fuller
e'planation reGuires a glance at the relationship bet*een the literati and their societies8 It
*ould be a mista,e to &ie* the former as a ,ind of theological technocrac8 The languages
the sustained1 if abstruse1 had none of the self7arranged abstruseness of la*ers> or
economists>Fargons1 on the margin of societ>s idea of realit8 Rather1 the literati *ere adepts1
strategic strata in a cosmological hierarch of *hich the ape' *as di&ine8
"4
The fundamental
conceptions about >social groups> *ere centripetal and hierarchical1 rather than boundar7
oriented and horiBontal8 The astonishing po*er of the papac in its noonda is onl
comprehensible in terms of a trans7European +atin7*riting cleris1 and a conception of the
*orld1 shared b &irtuall e&erone1 that the bilingual intelligentsia1 b mediating bet*een
&ernacular and +atin1 mediated D"(E bet*een earth and hea&en8 ;The a*esomeness of
e'communication reflects this cosmolog8=
5et for all the grandeur and po*er of the great religiousl imagined communities1 their
tinsel?conscios coherence *aned steadil after the late 0iddle Ages8 Among the reasons for
this decline1 I *ish here to emphasiBe onl the t*o *hich are directl related to these
communities> uniGue sacredness8
First *as the effect of the e'plorations of the non7European *orld1 *hich mainl but b no
means e'clusi&el in Europe >abruptl *idened the cultural and geographic horiBon and
hence also men>s conception of possible forms of human life8>
""
The process is alread
apparent in the greatest of all European tra&el7boo,s8 Consider the follo*ing a*ed
description of .ublai .han b the good !enetian Christian 0arco <olo at the end of the
thirteenth centur/
"9
The grand ,han1 ha&ing obtained this signal &ictor1 returned *ith great pomp and triumph to the
capital cit of .anbalu8 This too, place in the month of No&ember1 and he continued to reside
there during the months of Februar and 0arch1 in *hich latter *as or festi&al of Easter8 Being
a*are that this *as one of or principal solemnities1 he commanded all the Christians to attend
him1 and to bring *ith them their Boo,1 *hich contains the four ?ospels of the E&angelists8 After
causing it to be repeatedl perfumed *ith incense1 in a ceremonious manner1 he de&outl ,issed it1
and directed that the same should be done b all his nobles *ho *ere present8 This *as his usual
practice upon each of the principal Christian festi&als1 such as Easter and ChristmasJ and he
obser&ed the same at the festi&als of the Saracens1 Ae*s1 and idolaters8 -pon being as,ed his
moti&e for this conduct1 he said/ >There are four great <rophets *ho are re&erenced and *orshipped
b the different classes of man,ind8 The Christians regard Aesus Christ as their di&initJ the
Saracens1 0ahometJ the Ae*s1 0osesJ and the idolaters1 Sogomombar7,an1 the most eminent
among their idols8 I do honour and sho* respect to all the four1 and in&o,e to m aid :hichever
amongst them is in trth s%reme in heaven.1 But from the D"CE manner in *hich his maFest acted
to*ards them1 it is e&ident that he regarded the faith of the Christians as the truest and the best888
2hat is so remar,able about this passage is not so much the great 0ongol dnast>s calm
religious relati&ism ;it is still a religios relati&ism=1 as 0arco <olo>s attitude and language8 It
ne&er occurs to him1 e&en though he is *riting for fello*7European Christians1 to term .ublai
a hpocrite or an idolater8 ;No doubt in part because >in respect to number of subFects1 e'tent
of territor1 and amount of re&enue1 he surpasses e&er so&ereign that has heretofore been or
that no* is in the *orld8 >=
"%
And in the unselfconscious use of >our> ;*hich becomes >their>=1
and the description of the faith of the Christians as >truest1> rather than >true1> *e can detect the
seeds of a territorialiBa7tion of faiths *hich foreshado*s the language of man nationalists
;>our> nation is >the best>7in a competiti&e1 com%arative field@.
2hat a re&ealing contrast is pro&ided b the opening of the letter *ritten b the <ersian
tra&eller >Rica>tohis friend >Ibben>from <aris in >"C"9>/
"6
The <ope is the chief of the ChristiansJ he is an ancient idol1 *orshipped no* from habit8 Once he
*as formidable e&en to princes1 for he *ould depose them as easil as our magnificent sultans
depose the ,ings of Iremetia or ?eorgia8 But nobod fears him an longer8 3e claims to be the
successor of one of the earliest Christians1 called Saint <eter1 and it is certainl a rich succession1
for his treasure is immense and he has a great countr under his control8
The deliberate1 sophisticated fabrications of the eighteenth centur Catholic mirror the nai&e
realism of his thirteenth7centur predecessor1 but b no* the >relati&iBation> and
>territorialiBation> are utterl selfconscious1 and political in intent8 Is it unreasonable to see a
parado'ical elaboration of this e&ol&ing tradition in the Aatollah Ruhollah .homeini>s
identification of The ?reat Satan1 not as a D"$E heres1 nor e&en as a demonic personage ;dim
little Carter scarcel fitted the bill=1 but as a nation1=
Second *as a gradual demotion of the sacred language itself8 2riting of mediae&al 2estern
Europe1 Bloch noted that >+atin *as not onl the language in *hich teaching *as done1 it *as
the onl0 langage taght.
":
;This second >onl> sho*s Guite clearl the sacredness of +atin
@ no other language *as thought *orth the teaching8= But b the si'teenth centur all this
*as changing fast8 The reasons for the change need not detain us here/ the central importance
of print7capitalism *ill be discussed belo*8 It is sufficient to remind oursel&es of its scale and
pace8 Feb&re and 0artin estimate that CCS of the boo,s printed before ":44 *ere still in
+atin ;meaning nonetheless that 9%S *ere alread in &ernaculars=8
"(
If of the $$ editions
printed in <aris in ":4" all but $ *ere in +atin1 after ":C: a maForit *ere al*as in French8
"C
Despite a temporar come7bac, during the Counter7Reformation1 +atin>s hegemon *as
doomed8 Nor are *e spea,ing simpl of a general popularit8 Some*hat later1 but at no less
diBBing speed1 +atin ceased to be the language of a pan7European high intelligentsia8 In the
se&enteenth centur 3obbes ;":$$7"(C$= *as a figure of continental reno*n because he
*rote in the truth7language8 Sha,espeare ;":(67"("(=1 on the other hand1 composing in the
&ernacular1 *as &irtuall un,no*n across the Channel8
"$
And had English not become1 t*o
hundred ears later1 the pre7eminent *orld7imperial language1 might he not largel ha&e
retained his original insular obscuritH 0ean*hile1 these men>s cross7Channel near7
contemporaries1 Descartes ;":#(7"(:4= and <ascal ;"(9%7"((9= conducted most of their
correspondence in +atinJ but &irtuall all of !oltaire>s ;"(#67"CC$= *as in the &ernacular8
"#
>After "(641 *ith fe*er and fe*er boo,s coming out in +atin1 and more and more in the
&ernacular languages1 publishing *as ceasing to be an D"#E international DsicE enterprise8>
94
In
a *ord1 the fall of +atin e'emplified a larger process in *hich the sacred communities
integrated b old sacred languages *ere graduall fragmented1 pluraliBed1 and territorialiBed8
T3E D5NASTIC REA+0
These das it is perhaps difficult to put oneself empatheticall into a *orld in *hich the
dnastic realm appeared for most men as the onl imaginable >political> sstem8 For in
fundamental *as >serious> monarch lies trans&erse to all modern conceptions of political
life8 .ingship organiBes e&erthing around a high centre8 Its legitimac deri&es from di&init1
not from populations1 *ho1 after all1 are subFects1 not citiBens8 In the modern conception1 state
so&ereignt is full1 flatl1 and e&enl operati&e o&er each sGuare centimetre of a legall
demarcated territor8 But in the older imagining1 *here states *ere defined b centres1
borders *ere porous and indistinct1 and so&ereignties faded imperceptibl into one another8
9"
3ence1 parado'icall enough1 the ease *ith *hich pre7modern empires and ,ingdoms *ere
able to sustain their rule o&er immensel heterogeneous1 and often not e&en contiguous1
populations for long periods of time8
99
D94E One must also remember that these antiGue monarchical states e'panded not onl b
*arfare but b se'ual politics @ of a ,ind &er different from that practised toda8 Through
the general principle of &erticalit1 dnastic marriages brought together di&erse populations
under ne* apices8 <aradigmatic in this respect *as the 3ouse of 3absburg8 As the tag *ent1
(ella gerant alii t felix 'stria n!eA 3ere1 in some*hat abbre&iated form1 is the later
dnasts> titulature8
9%
Emperor of AustriaJ .ing of 3ungar1 of Bohemia1 of Dalmatia1 Croatia1 Sla&onia1 ?alicia1
+odomeria1 and IllriaJ .ing of Aerusalem1 etcJ Archdu,e of Austria DsicEJ ?rand Du,e of Tuscan
and Craco*J Du,e of +oth DaE ringia1 of SalBburg1 Stria1 Carinthia1 Carniola1 and Bu,o&inaJ
?rand Du,e of Transl&ania1 0argra&e of 0ora&iaJ Du,e of -pper and +o*er Silesia1 of 0odena1
<arma1 <iacenBa1 and ?uastella1 of Aussch*itB and Sator1 of Teschen1 Friaul1 Ragusa1 and MaraJ
<rincel Count of 3absburg and Trol1 of .burg1 ?orB1 and ?radis,aJ Du,e of Trient and BriBenJ
0argra&e of -pper and +o*er +ausitB and in IstriaJ Count of 3ohenembs1 Feld,irch1 BregenB1
Sonnenberg1 etc8J +ord of Trieste1 of Cattaro1 and abo&e the 2indisch 0ar,J ?reat !o&od of the
!o&odina1 Ser&ia8888 etc8
This1 AasBi Fustl obser&es1 *as1 >not *ithout a certain comic aspect888 the record of the
innumerable marriages1 huc,sterings and captures of the 3absburgs8>
In realms *here polgn *as religiousl sanctioned1 comple' sstems of tiered concubinage
*ere essential to the integration of the realm8 In fact1 roal lineages often deri&ed their
prestige1 aside from an aura of di&init1 from1 shall *e sa1 miscegenationH
96
For such D9"E
mi'tures *ere signs of a superordinate status8 It is characteristic that there has not been an
>English> dnast ruling in +ondon since the ele&enth centur ;if then=J and *hat >nationalit>
are *e to assign to the BourbonsH
9:
During the se&enteenth centur1 ho*e&er 7 for reasons that need not detain us here 7 the
automatic legitimac of sacral monarch began its slo* decline in 2estern Europe8 In "(6#1
Charles Stuart *as beheaded in the first of the modern *orld>s re&olutions1 and during the
"(:4s one of the more important European states *as ruled b a plebeian <rotector rather
than a ,ing8 5et e&en in the age of <ope and Addison1 Anne Stuart *as still healing the sic,
b the laing on of roal hands1 cures committed also b the Bourbons1 +ouis L! and L!I1
in Enlightened France till the end of the ancien regime.
B6
But after "C$# the principle of
+egitimac had to be loudl and selfconsciousl defended1 and1 in the process1
>monarch>became a semi7standardiBed model8 Tenn: and Son of 3ea&en became >Emperors8>
In far7off Siam Rama ! ;Chulalong,orn= sent his sons and nephe*s to the courts of St8
<etersburg1 +ondon and Berlin to learn the intricacies of the *orld7model8 In "$$C1 he
instituted the reGuisite principle of succession7b7legal7primogeniture1 thus bringing Siam
>into line *ith the Kci&iliBedK monarchies of Europe8>
9C
The ne* sstem brought to the throne
in "#"4 an erratic homose'ual *ho *ould certainl ha&e been passed o&er in an earlier age8
3o*e&er1 inter7monarchic appro&al of his ascension as Rama !I *as sealed b the
attendance at his coronation of princelings from Britain1 Russia1 ?reece1 S*eden1 Denmar,
@ and AapanQ
9$
D99E As late as "#"61 dnastic states made up the maForit of the membership of the *orld
political sstem1 but1 as *e shall be noting in detail belo*1 man dnasts had for some time
been reaching for a >national> cachet as the old principle of +egitimac *ithered silentl
a*a8 2hile the armies of Frederic, the ?reat ;r8 "C647"C$(= *ere hea&il staffed b
>foreigners>1 those of his great7nephe* Friedrich 2ilhelm III ;r8 "C#C7"$64= *ere1 as a result
of Scharnhorst>s1 ?neisenau>s and Clause*itB>s spectacular reforms1 e'clusi&el >national7
<russian8 >
9#
A<<RE3ENSIONS OF TI0E
It *ould be short7sighted1 ho*e&er1 to thin, of the imagined communities of nations as
simpl gro*ing out of and replacing religious communities and dnastic realms8 Beneath the
decline of sacred communities1 languages and lineages1 a fundamental change *as ta,ing
place in modes of apprehending the *orld1 *hich1 more than anthing else1 made it possible
to >thin,> the nation8
To get a feeling for this change1 one can profitabl turn to the &isual representations of the
sacred communities1 such as the reliefs and stained7glass *indo*s of mediae&al churches1 or
the paintings of earl Italian and Flemish masters8 A characteristic feature of such
representations is something misleadingl analogous to >modern dress>8 The shepherds *ho
ha&e follo*ed the star to the manger *here Christ is born bear the features of Burgundian
peasants8 The !irgin 0ar is figured as a Tuscan merchant>s daughter8 In man paintings the
commissioning patron1 in full burgher or noble costume1 appears ,neeling in adoration
alongside the shepherds8 2hat seems incongruous toda ob&iousl appeared *holl natural
to the ees of mediae&al *orshippers8 2e are faced *ith a *orld in D9%E *hich the figuring of
imagined realit *as o&er*helmingl &isual and aural8 Christendom assumed its uni&ersal
form through a mriad of specificities and particularities/ this relief1 that *indo*1 this
sermon1 that tale1 this moralit pla1 that relic8 2hile the trans7European +atin7reading cleris
*as one essential element in the structuring of the Christian imagination1 the mediation of its
conceptions to the illiterate masses1 b &isual and aural creations1 al*as personal and
particular1 *as no less &ital8 The humble parish priest1 *hose forebears and frailties e&erone
*ho heard his celebrations ,ne*1 *as still the direct intermediar bet*een his parishioners
and the di&ine8 This Fu'taposition of the cosmic7uni&ersal and the mundane7particular meant
that ho*e&er &ast Christendom might be1 and *as sensed to be1 it manifested itself variosl0
to particular S*abian or Andalusian communities as replications of themsel&es8 Figuring the
!irgin 0ar *ith >Semitic> features or >first7centur> costumes in the restoring spirit of the
modern museum *as unimaginable because the mediae&al Christian mind had no conception
of histor as an endless chain of cause and effect or of radical separations bet*een past and
present8
%4
Bloch obser&es that people thought the must be near the end of time1 in the sense
that Christ>s second coming could occur at an moment/ St8 <aul had said that >the da of the
+ord cometh li,e a thief in the night8> It *as thus natural for the great t*elfth7centur
chronicler Bishop Otto of Freising to refer repeatedl to >*e *ho ha&e been placed at the end
of time8> Bloch concludes that as soon as mediae&al men >ga&e themsel&es up to meditation1
nothing *as farther from their thoughts than the prospect of a long future for a oung and
&igorous human race8>
%"
Auerbach gi&es an unforgettable s,etch of this form of consciousness/
%9
D96E If an occurrence li,e the sacrifice of Isaac is interpreted as prefiguring the sacrifice of Christ1
so that in the former the latter is as it *ere announced and promised and the latter >fulfills>888 the
former1 then a connection is established bet*een t*o e&ents *hich are lin,ed neither temporall
nor causall7a connection *hich it is impossible to establish b reason in the horiBontal dimension
888 It can be established onl if both occurrences are &erticall lin,ed to Di&ine <ro&idence1 *hich
alone is able to de&ise such a plan of histor and suppl the ,e to its understanding 888 the here and
no* is no longer a mere lin, in an earthl chain of e&ents1 it is simltaneosl0 something *hich
has al*as been1 and *ill be fulfilled in the futureJ and strictl1 in the ees of ?od1 it is something
eternal1 something omnitemporal1 something alread consummated in the realm of fragmentar
earthl e&ent8
3e rightl stresses that such an idea of simltaneit0 is *holl alien to our o*n8 It &ie*s time
as something close to *hat BenFamin calls 0essianic time1 a simultaneit of past and future
in an instantaneous present8
%%
In such a &ie* of things1 the *ord >mean*hile> cannot be of real
significance8
Our o*n conception of simultaneit has been a long time in the ma,ing1 and its emergence is
certainl connected1 in *as that ha&e et to be *ell studied1 *ith the de&elopment of the
secular sciences8 But it is a conception of such fundamental importance that1 *ithout ta,ing it
full into account1 *e *ill find it difficult to probe the obscure genesis of nationalism8 2hat
has come to ta,e the place of the mediae&al conception of simultaneit7along7time is1 to
borro* again from BenFamin1 an idea of >homogeneous1 empt time1> in *hich simultaneit is1
as it *ere1 trans&erse1 cross7time1 mar,ed not b prefiguring and fulfilment1 but b temporal
coincidence1 and measured b cloc, and calendar8
%6
2h this transformation should be so important for the birth of the imagined communit of
the nation can best be seen if *e consider the basic structure of t*o forms of imagining *hich
first flo*ered in D9:E Europe in the eighteenth centur/ the no&el and the ne*spaper8
%:
For
these forms pro&ided the technical means for >re7presenting> the #ind of imagined communit
that is the nation8
Consider first the structure of the old7fashioned no&el1 a structure tpical not onl of the
masterpieces of BalBac but also of an contemporar dollar7dreadful8 It is clearl a de&ice for
the presentation of simultaneit in >homogeneous1 empt time1> or a comple' gloss upon the
*ord >mean*hile>8 Ta,e1 for illustrati&e purposes1 a segment of a simple no&el7plot1 in *hich
a man ;A= has a *ife ;B= and a mistress ;C=1 *ho in turn has a lo&er ;D=8 2e might imagine a
sort of time7chart for this segment as follo*s/
+ime: I II III
Events: A Guarrels *ith B A telephones C D gets drun, in a bar
C and D ma,e lo&e B shops A dines at home *ith B
D plas pool C has an ominous dream
Notice that during this seGuence A and D ne&er meet1 indeed ma not e&en be a*are of each
other>s e'istence if C has plaed her cards right8
%(
2hat then actuall lin,s A to DH T*o
complementar conceptions/ First1 that the are embedded in >societies> ;2esse'1 +iibec,1
+os Angeles=8 These societies are sociological entities of such firm and stable realit that
their members ;A and D= can e&en be described as passing each other on the street1 *ithout
e&er becoming acGuainted1 and still be connected8
%C
Second1 that A and D are D9(E embedded
in the minds of the omniscient readers8 Onl the1 li,e ?od1 *atch A telephoning C1 B
shopping1 and D plaing pool all at once. That all these acts are performed at the same
cloc,ed1 calendrical time1 but b actors *ho ma be largel una*are of one another1 sho*s
the no&elt of this imagined *orld conFured up b the author in his readers> minds8
%$
The idea of a sociological organism mo&ing calendricall through homogeneous1 empt time
is a precise analogue of the idea of the nation1 *hich also is concei&ed as a solid communit
mo&ing steadil do*n ;or up= histor8
%#
An American *ill ne&er meet1 or e&en ,no* the
names of more than a handful of his 96414447odd fello*7Americans8 3e has no idea of *hat
the are up to at an one time8 But he has complete confidence in their stead1 anonmous1
simultaneous acti&it8
The perspecti&e I am suggesting *ill perhaps seem less abstract if *e turn to inspect briefl
four fictions from different cultures and different epochs1 all but one of *hich1 nonetheless1
are ine'tricabl bound to nationalist mo&ements8 In "$$C1 the >Father of Filipino
Nationalism>1 Aose RiBal1 *rote the no&el .oli 6e +angere- *hich toda is regarded as the
greatest achie&ement of modern Filipino literature8 It *as also almost the first no&el *ritten
b an >Indio8>
64
3ere is ho* it mar&ellousl begins/
6"
To*ards the end of October1 Don Santiago de los Santos1 popularl ,no*n as Capitan Tiago1 *as
gi&ing a dinner part8 Although1 D9CE contrar to his usual practice1 he had announced it onl that
afternoon1 it *as alread the subFect of e&er con&ersation in Binondo1 in other Guarters of the cit1
and e&en in Dthe *alled inner cit ofE Intramuros8 In those das Capitan Tiago had the reputation of
a la&ish host8 It *as ,no*n that his house1 li,e his countr1 closed its doors to nothing1 e'cept to
commerce and to an ne* or daring idea8
So the ne*s coursed li,e an electric shoc, through the communit of parasites1 spongers1 and
gatecrashers *hom ?od1 in 3is infinite goodness1 created1 and so tenderl multiplies in 0anila8
Some hunted polish for their boots1 others loo,ed for collar7buttons and cra&ats8 But one and all
*ere preoccupied *ith the problem of ho* to greet their host *ith the familiarit reGuired to create
the appearance of longstanding friendship1 or1 if need be1 to e'cuse themsel&es for not ha&ing
arri&ed earlier8
The dinner *as being gi&en at a house on Anloague Street8 Since *e do not recall the street
number1 *e shall describe it in such a *a that it ma still be recogniBed 7 that is1 if earthGua,es
ha&e not et destroed it8 2e do not belie&e that its o*ner *ill ha&e had it torn do*n1 since such
*or, is usuall left to ?od or to Nature1 *hich1 besides1 holds man contracts *ith our
?o&ernment8
E'tensi&e comment is surel unnecessar8 It should suffice to note that right from the start
the image ;*holl ne* to Filipino *riting= of a dinner7part being discussed b hundreds of
unnamed people1 *ho do not ,no* each other1 in Guite different parts of 0anila1 in a
particular month of a particular decade1 immediatel conFures up the imagined communit8
And in the phrase >a house on Anloague StreetK *hich >*e shall describe in such a *a that it
ma still be recogniBed1> the *ould7be recogniBers are *e7Filipino7readers8 The casual pro7
gression of this house from the >interior> time of the no&el to the >e'terior> time of the D0anilaE
reader>s e&erda life gi&es a hpnotic confirmation of the solidit of a single communit1
embracing characters1 author and readers1 mo&ing on*ard through calendrical time8
69
Notice
too the tone8 2hile RiBal has not the faintest idea of his D9$E readers> indi&idual identities1 he
*rites to them *ith an ironical intimac1 as though their relationships *ith each other are not
in the smallest degree problematic8
6%
Nothing gi&es one a more Foucauldian sense of abrupt discontinuities of consciousness than
to compare .oli *ith the most celebrated pre&ious literar *or, b an >Indio>1 Francisco
Balagtas ;BaltaBar=>s Pinagdaanang (ha0 ni *lorante at ni 9ara sa ,ahariang 'l!ania
DThe Stor of Florante and +aura in the .ingdom of AlbaniaE1 the first printed edition of
*hich dates from "$("1 though it ma ha&e been composed as earl as "$%$8
66
For although
Balagtas *as still ali&e *hen RiBal *as born1 the *orld of his masterpiece is in e&er basic
respect foreign to that of .oli. Its setting @ a fabulous mediae&al Albania @ is utterl
remo&ed in time and space from the Binondo of the "$$4s8 Its heroes @ Florante1 a Christian
Albanian nobleman1 and his bosom7friend Aladin1 a 0uslim ;>0oro>= <ersian aristocrat @
remind us of the <hilippines onl b the Christian70oro lin,age8 2here RiBal deliberatel
sprin,les his Spanish prose *ith Tagalog *ords for >realistic>1 satirical1 or nationalist effect1
Balagtas unselfconsciousl mi'es Spanish phrases into his Tagalog Guatrains simpl to
heighten the grandeur and sonorit of his diction8 .oli *as meant to be read1 *hile *lorante
at 9ara *as to be sung aloud8 0ost stri,ing of all is Balagtas>s handling of time8 As
+umbera notes1 >the unra&elling of the plot does not follo* a chronological order8 The stor
begins in medias res- so that the complete stor comes to us through a series of speeches that
ser&e as flashbac,s8>
6:
Almost half of the %## Guatrains are accounts of Florante>s childhood1
student ears in Athens1 and subseGuent militar e'ploits1 gi&en b the hero in con&ersation
*ith D9#E Aladin8
6(
The >spo,en flashbac,> *as for Balagtas the onl alternati&e to a
straightfor*ard single7file narrati&e8 If *e learn of Florante>s and Aladin>s >simultaneous>
pasts1 the are connected b their con&ersing &oices1 not b the structure of the epic8 3o*
distant this techniGue is from that of the no&el/ >In that same spring1 *hile Florante *as still
studing in Athens1 Aladin *as e'pelled from his so&ereign>s court888> In effect1 it ne&er
occurs to Balagtas to >situate> his protagonists in >societ1> or to discuss them *ith his
audience8 Nor1 aside from the mellifluous flo* of Tagalog polsllables1 is there much
>Filipino> about his te't8
6C
In "$"(1 se&ent ears before the *riting of .oli- Aose AoaGuin FernandeB de +iBardi *rote a
no&el called El Peri"illo Sarniento DThe Itching <arrotE1 e&identl the first +atin American
*or, in this genre8 In the *ords of one critic1 this te't is >a ferocious indictment of Spanish
administration in 0e'ico/ ignorance1 superstition and corruption are seen to be its most
notable characteristics8>
6$
The essential form of this >nationalist> no&el is indicated b the
follo*ing description of its content/
6#
From the first1 Dthe hero1 the Itching <arrotE is e'posed to bad influences 7 ignorant maids inculcate
superstitions1 his mother indulges his *hims1 his teachers either ha&e no &ocation or no abilit to
D%4E discipline him8 And though his father is an intelligent man *ho *ants his son to practise a
useful trade rather than s*ell the ran,s of la*ers and parasites1 it is <eriGuillo>s o&er7fond mother
*ho *ins the da1 sends her son to uni&ersit and thus ensures that he *ill learn onl superstitious
nonsense 888 <eriGuillo remains incorrigibl ignorant despite man encounters *ith good and *ise
people8 3e is un*illing to *or, or ta,e anthing seriousl and becomes successi&el a priest1 a
gambler1 a thief1 apprentice to an apothecar1 a doctor1 cler, in a pro&incial to*n 888 These episodes
%ermit the athor to descri!e hos%itals- %risons- remote villages- monasteries- *hile at the same
time dri&ing home one maFor point7 that Spanish go&ernment and the education sstem encourage
parasitism and laBiness888 <eriGuillo>s ad&entures se&eral times ta,e him among Indians and
Negroes888
3ere again *e see the >national imagination> at *or, in the mo&ement of a solitar hero
through a sociological landscape of a fi'it that fuses the *orld inside the no&el *ith the
*orld outside8 This picaresGue tor d1horison - hospitals1 prisons1 remote &illages1
monasteries1 Indians1 Negroes 7 is nonetheless not a tord monde. The horiBon is clearl
bounded/ it is that of colonial 0e'ico8 Nothing assures us of this sociological solidit more
than the succession of plurals8 For the conFure up a social space full of com%ara!le prisons1
none in itself of an uniGue importance1 but all representati&e ;in their simultaneous1 separate
e'istence= of the oppressi&eness of this colon8
:4
;Contrast prisons in the Bible8 The are
ne&er imagined as t0%ical of this or that societ8 Each1 li,e the one *here Salome *as
be*itched b Aohn the Baptist1 is magicall alone8=
Finall1 to remo&e the possibilit that1 since RiBal and +iBardi both *rote in Spanish1 the
frame*or,s *e ha&e been studing are someho* >European>1 here is the opening of
Semarang Citam DBlac, SemarangE1 a tale b the ill7fated oung Indonesian communist7
nationalist 0as 0arco .artodi,romo1
:"
published seriall in "#96/
:9
$31& It :as Co 1cloc#- Satrda0 eveningD oung people in Semarang ne&er staed at home on
Saturda night8 On this night ho*e&er nobod *as about8 Because the hea& da7long rain had
made the roads *et and &er slipper1 all had staed at home8
For the *or,ers in shops and offices Saturda morning *as a time of anticipation 7 anticipating
their leisure and the fun of *al,ing around the cit in the e&ening1 but on this night the *ere to be
disappointed 7 because of letharg caused b the bad *eather and the stic, roads in the
,ampungs8 The main roads usuall crammed *ith all sorts of traffic1 the footpaths usuall teeming
*ith people1 all *ere deserted8 No* and then the crac, of a horse7cab>s *hip could be heard
spurring a horse on its *a 7 or the clip7clop of horses> hoo&es pulling carriages along8
Semarang *as deserted8 The light from the ro*s of gas lamps shone straight do*n on the shining
asphalt road8 Occasionall the clear light from the gas lamps *as dimmed as the *ind ble* from
the east8888
A oung man *as seated on a long rattan lounge reading a ne*spaper8 3e *as totall engrossed8
3is occasional anger and at other times smiles *ere a sure sign of his deep interest in the stor8 3e
turned the pages of the ne*spaper1 thin,ing that perhaps he could find something that *ould stop
him feeling so miserable8 All of a sudden he came upon an article entitled/
<ROS<ERIT5
A destitute &agrant became ill
and died on the side of the road from e'posure8
The oung man *as mo&ed b this brief report8 3e could Fust imagine the suffering of the poor
soul as he la ding on the side of the road 888 One moment he felt an e'plosi&e anger *ell up
inside8 Another moment he felt pit8 5et another moment his anger *as directed at D%9E the social
sstem *hich ga&e rise to such po&ert1 *hile ma,ing a small group of people *ealth8
3ere1 as in El Peri"illo Sarniento- *e are in a *orld of plurals/ shops1 offices1 carriages1
,ampungs1 and gas lamps8 As in the case of .oli- *e7the7Indonesian7readers are plunged
immediatel into calendrical time and a familiar landscapeJ some of us ma *ell ha&e *al,ed
those >stic,> Semarang roads8 Once again1 a solitar hero is Fu'taposed to a socioscape
described in careful1 general detail8 But there is also something ne*/ a hero *ho is ne&er
named1 but *ho is freGuentl referred to as 1or oung man>8 <recisel the clumsiness and
literar nai&et of the te't confirm the unselfconscious >sincerit> of this pronominal
adFecti&e8 Neither 0arco nor his readers ha&e an doubts about the reference8 If in the
Focular7sophisticated fiction of eighteenth7 and nineteenth7centur Europe the trope >our hero>
merel underlines an authorial pla *ith a;n= reader1 0arco>s >our oung man1> not least in
its no&elt1 means a oung man *ho belongs to the collecti&e bod of readers of Indonesian-
and thus1 implicitl1 an embronic Indonesian >imagined communit8> Notice that 0arco feels
no need to specif this communit b name/ it is alread there8 ;E&en if pollingual Dutch
colonial censors could Foin his readership1 the are e'cluded from this >ourness1> as can be
seen from the fact that the oung man>s anger is directed at >the1> not >our1> social sstem8=
Finall1 the imagined communit is confirmed b the doubleness of our reading about our
oung man reading8 3e does not find the corpse of the destitute &agrant b the side of a stic,
Semarang road1 but imagines it from the print in a ne*spaper8
:%
Nor does he care the slightest
*ho the dead &agrant indi&iduall *as/ he thin,s of the representati&e bod1 not the personal
life8
It is fitting that in Semarang Citam a ne*spaper appears embedded D%%E in fiction1 for1 if *e
no* turn to the ne*spaper as cultural product1 *e *ill be struc, b its profound ficti&eness8
2hat is the essential literar con&ention of the ne*spaperH If *e *ere to loo, at a sample
front page of1 sa1 +he .e: Eor# +imes- *e might find there stories about So&iet dissidents1
famine in 0ali1 a gruesome murder1 a coup in IraG1 the disco&er of a rare fossil in
Mimbab*e1 and a speech b 0itterrand8 2h are these e&ents so Fu'taposedH 2hat connects
them to each otherH Not sheer caprice8 5et ob&iousl most of them happen independentl1
*ithout the actors being a*are of each other or of *hat the others are up to8 The arbitrariness
of their inclusion and Fu'taposition ;a later edition *ill substitute a baseball triumph for
0itterrand= sho*s that the lin,age bet*een them is imagined8
This imagined lin,age deri&es from t*o obliGuel related sources8 The first is simpl
calendrical coincidence8 The date at the top of the ne*spaper1 the single most important
emblem on it1 pro&ides the essential connection 7 the stead on*ard cloc,ing of
homogeneous1 empt time8
:6
2ithin that time1 >the *orld> ambles sturdil ahead8 The sign for
this/ if 0ali disappears from the pages of +he .e: Eor# +imes after t*o das of famine
reportage1 for months on end1 readers do not for a moment imagine that 0ali has disappeared
or that famine has *iped out all its citiBens8 The no&elistic format of the ne*spaper assures
them that some*here out there the >character> 0ali mo&es along Guietl1 a*aiting its ne't
reappearance in the plot8
The second source of imagined7lin,age lies in the relationship bet*een the ne*spaper1 as a
form of boo,1 and the mar,et8 It has been estimated that in the 647odd ears bet*een the
publication of the ?utenberg Bible and the close of the fifteenth centur1 more than
9414441444 printed &olumes *ere produced in Europe8
::
Bet*een ":44 and "(441 the number
manufactured had reached bet*een D%6E ":414441444 and 944144414448
:(
>From earl on888 the
printing shops loo,ed more li,e modern *or,shops than the monastic *or,rooms of the
0iddle Ages8 In "6::1 Fust and Schoeffer *ere alread running a business geared to
standardised production1 and t*ent ears later large printing concerns *ere operating
e&er*here in all DsicE Europe8>
:C
In a rather special sense1 the boo, *as the first modern7stle
mass7produced industrial commodit8
:$
The sense I ha&e in mind can be sho*n if *e
compare the boo, to other earl industrial products1 such as te'tiles1 bric,s1 or sugar8 For
these commodities are measred in mathematical amounts ;pounds or loads or pieces=8 A
pound of sugar is simpl a Guantit1 a con&enient load1 not an obFect in itself8 The boo,1
ho*e&er7and here it prefigures the durables of our time 7 is a distinct1 self7contained obFect1
e'actl reproduced on a large scale8
:#
One pound of sugar flo*s into the ne'tJ each boo, has
its o*n eremitic self7sufficienc8 ;Small *onder that libraries1 personal collections of mass7
produced commodities1 *ere alread a familiar sight1 in urban centres li,e <aris1 b the
si'teenth centur8=
(4
In this perspecti&e1 the ne*spaper is merel an >e'treme form> of the boo,1 a boo, sold on a
colossal scale1 but of ephemeral popularit8 D%:E 0ight *e sa/ one7da best7sellersH
("
The
obsolescence of the ne*spaper on the morro* of its printing 7 curious that one of the earlier
mass7produced commodities should so prefigure the inbuilt obsolescence of modern
durables7nonetheless1 for Fust this reason1 creates this e'traordinar mass ceremon/ the
almost precisel simultaneous consumption ;>imagining>= of the ne*spaper7as7fiction8 2e
,no* that particular morning and e&ening editions *ill o&er*helmingl be consumed
bet*een this hour and that1 onl on this da1 not that8 ;Contrast sugar1 the use of *hich
proceeds in an uncloc,ed1 continuous flo*J it ma go bad1 but it does not go out of date8= The
significance of this mass ceremon 7 3egel obser&ed that ne*spapers ser&e modern man as a
substitute for morning praers 7 is parado'ical8 It is performed in silent pri&ac1 in the lair of
the s,ull8
(9
5et each communicant is *ell a*are that the ceremon he performs is being
replicated simultaneousl b thousands ;or millions= of others of *hose e'istence he is
confident1 et of *hose identit he has not the slightest notion8 Furthermore1 this ceremon is
incessantl repeated at dail or half7dail inter&als throughout the calendar8 2hat more &i&id
figure for the secular1 historicall cloc,ed1 imagined communit can be en&isionedH
(%
At the
same time1 the ne*spaper reader1 obser&ing e'act replicas of his o*n paper being consumed
b his sub*a1 barbershop1 or residential neighbours1 is continuall reassured that the
imagined *orld is &isibl rooted in D%(E e&erda life8 As *ith .oli 6e +angere- fiction
seeps Guietl and continuousl into realit1 creating that remar,able confidence of
communit in anonmit *hich is the hallmar, of modern nations8
Before proceeding to a discussion of the specific origins of nationalism1 it ma be useful to
recapitulate the main propositions put for*ard thus far8 Essentiall1 I ha&e been arguing that
the &er possibilit of imagining the nation onl arose historicall *hen1 and *here1 three
fundamental cultural conceptions1 all of great antiGuit1 lost their a'iomatic grip on men>s
minds8 The first of these *as the idea that a particular script7language offered pri&ileged
access to ontological truth1 precisel because it *as an inseparable part of that truth8 It *as
this idea that called into being the great transcontinental sodalities of Christendom1 the
Islamic -mmah1 and the rest8 Second *as the belief that societ *as naturall organiBed
around and under high centres 7monarchs *ho *ere persons apart from other human beings
and *ho ruled b some form of cosmological ;di&ine= dispensation8 3uman loalties *ere
necessaril hierarchical and centripetal because the ruler1 li,e the sacred script1 *as a node of
access to being and inherent in it8 Third *as a conception of temporalit in *hich cosmolog
and histor *ere indistinguishable1 the origins of the *orld and of men essentiall identical8
Combined1 these ideas rooted human li&es firml in the &er nature of things1 gi&ing certain
meaning to the e&erda fatalities of e'istence ;abo&e all death1 loss1 and ser&itude= and
offering1 in &arious *as1 redemption from them8
The slo*1 une&en decline of these interlin,ed certainties1 first in 2estern Europe1 later
else*here1 under the impact of economic change1 >disco&eries> ;social and scientific=1 and the
de&elopment of increasingl rapid communications1 dro&e a harsh *edge bet*een cosmolog
and histor8 No surprise then that the search *as on1 so to spea,1 for a ne* *a of lin,ing
fraternit1 po*er and time meaningfull together8 Nothing perhaps more precipitated this
search1 nor made it more fruitful1 than print7capitalism1 *hich made it possible for rapidl
gro*ing numbers of people to thin, about themsel&es1 and to relate themsel&es to others1 in
profoundl ne* *as8
"8 The ancient ?ree,s had cenotaphs1 but for specific1 ,no*n indi&iduals *hose bodies1 for one reason or
another1 could not be retrie&ed for regular burial8 I o*e this information to m BBantinist colleague Audith
3errin8
98 Consider1 for e'ample1 these remar,able tropes/ "8 >The long gre line has ne&er failed us8 2ere ou to do so1
a million ghosts in oli&e drab1 in bro*n ,ha,i1 in blue and gre1 *ould rise from their *hite crosses1 thundering
those magic *ords/ Dut1 honour1 countr8> 98 >0 estimate of Dthe American man7at7armsE *as formed on the
battlefield man1 man ears ago1 and has ne&er changed8 I regarded him then1 as I regard him no*1 as one of
the *orld>s noblest figuresJ not onl as one of the finest militar characters1 but also as one of the most stainless
DsicE8888 3e belongs to histor as furnishing one of the greatest e'amples of successful patriotism DsicE8 3e
belongs to posterit as the instructor of future generations in the principles of libert and freedom8 3e belongs to
the present1 to us1 b his &irtues and his achie&ements8> Douglas 0acArthur1 >Dut1 3onour1 Countr1> Address
to the -8S8 0ilitar Academ1 2est <oint1 0a "91 "#(91 in his ' Soldier S%ea#s- pp8 %:6 and %:C8
%8 Cf8 Regis Debra8 >0ar'ism and the National Nuestion1> .e: 9eft Revie:- "4: ;September7October "#CC=1 p8
9#8 In the course of doing field*or, in Indonesia in the "#(4s I *as struc, b the calm refusal of man 0uslims
to accept the ideas of Dar*in8 At first I interpreted this refusal as obscurantism8 SubseGuentl I came to see it as
an honourable attempt to be consistent/ the doctrine of e&olution *as simpl not compatible *ith the teachings
of Islam8 2hat are *e to ma,e of a scientific materialism *hich formall accepts the findings of phsics about
matter1 et ma,es so little effort to lin, these findings *ith the class struggle1 re&olution1 or *hate&er8 Does not
the abss bet*een protons and the proletariat conceal an unac,no*ledged metaphsical conception of manH But
see the refreshing te'ts of Sebastiano Timpanaro1 2n 6aterialism and +he *redian Sli%- and Ramond
2illiams>thoughtful response to them in >Timpanaro>s 0aterialist Challenge1K .e: 9eft Revie:- "4# ;0a7Aune
"#C$=1 pp8 %7"C8
68 The late <resident Su,arno al*as spo,e *ith complete sincerit of the %:4 ears of colonialism that his
>Indonesia> had endured1 although the &er concept >Indonesia> is a t*entieth7centur in&ention1 and most of
toda>s Indonesia *as onl conGuered b the Dutch bet*een "$:4 and "#"48 <reeminent among contemporar
Indonesia>s national heroes is the earl nineteenth7centur Aa&anese <rince Diponegoro1 although the <rince>s
o*n memoirs sho* that he intended to >conGuer Dnot liberateQEAT%fd1> rather than e'pel >the Dutch8>Indeed1 he
clearl had no concept of >the Dutch> as a collecti&it8 See 3arr A8 Benda and Aohn A8 +ar,in1 eds81 +he 3orld
of Sotheast 'sia- p8 ":$J and Ann.umar1 >Diponegoro;"CC$H7"$::=1> Indonesia- "% ;April "#C9=1 p8 "4%8
Emphasis added8 Similarl1 .emal Atatiir, named one of his state ban,s the Eti Ban,a ;3ittite Ban,= and
another the Sumerian Ban,8 ;Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 9:#=8 These ban,s flourish toda1 and there
is no reason to doubt that man Tur,s1 possibl not e'cluding .emal himself1 seriousl sa*1 and see1 in the
3ittites and Sumerians their Tur,ish forebears8 Before laughing too hard1 *e should remaind oursel&es of
Arthur and Boadicea1 and ponder the commercial success of Tol,ien>s mthographies8
:8 3ence the eGuanimit *ith *hich SiniciBed 0ongols and 0anchus *ere accepted as Sons of 3ea&en8
(8 Aohn +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- 15F5-15B6- p8 9(48 Emphasis added8
C8 Church ?ree, seems not to ha&e achie&ed the status of a truth7language8 The reasons for this >failure> are
&arious1 but one ,e factor *as certainl the fact that ?ree, remained a living demotic speech ;unli,e +atin= in
much of the Eastern Empire8 This insight I o*e to Audith 3errin8
$8 Nicholas Bra,espear held the office of pontiff bet*een "":6 and "":# under the name Adrian I!8
#8 0arc Bloch reminds us that >the maForit of lords and man great barons Din mediae&al timesE *ere
administrators incapable of studing personall a report or an account8> *edal Societ0- I- p8 $"8
"48 This is not to sa that the illiterate did not read8 2hat the read1 ho*e&er1 *as not *ords but the &isible
*orld8 >In the ees of all *ho *ere capable of reflection the material *orld *as scarcel more than a sort of
mas,1 behind *hich too, place all the reall important thingsJ it seemed to them also a language1 intended to
e'press b signs a more profound realit8> Ibid8 p8 $%8
""8 Erich Auerbach1 6imesis- p8 9$98
"98 0arco <olo1 +he +ravels of 6arco Polo- pp8 ":$7:#8 Emphases added8 Notice that1 though ,issed1 the
E&angel is not read8
"%8 +he +ravels of 6arco Polo- p8 ":98
"68 3enri de 0ontesGuieu1 Persian 9etters- p8 $"8 The 9ettres Persanes first appeared in "C9"8
":8 Bloch1 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 CC8 Emphasis added8
"(8 +ucien Feb&re and 3enri7Aean 0artin1 +he ,oming of the (oo#- pp8 96$76#8
"C8 Ibid81 p8 %9"8
"$8 Ibid81 p8 %%48
"#8 Ibid81 pp8 %%"7%98
948 Ibid81 pp8 9%97%%8 The original French is more modest and historicall e'act/ >Tandis Gue Ton edite de moins
en moins d>ou&rages en latin1 et une proportion touFours plus grande de te'tes en langue nationale1 le commerce
du li&re se morcelle en Europe8> 91'%%arition d 9ivre- p8 %:(8
9"8 Notice the displacement in rulers> nomenclature that corresponds to this transformation8 Schoolchildren
remember monarchs b their first names ;*hat :as 2illiam the ConGueror>s surnameH=1 presidents b their last
;*hat :as Ebert>s Christian nameH=8 In a *orld of citiBens1 all of *hom are theoreticall eligible for the
presidenc1 the limited pool of >ChristianU names ma,es them inadeGuate as specifing designators8 In
monarchies1 ho*e&er1 *here rule is reser&ed for a single surname1 it is necessaril >Christian>names1 *ith
numbers1 or sobriGuets1 that suppl the reGuisite distinctions8
998 2e ma here note in passing that Nairn is certainl correct in describing the "C4C Act of -nion bet*een
England and Scotland as a >patrician bargain1> in the sense that the union>s architects *ere aristocratic politicians8
;See his lucid discussion in +he (rea#-% of (ritain- pp8 "%(f=8 Still1 it is difficult to imagine such a bargain
being struc, bet*een the aristocracies of t*o republics8 The conception of a -nited Gingdom *as surel the
crucial mediating element that made the deal possible8
9%8 Oscar AasBi1 +he )issoltion of the Ca!s!rg 6onarch0- p8 %68
968 0ost notabl in pre7modern Asia8 But the same principle *as at *or, in monogamous Christian Europe8 In
"#"41 one Otto Forst put out his 'hnentafel Seiner Gaiserlichen nd Gcniglichen Coheit des drchlachtigsten
Cern Er8her8ogs *ran8 *erdinand- listing 9146C of the soon7to7be7assassinated Archdu,e>s ancestors8 The
included "16$( ?ermans1 "96 French1 "#( Italians1 $# Spaniards1 :9 <oles1 6C Danes1 94 Englishmen)*omen1 as
*ell as four other nationalities8 This >curious documentK is cited in ibid81 p8 "%(1 no8 "8 I can not resist Guoting
here FranB Aoseph>s *onderful reaction to the ne*s of his erratic heir7apparent>s murder/ >In this manner a
superior po*er has restored that order *hich I unfortunatel *as unable to maintain> ;ibid81 <7 "9:=8
9:8 ?ellner stresses the tpical foreignness of dnasties1 but interprets the phenomenon too narro*l/ local
aristocrats prefer an alien monarch because he *ill not ta,e sides in their internal ri&alries8 +hoght and
,hange- p8 "%(8
9(8 0arc Bloch1 9es Rois +hamatrges- pp8 %#4 and %#$7##8
9C8 Noel A8 Batte1 >The 0ilitar1 ?o&ernment and Societ in Siam1 "$($7"#"41> <hD thesis1 Cornell "#C61 p8 9C48
9$8 Stephen ?reene1 >Thai ?o&ernment and Administration in the Reign of Rama !I ;"#"47"#9:=1> <hD thesis1 -ni&ersit of
+ondon "#C"1 p8 #98
9#8 0ore than "1444 of the C14447$1444 men on the <russian Arm>s officer list in "$4( *ere foreigners8 >0iddle7class <russians
*ere outnumbered b foreigners in their o*n armJ this lent colour to the saing that <russia *as not a countr that had an arm1
but an arm that had a countr8> In "C#$1 <russian reformers had demanded a >reduction b one half of the number of foreigners1
*ho still amounted to about :4S of the pri&ates8888K Alfred !agts1 ' Cistor0 of 6ilitarism- pp8 (6 and $:8
%48 For us1 the idea of >modern dress1> a metaphorical eGui&alencing of past *ith present1 is a bac,handed recognition of their fatal
separation8
%"8 Bloch1 *edal Societ0- I1 pp8 $67$(8
%98 Auerbach1 6imesis- p8 (68 Emphasis added8 Compare St8 Augustine>s description of the Old Testament as >the shado* of Di8e8
cast bac,*ards bE the future8> Cited in Bloch1 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 #48
%%8 2alter BenFamin1 Illminations- p8 9(:8
%68 Ibid81 p8 9(%8 So deep7ling is this ne* idea that one could argue that e&er essential modern conception is based on a
conception of >mean*hile>8
%:8 2hile the Princesse de ,leves had alread appeared in "(C$1 the era of Richardson1 Defoe and Fielding is the earl eighteenth
centur8 The origins of the modern ne*spaper lie in the Dutch gaBettes of the late se&enteenth centurJ but the ne*spaper onl
became a general categor of printed matter after "C448 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he ,oming of the (oo#- p8 "#C8
%(8 Indeed1 the plot>s grip ma0 de%end at Times I1 II1 and III on A1 B1 C and D not ,no*ing *hat the others are up to8
%C8 This polphon decisi&el mar,s off the modern no&el e&en from so brilliant a forerunner as <etronius>s Sat0ricon. Its narrati&e
proceeds single file8 If Encolpius be*ails his oung lo&er>s faithlessness1 *e are not simultaneousl sho*n ?ito in bed *ith
Ascltus8
%$8 In this conte't it is re*arding to compare an historical no&el *ith documents or narrati&es from the period fictionaliBed8
%#8 Nothing better sho*s the immersion of the no&el in homogeneous1 empt time than the absence of those prefator genealogies1
often ascending to the origin of man1 *hich are so characteristic a feature of ancient chronicles1 legends1 and hol boo,s8
648 RiBal *rote this no&el in the colonial language ;Spanish=1 *hich *as then the lingua franca of the ethnicall di&erse Eurasian
and nati&e elites8 Alongside the no&el appeared also for the first time a >nationalist> press1 not onl in Spanish but in such >ethnic>
languages as Tagalog and Ilocano8 See +eopoldo 58 5abes1 >The 0odern +iterature of the <hilippines1> pp8 9$C7%491 in <ierre7
Bernard +afont and Dens +ombard ;eds=1 9iteratres ,ontem%oraines de I1'sie d Sd-Est.
6"8 Aose RiBal1 .oli 6e +angere ;0anila/ Institute Nacional de 3istoria1 "#C$=1 p8 "8 0 translation8 At the time of the original
publication of Imagined ,ommnities- I had no command of Spanish1 and *as thus un*ittingl led to rel on the instructi&el
corrupt translation of +eon 0aria ?uerrero8
698 Notice1 for e'ample1 RiBal>s subtle shift1 in the same sentence1 from the past tense of >created> Hcrio@ to the all7of7us7together
present tense of >multiplies> Hmlti%lica@.
6%8 The ob&erse side of the readers> anonmous obscurit *as)is the author>s immediate celebrit8 As *e shall see1 this
obscurit)celebrit has e&erthing to do *ith the spread of print7capitalism8 As earl as ":#% energetic Dominicans had published in
0anila the )octrina ,hristiana. But for centuries thereafter print remained under tight ecclesiastical control8 +iberaliBation onl
began in the "$(4s8 See Bien&enido +8 +umbera1 +agalog Poetr0 1I4F-1595- +radition and Inflences in its )evelo%ment- pp8 %:1
#%8
668 Ibid81 p8 "":8
6:8 Ibid81 p8 "948
6(8 The techniGue is similar to that of 3omer1 so abl discussed b Auerbach1 6imesis- ch8 " ;>Odsseus> Scar>=8
6C8><aalam Albaniang pinamamaanan
ng casama1 t1 lupit1 bangis caliluhan1
acong tangulan mo1 i1 cusa mang pinata
sa io1 i1 malaGui ang panghihinaang8>
>Fare*ell1 Albania1 ,ingdom no*
of e&il1 cruelt1 brutishness and deceitQ
I1 our defender1 *hom ou no* murder
Ne&ertheless lament the fate that has befallen ou8>
This famous stanBa has sometimes been interpreted as a &eiled statement of Filipino patriotism1 but +umbera con&incingl sho*s
such an interpretation to be an anachronistic gloss8 +agalog Poetr0- p8 "9:8 The translation is +umbera>s8 I ha&e slightl altered his
Tagalog te't to conform to a "#C% edition of the poem based on the "$(" imprint8
6$8 Aean Franco1 'n Introdction to S%anish-'merican 9iteratre- p8 %68
6#8 Ibid81 pp8 %:7%(8 Emphasis added8
:48 This mo&ement of a solitar hero through an adamantine social landscape is tpical of man earl ;anti7=colonial no&els8
:"8 After a brief1 meteoric career as a radical Fournalist1 0arco *as interned b the Dutch colonial authorities in Bo&en Digul1 one
of the *orld>s earliest concentration camps1 deep in the interior s*amps of *estern Ne* ?uinea8 There he died in "#%91 after si'
ears confinement8 3enri Chambert7+oir1 >0as 0arco .artodi,romo ;c8 "$#47"#%9= ou D8>Education <olitiGue1> p8 94$1 in
9itteratres con-tem%oraines de I1'sie d Sd-Est. A brilliant recent full7length account of 0arco>s career can be found in Ta,ashi
Shiraishi1 'n 'ge in 6otion: Po%lar Radicalism in Java- 191B-19B6- chapters 97: and $8
:98 As translated b <aul Tic,ell in his +hree Earl0 Indonesian Short Stories !0 6as 6arco Gartodi#romo Hc. 159F-193B@- p8 C8
Emphasis added8
:%8 In "#961 a close friend and political all of 0arco published a no&el titled Rasa 6erdi#a DFeeling Free)The Feel of FreedomE8 Of
the hero of this no&el ;*hich he *rongl attributes to 0arco= Chambert7+oir *rites that >he has no idea of the meaning of the *ord
KsocialismK/ nonetheless he feels a profound malaise in the face of the social organiBation that surrounds him and he feels the need
to enlarge his horiBons b t*o methods/ travel and reading.1 ;>0as 0arco>1 p8 94$8 Emphasis added8= The Itching <arrot has mo&ed
to Aa&a and the t*entieth centur8
:68 Reading a ne*spaper is li,e reading a no&el *hose author has abandoned an thought of a coherent plot8
::8 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he ,oming of the (oo#- p8 "$(8 This amounted to no less than %:1444 editions produced in no fe*er than
9%( to*ns8 As earl as "6$41 presses e'isted in more than ""4 to*ns1 of *hich :4 *ere in toda>s Ital1 %4 in ?erman1 # in France1
$ each in 3olland and Spain1 : each in Belgium and S*itBerland1 6 in England1 9 in Bohemia1 and " in <oland8 >From that date it
ma be said of Europe that the printed boo, *as in uni&ersal use8K ;p8 "$9=8
:(8 Ibid81 p8 9(98 The authors comment that b the si'teenth centur boo,s *ere readil a&ailable to anone *ho could read8
:C8 The great Ant*erp publishing house of <lantin controlled1 earl in the si'teenth centur1 96 presses *ith more than "44 *or,ers
in each shop8 Ibid81 p8 "9:8
:$8 This is one point solidl made amidst the &agaries of 0arshall 0c+uhan>s Kten!erg Kalax0 ;p8 "9:=8 One might add that if the
boo, mar,et *as d*arfed b the mar,ets in other commodities1 its strategic role in the dissemination of ideas nonetheless made it of
central importance to the de&elopment of modern Europe8
:#8 The principle here is more important than the scale8 -ntil the nineteenth centur1 editions *ere still relati&el small8 E&en
+uther>s Bible1 an e'traordinar best7seller1 had onl a 614447cop first edition8 The unusuall large first edition of Diderot>s
Enc0clo%edic numbered no more than 619:48 The a&erage eighteenth7centur run *as less than 914448 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he
,oming of the (oo#- pp8 9"$7948 At the same time1 the boo, *as al*as distinguishable from other durables b its inherentl
limited mar,et8 Anone *ith mone can bu CBech carsJ onl CBech7readers *ill bu CBech7language boo,s8 The importance of
this distinction *ill be considered belo*8
(48 Furthermore1 as earl as the late fifteenth centur the !enetian publisher Aldus had pioneered the portable >poc,et edition8K
("8 As the case of Semarang Citatn sho*s1 the t*o ,inds of best7sellers used to be more closel lin,ed than the are toda8 Dic,ens
too serialiBed his popular no&els in popular ne*spapers8
(98 ><rinted materials encouraged silent adherence to causes *hose ad&ocates could not be located in an one parish and *ho
addressed an in&isible public from afar8> EliBabeth +8 Eisenstein1 >Some ConFectures about the Impact of <rinting on 2estern Societ
and Thought1 1Jornal of 6odem Cistor0- 64/ " ;0arch "#($=1 p8 698
(%8 2riting of the relationship bet*een the material anarch of middle7class societ and an abstract political state7order1 Nairn
obser&es that >the representati&e mechanism con&erted real class ineGualit into the abstract egalitarianism of citiBens1 indi&idual
egotisms into an impersonal collecti&e *ill1 *hat *ould other*ise be chaos into a ne* state legitimac8> +he (rea#-% of (ritain- p8
968 No doubt8 But the representati&e mechanism ;electionsH= is a rare and mo&eable feast8 The generation of the impersonal *ill is1 I
thin,1 better sought in the diurnal regularities of the imagining life8
%8 The Origins of National Consciousness
D%CE If the de&elopment of print7as7commodit is the ,e to the generation of *holl ne*
ideas of simultaneit1 still1 *e are simpl at the point *here communities of the tpe
>horiBontal7secular1 trans&erse7time> become possible8 2h1 *ithin that tpe1 did the nation
become so popularH The factors in&ol&ed are ob&iousl comple' and &arious8 But a strong
case can be made for the primac of capitalism8
As alread noted1 at least 9414441444 boo,s had alread been printed b ":441
t
signalling the
onset of BenFamin>s >age of mechanical reproduction8> If manuscript ,no*ledge *as scarce
and arcane lore1 print ,no*ledge li&ed b reproducibilit and dissemination8
9
If1 as Feb&re
and 0artin belie&e1 possibl as man as 94414441444 &olumes had been manufactured b
"(441 it is no *onder that Francis Bacon belie&ed that print had changed >the appearance and
state of the *orld8>
%
One of the earlier forms of capitalist enterprise1 boo,7publishing D%$E felt all of capitalism>s
restless search for mar,ets8 The earl printers established branches all o&er Europe/ >in this
*a a &eritable KinternationalK of publishing houses1 *hich ignored national DsicE frontiers1
*as created8>
6
And since the ears ":447"::4 *ere a period of e'ceptional European
prosperit1 publishing shared in the general boom8 >0ore than at an other time> it *as >a great
industr under the control of *ealth capitalists8>
:
Naturall1 >boo,7sellers *ere primaril
concerned to ma,e a profit and to sell their products1 and conseGuentl the sought out first
and foremost those *or,s *hich *ere of interest to the largest possible number of their con7
temporaries8>
(
The initial mar,et *as literate Europe1 a *ide but thin stratum of +atin7readers8 Saturation of
this mar,et too, about a hundred and fift ears8 The determinati&e fact about +atin7aside
from its sacralit 7 *as that it *as a language of bilinguals8 Relati&el fe* *ere born to spea,
it and e&en fe*er1 one imagines1 dreamed in it8 In the si'teenth centur the proportion of
bilinguals *ithin the total population of Europe *as Guite smallJ &er li,el no larger than the
proportion in the *orld>s population toda1 and 7 proletarian internationalism not*ithstanding
7 in the centuries to come8 Then and no* the bul, of man,ind is monoglot8 The logic of
capitalism thus meant that once the elite +atin mar,et *as saturated1 the potentiall huge
mar,ets represented b the monoglot masses *ould bec,on8 To be sure1 the Counter7
Reformation encouraged a temporar resurgence of +atin7publishing1 but b the mid7
se&enteenth centur the mo&ement *as in deca1 and fer&entl Catholic libraries replete8
0eantime1 a Europe7*ide shortage of mone made printers thin, more and more of peddling
cheap editions in the &ernaculars8
C
D%#E The re&olutionar &ernaculariBing thrust of capitalism *as gi&en further impetus b
three e'traneous factors1 t*o of *hich contributed directl to the rise of national
consciousness8 The first1 and ultimatel the least important1 *as a change in the character of
+atin itself8 Than,s to the labours of the 3umanists in re&i&ing the broad literature of pre7
Christian antiGuit and spreading it through the print7mar,et1 a ne* appreciation of the
sophisticated stlistic achie&ements of the ancients *as apparent among the trans7European
intelligentsia8 The +atin the no* aspired to *rite became more and more Ciceronian1 and1
b the same to,en1 increasingl remo&ed from ecclesiastical and e&erda life8 In this *a it
acGuired an esoteric Gualit Guite different from that of Church +atin in mediae&al times8 For
the older +atin *as not arcane because of its subFect matter or stle1 but simpl because it
*as *ritten at all1 i8e8 because of its status as text. No* it became arcane because of *hat *as
*ritten1 because of the language7in7itself8
Second *as the impact of the Reformation1 *hich1 at the same time1 o*ed much of its
success to print7capitalism8 Before the age of print1 Rome easil *on e&er *ar against
heres in 2estern Europe because it al*as had better internal lines of communication than
its challengers8 But *hen in ":"C 0artin +uther nailed his theses to the chapel7door in
2ittenberg1 the *ere printed up in ?erman translation1 and >*ithin ": das Dhad beenE seen
in e&er part of the countr8>
$
In the t*o decades ":947":64 three times as man boo,s *ere
published in ?erman as in the period ":447":941 an astonishing transformation to *hich
+uther *as absolutel central8 3is *or,s represented no less than one third of all ?erman7
language boo,s sold bet*een ":"$ and ":9:8 Bet*een ":99 and ":6(1 a total of 6%4 editions
;*hole or partial= of his Biblical translations appeared8 >2e ha&e here for the first time a trul
mass readership and a popular literature *ithin e&erbod>s reach8>
#
In effect1 +uther became
the first best7selling author so #no:n. Or1 to put it another *a1 the first *riter *ho could
>sell> his ne: boo,s on the basis of his name8
"4
D64E 2here +uther led1 others Guic,l follo*ed1 opening the colossal religious propaganda
*ar that raged across Europe for the ne't centur8 In this titanic >battle for men>s minds>1
<rotestantism *as al*as fundamentall on the offensi&e1 precisel because it ,ne* ho* to
ma,e use of the e'panding &ernacular print7mar,et being created b capitalism1 *hile the
Counter7Reformation defended the citadel of +atin8 The emblem for this is the !atican>s
Index 9i!rorm Prohi!itorm - to *hich there *as no <rotestant counterpart 7 a no&el
catalogue made necessar b the sheer &olume of printed sub&ersion8 Nothing gi&es a better
sense of this siege mentalit than Francois I>s panic,ed ":%: ban on the printing of an boo,s
in his realm 7 on pain of death b hangingQ The reason for both the ban and its un7
enforceabilit *as that b then his realm>s eastern borders *ere ringed *ith <rotestant states
and cities producing a massi&e stream of smugglable print8 To ta,e Cal&in>s ?ene&a alone/
bet*een ":%% and ":64 onl 69 editions *ere published there1 but the numbers s*elled to
:9C bet*een "::4 and ":(61 b *hich latter date no less than 64 separate printing7presses
*ere *or,ing o&ertime8
""
The coalition bet*een <rotestantism and print7capitalism1 e'ploiting cheap popular editions1
Guic,l created large ne* reading publics 7 not least among merchants and *omen1 *ho
tpicall ,ne* little or no +atin7and simultaneousl mobiliBed them for politico7religious
purposes8 Ine&itabl1 it *as not merel the Church that *as sha,en to its core8 The same
earthGua,e produced Europe>s first important non7dnastic1 non7cit states in the Dutch
Republic and the Common*ealth of the <uritans8 ;Francois I>s panic *as as much political as
religious8=
Third *as the slo*1 geographicall une&en1 spread of particular &ernaculars as instruments of
administrati&e centraliBation b certain *ell7positioned *ould7be absolutist monarchs8 3ere it
is useful to remember that the uni&ersalit of +atin in mediae&al 2estern Europe ne&er
corresponded to a uni&ersal political sstem8 The D6"E contrast *ith Imperial China1 *here
the reach of the mandarinal bureaucrac and of painted characters largel coincided1 is
instructi&e8 In effect1 the political fragmentation of 2estern Europe after the collapse of the
2estern Empire meant that no so&ereign could monopoliBe +atin and ma,e it his7and7onl7
his language7of7state1 and thus +atin>s religious authorit ne&er had a true political analogue8
The birth of administrati&e &ernaculars predated both print and the religious uphea&al of the
si'teenth centur1 and must therefore be regarded ;at least initiall= as an independent factor
in the erosion of the sacred imagined communit8 At the same time1 nothing suggests that an
deep7seated ideological1 let alone proto7national1 impulses underla this &ernaculariBation
*here it occurred8 The case of >England> 7 on the north*estern peripher of +atin Europe 7 is
here especiall enlightening8 <rior to the Norman ConGuest1 the language of the court1 literar
and administrati&e1 *as Anglo7Sa'on8 For the ne't centur and a half &irtuall all roal
documents *ere composed in +atin8 Bet*een about "944 and "%:4 this state7+atin *as
superseded b Norman French8 In the meantime1 a slo* fusion bet*een this language of a
foreign ruling class and the Anglo7Sa'on of the subFect population produced Earl English8
The fusion made it possible for the ne* language to ta,e its turn1 after "%(91 as the language
of the courts7and for the opening of <arliament8 2cliffe>s &ernacular manscri%t Bible
follo*ed in "%$98
"9
It is essential to bear in mind that this seGuence *as a series of>state1>not
>national1> languagesJ and that the state concerned co&ered at &arious times not onl toda>s
England and 2ales1 but also portions of Ireland1 Scotland and *rance. Ob&iousl1 huge
elements of the subFect populations ,ne* little or nothing of +atin1 Norman French1 or Earl
English8
"%
Not till almost a centur after Earl English>s political enthronement *as +ondon>s
po*er s*ept out of >France>8
On the Seine1 a similar mo&ement too, place1 if at a slo*er pace8 D69E As Bloch *ril puts it1
>French1 that is to sa a language *hich1 since it *as regarded as merel a corrupt form of
+atin1 too, se&eral centuries to raise itself to literar dignit>1
"6
onl became the official
language of the courts of Fustice in ":%#1 *hen Francois I issued the Edict of !illers7
Cotterets8
":
In other dnastic realms +atin sur&i&ed much longer 7 under the 3absburgs *ell
into the nineteenth centur8 In still others1 >foreign> &ernaculars too, o&er/ in the eighteenth
centur the languages of the Romano& court *ere French and ?erman8
"(
In e&er instance1 the >choice> of language appears as a gradual1 unselfconscious1 pragmatic1
not to sa haphaBard de&elopment8 As such1 it *as utterl different form the selfconscious
language policies pursued b nineteenth7centur dnasts confronted *ith the rise of hostile
popular linguistic7nationalisms8 ;See belo*1 Chapter (=8 One clear sign of the difference is
that the old administrati&e languages *ere ;st that: languages used b and for officialdoms
for their o*n inner con&enience8 There *as no idea of sstematicall imposing the language
on the dnasts> &arious subFect populations8
"C
Nonetheless1 the ele&ation of these &ernaculars
to the status of languages7of7po*er1 *here1 in one sense1 the *ere competitors *ith +atin
;French in <aris1 DEarlE English in +ondon=1 made its o*n contribution to the decline of the
imagined communit of Christendom8
At bottom1 it is li,el that the esotericiBation of +atin1 the Reformation1 and the haphaBard
de&elopment of administrati&e &ernaculars are significant1 in the present conte't1 primaril in
a negati&e sense7in their contributions to the dethronement of +atin8 It is Guite possible to
concei&e of the emergence of the ne* imagined national communities *ithout an one1
perhaps all1 of them being present8 2hat1 in a positi&e sense1 made the ne* communities
imaginable *as a half7fortuitous1 but e'plosi&e1 interaction bet*een D6%E a sstem of
production and producti&e relations ;capitalism=1 a technolog of communications ;print=1 and
the fatalit of human linguistic di&ersit8
"$
The element of fatalit is essential8 For *hate&er superhuman feats capitalism *as capable of1
it found in death and languages t*o tenacious ad&ersaries8
"#
<articular languages can die or
be *iped out1 but there *as and is no possibilit of human,ind>s general linguistic
unification8 5et this mutual incomprehensibilit *as historicall of onl slight importance
until capitalism and print created monoglot mass reading publics8
2hile it is essential to ,eep in mind an idea of fatalit1 in the sense of a general condition of
irremediable linguistic di&ersit1 it *ould be a mista,e to eGuate this fatalit *ith that
common element in nationalist ideologies *hich stresses the primordial fatalit of %articlar
languages and their association *ith %articlar territorial units8 The essential thing is the
inter%la0 bet*een fatalit1 technolog1 and capitalism8 In pre7print Europe1 and1 of course1
else*here in the *orld1 the di&ersit of spo,en languages1 those languages that for their
spea,ers *ere ;and are= the *arp and *oof of their li&es1 *as immenseJ so immense1 indeed1
that had print7capitalism sought to e'ploit each potential oral &ernacular mar,et1 it *ould
ha&e remained a capitalism of pett proportions8 But these &aried idiolects *ere capable of
being assembled1 *ithin definite limits1 into print7languages far fe*er in number8 The &er
arbitrariness of an sstem of signs for sounds facilitated the assembling process8
94
;At the
same time1 the more ideographic the signs1 the &aster the potential D66E assembling Bone8 One
can detect a sort of descending hierarch here from algebra through Chinese and English1 to
the regular sllabaries of French or Indonesian8= Nothing ser&ed to >assemble> related
&ernaculars more than capitalism1 *hich1 *ithin the limits imposed b grammars and
snta'es1 created mechanicall reproduced print7languages capable of dissemination through
the mar,et8
9"
These print7languages laid the bases for national consciousnesses in three distinct *as8 First
and foremost1 the created unified fields of e'change and communication belo* +atin and
abo&e the spo,en &ernaculars8 Spea,ers of the huge &ariet of Frenches1 Englishes1 or
Spanishes1 *ho might find it difficult or e&en impossible to understand one another in
con&ersation1 became capable of comprehending one another &ia print and paper8 In the
process1 the graduall became a*are of the hundreds of thousands1 e&en millions1 of people
in their particular language7field1 and at the same time that onl0 those hundreds of thousands1
or millions1 so belonged8 These fello*7readers1 to *hom the *ere connected through print1
formed1 in their secular1 particular1 &isible in&isibilit1 the embro of the nationall imagined
communit8
Second1 print7capitalism ga&e a ne* fi'it to language1 *hich in the long run helped to build
that image of antiGuit so central to the subFecti&e idea of the nation8 As Feb&re and 0artin
remind us1 the printed boo, ,ept a permanent form1 capable of &irtuall infinite reproduction1
temporall and spatiall8 It *as no longer subFect to the indi&idualiBing and >unconsciousl
moderniBing> habits of monastic scribes8 Thus1 *hile t*elfth7centur French differed
mar,edl from that *ritten b !illon in the fifteenth1 the rate of change slo*ed decisi&el in
the si'teenth8 >B the "Cth centur languages in Europe had generall assumed their modern
forms8>
99
To D6:E put it another *a1 for three centuries no* these stabiliBed print7languages
ha&e been gathering a dar,ening &arnishJ the *ords of our se&enteenth7centur forebears are
accessible to us in a *a that to !illon his t*elfth7centur ancestors *ere not8
Third1 print7capitalism created languages7of7po*er of a ,ind different from the older
administrati&e &ernaculars8 Certain dialects ine&itabl *ere >closer> to each print7language
and dominated their final forms8 Their disad&antaged cousins1 still assimilable to the
emerging print7language1 lost caste1 abo&e all because the *ere unsuccessful ;or onl
relati&el successful= in insisting on their o*n print7form8 >North*estern ?erman> became
<latt Deutsch1 a largel spo,en1 thus sub7standard1 ?erman1 because it *as assimilable to
print7?erman in a *a that Bohemian spo,en7CBech *as not8 3igh ?erman1 the .ing>s
English1 and1 later1 Central Thai1 *ere correspondingl ele&ated to a ne* politico7cultural
eminence8 ;3ence the struggles in late7t*entieth7centur Europe b certain >sub7>nationalities
to change their subordinate status b brea,ing firml into print7and radio8=
It remains onl to emphasiBe that in their origins1 the fi'ing of print7languages and the
differentiation of status bet*een them *ere largel unselfconscious processes resulting from
the e'plosi&e interaction bet*een capitalism1 technolog and human linguistic di&ersit8 But
as *ith so much else in the histor of nationalism1 once >there1> the could become formal
models to be imitated1 and1 *here e'pedient1 consciousl e'ploited in a 0achia&ellian spirit8
Toda1 the Thai go&ernment acti&el discourages attempts b foreign missionaries to pro&ide
its hill7tribe minorities *ith their o*n transcription7sstems and to de&elop publications in
their o*n languages/ the same go&ernment is largel indifferent to *hat these minorities
s%ea#. The fate of the Tur,ic7spea,ing peoples in the Bones incorporated into toda>s Tur,e1
Iran1 IraG1 and the -SSR is especiall e'emplar8 A famil of spo,en languages1 once
e&er*here assemblable1 thus comprehensible1 *ithin an Arabic orthograph1 has lost that
unit as a result of conscious manipulations8 To heighten Tur,ish7Tur,e>s national
consciousness at the e'pense of an *ider Islamic identification1 AtatVr, imposed D6(E
compulsor romaniBation8
9%
The So&iet authorities follo*ed suit1 first *ith an anti7Islamic1
anti7<ersian compulsor romaniBation1 then1 in Stalin>s "#%4s1 *ith a Russifing compulsor
CrilliciBation8
96
2e can summariBe the conclusions to be dra*n from the argument thus far b saing that the
con&ergence of capitalism and print technolog on the fatal di&ersit of human language
created the possibilit of a ne* form of imagined communit1 *hich in its basic morpholog
set the stage for the modern nation8 The potential stretch of these communities *as inherentl
limited1 and1 at the same time1 bore none but the most fortuitous relationship to e'isting
political boundaries ;*hich *ere1 on the *hole1 the high*ater mar,s of dnastic
e'pansionisms=8
5et it is ob&ious that *hile toda almost all modern self7concei&ed nations7and also nation7
states7ha&e >national print7languages>1 man of them ha&e these languages in common1 and in
others onl a tin fraction of the population >uses> the national language in con&ersation or on
paper8 The nation7states of Spanish America or those of the >Anglo7Sa'on famil> are
conspicuous e'amples of the first outcomeJ man e'7colonial states1 particularl in Africa1 of
the second8 In other *ords1 the concrete formation of contemporar nation7states is b no
means isomorphic *ith the determinate reach of particular print7languages8 To account for
the discontinuit7in7connectedness bet*een print7languages1 national consciousness1 and
nation7states1 it is necessar to turn to the large cluster of ne* political entities that sprang up
in the 2estern hemisphere bet*een "CC( and "$%$1 all of *hich self7consciousl defined
themsel&es as nations1 and1 *ith the interesting e'ception of BraBil1 as ;non7dnastic=
republics8 For not onl *ere the historicall the first such states to emerge on the *orld
stage1 and therefore ine&itabl pro&ided the first real models of *hat such states should >loo,
li,e1> but their numbers and contemporar births offer fruitful ground for comparati&e
enGuir8
"8 The population of that Europe *here print *as then ,no*n *as about "44144414448 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he
,oming of the (oo#- pp8 96$76#8
98 Emblematic is 0arco <olo>s +ravels- *hich remained largel un,no*n till its first printing in "::#8 <olo1
+ravels- p8 'iii8
%8 Nuoted in Eisenstein1 >Some ConFectures1> p8 :(8
68 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he ,oming of the (oo#- p8 "998 ;The original te't1 ho*e&er1 spea,s simpl of >par7dessus
les frontieres8> 9 1'%%arition- p8 "$68=
:8 Ibid81 p8 "$C8 The original te't spea,s of>puissants> ;po*erful= rather than >*ealth> capitalists8 91'%%arition- p8
9$"8
(8 >3ence the introduction of printing *as in this respect a stage on the road to our present societ of mass
consumption and standardisation8> Ibid81 pp8 9:#7(48 ;The original te't has >une ci&ilisation de masse et de
standardisation1> *hich ma be better rendered >standardised1 mass ci&iliBation8> 91'%%arition- p8 %#6=8
C8 Ibid81 p8 "#:8
$8 Ibid81 pp8 9$#7#48
#8 Ibid81 pp8 9#"7#:8
"48 From this point it *as onl a step to the situation in se&enteenth7centur France *here Corneille1 0oliere1
and +a Fontaine could sell their manuscript tragedies and comedies directl to publishers1 *ho bought them as
e'cellent in&estments in &ie* of their authors> mar,et reputations8 Ibid81 p8 "("8
""8 Ibid81 pp8 %"47":8
"98 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- pp8 9$79#J Bloc,1 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 C:8
"%8 2e should not assume that administrati&e &ernacular unification *as immediatel or full achie&ed8 It is
unli,el that the ?uenne ruled from
"68 Bloch1 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 #$8
":8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 6$8
"(8 Ibid81 p8 $%8
"C8 An agreeable confirmation of this point is pro&ided b Francois I1 *ho1 as *e ha&e seen1 banned all printing
of boo,s in ":%: and made French the language of his courts four ears laterQ
"$8 It *as not the first >accident>of its ,ind8 Feb&re and 0artin note that *hile a &isible bourgeoisie alread
e'isted in Europe b the late thirteenth centur1 paper did not come into general use until the end of the
fourteenth8 Onl paper>s smooth plane surface made the mass reproduction of te'ts and pictures possible 7 and
this did not occur for still another se&ent7fi&e ears8 But paper *as not a European in&ention8 It floated in from
another histor7 China>s7 through the Islamic *orld8 +he ,oming of the (oo#- pp8 991 %41 and 6:8
"#8 2e still ha&e no giant multinationals in the *orld of publishing8
948 For a useful discussion of this point1 see S8 38 Steinberg1 *ive Cndred Eears of Printing- chapter :8 That the
sign ogh is pronounced differentl in the *ords although1 bough1 lough1 rough1 cough1 and hiccough1 sho*s
both the idiolectic &ariet out of *hich the no*7standard spelling of English emerged1 and the ideographic
Gualit of the final product8
9"8 I sa >nothing ser&ed 8 88 more than capitalism> ad&isedl8 Both Steinberg and Eisenstein come close to
theomorphiBing >print> "a print as the genius of modern histor8 Feb&re and 0artin ne&er forget that behind
print stand printers and publishing firms8 It is *orth remembering in this conte't that although printing *as
in&ented first in China1 possibl :44 ears before its appearance in Europe1 it had no maFor1 let alone
re&olutionar impact @ precisel because of the absence of capitalism there8
998 +he ,oming of the (oo#- p8 %"#8 Cf8 91'%%arition- p8 6CC/ >Au L!IIe siecle1 les langues nationales
apparaissent un peu partout cristallisees8>
9%8 3ans .ohn1 +he 'ge of .ationalism- p8 "4$8 It is probabl onl fair to add that .emal also hoped thereb to
align Tur,ish nationalism *ith the modern1 romaniBed ci&iliBation of 2estern Europe8
968 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 %"C8
68 Creole <ioneers
D6CE The ne* American states of the late eighteenth and earl nineteenth centuries are of
unusual interest because it seems almost impossible to e'plain them in terms of t*o factors
*hich1 probabl because the are readil deri&able from the mid7centur nationalisms of
Europe1 ha&e dominated much pro&incial European thin,ing about the rise of nationalism8
In the first place1 *hether *e thin, of BraBil1 the -SA1 or the former colonies of Spain1
language *as not an element that differentiated them from their respecti&e imperial
metropoles8 All1 including the -SA1 *ere Creole states1 formed and led b people *ho shared
a common language and common descent *ith those against *hom the fought8
"
Indeed1 it is
fair to sa that language *as ne&er e&en an issue in these earl struggles for national
liberation8
In the second place1 there are serious reasons to doubt the applicabilit in much of the
2estern hemisphere of Nairn>s other*ise persuasi&e thesis that/
The arri&al of nationalism in a distincti&el modern sense *as tied to the political baptism
of the lo*er classes888 Although sometimes D6$E hostile to democrac1 nationalist
mo&ements ha&e been in&ariabl populist in outloo, and sought to induct lo*er classes
into political life8 In its most tpical &ersion1 this assumed the shape of a restless middle7
class and intellectual leadership tring to sit up and channel popular class energies into
support for the ne* states8
9
At least in South and Central America1 European7stle >middle classes> *ere still insignificant
at the end of the eighteenth centur8 Nor *as there much in the *a of an intelligentsia8 For
>in those Guiet colonial das little reading interrupted the statel and snobbish rhthm of
men>s li&es8>
%
As *e ha&e seen1 the first Spanish7American no&el *as published onl in "$"(1
*ell after the *ars for independence had bro,en out8 The e&idence clearl suggests that
leadership *as held b substantial lando*ners1 allied *ith a some*hat smaller number of
merchants1 and &arious tpes of professional ;la*ers1 militar men1 local and pro&incial
functionaries=8
6
Far from see,ing to >induct the lo*er classes into political life1> one ,e factor initiall
spurring the dri&e for independence from 0adrid1 in such important cases as !eneBuela1
0e'ico and <eru1 *as the fear of>lo*er7class> political mobiliBations/ to *it1 Indian or Negro7
sla&e uprisings8
:
;This fear onl increased *hen 3egel>s >secretar of the 2orld7Spirit>
conGuered Spain in "$4$1 thereb depri&ing the Creoles of peninsular militar bac,up in case
of emergenc8= In <eru1 memories of the great;ac"erie led b Tupac Amarii ;"C647"C$"=
*ere still fresh8
(
In "C#"1 Toussaint +>Ou&erture led an insurrection of blac, sla&es that
produced in "$46 the second independent republic in the 2estern hemisphere 7 and terrified
the great sla&e7o*ning D6#E planters of !eneBuela8
C
2hen1 in "C$#1 0adrid issued a ne*1
more humane1 sla&e la* specifing in detail the rights and duties of masters and sla&es1 >the
Creoles reFected state inter&ention on the grounds that sla&es *ere prone to &ice and
independence DQE1 and *ere essential to the econom8 In !eneBuela 7 indeed all o&er the
Spanish Caribbean 7planters resisted the la* and procured its suspension in "C#68>
$
The
+iberator Boli&ar himself once opined that a Negro re&olt *as >a thousand times *orse than a
Spanish in&asion8 >
#
Nor should *e forget that man leaders of the independence mo&ement
in the Thirteen Colonies *ere sla&e7o*ning agrarian magnates8 Thomas Aefferson himself
*as among the !irginian planters *ho in the "CC4s *ere enraged b the loalist go&ernor>s
proclamation freeing those sla&es *ho bro,e *ith their seditious masters8
"4
It is instructi&e
that one reason *h 0adrid made a successful come7bac, in !eneBuela from "$"67"$"( and
held remote Nuito until "$94 *as that she *on the support of sla&es in the former1 and of
Indians in the latter1 in the struggle against insurgent Creoles8
""
0oreo&er1 the long duration
of the continental struggle against Spain1 b then a second7rate European po*er and one itself
recentl conGuered1 suggests a certain >social thinness> to these +atin American independence
mo&ements8
5et the :ere national independence mo&ements8 Boli&ar came to change his mind about
sla&es1
"9
and his fello*7liberator San 0artin decreed in "$9" that >in the future the aborigines
shall not be called D:4E
Indians or nati&esJ the are children and citi8ens of <eru and the shall be ,no*n as
<eru&ians8>
"%
;2e might add/ in spite of the fact that as et print7capitalism had not reached
these illiterates8=
3ere then is the riddle/ *h *as it precisel creole communities that de&eloped so earl
conceptions of their nation7ness 7 :ell !efore most of Ero%e1= 2h did such colonial
pro&inces1 usuall containing large1 oppressed1 non7Spanish7spea,ing populations1 produce
Creoles *ho consciousl redefined these populations as fello*7nationalsH And Spain1
"6
to
*hom the *ere1 in so man *as1 attached1 as an enem alienH 2h did the Spanish7
American Empire1 *hich had e'isted calml for almost three centuries1 Guite suddenl
fragment into eighteen separate statesH
The t*o factors most commonl adduced in e'planation are the tightening of 0adrid>s
control and the spread of the liberaliBing ideas of the Enlightenment in the latter half of the
eighteenth centur8 It is undoubtedl true that the policies pursued b the capable >enlightened
despot> Carlos III ;r8 "C:#7"C$$= increasingl frustrated1 angered1 and alarmed the upper
creole classes8 In *hat has sometimes sardonicall been called the second conGuest of the
Americas1 0adrid imposed ne* ta'es1 made their collection more efficient1 enforced metro7
politan commercial monopolies1 restricted intra7hemispheric trade to its o*n ad&antage1
centraliBed administrati&e hierarchies1 and promoted a hea& immigration of %eninslares.
1I
0e'ico1 for e'ample1 in the earl eighteenth centur pro&ided the Cro*n *ith an annual
re&enue of about %14441444 pesos8 B the centur>s end1 ho*e&er1 the sum had almost
Guintupled to "6144414441 of *hich onl 614441444 *ere used to defra the costs of local
administration8
"(
<arallel to this1 the le&el of peninsular migration b the decade D:"E "C$47
"C#4 *as fi&e times as high as it had been bet*een "C"47"C%48
"C
There is also no doubt that impro&ing trans7Atlantic communications1 and the fact that the
&arious Americas shared languages and cultures *ith their respecti&e metropoles1 meant a
relati&el rapid and eas transmission of the ne* economic and political doctrines being
produced in 2estern Europe8 The success of the Thirteen Colonies> re&olt at the end of the
"CC4s1 and the onset of the French Re&olution at the end of the "C$4s1 did not fail to e'ert a
po*erful influence8 Nothing confirms this >cultural re&olution> more than the per&asi&e
re%!licanism of the ne*l independent communities8
"$
No*here *as an serious attempt
made to recreate the dnastic principle in the Americas1 e'cept in BraBilJ e&en there1 it *ould
probabl not ha&e been possible *ithout the immigration in "$4$ of the <ortuguese dnast
himself1 in flight from Napole>on8 ;3e staed there for "% ears1 and1 on returning home1 had
his son cro*ned locall as <edro I of BraBil8=
"#
5et the aggresi&eness of 0adrid and the spirit of liberalism1 *hile central to an
understanding of the impulse of resistance in the Spanish Americas1 do not in themsel&es
e'plain *h entities li,e Chile1 !eneBuela1 and 0e'ico turned out to be emotionall plausible
D:9E and politicall &iable1
94
nor *h San 0artin should decree that certain aborigines be
identified b the neological ><eru&ians8> Nor1 Wultimatel1 do the account for the real
sacrifices made8 For *hile it is certain that the upper Creole classes1 conceived as historical
social formations- did nicel out of independence o&er the long haul1 man actual members
of those classes living bet*een "$4$ and "$9$ *ere financiall ruined8 ;To ta,e onl one
e'ample/ during 0adrid>s counter7offensi&e of "$"67"( >more than t*o7thirds of !eneBuela>s
lando*ning families suffered hea& confiscations8K
9"
= And Fust as man *illingl ga&e up
their li&es for the cause8 This *illingness to sacrifice on the part of comfortable classes is
food for thought8
2hat thenH The beginnings of an ans*er lie in the stri,ing fact that >each of the ne* South
American republics had been an administrati&e unit from the si'teenth to the eighteenth
centur8>
99
In this respect the foreshado*ed the ne* states of Africa and parts of Asia in the
mid t*entieth centur1 and form a sharp contrast to the ne* European states of the late
nineteenth and earl t*entieth centuries8 The original shaping of the American administrati&e
units *as to some e'tent arbitrar and fortuitous1 mar,ing the spatial limits of particular
militar conGuests8 But1 o&er time1 the de&eloped a firmer realit under the influence of
geographic1 political and economic factors8 The &er &astnessofthe Spanish American empire1
the enormous &ariet of its soils and climates1 and1 abo&e all1 the immense difficult of
communications in a pre7industrial age1 tended to gi&e these units a self7contained character8
;In the colonial era the sea Fourne from Buenos Aires to Acapulco too, four months1 and the
return trip e&en longerJ the o&erland tre, from Buenos Aires to Santiago normall lasted t*o
months1 and that to Cartagena nine8
9%
= In addition1 0adrid>s commercial policies had the
effect of turning administrati&e units into separate economic Bones8 >All competition D:%E *ith
the mother countr *as forbidden the Americans1 and e&en the indi&idual parts of the
continent could not trade *ith each other8 American goods en route from one side of America
to the other had to tra&el circuitousl through Spanish ports1 and Spanish na&igation had a
monopol on trade *ith the colonies8>
96
These e'periences help to e'plain *h >one of the
basic principles of the American re&olution> *as that of 1ti %ossidetis b *hich each nation
*as to preser&e the territorial status Guo of "$"41 the ear *hen the mo&ement for
independence had been inaugurated8>
9:
Their influence also doubtless contributed to the
brea,7up of Boli&ar>s short7li&ed ?ran Colombia and of the -nited <ro&inces of the Rio de la
<lata into their older constituents ;*hich toda are ,no*n as !eneBuela7Colombia7Ecuador
and Argentina7-rugua7<aragua7Boli&ia=8 Nonetheless1 in themselves- mar,et7Bones1
>natural>7geographic or politico7administrati&e1 do not create attachments8 2ho *ill *illingl
die for Comecon or the EECH
To see ho* administrati&e units could1 o&er time1 come to be concei&ed as fatherlands1 not
merel in the Americas but in other parts of the *orld1 one has to loo, at the *as in *hich
administrati&e organiBations create meaning8 The anthropologist !ictor Turner has *ritten
illuminatingl about the Fourne>1 bet*een times1 statuses and places1 as a meaning7creating
e'perience8
9(
All such Fournes reGuire interpretation ;for e'ample1 the Fourne from birth to
death has gi&en rise to &arious religious conceptions8= For our purposes here1 the modal
Fourne is the pilgrimage8 It is not simpl that in the minds of Christians1 0uslims or 3indus
the cities of Rome1 0ecca1 or Benares *ere the centres of sacred geographies1 but that their
centralit *as e'perienced and D:6E >realiBed> ;in the stagecraft sense= b the constant flo* of
pilgrims mo&ing to*ards them from remote and other:ise nrelated localities8 Indeed1 in
some sense the outer limits of the old religious communities of the imagination *ere
determined b *hich pilgrimages people made8
9C
As noted earlier1 the strange phsical
Fu'taposition of 0alas1 <ersians1 Indians1 Berbers and Tur,s in 0ecca is something
incomprehensible *ithout an idea of their communit in some form8 The Berber encountering
the 0ala before the .aaba must1 as it *ere1 as, himself/ >2h is this man doing *hat I am
doing1 uttering the same *ords that I am uttering1 e&en though *e can not tal, to one
anotherH> There is onl one ans*er1 once one has learnt it/ >Because :e... are 0uslims8> There
*as1 to be sure1 al*as a double aspect to the choreograph of the great religious
pilgrimages/ a &ast horde of illiterate &ernacular7spea,ers pro&ided the dense1 phsical realit
of the ceremonial passageJ *hile a small segment of literate bilingual adepts dra*n from each
&ernacular communit performed the unifing rites1 interpreting to their respecti&e follo*ings
the meaning of their collecti&e motion8
9$
In a pre7print age1 the realit of the imagined
religious communit depended profoundl on countless1 ceaseless tra&els8 Nothing more
impresses one about 2estern Christendom in its heda than the uncoerced flo* of faithful
see,ers from all o&er Europe1 through the celebrated >regional centres> of monastic learning1
to Rome8 These great +atin7spea,ing institutions dre* together *hat toda *e *ould perhaps
regard as Irishmen1 Danes1 <ortuguese1 ?ermans1 and so forth1 in communities *hose sacred
meaning *as e&er da deciphered from their members> other*ise ine'plicable Fu'taposition
in the refector8
Though the religious pilgrimages are probabl the most touching D::E and grandiose Fournes
of the imagination1 the had1 and ha&e1 more modest and limited secular counterparts8
9#
For
our present purposes1 the most important *ere the differing passages created b the rise of
absolutiBing monarchies1 and1 e&entuall1 Europe7centred *orld7imperial states8 The inner
thrust of absolutism *as to create a unified apparatus of po*er1 controlled directl b1 and
loal to1 the ruler over against a decentraliBed1 particularistic feudal nobilit8 -nification
meant internal interchangeabilit of men and documents8 3uman interchangeabilit *as
fostered b the recruitment 7 naturall to &aring e'tents7of homines novi- *ho1 Fust for that
reason1 had no independent po*er of their o*n1 and so could ser&e as emanations of their
masters> *ills8
%4
Absolutist functionaries thus undertoo, Fournes *hich *ere basicall
different from those of feudal nobles8
%"
The difference can be represented schematicall as
follo*s/ In the modal feudal Fourne1 the heir of Noble A1 on his father>s death1 mo&es up one
step to ta,e that father>s place8 This ascension reGuires a round7trip1 to the centre for
in&estiture1 and then bac, home to the ancestral demesne8 For the ne* functionar1 ho*e&er1
things are more comple'8 Talent1 not death1 charts his course8 3e sees before him a summit
rather than a centre8 3e tra&els up its corniches in a series of looping arcs *hich1 he hopes1
*ill become smaller and tighter as he nears the top8 Sent out to to*nship A at ran, !1 he ma
return to the capital at ran, 2J proceed to pro&ince B at ran, LJ continue to &ice7roalt C at
ran, 5J and end his pilgrimage in the capital at ran, M8 On this Fourne there is no assured
resting7placeJ e&er pause is pro&isional8 The last thing the functionar *ants is to return
homeJ for he has no home *ith an intrinsic &alue8 And this/ on his up*ard7spiralling road he
encounters as eager fello*7pilgrims his functionar colleagues1 from places and families he
has scarcel D:(E heard of and surel hopes ne&er to ha&e to see8 But in e'periencing them as
tra&elling7companions1 a consciousness of connectedness ;>2h are :e... here. .. together1=1@
emerges1 abo&e all *hen all share a single language7of7state8 Then1 if official A from
pro&ince B administers pro&ince C1 *hile official D from pro&ince C administers pro&ince B
7 a situation that absolutism begins to ma,e li,el7that e'perience of interchangeabilit
reGuires its o*n e'planation/ the ideolog of absolutism1 *hich the ne* men themsel&es1 as
much as the so&ereign1 elaborate8
Documentar interchangeabilit1 *hich reinforced human inter7changeabilit1 *as fostered
b the de&elopment of a standardiBed language7of7state8 As the statel succession of Anglo7
Sa'on1 +atin1 Norman1 and Earl English in +ondon from the ele&enth through the fourteenth
centuries demonstrates1 an0 *ritten language could1 in principle1 ser&e this function 7
pro&ided it *as gi&en monopol rights8 ;One could1 ho*e&er1 argue that *here &ernaculars1
rather than +atin1 happened to hold the monopol1 a further centraliBing function *as
achie&ed1 b restricting the drift of one so&ereign>s officials to his ri&als> machines/ so to
spea, ensuring that 0adrid>s pilgrim7functionaries *ere not interchangeable *ith those of
<aris8=
In principle1 the e'tra7European e'pansion of the great ,ingdoms of earl modern Europe
should ha&e simpl e'tended the abo&e model in the de&elopment of grand1 transcontinental
bureaucracies8 But1 in fact1 this did not happen8 The instrumental rationalit of the absolutist
apparatus 7 abo&e all its tendenc to recruit and promote on the basis of talent rather than of
birth7operated onl fitfull beond the eastern shores of the Atlantic8
%9
The pattern is plain in the Americas8 For e'ample1 of the "C4 &iceros in Spanish America
prior to "$"%1 onl 6 *ere Creoles8 These figures are all the more startling if *e note that in
"$44 less than :S of the %19441444 creole >*hites> in the 2estern Empire ;imposed on about
"%1C441444 indigenes= *ere Spain7born Spaniards8 On the e&e D:CE of the re&olution in
0e'ico1 there *as onl one Creole bishop1 although Creoles in the &iceroalt outnumbered
%eninslares b C4 to I8
%%
And1 needless to sa1 it *as nearl unheard7of for a Creole to rise to
a position of official importance in Spain8
%6
0oreo&er1 the pilgrimages of Creole functionaries
*ere not merel &erticall barred8 If peninsular officials could tra&el the road from MaragoBa
to Cartagena1 0adrid1 +ima1 and again 0adrid1 the >0e'ican> or >Chilean> Creole tpicall
ser&ed onl in the territories of colonial 0e'ico or Chile/ his lateral mo&ement *as as
cramped as his &ertical ascent8 In this *a1 the ape' of his looping climb1 the highest
administrati&e centre to *hich he could be assigned1 *as the capital of the imperial
administrati&e unit in *hich he found himself8
%:
5et on this cramped pilgrimage he found
tra&elling7companions1 *ho came to sense that their fello*ship *as based not onl on that
pilgrimage>s particular stretch1 but on the shared fatalit of trans7Atlantic birth8 E&en if he
*as born *ithin one *ee, of his father>s D:$E migration1 the accident of birth in the Americas
consigned him to subordination 7 e&en though in terms of language1 religion1 ancestr1 or
manners he *as largel indistinguishable from the Spain7born Spaniard8 There *as nothing
to be done about it/ he *as irremedia!l0 a Creole8 5et ho* irrational his e'clusion must ha&e
seemedQ Nonetheless1 hidden inside the irrationalit *as this logic/ born in the Americas1 he
could not be a true SpaniardJ ergo- born in Spain1 the %eninslar could not be a true
American8
%(
2hat made the e'clusion appear rational in the metropoleH Doubtless the confluence of a
time7honoured 0achia&ellism *ith the gro*th of conceptions of biological and ecological
contamination that accompanied the planetar spread of Europeans and European po*er from
the si'teenth centur on*ards8 From the so&ereign>s angle of &ision1 the American Creoles1
*ith their e&er7gro*ing numbers and increasing local rootedness *ith each succeeding
generation1 presented a historicall uniGue political problem8 For the first time the metropoles
had to deal *ith7for that era7&ast numbers of >fello*7Europeans> ;o&er three million in the
Spanish Americas b "$44= far outside Europe8 If the indigenes *ere conGuerable b arms
and disease1 and controllable b the msteries of Christianit and a completel alien culture
;as *ell as1 for those das1 an ad&anced political organiBation=1 the same *as not true of the
Creoles1 *ho had &irtuall the same relationship to arms1 disease1 Christianit and European
culture as the metropolitans8 In other *ords1 in principle1 the had readil at hand the
political1 cultural and militar means for successfull asserting themsel&es8 The constituted
simultaneousl a colonial communit and an upper class8 The *ere to be economicall
subFected and e'ploited1 but the *ere also essential to the stabilit of the empire8 One can
see1 in this light1 a certain parallelism bet*een the position of the Creole D:#E magnates and
of feudal barons1 crucial to the so&ereign>s po*er1 but also a menace to it8 Thus the
%eninslares dispatched as &iceros and bishops ser&ed the same functions as did the
homines novi of the proto7absolutist bureaucracies8
%C
E&en if the &icero *as a grandee in his
Andalusian home1 here1 :1444 miles a*a1 Fu'taposed to the Creoles1 he *as effecti&el a
homo novs full dependent on his metropolitan master8 The tense balance bet*een
peninsular official and Creole magnate *as in this *a an e'pression of the old polic of
divide et im%era in a ne* setting8
In addition1 the gro*th of Creole communities1 mainl in the Americas1 but also in parts of
Asia and Africa1 led ine&itabl to the appearance of Eurasians1 Eurafricans1 as *ell as
Euramericans1 not as occasional curiosities but as &isible social groups8 Their emergence
permitted a stle of thin,ing to flourish *hich foreshado*s modern racism8 <ortugal1 earliest
of Europe>s planetar conGuerors1 pro&ides an apt illustration of this point8 In the last decade
of the fifteenth centur Dom 0anuel I could still >sol&e> his >Ae*ish Guestion> b mass1
forcible conversion - possibl the last European ruler to find this solution both satisfactor
and >natural>8
%$
+ess than a centur later1 ho*e&er1 one finds Ale'andre !alignano1 the great
reorganiBer of the Aesuit mission in Asia bet*een ":C6 and "(4(1 &ehementl opposing the
admission of Indians and Eurindians to the priesthood in these terms/
%#
All these dus, races are &er stupid and &icious1 and of the basest spirits 888 As for the mesti8os
and castifos- *e should recei&e either &er fe* or none at allJ especiall *ith regard to the
mesti8os- since the more nati&e blood the ha&e1 the more the resemble the Indians and the less
the are esteemed b the <ortuguese8
;5et !alignano acti&el encouraged the admission of Aapanese1 .oreans1 Chinese1 and
>Indochinese> to the priestl function I perhaps D(4E because in those Bones mestiBos had et
to appear in an numbersH= Similarl1 the <ortuguese Franciscans in ?oa &iolentl opposed
admission of Creoles to the order1 alleging that >e&en if born of pure *hite parents DtheE ha&e
been suc,led b Indian aahs in their infanc and thus had their blood contaminated for
life8>
64
Bo'er sho*s that >racial> bars and e'clusions increased mar,edl during the
se&enteenth and eighteenth centuries b comparison *ith earlier practice8 To this malignant
tendenc the re&i&al of large7scale sla&er ;for the first time in Europe since antiGuit=1 *hich
*as pioneered b <ortugal after ":"41 made its o*n massi&e contribution8 Alread in the
"::4s1 "4S of +isbon>s population *ere sla&esJ b "$44 there *ere close to a million sla&es
among the 91:441444 or so inhabitants of <ortugal>s BraBil8
6"
Indirectl1 the Enlightenment also influenced the crstalliBation of a fatal distinction bet*een
metropolitans and Creoles8 In the course of his t*ent7t*o ears in po*er ;"C::7"CCC=1 the
enlightened autocrat <ombal not onl e'pelled the Aesuits from <ortuguese domains1 but
made it a criminal offence to call >coloured> subFects b offensi&e names1 such as >nigger> or
>mestico> DsicE8 But he Fustified this decree b citing ancient Roman conceptions of imperial
citiBenship1 not the doctrines of the %hiloso%hes 1
69
0ore tpicall1 the *ritings of Rousseau
and 3erder1 *hich argued that climate and >ecolog> had a constituti&e impact on culture and
character1 e'erted *ide influence8
6%
It *as onl too eas from there to ma,e the con&enient1
&ulgar deduction that Creoles1 born in a sa&age hemisphere1 *ere b nature different from1
and inferior to1 the metropolitans 7 and thus unfit for higher office8
66
D("E Our attention thus far has been focussed on the *orlds of functionaries in the Americas 7
strategicall important1 but still small *orlds8 0oreo&er1 the *ere *orlds *hich1 *ith their
conflicts bet*een %eninslares and Creoles1 predated the appearance of American national
consciousnesses at the end of the eighteenth centur8 Cramped &iceregal pilgrimages had no
decisi&e conseGuences until their territorial stretch could be imagined as nations1 in other
*ords until the arri&al of print7capitalism8
<rint itself spread earl to Ne* Spain1 but for t*o centuries it remained under the tight
control of cro*n and church8 Till the end of the se&enteenth centur1 presses e'isted onl in
0e'ico Cit and +ima1 and their output *as almost e'clusi&el ecclesiastical8 In <rotestant
North America printing scarcel e'isted at all in that centur8 In the course of the eighteenth1
ho*e&er1 a &irtual re&olution too, place8 Bet*een "(#" and "$941 no less than 91"94
>ne*spapers> *ere published1 of *hich 6(" lasted more than ten ears8
6:
The figure of BenFamin Fran,lin is indelibl associated *ith Creole nationalism in the
northern Americas8 But the importance of his trade ma be less apparent8 Once again1 Feb&re
and 0artin are enlightening8 The remind us that >printing did not reall de&elop in DNorthE
America during the eighteenth centur until printers disco&ered a ne* source of income 7 the
ne*spaper8>
6(
<rinters starting ne* presses al*as included a ne*spaper in their productions1
to *hich the *ere usuall the main1 e&en the sole1 contributor8 Thus the printer7Fournalist
*as initiall an essentiall North American phenomenon8 Since the main problem facing the
printer7Fournalist *as reaching readers1 there de&eloped an alliance *ith the post7master so
intimate that often each became the other8 3ence1 the printer>s office emerged as the ,e to
North American communications and communit intellectual life8 In Spanish America1 albeit
more slo*l and intermittentl1 similar processes D(9E produced1 in the second half of the
eighteenth centur1 the first local presses8
6C
2hat *ere the characteristics of the first American ne*spapers1 North or SouthH The began
essentiall as appendages of the mar,et8 Earl gaBettes contained 7 aside from ne*s about the
metropole 7commercial ne*s ;*hen ships *ould arri&e and depart1 *hat prices *ere current
for *hat commodities in *hat ports=1 as *ell as colonial political appointments1 marriages of
the *ealth1 and so forth8 In other *ords1 *hat brought together1 on the same page1 this
marriage *ith that ship1 this price *ith that bishop1 *as the &er structure of the colonial
administration and mar,et7sstem itself8 In this *a1 the ne*spaper of Caracas Guite
naturall1 and e&en apoliticall1 created an imagined communit among a specific assemblage
of fello*7readers1 to *hom these ships1 brides1 bishops and prices belonged8 In time1 of
course1 it *as onl to be e'pected that political elements *ould enter in8
One fertile trait of such ne*spapers *as al*as their pro&incialit8 A colonial Creole might
read a 0adrid ne*spaper if he got the chance ;but it *ould sa nothing about his *orld=1 but
man a peninsular official1 li&ing do*n the same street1 *ould1 if he could help it1 not read
the Caracas production8 An asmmetr infinitel replicable in other colonial situations8
Another such trait *as pluralit8 The Spanish7American Fournals that de&eloped to*ards the
end of the eighteenth centur *ere *ritten in full a*areness of pro&incials in *orlds parallel
to their o*n8 The ne*spaper7readers of 0e'ico Cit1 Buenos Aires1 and Bogota1 e&en if the
did not read each other>s ne*spapers1 *ere nonetheless Guite conscious of their e'istence8
3ence a *ell7,no*n doubleness in earl Spanish7American nationalism1 its alternating grand
stretch and particularistic localism8 The fact that earl 0e'ican nationalists *rote of
themsel&es as nosotros los 'mericanos and of their countr as nestra 'merica- has been
interpreted as re&ealing the &anit of the local Creoles *ho1 because 0e'ico *as far the most
&aluable of Spain>s American possessions1 sa* themsel&es as the centre of the Ne* 2orld8
6$
But1 in fact1 people D(%E all o&er Spanish America thought of themsel&es as >Americans1> since
this term denoted precisel the shared fatalit of e'tra7Spanish birth8
6#
At the same time1 *e ha&e seen that the &er conception of the ne*spaper implies the
refraction of e&en >*orld e&ents> into a specific imagined *orld of &ernacular readersJ and
also ho* important to that imagined communit is an idea of stead1 solid simultaneit
through time8 Such a simultaneit the immense stretch of the Spanish American Empire1 and
the isolation of its component parts1 made difficult to imagine8
:4
0e'ican Creoles might learn
months later of de&elopments in Buenos Aires1 but it *ould be through 0e'ican ne*spapers1
not those of the Rio de la <lataJ and the e&ents *ould appear as >similar to> rather than >part of
e&ents in 0e'ico8
In this sense1 the >failure> of the Spanish7American e'perience to generate a permanent
Spanish7America7*ide nationalism reflects both the general le&el of de&elopment of
capitalism and technolog in the late eighteenth centur and the >local> bac,*ardness of
Spanish capitalism and technolog in relation to the administrati&e stretch of the empire8 ;The
*orld7historical era in *hich each nationalism is born probabl has a significant impact on its
scope8 Is Indian nationalism not inseparable from colonial administrati&e7mar,et unification1
after the 0utin1 b the most formidable and ad&anced of the imperial po*ersH=
The <rotestant1 English7spea,ing Creoles to the north *ere much more fa&ourabl situated
for realiBing the idea of >America> and indeed e&entuall succeeded in appropriating the
e&erda title of >Americans>8 The original Thirteen Colonies comprised an area D(6E smaller
than !eneBuela1 and one third the siBe of Argentina8
:"
Bunched geographicall together1 their
mar,et7centres in Boston1 Ne* 5or,1 and <hiladelphia *ere readil accessible to one
another1 and their populations *ere relati&el tightl lin,ed b print as *ell as commerce8
The >-nited States> could graduall multipl in numbers o&er the ne't "$% ears1 as old and
ne* populations mo&ed *est*ards out of the old east coast core8 5et e&en in the case of the
-SA there are elements of comparati&e >failure> or shrin,age 7 non7absorption of English7
spea,ing Canada1 Te'as>s decade of independent so&ereignt ;"$%:76(=8 3ad a siBeable
English7spea,ing communit e'isted in California in the eighteenth centur1 is it not li,el
that an independent state *ould ha&e arisen there to pla Argentina to the Thirteen Colonies>
<eruH E&en in the -SA1 the affecti&e bonds of nationalism *ere elastic enough1 combined
*ith the rapid e'pansion of the *estern frontier and the contradictions generated bet*een the
economies of North and South1 to precipitate a *ar of secession almost a centr0 after the
)eclaration of Inde%endenceD and this *ar toda sharpl reminds us of those that tore
!eneBuela and Ecuador off from ?ran Colombia1 and -rugua and <aragua from the -nited
<ro&inces of the Rio de la <lata8
:9
B *a of pro&isional conclusion1 it ma be appropriate to re7emphasiBe the limited and
specific thrust of the argument so far8 It is intended less to e'plain the socio7economic bases
of anti7metropolitan resistance in the 2estern hemisphere bet*een sa1 "C(4 and "$%41 than
*h the resistance *as concei&ed in plural1 >national> forms7rather than in others8 The
economic interests at sta,e are *ell7,no*n and ob&iousl of fundamental importance8
D(:E +iberalism and the Enlightenment clearl had a po*erful impact1 abo&e all in pro&iding
an arsenal of ideological criticisms of imperial and anciens regimes. 2hat I am proposing is
that neither economic interest1 +iberalism1 nor Enlightenment could1 or did1 create in
themselves the #ind- or shape1 of imagined communit to be defended from these regimes>
depredationsJ to put it another *a1 none pro&ided the frame*or, of a ne* consciousness 7
the scarcel7seen peripher of its &ision 7 as opposed to centre7field obFects of its admiration
or disgust8
:%
In accomplishing this specific tas,1 pilgrim Creole functionaries and pro&incial
Creole printmen plaed the decisi&e historic role8
"8 Creole H,riollo@- person of ;at least theoreticall= pure European descent but born in the Americas ;and1 b
later e'tension1 an*here outside Europe=8
98 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- p8 6"8
%8 ?erhard 0asur1 Simon (olivar- p8 "C8
68 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- pp8 "67"C and passim8 These proportions arose from the fact that
the more important commercial and administrati&e functions *ere largel monopoliBed b Spain7born
Spaniards1 *hile land7o*ning *as full open to Creoles8
:8 In this respect there are clear analogies *ith Boer nationalism a centur later8
(8 It is perhaps notable that Tupac Amarti did not entirel repudiate allegiance to the Spanish ,ing8 3e and his
follo*ers ;largel Indians1 but also some *hites and mestiBos= rose in fur against the regime in +ima8 0asur1
(olivar- p8 968
C8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 94"8
$8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- p8 "#98
#8 Ibid81 p8 9968
"48 Ed*ard S8 0organ1 >The 3eart of Aefferson1> +he .e: Eor# Revie: of (oo#s- August "C1 "#C$1 p8 98
""8 0asur1 (olivar- p8 94CJ +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- p8 9%C8
"98 Not *ithout some t*ists and turns8 3e freed his o*n sla&es shortl after !eneBuela>s declaration of
independence in "$"48 2hen he fled to 3aiti in "$"(1 he obtained militar assistance from <resident Ale'andre
<etion in return for a promise to end sla&er in all territories liberated8 The promise *as redeemed in Caracas in
"$"$7but it should be remembered that 0adrid>s successes in !eneBuela bet*een "$"6 and "$"( *ere in part
due to her emancipation of loal sla&es8 2hen Boli&ar became president of ?ran Colombia ;!eneBuela1 Ne*
?ranada and Ecuador= in "$9"1 he as,ed for and obtained from Congress a la* freeing the sons of sla&es8 3e
>had not as,ed Congress to *ipe out sla&er because he did not *ant to incur the resentment of the big
lando*ners8> 0asur1 (olivar- pp8 "9:1 94(794C1 %9#1 and %$$8
"%8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- p8 9C(8 Emphasis added8
"68 An anachronism8 In the eighteenth centur the usual term *as still +as Espanas Dthe SpainsE1 not Espafia
DSpainE8 Seton 2atson1 .ations and States- p8 :%8
":8 This ne* metropolitan aggressi&eness *as partl the product of Enlightenment doctrines1 partl of chronic
fiscal problems1 and partl1 after "CC#1 of *ar *ith England8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- pp8 67
"C8
"(8 Ibid81 p8 %4"8 Four millions *ent to subsidiBe administration of other parts of Spanish America1 *hile si'
millions *ere pure profit8
"C8 Ibid81 p8 "C8
"$8 The Constitution of the First !eneBuelan Republic ;"$""= *as in man places borro*ed &erbatim from that
of the -nited States8 0asur1 (olivar- p8 "%"8
"#8 A superb1 intricate analsis of the structural reasons for BraBilian e'7ceptionalism can be found in Aose
0urilo de Car&alho1 ><olitical Elites and State Building/ The Case of Nineteenth7Centur BraBil>1 ,om%arative
Stdies in Societ0 and Cistor0- 96/% ;"#$9=1 pp8 %C$7##8 T*o of the more important factors *ere/ ;"=
Educational differences8 2hile >t*ent7three uni&ersities *ere scattered in *hat e&entuall *ould become
thirteen different countries> in the Spanish Americas1 ><ortugal refused sstematicall to allo* the organiBation
of an institution of higher learning in her colonies1 not considering as such the theological seminaries8> 3igher
education *as onl to be had in Coimbra -ni&ersit1 and thither1 in the motherland1 *ent the Creole elite>s
children1 the great maForit studing in the facult of la*8 ;9= Different career possibilities for Creoles8 De
Car&alho notes >the much greater e'clusion of American7born Spaniards from the higher posts in the Spanish
side DsicE8> See also Stuart B8 Sch*artB1 >The Formation of a Colonial Identit in BraBil1> chapter 9 in Nicholas
Cann and Anthon <agden1 eds1 ,olonial Identit0 in the 'tlantic 3orld- 1IFF-15FF- *ho notes in passing ;p8
%$= that >no printing press operated in BraBil during the first three centuries of the colonial era8>
948 0uch the same could be said of +ondon>s stance &is7a7&is the Thirteen Colonies1 and of the ideolog of the
"CC( Re&olution8
9"8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- p8 94$J cf8 0asur1 (olivar- pp8 #$7## and 9%"8
998 0asur1 (olivar- p8 (C$8
9%8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- pp8 9:79(8
968 0asur1 (olivar- p8 "#8 Naturall these measures *ere onl partiall enforceable1 and a good deal of
smuggling al*as *ent on8
9:8 Ibid81 p8 :6(8
9(8 See his +he *orest of S0m!ols- 's%ects of .dem! Rital- especiall the chapter >Bet*i't and Bet*een/ The
+iminal <eriod in Rites de Passage.1 For a later1 more comple' elaboration1 see his )ramas- *ields- and
6eta%hors- S0m!olic 'ction in Cman Societ0- chapter : ;><ilgrimages as Social <rocesses>= and ( ;><assages1
0argins1 and <o&ert/ Religious Smbols of Communitas>=8
9C8 See Bloch1 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 (68
9$8 There are ob&ious analogies here *ith the respecti&e roles of bilingual intelligentsias and largel illiterate
*or,ers and peasants in the genesis of certain nationalist mo&ements 7 prior to the coming of radio8 In&ented
onl in "$#:1 radio made it possible to bpass print and summon into being an aural representation of the
imagined communit *here the printed page scarcel penetrated8 Its role in the !ietnamese and Indonesian
re&olutions1 and generall in mid7t*entieth7centur nationalisms1 has been much underestimated and
understudied8
9#8 The >secular pilgrimage> should not be ta,en merel as a fanciful trope8 Conrad *as being ironical1 but also
precise1 *hen he described as >pilgrims> the spectral agents of +eopold II in the heart of dar,ness8
%48 Especiall *here/ ;a= monogam *as religiousl and legall enforcedJ ;b= primogeniture *as the ruleJ ;c=
non7dnastic titles *ere both inheritable and conceptuall and legall distinct from office7ran,/ i8e8 *here
pro&incial aristocracies had significant independent po*er 7 England1 as opposed to Siam8
%"8 See Bloch1 *edal Societ0- II1 pp8 699ff8
%98 Ob&iousl this rationalit should not be e'aggerated8 The case of the -nited .ingdom1 *here Catholics
*ere barred from office until "$9#1 is not uniGue8 Can one doubt that this long e'clusion plaed an important
role in fostering Irish nationalismH
%%8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- pp8 "$7"#19#$8 Of the roughl ":1444 %eninslares- half *ere
soldiers8
%68 In the first decade of the nineteenth centur there seem to ha&e been about 644 South Americans resident in
Spain at an one time8 These included the >Argentinian> San 0artin1 *ho *as ta,en to Spain as a small bo1 and
spent the ne't 9C ears there1 entering the Roal Academ for noble outh1 and plaing a distinguished part in
the armed struggle against Napoleon before returning to his homeland on hearing of its declaration of
independenceJ and Boli&ar1 *ho for a time boarded in 0adrid *ith 0anuel 0ello1 >American> lo&er of Nueen
0arie +ouise8 0asur describes him as belonging ;c8 "$4:= to >a group of oung South Americans> *ho1 li,e him1
>*ere rich1 idle and in disfa&our *ith the Court8 The hatred and sense of inferiorit felt b man Creoles for the
mother countr *as in them de&eloping into re&olutionar impulses8> (olivar- pp8 6"76C1 and 6(#7C4 ;San
0artin=8
%:8 O&er time1 militar pilgrimages became as important as ci&ilian8 >Spain had neither the mone nor the
manpo*er to maintain large garrisons of regular troops in America1 and she relied chiefl on colonial militias1
*hich from the mid7eighteenth centur *ere e'panded and reorganiBed8> ;Ibid81 p8 "4=8 These militias *ere Guite
local1 not interchangeable parts of a continental securit apparatus8 The plaed an increasingl critical role
from the "C(4s on1 as British incursions multiplied8 Boli&ar>s father had been a prominent militia commander1
defending !eneBuelan ports against the intruders8 Boli&ar himself ser&ed in his father>s old unit as a teenager8
;0asur1 (olivar- pp8 %4 and %$=8 In this respect he *as tpical of man of the first7generation nationalist leaders
of Argentina1 !eneBuela1 and Chile8 See Robert +8 ?ilmore1 ,adillism and 6ilitarism in Lene8ela- 151F-
191F- chapter (D>The 0ilitia>E and C D>The 0ilitar>E8
%(8 Notice the transformations that independence brought the Americans/ first7generation immigrants no*
became >lo*est> rather than >highest>1 i8e8 the ones most contaminated b a fatal place of birth8 Similar in&ersions
occur in response to racism8 >Blac, blood>7 taint of the tar7brush7came1 under imperialism1 to be seen as
hopelessl contaminating for an >*hite8> Toda1 in the -nited States at least1 the >mulatto> has entered the
museum8 The tiniest trace of >blac, blood> ma,es one beautifull Blac,8 Contrast Fermin>s optimistic program
for miscegenation1 and his absence of concern for the colour of the e'pected progen8
%C8 ?i&en 0adrid>s deep concern that the management of the colonies be in trust*orth hands1 >it *as a'iomatic
that the high posts be filled e'clusi&el *ith nati&e7born Spaniards>8 0asur1 (olivar- p8 "48
%$8 Charles R8 Bo'er1 +he Portgese Sea!orne Em%ire- 1>1I-15BI- p8 9((8
%#8 Ibid81 p8 9:98
648 Ibid81 p8 9:%8
6"8 Rona Fields1 +he Portgese Revoltion and the 'rmed *orces 6ovement- p8 ":8
698 Bo'er1 +he Portgese Sea!orne Em%ire- pp8 9:C7:$8
6%8 .emilainen1 .ationalism- pp8 C97C%8
668 I ha&e emphasiBed here the racialist distinctions dra*n bet*een %eninslares and Creoles because the main
topic under re&ie* is the rise of Creole nationalism8 This should not be understood as minimiBing the parallel
gro*th of Creole racism to*ards mestiBos1 Negroes1 and IndiansJ nor the *illingness of an unthreatened
metropole to protect ;up to a certain point= these unfortunates8
6:8 Feb&re and 0artin1 +he ,oming of the (oo#- pp8 94$7""8
6(8 Ibid81 p8 9""8
6C8 Franco1 'n Introdction- p8 9$8
6$8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- p8 %%8
6#8 >A peon came to complain that the Spanish o&erseer of his estancia had beaten him8 San 0artin *as
indignant1 but it *as a nationalist rather than socialist indignation8 K2hat do ou thin,H After three ears of
re&olution1 a matrmngo D&ulg81 <eninsular SpaniardE dares to raise his hand against an AmericanQK > Ibid81 p8 $C8
:48 A spell7binding e&ocation of the remoteness and isolation of the Spanish7American populations is 0arGueB>s
picture of the fabulous 0acondo in 2ne Cndred Eears of Solitde.
:"8 The total area of the Thirteen Colonies *as %9916#C sGuare miles8 That of !eneBuela *as %:91"6%J of
Argentina1 "14C914(CJ and of Spanish South America1 %16"C1(9: sGuare miles8
:98 <aragua forms a case of e'ceptional interest8 Than,s to the relati&el bene&olent dictatorship established
there b the Aesuits earl in the se&enteenth centur1 the indigenes *ere better treated than else*here in Spanish
America1 and ?uarani achie&ed the status of print7language8 The Cro*n>s e'pulsion of the Aesuits from Spanish
America in "C(C brought the territor into the Rio de la <lata1 but &er late in the da1 and for little more than a
generation8 See Seton72atson1 .ations and States- pp8 944794"8
:%8 It is instructi&e that the Declaration of Independence in "CC( spea,s onl of >the people>1 *hile the *ord
>nation>ma,esitsdebutonl in the Constitution of "C$#8 .emilainen1 .ationalism- p8 "4:8
:8 Old +anguages1 Ne* 0odels
D(CE The close of the era of successful national liberation mo&ements in the Americas
coincided rather closel *ith the onset of the age of nationalism in Europe8 If *e consider the
character of these ne*er nationalisms *hich1 bet*een "$94 and "#941 changed the face of the
Old 2orld1 t*o stri,ing features mar, them off from their ancestors8 First1 in almost all of
them >national print7languages>*ere of central ideological and political importance1 *hereas
Spanish and English *ere ne&er issues in the re&olutionar Americas8 Second1 all *ere able
to *or, from &isible models pro&ided b their distant1 and after the con&ulsions of the French
Re&olution1 not so distant1 predecessors8 The >nation> thus became something capable of being
consciousl aspired to from earl on1 rather than a slo*l sharpening frame of &ision8 Indeed1
as *e shall see1 the >nation> pro&ed an in&ention on *hich it *as impossible to secure a patent8
It became a&ailable for pirating b *idel different1 and sometimes une'pected1 hands8 In this
chapter1 therefore1 the analtical focus *ill be on print7language and pirac8
In blithe disregard of some ob&ious e'tra7European facts1 the great Aohann ?ottfried &on
3erder ;"C667"$4%= had declared1 to*ards the end of the eighteenth centur1 that/ >Denn
;edes !ol, ist !ol,J es hat D($E seine National Bildung *ie seine Sprache8>
"
This splendidl
eng-European conception of nation7ness as lin,ed to a pri&ate7propert language had *ide
influence in nineteenth7centur Europe and1 more narro*l1 on subseGuent theoriBing about
the nature of nationalism8 2hat *ere the origins of this dreamH 0ost probabl1 the la in the
profound shrin,age of the European *orld in time and space that began alread in the
fourteenth centur1 and *as caused initiall b the 3umanists> e'ca&ations and later1
parado'icall enough1 b Europe>s planetar e'pansion8
As Auerbach so *ell e'presses it/
9
2ith the first da*n of humanism1 there began to be a sense that the e&ents of classical histor and
legend and also those of the Bible *ere not separated from the present simpl b an e'tent of time
but also b com%letel0 different conditions of life. 3umanism *ith its program of rene*al of
antiGue forms of life and e'pression creates a historical perspecti&e in depth such as no pre&ious
epoch ,no*n to us possessed/ the humanists see antiGuit in historical depth1 and1 against that
bac,ground1 the dar, epochs of the inter&ening 0iddle Ages888 8 DThis made impossibleE re7
establishing the autarchic life natural to antiGue culture or the historical nai&ete> of the t*elfth and
thirteenth centuries8
The gro*th of *hat might be called >comparati&e histor>led in time to the hitherto unheard7
of conception of a >modernit> e'plicitl Fu'taposed to >antiGuit1> and b no means
necessaril to the latter>s ad&antage8 The issue *as fiercel Foined in the >Battle of Ancients
and 0oderns> *hich dominated French intellectual life in the last Guarter of the se&enteenth
centur8
%
To Guote Auerbach again1 >-nder +ouis LI! the French had the courage to consider
their o*n D(#E culture a &alid model on a par *ith that of the ancients1 and the imposed this
&ie* upon the rest of Europe8>
6
In the course of the si'teenth centur1 Europe>s >disco&er> of grandiose ci&iliBations hitherto
onl diml rumoured7in China1 Aapan1 Southeast Asia1 and the Indian subcontinent7or
completel un,no*n 7 ABtec 0e'ico and Incan <eru 7 suggested an irremediable human
pluralism8 0ost of these ci&iliBations had de&eloped Guite separate from the ,no*n histor of
Europe1 Christendom1 AntiGuit1 indeed man/ their genealogies la outside of and *ere
unassimilable to Eden8 ;Onl homogeneous1 empt time *ould offer them accommodation8=
The impact of the >disco&eries> can be gauged b the peculiar geographies of the imaginar
polities of the age8 0ore>s Mto%ia- *hich appeared in ":"(1 purported to be the account of a
sailor1 encountered b the author in Ant*erp1 *ho had participated in Amerigo !espucci>s
"6#C7"6#$ e'pedition to the Americas8 Francis Bacon>s .e: 'tlantis ;"(9(= *as perhaps ne*
abo&e all because it *as situated in the <acific Ocean8 S*ift>s magnificent Island of the
3ouhnhnms ;"C9(= came *ith a bogus map of its South Atlantic location8 ;The meaning of
these settings ma be clearer if one considers ho* unimaginable it *ould be to place <lato>s
Republic on an map1 sham or real8= All these tongue7in7chee, -topias1 >modelled> on real
disco&eries1 are depicted1 not as lost Edens1 but as contem%orar0 societies8 One could argue
that the had to be1 since the *ere composed as criticisms of contemporar societies1 and the
disco&eries had ended the necessit for see,ing models in a &anished antiGuit8
:
In the *a,e
of the -topians came the luminaries of the Enlightenment1 !ico1 0ontesGuieu1 !oltaire1 and
Rousseau1 *ho increasingl e'ploited a >real> non7Europe for a barrage of sub&ersi&e *ritings
directed against current European social and political institutions8 In effect1 it became
possible to thin, of Europe as onl DC4E one among man ci&iliBations1 and not necessaril
the Chosen or the best8
(
In due course1 disco&er and conGuest also caused a re&olution in European ideas about
language8 From the earliest das1 <ortuguese1 Dutch1 and Spanish seamen1 missionaries1
merchants and soldiers had1 for practical reasons 7 na&igation1 con&ersion1 commerce and *ar
7 gathered *ord7lists of non7European languages to be assembled in simple le'icons8 But it
*as onl in the later eighteenth centur that the scientific comparati&e stud of languages
reall got under *a8 Out of the English conGuest of Bengal came 2illiam Aones>s pioneering
in&estigations of Sans,rit ;"C$(=1 *hich led to a gro*ing realiBation that Indie ci&iliBation
*as far older than that of ?reece or Audaea8 Out of Napoleon>s Egptian e'pedition came
Aean Champollion>s decipherment of hieroglphics ;"$%:=1 *hich plural7iBed that e'tra7
European antiGuit8
C
Ad&ances in Semitics undermined the idea that 3ebre* *as either
uniGuel ancient or of di&ine pro&enance8 Once again1 genealogies *ere being concei&ed
*hich could onl be accommodated b homogeneous1 empt time8 >+anguage became less of
a continuit bet*een an outside po*er and the human spea,er than an internal field created
and accomplished b language users among themsel&es8>
$
Out of these disco&eries came
philolog1 *ith its studies of comparati&e grammar1 classification of languages into families1
and reconstructions b scientific reasoning of >proto7languages> out of obli&ion8 As
3obsba*m rightl obser&es1 here *as >the first science *hich regarded e&olution as its &er
core8>
#
From this point on the old sacred languages 7 +atin1 ?ree,1 and 3ebre* 7 *ere forced to
mingle on eGual ontological footing *ith a motle plebeian cro*d of &ernacular ri&als1 in a
mo&ement *hich complemented their earlier demotion in the mar,et7place b print7
capitalism8 If all languages no* shared a common ;intra7=mundane DC"E status1 then all *ere
in principle eGuall *orth of stud and admiration8 But b *hoH +ogicall1 since no* none
belonged to ?od1 b their ne* o*ners/ each language>s nati&e spea,ers7and readers8
As Seton72atson most usefull sho*s1 the nineteenth centur *as1 in Europe and its
immediate peripheries1 a golden age of &ernaculariBing le'icographers1 grammarians1
philologists1 and litterateurs8
"4
The energetic acti&ities of these professional intellectuals *ere
central to the shaping of nineteenth7centur European nationalisms in complete contrast to
the situation in the Americas bet*een "CC4 and "$%48 0onolingual dictionaries *ere &ast
compendia of each language>s print7treasur1 portable ;if sometimes barel so= from shop to
school1 office to residence8 Bilingual dictionaries made &isible an approaching egalitarianism
among languages 7 *hate&er the political realities outside1 *ithin the co&ers of the CBech7
?erman)?erman7CBech dictionar the paired languages had a common status8 The &isionar
drudges *ho de&oted ears to their compilation *ere of necessit dra*n to or nurtured b the
great libraries of Europe1 abo&e all those of the uni&ersities8 And much of their immediate
clientele *as no less ine&itabl uni&ersit and pre7uni&ersit students8 3obsba*m>s dictum
that >the progress of schools and uni&ersities measures that of nationalism1 Fust as schools and
especiall uni&ersities became its most conscious champions1> is certainl correct for
nineteenth7centur Europe1 if not for other times and places8
""
DC9E One can thus trace this le'icographic re&olution as one might the ascending roar in an
arsenal alight1 as each small e'plosion ignites others1 till the final blaBe turns night into da8
B the middle of the eighteenth centur1 the prodigious labours of ?erman1 French and
English scholars had not onl made a&ailable in hand printed form &irtuall the entire e'tant
corpus of the ?ree, classics1 along *ith the necessar philological and le'icographic
adFuncts1 but in doBens of boo,s *ere recreating a glittering1 and firml pagan1 ancient
3ellenic ci&iliBation8 In the last Guarter of the centur1 this >past> became increasingl
accessible to a small number of oung ?ree,7spea,ing Christian intellectuals1 most of *hom
had studied or tra&elled outside the confines of the Ottoman Empire8
"9
E'alted b the
philhellenism at the centres of 2estern European ci&iliBation1 the undertoo, the
>debarbariBing> of the modern ?ree,s1 i8e81 their transformation into beings *orth of <ericles
and Socrates8
"%
Emblematic of this change in consciousness are the follo*ing *ords of one of
these oung men1 Adamantios .oraes ;*ho later became an ardent le'icographerQ=1 in an
address to a French audience in <aris in "$4%/
"6
For the first time the nation sur&es the hideous spectacle of its ignorance and trembles in
measuring *ith the ee the distance separating it from its ancestors> glor8 This painful discover0-
ho*e&er1 does not precipitate the ?ree,s into despair/ 2e are the descendants of ?ree,s1 the
implicitl told themsel&es1 *e must either tr to become again *orth of this name1 or *e must not
bear it8
Similarl in the late eighteenth centur1 grammars1 dictionaries and histories of Rumanian
appeared1 accompanied b a dri&e1 successful at first in the 3absburg realms1 later in the
Ottoman1 for the replacement of Crillic b the Roman alphabet ;mar,ing DC%E Rumanian
sharpl off from its Sla&ic7Orthodo' neighbours=8
":
Bet*een "C$# and "C#61 the Russian
Academ1 modelled on the Academic Franchise1 produced a si'7&olume Russian dictionar1
follo*ed b an official grammar in "$498 Both represented a triumph of the &ernacular o&er
Church Sla&onic8 Although right into the eighteenth centur CBech *as the language onl of
the peasantr in Bohemia ;the nobilit and rising middle classes spo,e ?erman=1 the Catholic
priest Aosef Dobro&s, ;"C:%7"$9#= produced in "C#9 his Keschichte der !ohmischen
S%rache nd ahem 9iteratr- the first sstematic histor of the CBech language and literature8
In "$%:7%# appeared Aosef Aungmann>s pioneering fi&e7&olume CBech7?erman dictionar8
"(
Of the birth of 3ungarian nationalism Ignotus *rites that it is an e&ent >recent enough to be
dated/ "CC91 the ear of publication of some unreadable *or,s b the &ersatile 3ungarian
author ?org Bessenei1 then a resident in !ienna and ser&ing in 0aria Theresa>s
bodguard8888 Bessenei>s magna o%era *ere meant to pro&e that the 3ungarian language *as
suitable for the &er highest literar genre8
X"C
Further stimulus *as pro&ided b the e'tensi&e
publications of Ferenc .aBincB ;"C:#7"$%"=1 >the father of 3ungarian literature1> and b the
remo&al1 in "C$61 of *hat became the -ni&ersit of Budapest to that cit from the small
pro&incial to*n of Trna&a8 Its first political e'pression *as the +atin7spea,ing 0agar
nobilit>s hostile reaction in the "C$4s to Emperor Aoseph II>s decision to replace +atin b
?erman as the prime language of imperial administration8
"$
In the period "$447"$:41 as the result of pioneering *or, b nati&e DC6E scholars1 three
distinct literar languages *ere formed in the northern Bal,ans/ Slo&ene1 Serbo7Croat1 and
Bulgarian8 If1 in the "$%4s1 >Bulgarians> had been *idel thought to be of the same nation as
the Serbs and Croats1 and had in fact shared in the Illrian 0o&ement1 a separate Bulgarian
national state *as to come into e'istence b "$C$8 In the eighteenth centur1 -,rainian ;+ittle
Russian= *as contemptuousl tolerated as a language of o,els8 But in "C#$ I&an
.otlare&s, *rote his 'eneid- an enormousl popular satirical poem on -,rainian life8 In
"$461 the -ni&ersit of .har,o& *as founded and rapidl became the centre for a boom in
-,rainian literature8 In "$"# appeared the first -,rainian grammar7onl "C ears after the
official Russian one8 And in the "$%4s follo*ed the *or,s of Taras She&chen,o1 of *hom
Seton72atson obser&es that >the formation of an accepted -,rainian literar language o*es
more to him than to an other indi&idual8 The use of this language *as the decisi&e stage in
the formation of an -,rainian national consciousness8
X"#
Shortl thereafter1 in "$6(1 the first
-,rainian nationalist organiBation *as founded in .ie&7b a historianQ
In the eighteenth centur the language7of7state in toda>s Finland *as S*edish8 After the
territor>s union *ith CBardom in "$4#1 the official language became Russian8 But an
>a*a,ening> interest in Finnish and the Finnish past1 first e'pressed through te'ts *ritten in
+atin and S*edish in the later eighteenth centur1 b the "$94s *as increasingl manifested
in the &ernacular8
94
The leaders of the burgeoning Finnish nationalist mo&ement *ere >persons
*hose profession largel consisted of the handling of language/ *riters1 teachers1 pastors1 and
la*ers8 The stud of fol,lore and the redisco&er and piecing together of popular epic
poetr *ent together *ith the publication of grammars and dictionaries1 and led to the
appearance of periodicals *hich ser&ed to standardiBe Finnish literar Di8e8 print7E language1
on behalf of *hich stronger political DC:E demands could be ad&anced8 >
9"
In the case of
Nor*a1 *hich had long shared a *ritten language *ith the Danes1 though *ith a completel
different pronunciation1 nationalism emerged *ith I&ar Aasen>s ne* Nor*egian grammar
;"$6$= and dictionar ;"$:4=1 te'ts *hich responded to and stimulated demands for a
specificall Nor*egian print7language8
Else*here1 in the latter portion of the nineteenth centur1 *e find Afri,aner nationalism
pioneered b Boer pastors and litterateurs1 *ho in the "$C4s *ere successful in ma,ing the
local Dutch patois into a literar language and naming it something no longer European8
0aronites and Copts1 man of them products of Beirut>s American College ;founded in "$((=
and the Aesuit College of St8 Aoseph ;founded in "$C:= *ere maFor contributors to the re&i&al
of classical Arabic and the spread of Arab nationalism8
99
And the seeds of Tur,ish
nationalism are easil detectable in the appearance of a li&el &ernacular press in Istanbul in
the "$C4s8
9%
Nor should *e forget that the same epoch sa* the &ernaculariBation of another form of
printed page/ the score8 After Dobro&s, came Smetana1 D&ora,1 and Aanace,J after Aasen1
?riegJ after .aBincB1 Bela Barto,J and so on *ell into our centur8
At the same time1 it is self7e&ident that all these le'icographers1 philologists1 grammarians1
fol,lorists1 publicists1 and composers did not carr on their re&olutionar acti&ities in a
&acuum8 The *ere1 after all1 producers for the print7mar,et1 and the *ere lin,ed1 &ia that
silent baBaar1 to consuming publics8 2ho *ere these consumersH In the most general sense/
the families of the reading classes7not merel the >*or,ing father1> but the ser&ant7girded *ife
and the school7age children8 If *e note that as late as "$641 e&en in Britain and France1 the
most ad&anced states in Europe1 almost half the population *as still illiterate ;and in
bac,*ard Russia almost #$ per DC(E cent=1 >reading classes> meant people of some po*er8
0ore concretel1 the *ere1 in addition to the old ruling classes of nobilities and landed
gentries1 courtiers and ecclesiastics1 rising middle strata of plebeian lo*er officials1
professionals1 and commercial and industrial bourgeoisies8
0id7nineteenth7centur Europe *itnessed a rapid increase in state e'penditures and the siBe
of state bureaucracies ;ci&il and militar=1 despite the absence of an maFor local *ars8
>Bet*een "$%4 and "$:4 public e'penditure per capita increased b 9: per cent in Spain1 b
64 per cent in France1 b 66 per cent in Russia1 b :4 per cent in Belgium1 b C4 per cent in
Austria1 b C: per cent in the -SA1 and b o&er #4 per cent in The Netherlands8>
96
Bureaucratic e'pansion1 *hich also meant bureaucratic specialiBation1 opened the gates of
official preferment to much greater numbers and of far more &aried social origins than
hitherto8 Ta,e e&en the decrepit1 sinecure7filled1 nobilit7ridden Austro73ungarian state
machiner/ the percentage of men of middle class origins in the top echelons of its ci&il half
rose from 4 in "$461 through 9C in "$9#1 %: in "$:#1 to :: in "$C$8 In the armed ser&ices1 the
same trend appeared1 though characteristicall at a slo*er1 later pace/ the middle class
component of the officer corps rose from "4 per cent to C: per cent bet*een "$:# and "#"$8
9:
If the e'pansion of bureaucratic middle classes *as a relati&el e&en phenomenon1 occurring
at comparable rates in both ad&anced and bac,*ard states of Europe1 the rise of commercial
and industrial bourgeoisies *as of course highl une&en 7 massi&e and rapid in some places1
slo* and stunted in others8 But no matter *here1 this >rise> has to be understood in its
relationship to &ernacular print7capitalism8
The pre7bourgeois ruling classes generated their cohesions in some sense outside language1 or
at least outside print7language8 If the ruler of Siam too, a 0ala noble*oman as a concubine1
or if the .ing of England married a Spanish princess7did the e&er tal, seriousl togetherH
Solidarities *ere the products of ,inship1 clientship1 and DCCE personal loalties8 >French>
nobles could assist >English> ,ings against >French> monarchs1 not on the basis of shared
language or culture1 but1 0achia&ellian calculations aside1 of shared ,insmen and friendships8
The relati&el small siBe of traditional aristocracies1 their fi'ed political bases1 and the
personaliBation of political relations implied b se'ual intercourse and inheritance1 meant that
their cohesions as classes *ere as much concrete as imagined8 An illiterate nobilit could still
act as a nobilit8 But the bourgeoisieH 3ere *as a class *hich1 figurati&el spea,ing1 came
into being as a class onl in so man replications8 Factor7o*ner in +ille *as connected to
factor7o*ner in +on onl b re&erberation8 The had no necessar reason to ,no* of one
another>s e'istenceJ the did not tpicall marr each other>s daughters or inherit each other>s
propert8 But the did come to &isualiBe in a general *a the e'istence of thousands and
thousands li,e themsel&es through print7language8 For an illiterate bourgeoisie is scarcel
imaginable8 Thus in *orld7historical terms bourgeoisies *ere the first classes to achie&e
solidarities on an essentiall imagined basis8 But in a nineteenth7centur Europe in *hich
+atin had been defeated b &ernacular print7capitalism for something li,e t*o centuries1 these
solidarities had an outermost stretch limited b &ernacular legibilities8 To put it another *a1
one can sleep *ith anone1 but one can onl read some people>s *ords8
Nobilities1 landed gentries1 professionals1 functionaries1 and men of the mar,et 7 these then
*ere the %otential consumers of the philological re&olution8 But such a clientele *as almost
no*here full realiBed1 and the combinations of actual consumers &aried considerabl from
Bone to Bone8 To see *h1 one has to return to the basic contrast dra*n earlier bet*een
Europe and the Americas8 In the Americas there *as an almost perfect isomorphism bet*een
the stretch of the &arious empires and that of their &ernaculars8 In Europe1 ho*e&er1 such
coincidences *ere rare1 and intra7European dnastic empires *ere basicall pol&ernacular8
In other *ords1 po*er and print7language mapped different realms8
The general gro*th in literac1 commerce1 industr1 communications and state machineries
that mar,ed the nineteenth centur created po*erful ne* impulses for &ernacular linguistic
unification DC$E *ithin each dnastic realm8 +atin hung on as a language7of7state in Austro7
3ungar as late as the earl "$64s1 but it disappeared almost immediatel thereafter8
+anguage7of7state it might be1 but it could not1 in the nineteenth centur1 be the language of
business1 of the sciences1 of the press1 or of literature1 especiall in a *orld in *hich these
languages continuousl interpenetrated one another8
0eantime1 &ernacular languages7of7state assumed e&er greater po*er and status in a process
*hich1 at least at the start1 *as largel unplanned8 Thus English elbo*ed ?aelic out of most
of Ireland1 French pushed Breton to the *all1 and Castilian reduced Catalan to marginalit8 In
those realms1 such as Britain and France1 *here1 for Guite e'traneous reasons1 there happened
to be1 b mid7centur1 a relati&el high coincidence of language7of7state and language of the
population1
9(
the general interpenetration alluded to abo&e did not ha&e dramatic political
effects8 ;These cases are closest to those of the Americas8= In man other realms1 of *hich
Austro73ungar is probabl the polar e'ample1 the conseGuences *ere ine&itabl e'plosi&e8
In its huge1 ramshac,le1 polglot1 but increasingl literate1 domain the replacement of +atin
b an0 &ernacular1 in the mid nineteenth centur1 promised enormous ad&antages to those of
its subFects *ho alread0 used that print7language1 and appeared correspondingl menacing to
those *ho did not8 I emphasiBe the *ord an0- since1 as *e shall be discussing in greater detail
belo*1 ?erman>s nineteenth centur ele&ation b the 3absburg court1 ?erman as some might
thin, it1 had nothing *hate&er to do *ith ?erman nationalism8 ;-nder these circumstances1
one *ould e'pect a self7conscious nationalism to arise last in each dnastic realm among the
nati&e7readers of the official &ernacular8 And such e'pectations are borne out b the historical
record8=
In terms of our le'icographers> clienteles1 it is therefore not surprising to find &er different
bodies of customers according to different political conditions8 In 3ungar1 for e'ample1
*here DC#E &irtuall no 0agar bourgeoisie e'isted1 but one out of eight claimed some
aristocratic status1 the parapets of print73ungarian *ere defended against the ?erman tide b
segments of the pett nobilit and an impo&erished landed gentr8
9C
0uch the same could be
said of <olish7readers8 0ore tpical1 ho*e&er1 *as a coalition of lesser gentries1 academics1
professionals1 and businessmen1 in *hich the first often pro&ided leaders of >standing1> the
second and third mths1 poetr1 ne*spapers1 and ideological formulations1 and the last mone
and mar,eting facilities8 The amiable .oraes offers us a fine &ignette of the earl clientele for
?ree, nationalism1 in *hich intellectuals and entrepreneurs predominated/
9$
In those to*ns *hich *ere less poor1 *hich had some *ell7to7do inhabitants and a fe* schools1
and therefore a fe* indi&iduals *ho could at least read and understand the ancient *riters1 the
re&olution began earlier and could ma,e more rapid and more comforting progress8 In some of
these to*ns1 schools are alread being enlarged1 and the stud of foreign languages and e&en of
those sciences *hich are taught in Europe DsicE is being introduced into them8 The *ealth sponsor
the printing of boo,s translated from Italian1 French1 ?erman1 and EnglishJ the send to Europe at
their e'pense oung men eager to learnJ the gi&e their children a better education1 not e'cepting
girls8888
Reading coalitions1 *ith compositions that la &ariousl on the spectrum bet*een 3ungarian
and ?ree,1 de&eloped similarl throughout Central and Eastern Europe1 and into the Near
East as the centur proceeded8
9#
3o* far the urban and rural masses shared in the ne*
&ernacularl imagined communities naturall also &aried a D$4E great deal8 0uch depended
on the relationship bet*een these masses and the missionaries of nationalism8 At one
e'treme1 perhaps1 one might point to Ireland1 *here a Catholic priesthood dra*n from the
peasantr and close to it plaed a &ital mediating role8 Another e'treme is suggested b
3obsba*m>s ironic comment that/ >The ?alician peasants in "$6( opposed the <olish
re&olutionaries e&en though these actuall proclaimed the abolition of serfdom1 preferring to
massacre gentlemen and trust to the Emperor>s officials8>
%4
But e&er*here1 in fact1 as literac
increased1 it became easier to arouse popular support1 *ith the masses disco&ering a ne*
glor in the print ele&ation of languages the had humbl spo,en all along8
-p to a point1 then1 Nairn>s arresting formulation 7>The ne* middle7class intelligentsia of
nationalism had to in&ite the masses into historJ and the in&itation7card had to be *ritten in a
language the understood>
%"
7 is correct8 But it *ill be hard to see *h the in&itation came to
seem so attracti&e1 and *h such different alliances *ere able to issue it ;Nairn>s middle7class
intelligentsia *as b no means the onl host=1 unless *e turn finall to pirac8
3obsba*m obser&es that >The French Re&olution *as not made or led b a formed part or
mo&ement in the modern sense1 nor b men attempting to carr out a sstematic programme8
It hardl e&en thre* up KleadersK of the ,ind to *hich t*entieth centur re&olutions ha&e
accustomed us1 until the post7re&olutionar figure of Napoleon8>
%9
But once it had occurred1 it
entered the accumulating memor of print8 The o&er*helming and be*ildering concatenation
of e&ents e'perienced b its ma,ers and its &ictims became a >thing>7 and *ith its o*n name/
The French Re&olution8 +i,e a &ast shapeless roc, *orn to a rounded boulder b countless
drops of *ater1 the e'perience *as shaped b millions of printed *ords into a >concept> on the
printed page1 and1 in due course1 into a model8 2h >it> bro,e out1 *hat >it> aimed for1 *h >it>
succeeded or failed1 became subFects for endless polemics on the part of friends and foes/
D$"E but of its >it7ness>1 as it *ere1 no one e&er after had much doubt8
%%
In much the same *a1 the independence mo&ements in the Americas became1 as soon as
the *ere printed about1 >concepts1> >models>1 and indeed >blueprints8> In >realit>1 >Boli&ar>s fear
of Negro insurrections and San 0artin>s summoning of his indigenes to <eru&ianness Fostled
one another chaoticall8 But printed *ords *ashed a*a the former almost at once1 so that1 if
recalled at all1 it appeared an inconseGuential anomal8 Out of the American *elter came
these imagined realities/ nation7states1 republican institutions1 common citiBenships1 popular
so&ereignt1 national flags and anthems1 etc81 and the liGuidation of their conceptual
opposites/ dnastic empires1 monarchical institutions1 absolutisms1 subFecthoods1 inherited
nobilities1 serfdoms1 ghettoes1 and so forth8 ;Nothing more stunning1 in this conte't1 than the
general >elision>of massi&e sla&er from the >modal> -SA of the nineteenth centur1 and of the
shared language of the >modal> Southern republics8= Furthermore1 the &alidit and
generaliBabilit of the blueprint *ere undoubtedl confirmed b the %lralit0 of the
independent states8
In effect1 b the second decade of the nineteenth centur1 if not earlier1 a >model> of >the>
independent national state *as a&ailable for pirating8
%6
;The first groups to do so *ere the
marginaliBed &ernacular7based coalitions of the educated on *hich this chapter has been
focused8= But precisel because it *as b then a ,no*n model1 it imposed certain >standards>
from *hich too7mar,ed de&iations *ere impermissible8 E&en bac,*ard and reactionar
3ungarian and <olish gentries *ere hard put to it not to ma,e a sho* of >in&iting in> ;if onl
to the pantr= their oppressed compatriots8 If ou li,e1 the logic of San 0artin>s
<eru&ianiBation *as at *or,8 If Y3ungariansZdeser&ed a D$9E national state1 then that meant
3ungarians1 all of themJ
%:
it meant a state in *hich the ultimate locus of so&ereignt had to be
the collecti&it of 3ungarian7spea,ers and readersJ and1 in due course1 the liGuidation of
serfdom1 the promotion of popular education1 the e'pansion of the suffrage1 and so on8 Thus
the >populist> character of the earl European nationalisms1 e&en *hen led1 demagogicall1 b
the most bac,*ard social groups1 *as deeper than in the Americas/ serfdom had to go1 legal
sla&er *as unimaginable 7 not least because the conceptual model *as set in ineradicable
place8
"8 .emil[inen1 .ationalism- p8 698 Emphases added8
98 6imesis- p8 9$98 Emphasis added8
%8 The battle opened in "($# *hen the :#7ear old Charles <errault published his poem Si<cle de 9ois le
Krand- *hich argued that the arts and sciences had come to their full flo*ering in his o*n time and place8
68 6imesis- p8 %6%8 Notice that Auerbach sas >culture>1 not >language>8 2e should also be char of attributing
>nation7ness> to >their o*n8K
:8 Similarl1 there is a nice contrast bet*een the t*o famous 0ongols of English drama8 0arlo*e>s
+atn!rlaine the Kreat ;":$C7":$$= describes a famous dnast dead since "64C8 Drden>s 'rang8e! ;"(C(=
depicts a contemporar reigning Emperor ;"(:$7"C4C=8
(8 So1 as European imperialism smashed its insouciant *a around the globe1 other ci&iliBations found
themsel&es traumaticall confronted b pluralisms *hich annihilated their sacred genealogies8 The 0iddle
.ingdom>s marginaliBation to the Far East is emblematic of this process8
C8 3obsba*m1 +he 'ge o; Revoltion- p8 %%C8
$8 Ed*ard Said1 2rientalism- p8 "%(8
#8 3obsba*m1 +he 'ge o; Revoltion- p8 %%C8
"48 >Fust because the histor of language is usuall in our time ,ept so rigidl apart from con&entional political1
economic and social histor1 it has seemed to me desirable to bring it together *ith these1 e&en at the cost of less
e'pertise8> .ations ami States- p8 ""8 In fact1 one of the most &aluable aspects of Seton72atson>s te't is precisel
his attention to language histor 7 though one can disagree *ith the *a he emplos it8
""8 +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 "((8 Academic institutions *ere insignificant to the American nationalisms8
3obsba*n himself notes that though there *ere (1444 students in <aris at the time1 the plaed &irtuall no role
in the French Re&olution ;p8 "(C=8 3e also usefull reminds us that although education spread rapidl in the first
half of the nineteenth centur1 the number of adolescents in schools *as still minuscule b modern standards/ a
mere "#1444 l0cee students in France in "$69J 941444 high school pupils among the ($14441444 population of
Imperial Russia in "$:4J a li,el total of 6$1444 uni&ersit students in all Europe in "$6$8 5et in the re&olutions
of that ear1 this tin1 but strategic1 group plaed a pi&otal role8 ;pp8 "((7(C=8
"98 The first ?ree, ne*spapers appeared in "C$6 in !ienna8 <hili,e 3etairia1 the secret societ largel
responsible for the "$9" anti7Ottoman uprising1 *as founded in the >great ne* Russian grain port of OdessaK in
"$"68
"%8 See Elie .edourie>s introduction to .ationalism in 'sia and 'frica- p8 648
"68 Ibid81 pp8 6%7668 Emphasis added8 The full te't of .oraes>s >The <resent State of Ci&iliBation in ?reece> is
gi&en in pp8 ":C7$98 It contains a stunningl modern analsis of the sociological bases for ?ree, nationalism8
":8 Not pretending to an e'pert ,no*ledge of Central and Eastern Europe1 I ha&e relied hea&il on Seton7
2atson in the analsis that follo*s8 On Rumanian1 see .ations and States- p8 "CC8
"(8 Ibid81 pp8 ":47":%8
"C8 <aul Ignotus1 Cngar0- p8 668 >3e did pro&e it1 but his polemical dri&e *as more con&incing than the
aesthetic &alue of the e'amples he produced8> It is perhaps *orth noting that this passage occurs in a subsection
entitled >The In&enting of the 3ungarian Nation1> *hich opens *ith this pregnant phrase/ >A nation is born *hen
a fe* people decide that it should be8>
"$8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- pp8 ":$@("8 The reaction *as &iolent enough to persuade his successor
+eopold II ;r8 "C#47"C#9= to reinstate +atin8 See also belo*1 Chapter !I8 It is instructi&e that .aBinc sided
politicall *ith Aoseph II on this issue8 ;Ignotus1 Cngar0- p8 6$=8
"#8 .ations and States- p8 "$C8 Needless to sa1 CBarism ga&e these people short shrift8 She&chen,o *as bro,en
in Siberia8 The 3absburgs1 ho*e&er1 ga&e some encouragement to -,rainian nationalists in ?alicia7to
counterbalance the <oles8
948 .emilainen1 .ationalism- %%. 94$7":8
9"8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 C98
998 Ibid81 pp8 9%9 and 9("8
9%8 .ohn1 +he 'ge of .ationalism- pp8 "4:7C8 This meant reFection of>Ottoman>1 a dnastic officialese
combining elements of Tur,ish1 <ersian1 and Arabic8 Characteristicall1 Ibrahim Sinasi1 founder of the first such
ne*spaper1 had Fust returned from fi&e ears stud in France8 2here he led1 others soon follo*ed8 B "$C(1
there *ere se&en Tur,ish7language dailies in Constantinople8
968 3obsba*m1 +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 99#8
9:8 <eter A8 .atBenstein1 )is;oined Partners- 'stria and Kerman0 since 151I- pp8 C61 ""98
9(8 As *e ha&e seen1 &ernaculariBation of the languages7of7state in these t*o realms *as under *a &er earl8
In the case of the -.1 the militar subFugation of the ?aeltacht earl in the eighteenth centur and the Famine of
the "$64s *ere po*erful contributor factors8
9C8 3obsba*n1 +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 "(:8 For an e'cellent1 detailed discussion1 see Ignotus1 Cngar0- pp8
667:(J also AasBi1 +he )issoltion- pp8 996@9:8
9$8 .edourie1 .ationalism in 'sia and 'frica- p8 "C48 Emphasis added8 E&erthing here is e'emplar8 If .oraes
loo,s to >Europe1>it is o&er his shoulderJ he faces Constantinople8 Ottoman is not et a foreign language8 And
non7labouring future *i&es are entering the print7mar,et8
9#8 For e'amples1 see Seton72atson1 .ations and States- pp8 C9 ;Finland=1 "6: ;Bulgaria=1 ":% ;Bohemia=1 and
6%9 ;Slo&a,ia=J .ohn1 +he 'ge of .ationalism- pp8 $% ;Egpt= and "4% ;<ersia=8
%48 +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 "(#8
%"8 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- p8 %648
%98 +he 'ge of Revoltion- p8 $48
%%8 Compare/ >The &er name of the Industrial Re&olution reflects its relati&el tard impact on Europe8 The
thing DsicE e'isted in Britain before the *ord8 Not until the "$94s did English and French socialists 7 themsel&es
an unprecedented group 7 in&ent it1 probabl b analog *ith the political re&olution of France8> Ibid81 p8 6:8
%68 It *ould be more precise1 probabl to sa that the model *as a comple' composite of French and American
elements8 But the >obser&able realit> of France until after "$C4 *as restored monarchies and the ersatB
dnasticism of Napoleon>s great7nephe*8
%:8 Not that this *as a clear7cut matter8 3alf the subFects of the .ingdom of 3ungar *ere non70agar8 Onl
one third of the serfs *ere 0agar7spea,ers8 In the earl nineteenth centur1 the high 0agar aristocrac spo,e
French or ?ermanJ the middle and lo*er nobilit >con&ersed in a dog7+atin stre*n *ith 0agar1 but also *ith
Slo&a,1 Serb1 and Romanian e'pressions as *ell as &ernacular ?erman8 888K Ignotus1 Cngar0- pp8 6:76(1 and $"8
(8 Official Nationalism and Imperialism
D$%E In the course of the nineteenth centur1 and especiall in its latter half1 the philological7
le'icographic re&olution and the rise of intra7European nationalist mo&ements1 themsel&es
the products1 not onl of capitalism1 but of the elephantiasis of the dnastic states1 created
increasing cultural1 and therefore political1 difficulties for man dnasts8 For1 as *e ha&e
seen1 the fundamental legitimac of most of these dnasties had nothing to do *ith
nationalness8 Romano&s ruled o&er Tatars and +etts1 ?ermans and Armenians1 Russians and
Finns8 3absburgs *ere perched high o&er 0agars and Croats1 Slo&a,s and Italians1
-,rainians and Austro7?ermans8 3ano&erians presided o&er Bengalis and Nuebecois1 as *ell
as Scots and Irish1 English and 2elsh8
"
On the continent1 furthermore1 members of the same
dnastic families often ruled in different1 sometimes ri&alrous1 states8 2hat nationalit should
be assigned to Bourbons ruling in France and D$6E Spain1 3ohenBollerns in <russia and
Rumania1 2ittelsbachs in Ba&aria and ?reeceH
2e ha&e also seen that for essentiall administrati&e purposes these dnasties had1 at
different speeds1 settled on certain print7&ernaculars as languages7of7state 7 *ith the >choice>
of language essentiall a matter of unselfconscious inheritance or con&enience8
The le'icographic re&olution in Europe1 ho*e&er1 created1 and graduall spread1 the
con&iction that languages ;in Europe at least= *ere1 so to spea,1 the personal propert of Guite
specific groups 7 their dail spea,ers and readers 7 and moreo&er that these groups1 imagined
as communities1 *ere entitled to their autonomous place in a fraternit of eGuals8 The
philological incendiaries thus presented the dnasts *ith a disagreeable dilemma *hich did
not fail to sharpen o&er time8 No*here is this dilemma clearer than in the case of Austro7
3ungar8 2hen the enlightened absolutist Aoseph II decided earl in the "C$4s to s*itch the
language of state from +atin to ?erman1 >he did not fight1 for instance1 against the 0agar
language1 but he fought against the +atin8888 3e thought that1 on the basis of the mediae&al
+atin administration of the nobilit1 no effecti&e *or, in the interest of the masses could ha&e
been carried on8 The necessit of a unifing language connecting all parts of his empire
seemed to him a peremptor claim8 -nder this necessit he could not choose an other
language than ?erman1 the onl one *hich had a &ast culture and literature under its s*a
and *hich had a considerable minorit in all his pro&inces8>
9
Indeed1 >the 3absburgs *ere not
a consciousl and conseGuentiall ?ermaniBing po*er888 8 There *ere Ca!s!rgs :ho did not
even s%ea# Kerman. E&en those 3absburg emperors *ho sometimes fostered a polic of
?ermaniBa7tion *ere not led in their efforts b an nationalistic point of &ie*1 but their
measures *ere dictated b the intent of unification and uni&ersalism of their empire8>
%
Their
essential aim *as 3ausmacht8 After the middle of the nineteenth centur1 ho*e&er1 ?erman
D$:E increasingl acGuired a double status/ >uni&ersal7imperial> and >particular7national>8 The
more the dnast pressed ?erman in its first capacit1 the more it appeared to be siding *ith
its ?erman7spea,ing subFects1 and the more it aroused antipath among the rest8 5et if it did
not so press1 indeed made concessions to other languages1 abo&e all 3ungarian1 not onl *as
unification set bac,1 but its ?erman7spea,ing subFects allo*ed themsel&es to feel affronted8
Thus it threatened to be hated simultaneousl as champion of the ?ermans and traitor to
them8 ;In much the same *a1 the Ottomans came to be hated b Tur,ish7spea,ers as
apostates and b non7Tur,ish7spea,ers as Tur,ifiers8=
Insofar as all dnasts b mid7centur *ere using some &ernacular as language7of7state1
6
and
also because of the rapidl rising prestige all o&er Europe of the national idea1 there *as a
discernible tendenc among the Euro70editerranean monarchies to sidle to*ards a bec,oning
national identification8 Romano&s disco&ered the *ere ?reat Russians1 3ano&erians that
the *ere English1 3ohenBollerns that the *ere ?ermans7and *ith rather more difficult
their cousins turned Romanian1 ?ree,1 and so forth8 On the one hand1 these ne*
identifications shored up legitimacies *hich1 in an age of capitalism1 scepticism1 and science1
could less and less safel rest on putati&e sacralit and sheer antiGuit8 On the other hand1
the posed ne* dangers8 If .aiser 2ilhelm II cast himself as >No8 " ?erman1>he implicitl
conceded that he *as one among man0 of the same #ind as himself- that he had a
representati&e function1 and therefore could1 in principle1 be a traitor to his fello*7?ermans
;something inconcei&able in the dnast>s heda8 Traitor to *hom or to *hatH=8 In the *a,e
of the disaster that o&ertoo, ?erman in "#"$1 he *as ta,en at his implied *ord8 Acting in
the name of the ?erman nation1 ci&ilian politicians ;publicl= and the ?eneral Staff ;*ith its
usual courage1 secretl= sent him pac,ing from the Fatherland to an obscure Dutch suburb8 So
too 0ohammad7ReBa <ahla&i1 ha&ing cast himself1 not as D$(E Shah1 but as Shah of Iran1
came to be branded traitor8 That he himself accepted1 not the &erdict1 but1 as it *ere1 the
Furisdiction of the national court1 is sho*n b a small comed at the moment of his departure
into e'ile8 Before climbing the ramp of hisFet1 he ,issed the earth for the photographers and
announced that he *as ta,ing a small Guantit of sacred Iranian soil *ith him8 This ta,e is
lifted from a film about ?aribaldi1 not the Sun .ing8
:
The >naturaliBations> of Europe>s dnasties 7 maneu&ers that reGuired in man cases some
di&erting acrobatics7e&entuall led to *hat Seton72atson bitingl calls >official
nationalisms1>
(
of *hich CBarist Russification is onl the best7,no*n e'ample8 These >official
nationalisms> can best be understood as a means for combining naturaliBation *ith retention
of dnastic po*er1 in particular o&er the huge polglot domains accumulated since the
0iddle Ages1 or1 to put it another *a1 for stretching the short1 tight1 s,in of the nation o&er
the gigantic bod of the empire8 >Russification> of the heterogeneous population of the CBar>s
subFects thus represented a &iolent1 conscious *elding of t*o opposing political orders1 one
ancient1 one Guite ne*8 ;2hile there is a certain analog *ith1 sa1 the 3ispaniBation of the
Americas and the <hilippines1 one central difference remains8 The cultural conGuistadors of
late7nineteenth7centur CBardom *ere proceeding from a selfconscious 0achia7&ellism1
*hile their si'teenth7centur Spanish ancestors acted out of an unselfconscious e&erda
pragmatism8 Nor *as it for them reall >3ispaniBation>7rather it *as simpl conversion of
heathens and sa&ages8=
The ,e to situating >official nationalism>7*illed merger of nation and dnastic empire 7 is to
remember that it de&eloped after- and in reaction to- the popular national mo&ements
proliferating in Europe since the "$94s8 If these nationalisms *ere modelled on D$CE
American and French histories1 so no* the became modular in turn8
C
It *as onl that a
certain in&enti&e legerdemain *as reGuired to permit the empire to appear attracti&e in
national drag8
To gain some perspecti&e on this *hole process of reactionar1 secondar modelling1 *e ma
profitabl consider some parallel1 et usefull contrasting cases8
3o* uneas Romano& autocrac initiall felt at >ta,ing to the streets> is e'cellentl sho*n b
Seton72atson8
$
As noted earlier1 the language of the court of St8 <etersburg in the eighteenth
centur *as French1 *hile that of much of the pro&incial nobilit *as ?erman8 In the
aftermath of Napoleon>s in&asion1 Count Sergei -&aro&1 in an official report of "$%91
proposed that the realm should be based on the three principles of Autocrac1 Orthodo'1 and
Nationalit Hnatsional-nost@. If the first t*o *ere old1 the third *as Guite no&el7and some*hat
premature in an age *hen half the >nation> *ere still serfs1 and more than half spo,e a mother7
tongue other than Russian8 -&aro&>s report *on him the post of 0inister of Education1 but
little more8 For another half7centur CBarism resisted -&aro&ian enticements8 It *as not until
the reign of Ale'ander III ;"$$"7#6= that Russification became official dnastic polic/ long
after -,rainian1 Finnish1 +ett and other nationalisms had appeared *ithin the Empire8
Ironicall enough1 the first Russifing measures *ere ta,en against precisel those
>nationalities> *hich had been most Gaisertre - such as the Baltic ?ermans8 In "$$C1 in the
Baltic pro&inces1 Russian *as made compulsor as the language of instruction in all state
schools abo&e the lo*est primar classes1 a measure later e'tended to pri&ate schools as *ell8
In "$#%1 the -ni&ersit of Dorpat1 one of the most distinguished colleges in the imperial
domains1 *as closed do*n because it used ?erman in the lecture7rooms8 ;Recall that hitherto
?erman had been a pro&incial language7of7state1 not the &oice of a popular nationalist
mo&ement=8 D$$E And so on8 Seton72atson e&en goes so far as to &enture that the Re&olution
of "#4: *as >as much a re&olution of non7Russians against Russification as it *as a
re&olution of *or,ers1 peasants1 and radical intellectuals against autocrac8 The t*o re&olts
*ere of course connected/ the social re&olution *as in fact most bitter in non7Russian
regions1 *ith <olish *or,ers1 +at&ian peasants1 and ?eorgian peasants as protagonists8>
#
At the same time1 it *ould be a big mista,e to suppose that since Russification *as a
d0nastic polic1 it did not achie&e one of its main purposes 7 marshalling a gro*ing >?reat
Russian> nationalism behind the throne8 And not simpl on the basis of sentiment8 Enormous
opportunities *ere after all a&ailable for Russian functionaries and entrepreneurs in the &ast
bureaucrac and e'panding mar,et that the empire pro&ided8
No less interesting than Ale'ander III1 Russifing CBar of All the Russias1 is his
contemporar !ictoria &on Sa'e7Coburg7?otha1 Nueen of England and- late in life1 Empress
of India8 Actuall her title is more interesting than her person1 for it represents
emblematicall the thic,ened metal of a *eld bet*een nation and empire8
"4
3er reign too
mar,s the onset of a +ondon7stle >official nationalism> *hich has strong affinities *ith the
Russification being pursued in St8 <etersburg8 A good *a to appreciate this affinit is b
longitudinal comparison8
In +he (rea#-% of (ritain- Tom Nairn raises the problem of *h there *as no Scottish
nationalist mo&ement in the late eighteenth centur1 in spite of a rising Scots bourgeoisie and
a &er distinguished Scots intelligentsia8
""
3obsba*m has peremptoril dismissed Nairn>s
thoughtful discussion *ith the remar,/ >It is pure anachronism to e'pect Dthe ScotsE to ha&e
demanded an independent state at this time8>
"9
5et if *e recall that BenFamin Fran,lin1 *ho
co7signed the American Declaration of Independence1 *as born fi&e ears before D$#E Da&id
3ume1 *e ma be inclined to thin, this Fudgement itself a shade anachronistic8
"%
It seems to
me that the difficulties 7 and their resolution 7 lie else*here8
On the other hand1 there is Nairn>s good nationalist tendenc to treat his >Scotland> as an
unproblematic1 primordial gi&en8 Bloch reminds us of the cheGuered ancestr of this >entit>1
obser&ing that the ra&ages of the Danes and 2illiam the ConGueror destroed fore&er the
cultural hegemon of Northern1 Anglo7Sa'on Northum7bria1 smboliBed b such luminaries
as Alcuin and Bede/
"6
A part of the northern Bone *as detached for e&er from England proper8 Cut off from other
populations of Anglo7Sa'on speech b the settlement of the !i,ings in 5or,shire1 the lo*lands
round about the Northumbrian citadel of Edinburgh fell under the domination of the Celtic chiefs
of the hills8 Thus the bilingual ,ingdom of Scotland *as b a sort of bac,handed stro,e a creation
of the Scandina&ian in&asions8
And Seton72atson1 for his part1 *rites that the Scottish language/
":
de&eloped from the flo*ing together of Sa'on and French1 though *ith less of the latter and *ith
rather more from Celtic and Scandina&ian sources than in the south8 This language *as spo,en not
onl in the east of Scotland but also in northern England8 Scots1 or >northern English1> *as spo,en
at the Scottish court and b the social elite ;*ho might or might not also spea, ?aelic=1 as *ell as
b the +o*land popualtion as a *hole8 It *as the language of the poets Robert 3enrson and
2illiam Dunbar8 It might ha&e de&eloped as a distinct literar language into modern times had not
the union of the cro*ns in "(4% brought the predominance of southern English through its
e'tension to the court1 administration and upper class of Scotland8
D#4E The ,e point here is that alread in the earl se&enteenth centur large parts of *hat
*ould one da be imagined as Scotland *ere English7spea,ing and had immediate access to
print7English1 pro&ided a minimal degree of literac e'isted8 Then in the earl eighteenth
centur the English7spea,ing +o*lands collaborated *ith +ondon in largel e'terminating
the ?aeltacht8 In neither >north*ard thrust> *as a selfconscious AngliciBing polic pursued7 in
both cases AngliciBation *as essentiall a bproduct8 But combined1 the had effecti&el
eliminated1 >before> the age of nationalism1 an possibilit of a European7stle &ernacular7
specific nationalist mo&ement8 2h not one in the American stleH <art of the ans*er is
gi&en b Nairn in passing1 *hen he spea,s of a >massi&e intellectual migration> south*ards
from the mid eighteenth centur on*ards8
"(
But there *as more than an intellectual migration8
Scottish politicians came south to legislate1 and Scottish businessmen had open access to
+ondon>s mar,ets8 In effect1 in complete contrast to the Thirteen Colonies ;and to a lesser
e'tent Ireland=1 there :ere no !arricades on all these pilgrims> paths to*ards the centre8
;Compare the clear high*a before +atin7 and ?erman7reading 3ungarians to !ienna in the
eighteenth centur8= English had et to become an >English> language8
The same point can be made from a different angle8 It is true that in the se&enteenth centur
+ondon resumed an acGuisition of o&erseas territories arrested since the disastrous ending to
the 3undred 5ears 2ar8 But the >spirit> of these conGuests *as still fundamentall that of a
prenational age8 Nothing more stunningl confirms this than the fact that >India> onl became
>British> t*ent ears after !ictoria>s accession to the throne8 In other *ords1 until after the
"$:C 0utin1 >India> *as ruled b a commercial enterprise7not b a state1 and certainl not b
a nation7state8
But change *as on the *a8 2hen the East India Compan>s charter came up for rene*al in
"$"%1 <arliament mandated the allocation of "441444 rupees a ear for the promotion of
nati&e education1 !oth >oriental> and >2estern8> In "$9%1 a Committee of <ublic Instruction
*as set up in BengalJ and in "$%61 Thomas D#"E Babington 0acaula became president of
this committee8 Declaring that >a single shelf of a good European librar is *orth the *hole
nati&e literature of India and Arabia1>
"C
he produced the follo*ing ear his notorious >0inute
on Education8> +uc,ier than -&aro&1 his recommendations *ent into immediate effect8 A
thoroughl English educational sstem *as to be introduced *hich1 in 0acaula>s o*n
ineffable *ords1 *ould create >a class of persons1 Indian in blood and colour1 but English in
taste1 in opinion1 in morals and in intellect8 >
"$
In "$%(1 he *rote that/
"#
No 3indu *ho has recei&ed an English education e&er remains sincerel attached to his religion8 It
is m firm belief Dso the al*as *ereE that if our plans of education are follo*ed up1 there *ill
not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirt ears hence8
There is here1 to be sure1 a certain nai&e optimism1 *hich reminds us of Fermin in Bogota
half a centur earlier8 But the important thing is that *e see a long7range ;%4 earsQ= polic1
consciousl formulated and pursued1 to turn >idolaters1> not so much into Christians1 as into
people culturall English1 despite their irremediable colour and blood8 A sort of mental
miscegenation is intended1 *hich1 *hen compared *ith Fermin>s phsical one1 sho*s that1
li,e so much else in the !ictorian age1 imperialism made enormous progress in daintiness8 In
an e&ent1 it can be safel said that from this point on1 all o&er the e'panding empire1 if at
different speeds1 0acaulaism *as pursued8
94
+i,e Russification1 AngliciBation naturall also
offered ros D#9E opportunities to armies of middle7class metropolitans ;not least ScotsmenQ=
7 functionaries1 schoolmasters1 merchants1 and planters 7*ho Guic,l fanned out o&er the &ast1
permanentl sunlit realm8 Nonetheless there *as a central difference bet*een the empires
ruled from St8 <etersburg and +ondon8 CBardom remained a >continuous> continental domain1
confined to the temperate and arctic Bones of Eurasia8 One could1 so to spea,1 *al, from one
end of it to the other8 +inguistic ,inship *ith the Sla&ic populations of Eastern Europe1 and 7
to put it pleasantl 7 historical1 political1 religious and economic ties *ith man non7Sla&ic
peoples1 meant that relativel0 spea,ing1 the barriers on the road to St8 <etersburg *ere not
impermeable8
9"
The British Empire1 on the other hand1 *as a grab7bag of primaril tropical
possessions scattered o&er e&er continent8 Onl a minorit of the subFected peoples had an
long7standing religious1 linguistic1 cultural1 or e&en political and economic1 ties *ith the
metropole8 Au'taposed to one another in the Aubilee 5ear1 the resembled those random
collections of Old 0asters hastil assembled b English and American millionaires *hich
e&entuall turn into solemnl imperial state museums8
The conseGuences are *ell illustrated b the bitter recollections of Bipin Chandra <al1 *ho1
in "#%91 a centur after 0acaula>s >0inute>1 still felt angr enough to *rite that Indian
0agistrates/
99
had not onl passed a &er rigid test on the same terms as British members of the ser&ice1 but had
spent the &er best ears of the formati&e period of their outh in England8 -pon their return to
their homeland1 the practicall li&ed in the same stle as their brother Ci&ilians1 and almost
religiosl0 follo*ed the social con&entions and the ethical standards of the latter8 In those das the
India7born Dsic 7 compare our Spanish7American CreolesE Ci&ilian practicall cut himself off from
his parent societ1 and li&ed and mo&ed and had his being in the atmosphere so belo&ed of his
British colleagues8 In mind and manners he :as as mch an Englishman as an0 Englishman. It
*as no small sacrifice for him1 because in this *a he completel estranged himself from the
societ of his o*n people and became sociall and morall a pariah D#%E among them8888 3e *as as
much a stranger in his o:n native land as the European residents in the countr8
So far1 so 0acaula8 0uch more serious1 ho*e&er1 *as that such strangers in their nati&e
land *ere still condemned7no less fatall than the American Creoles7 to an >irrational>
permanent subordination to the English maturrangos8 It *as not simpl that1 no matter ho*
AngliciBed a <al became1 he *as al*as barred from the uppermost pea,s of the RaF8 3e *as
also barred from mo&ement outside its perimeter 7 laterall1 sa1 to the ?old Coast or 3ong
.ong1 and &erticall to the metropole8 >Completel estranged from the societ of his o*n
people> he might be1 but he *as under life sentence to ser&e among them8 ;To be sure1 *ho
>the> included &aried *ith the stretch of British conGuests on the subcontinent8
9%
=
2e shall be loo,ing later at the conseGuences of official nationalisms for the rise of
t*entieth7centur Asian and African nationalisms8 For our purposes here1 *hat needs to be
stressed is that AngliciBation produced thousands of <als all o&er the *orld8 Nothing more
sharpl underscores the fundamental contradiction of English official nationalism1 i8e8 the
inner incompatibilit of empire and nation8 I sa >nation> ad&isedl1 because it is al*as
tempting to account for these <als in terms of racism8 No one in their right mind *ould den
the profoundl racist character of nineteenth7centur English imperialism8 But the <als also
e'isted in the :hite colonies 7 Australia1 Ne* Mealand1 Canada and South Africa8 English and
Scottish schoolmasters also s*armed there1 and AngliciBation *as also cultural polic8 As to
<al1 to them too the looping up*ard path still open to the Scots in the eighteenth centur *as
closed8 AngliciBed Australians did not ser&e in Dublin or 0anchester1 and not e&en in Otta*a
or Capeto*n8 Nor1 until Guite late on1 could the become ?o&ernors7D#6E?eneral in
Canberra8
96
Onl >English English> did1 i8e8 members of a half7concealed English nation8
Three ears before the East India Compan lost its Indian hunting7ground1 Commodore <err
*ith his blac, ships peremptoril battered do*n the *alls that for so long had ,ept Aapan in
self7imposed isolation8 After "$:61 the self7confidence and inner legitimac of the Ba,ufu
;To,uga*a Shogunate regime= *ere rapidl undermined b a conspicuous impotence in the
face of the penetrating 2est8 -nder the banner of Sonno Aoi ;Re&ere the So&ereign1 E'pel the
Barbarians=1 a small band of middle7ran,ing samurai1 primaril from the Satsuma and
Choshu han- finall o&erthre* it in "$($8 Among the reasons for their success *as an
e'ceptionall creati&e absorption1 especiall after "$(41 of the ne* 2estern militar science
sstematiBed since "$": b <russian and French staff professionals8 The *ere thus able to
ma,e effecti&e use of C1%44 ultra7modern rifles ;most of them American Ci&il 2ar scrap=1
purchased from an English arms7merchant8
9:
>In the use of guns888 the D#:E men of Choshu had
such master that the old blood and thunder slash and cut methods *ere Guite useless against
them8>
9:
Once in po*er1 ho*e&er1 the rebels1 *hom *e remember toda as the 0eiFi oligarchs1 found
that their militar pro*ess did not automaticall guarantee political legitimac8 If the Tenno
;>Emperor>= could Guic,l be restored *ith the abolition of the Ba,ufu1 the barbarians could
not so easil be e'pelled8
9C
Aapan>s geopolitical securit remained Fust as fragile as before
"$($8 One of the basic means adopted for consolidating the oligarch>s domestic position *as
thus a &ariant of mid7centur >official nationalism1> rather consciousl modelled on
3ohenBollern <russia7?erman8 Bet*een "$($ and "$C"1 all residual local >feudal> militar
units *ere dissol&ed1 gi&ing To,o a centraliBed monopol of the means of &iolence8 In "$C91
an Imperial Rescript ordered the promotion of uni&ersal literac among adult males8 In "$C%1
*ell before the -nited .ingdom1 Aapan introduced conscription8 At the same time1 the regime
liGuidated the samurai as a legall7defined and pri&ileged class1 an essential step not onl for
;slo*l= opening the officer corps to all talents1 but also to fit the no* >a&ailable> nation7of7
citiBens model8 The Aapanese peasantr *as freed from subFection to the feudal )0n7sstem
and henceforth e'ploited directl b the state and commercial7agricultural lando*ners8
9$
In
"$$#1 there follo*ed a <russian7stle constitution and e&entuall uni&ersal male suffrage8
In this orderl campaign the men of 0eiFi *ere aided b three half7fortuitous factors8 First
*as the relati&el high degree of Aapanese ethnocultural homogeneit resulting from t*o and
a half centuries of isolation and internal pacification b the Ba,ufu8 2hile the Aapanese
spo,en in .ushu *as largel incomprehensible in D#(E 3onshu1 and e&en Edo7To,o and
.oto7Osa,a found &erbal communication problematic1 the half7Sinified ideographic
reading7sstem *as long in place throughout the islands1 and thus the de&elopment of mass
literac through schools and print *as eas and uncontro&ersial8 Second1 the uniGue antiGuit
of the imperial house ;Aapan is the onl countr *hose monarch has been monopoliBed b a
single dnast throughout recorded histor=1 and its emblematic Aapanese7ness ;contrast
Bourbons and 3absburgs=1 made the e'ploitation of the Emperor for official7nationalist
purposes rather simple8
9#
Third1 the penetration of the barbarians *as abrupt1 massi&e1 and
menacing enough for most elements of the politicall7a*are population to rall behind a
programme of self7defence concei&ed in the ne* national terms8 It is *orth emphasiBing that
this possibilit had e&erthing to do *ith the timing of 2estern penetration1 i8e8 the "$(4s as
opposed to the "C(4s8 For b then1 in dominant Europe1 the >national communit> had been
coming into its o*n for half a centur1 in both popular and official &ersions8 In effect1 self7
defence could be fashioned along lines and in accordance *ith *hat *ere coming to be
>international norms8>
That the gamble paid off1 in spite of the terrible sufferings imposed on the peasantr b the
ruthless fiscal e'actions reGuired to pa for a munitions7based programme of
industrialiBation1 *as certainl due in part to the single7minded determination of the oligarchs
themsel&es8 Fortunate to come to po*er in an era in *hich numbered accounts in Murich la
in an undreamed7of future1 the *ere not tempted to mo&e the e'acted surplus outside Aapan8
Fortunate to rule in an age *hen militar technolog *as still ad&ancing at a relati&e amble1
the *ere able1 *ith their catch7up armaments programme1 to turn Aapan into an independent
militar po*er b the end of the centur8 Spectular successes b Aapan>s conscript arm
against China in "$#67:1 and b her na& against CBardom in "#4:1 plus the anne'ation of
Tai*an ;"$#:= and .orea ;"#"4=1 all consciousl D#CE propagandiBed through schools and
print1 *ere e'tremel &aluable in creating the general impression that the conser&ati&e
oligarch *as an authentic representati&e of the nation of *hich Aapanese *ere coming to
imagine themsel&es members8
That this nationalism too, on an aggressi&e imperialist character1 e&en outside ruling circles1
can best be accounted for b t*o factors/ the legac of Aapan>s long isolation and the po*er
of the official7national model8 0aruama shre*dl points out that all nationalisms in Europe
arose in the conte't of a traditional pluralism of interacting dnastic states7as I put it earlier1
+atin>s European uni&ersalism ne&er had a political correlate/
%4
National consciousness in Europe therefore bore from its inception the imprint of a consciousness
of international societ8 It *as a self7e&ident premise that disputes among so&ereign states *ere
conflicts among independent members of this international societ8 <recisel for this reason *ar1
since ?rotius1 has come to occup an important and sstematic place in international la*8
Centuries of Aapanese isolation1 ho*e&er1 meant that/
%"
an a*areness of eGualit in international affairs *as totall absent8 The ad&ocates of e'pulsion Dof
the barbariansE &ie*ed international relations from positions *ithin the national hierarch based on
the supremac of superiors o&er inferiors8 ConseGuentl1 *hen the premises of the national
hierarch *ere transferred horiBontall into the international sphere1 international problems *ere
reduced to a single alternati&e/ conGuer or be conGuered8 In the absence of an higher normati&e
standards *ith *hich to gauge international relations1 po*er politics is bound to be the rule and
esterda>s timid defensi&eness *ill become toda>s unrestrained e'pansionism8
Secondl1 the oligarch>s prime models *ere the self7naturaliBing dnasties of Europe8
Insofar as these dnasties *ere more and more defining themsel&es in national terms1 *hile at
the same time D#$E e'panding their po*er outside Europe1 it is not surprising that the model
should ha&e been understood imperiall8
%9
As the parcelliBation of Africa at the Congress of
Berlin ;"$$:= sho*ed1 great nations *ere global conGuerors8 3o* plausible then to argue
that1 for Aapan to be accepted as >great1> she too should turn Tenno into Emperor and launch
o&erseas ad&entures1 e&en if she *as late to the game and had a lot of catching up to do8 Fe*
things gi&e one a sharper sense of the *a these residues impinged on the consciousness of
the reading population than the follo*ing formulation b the radical7nationalist ideologue and
re&olutionar .ita I,,i ;"$$67"#%C=1 in his &er influential .ihon Gai8o Coan +ai#o DOutline
for the Reconstruction of AapanE1 published in "#96/
%%
As the class struggle *ithin a nation is *aged for the readFustment of uneGual distinctions1 so *ar
bet*een nations for an honorable cause *ill reform the present unFust distinctions8 The British
Empire is a millionaire possessing *ealth all o&er the *orldJ and Russia is a great lando*ner in
occupation of the northern half of the globe8 Aapan *ith her scattered fringe DsicE of islands is one
of the proletariat1 and she has the right to declare *ar on the big monopol po*ers8 The socialists
of the 2est contradict themsel&es *hen the admit the right of class struggle to the proletariat at
home and at the same time condemn *ar1 *aged b a proletariat among nations1 as militarism and
aggression 888 If it is permissible for the *or,ing class to unite to o&erthro* unFust authorit b
bloodshed1 then unconditional appro&al should be gi&en to Aapan to perfect her arm and na& and
ma,e *ar for the rectification of unFust international frontiers8 In the name of rational social
democrac Aapan claims possession of Australia and Eastern Siberia8
It remains onl to add that1 as the empire e'panded after "#441 Aapanification a la 0acaula
*as selfconsciousl pursued as state polic8 In the inter*ar ears .oreans1 Tai*anese and
0anchurians1 D##E and1 after the outbrea, of the <acific 2ar1 Burmese1 Indonesians and
Filipinos1 *ere subFected to policies for *hich the European model *as an established
*or,ing practice8 And Fust as in the British Empire1 Aapanified .oreans1 Tai*anese or
Burmese had their passages to the metropole absolutel barred8 The might spea, and read
Aapanese perfectl1 but the *ould ne&er preside o&er prefectures in 3onshu1 or e&en be
posted outside their Bones of origin8
3a&ing considered these three &aried cases of>official nationalism>1 it is important to stress
that the model could be selfconsciousl follo*ed b states *ith no serious great po*er
pretensions1 so long as the *ere states in *hich the ruling classes or leading elements in
them felt threatened b the *orld7*ide spread of the nationall7imagined communit8 A
comparison bet*een t*o such states1 Siam and 3ungar7*ithin7Austro73ungar1 ma pro&e
instructi&e8
0eiFi>s contemporar1 the long7reigning Chulalong,orn ;r8 "$($7"#"4=1 defended his realm
from 2estern e'pansionism in a stle that differed mar,edl from that of his Aapanese
opposite number8
%6
SGueeBed bet*een British Burma and 0alaa1 and French Indochina1 he
de&oted himself to a shre*d manipulati&e diplomac rather than attempting to build up a
serious *ar machine8 ;A 0inistr of 2ar *as not established until "$#68= In a *a that
reminds one of eighteenth7centur Europe1 his armed forces *ere primaril a motle arra of
!ietnamese1 .hmer1 +ao1 0ala1 and Chinese mercenaries and tributaries8 Nor *as anthing
much done to push an official nationalism through a moderniBed educational sstem8 Indeed1
primar education *as not made compulsor till more than a decade after his death1 and the
countr>s first uni&ersit *as not set up until "#"C1 four decades after the founding of the
Imperial -ni&ersit in To,o8 Nonetheless1 Chulalong,orn regarded himself as a moderniBer8
But his prime models *ere not the -nited .ingdom or ?erman1 but rather the colonial
!eamtenstaaten of the Dutch East D"44E Indies1 British 0alaa1 and the RaF8
%:
Follo*ing these
models meant rationaliBing and centraliBing roal go&ernment1 eliminating traditional semi7
autonomous tributar statelets1 and promoting economic de&elopment some*hat along
colonial lines8 The most stri,ing e'ample of this 7 an e'ample *hich in its odd *a loo,s
for*ard to contemporar Saudi Arabia 7 *as his encouragement of a massi&e immigration of
oung1 single1 male foreigners to form the disoriented1 politicall po*erless *or,force
needed to construct port facilities1 build rail*a lines1 dig canals1 and e'pand commercial
agriculture8 This importing of gastar!eiter paralleled1 indeed *as modelled on1 the policies of
the authorities in Bata&ia and Singapore8 And as in the case of the Netherlands Indies and
British 0alaa1 the great bul, of the labourers imported during the nineteenth centur *ere
from southeastern China8 It is instructi&e that this polic caused him neither personal Gualms
nor political difficulties 7 no more than it did the colonial rulers on *hom he modelled
himself8 Indeed the polic made good short term sense for a d0nastic state1 since it created an
impotent *or,ing class >outside> Thai societ and left that societ largel >undisturbed8>
2achira*ut1 his son and successor ;r8 "#"47"#9:=1 had to pic, up the pieces1 modelling
himself this time on the self7naturaliBing dnasts of Europe8 Although 7 and because 7 he *as
educated in late !ictorian England1 he dramatiBed himself as his countr>s >first nationalist8>
%(
The target of this nationalism1 ho*e&er1 *as neither the -nited .ingdom1 *hich controlled
#4 per cent of Siam>s trade1 nor France1 *hich had recentl made off *ith easterl segments
of the old realm/ it *as the Chinese *hom his father had so recentl and blithel imported8
The stle of his anti7Chinese stance is suggested b the titles of t*o of his most famous
pamphlets/ +he Je:s of the 2rient ;"#"6=1 and ,logs on 2r 3heels ;"#":=8
D"4"E 2h the changeH Doubtless dramatic e&ents immediatel preceding and follo*ing his
coronation in No&ember "#"4 had their effect8 The pre&ious Aune the police had had to be
called out to suppress a general sti,e b Bang,o,>s Chinese merchants ;up*ardl mobile
children of earl immigrants= and *or,ers1 mar,ing their initiation into Siamese politics8
%C
The follo*ing ear1 the Celestial 0onarch in <e,ing *as s*ept a*a b a heterogeneous
assortment of groups from *hich merchants *ere b no means absent8 >The Chinese> thus
appeared as harbingers of a popular re%!licanism profoundl threatening to the dnastic
principle8 Second1 as the *ords >Ae*s> and >Orient> suggest1 the AngliciBed monarch had
imbibed the particular racisms of the English ruling class8 But1 in addition1 there *as the fact
that 2achira*ut *as a sort of Asian Bourbon8 In a pre7national era his ancestors had readil
ta,en attracti&e Chinese girls as *i&es and concubines1 *ith the result that1 0endelianl7
spea,ing1 he himself had more Chinese >blood> than Thai8
%$
3ere is a fine e'ample of the character of official nationalism 7 an anticipator strateg
adopted b dominant groups *hich are threatened *ith marginaliBation or e'clusion from an
emerging nationall7imagined communit8 ;It goes *ithout saing that 2achira*ut also
began mo&ing all the polic le&ers of official nationalism/ compulsor state7controlled
primar education1 state7organiBed propaganda1 official re*riting of histor1 militarism 7 here
more &isible sho* than the real thing 7 and endless affirmations of the identit of dnast and
nation8
%#
=
The de&elopment of 3ungarian nationalism in the nineteenth centur D"49E sho*s in a
different *a the imprint of the >official> model8 2e noted earlier the +atin7spea,ing 0agar
nobilit>s enraged opposition to Aoseph II>s attempt in the "C$4s to ma,e ?erman the sole
imperial language7of7state8 The more ad&antaged segments of this class feared losing their
sinecures under a centraliBed1 streamlined administration dominated b imperial7?erman
bureaucrats8 The lo*er echelons *ere panic,ed b the possibilit of losing their e'emptions
from ta'es and compulsor militar ser&ice1 as *ell as their control o&er the serfs and rural
counties8 5et alongside the defence of +atin1 0agar *as1 Guite opportunisticall1 spo,en for1
>since in the long run a 0agar administration seemed the onl *or,able alternati&e to a
?erman one8>
64
Bela ?riin*ald sardonicall noted that >the same counties *hich ;arguing
against the decree of the Emperor= emphasiBed the possibilit of an administration in the
0agar tongue1 decared it in "$""7that is1 t*ent7se&en ears later7an impossibilit8> T*o
decades later still1 in a &er >nationalistic> 3ungarian count it *as said that >the introduction
of the 0agar language *ould endanger our constitution and all our interests8>
6"
It *as reall
onl in the "$64s that the 0agar nobilit7a class consisting of about "%(1444 souls
monopoliBing land and political rights in a countr of ele&en million people
69
7 became
seriousl committed to 0agariBation1 and then onl to pre&ent its o*n historic
marginaliBation8
At the same time1 slo*l increasing literac ;b "$(# one third of the adult population=1 the
spread of print70agar1 and the gro*th D"4%E of a small1 but energetic1 liberal intelligentsia
all stimulated a %o%lar 3ungarian nationalism concei&ed &er differentl from that of the
nobilit8 This popular nationalism1 smboliBed for later generations b the figure of +aFos
.ossuth ;"$497"$#6=1 had its hour of glor in the Re&olution of "$6$8 The re&olutionar
regime not onl got rid of the imperial go&ernors appointed b !ienna1 but abolished
the supposedl -r70agar feudal Diet of Noble Counties1 and proclaimed reforms to
put an end to serfdom and noblemen>s ta'7e'empt status1 as *ell as to curb drasticall the
entailment of estates8 In addition1 it *as decided that all 3ungarian7spea,ers should be
3ungarian ;as onl the pri&ileged had been before= and e&er 3ungarian should spea,
0agar ;as onl some 0agars had hitherto been accustomed to do=8 As Ignotus dril
comments1 >The KnationK *as1 b the standard of that time ;*hich &ie*ed the rise of the t*in
stars of +iberalism and Nationalism *ith boundless optimism=1 Fustified in feeling itself
e'tremel generous *hen it KadmittedK the 0agar peasant *ith no discrimination sa&e for
that relating to propertJ
6%
and the non70agar Christians on condition the became 0agarJ
and e&entuall1 *ith some reluctance and a dela of t*ent ears1 the Ae*s8
X66
.ossuth>s o*n
position1 in his fruitless negotiations *ith leaders of the &arious non70agar minorities1 *as
that these peoples should ha&e e'actl the same ci&il rights as the 0agars1 but that since
the lac,ed >historical personalities> the could not form nations on their o*n8 Toda1 this
position ma seem a trifle arrogant8 It *ill appear in a better light if *e recall that the
brilliant1 oung1 radical7nationalist poet Sandor <etofi ;"$9%7"$6#=1 a leading spirit of "$6$1
on one occasion referred to the minorities as >ulcers on the bod of the motherland8>
6:
After the suppression of the re&olutionar regime b CBarist armies in August "$6#1 .ossuth
*ent into life7long e'ile8 The stage *as no* set for a re&i&al of >official> 0agar nationalism1
epitomiBed b the reactionar regimes of Count .dlman TisBa D"46E ;"$C:7"$#4= and his son
Ist&an ;"#4%7"#4(=8 The reasons for this re&i&al are &er instructi&e8 During the "$:4s1 the
authoritarian7bureaucratic Bach administration in !ienna combined se&ere political
repression *ith a firm implementation of certain social and economic policies proclaimed b
the re&olutionaries of "$6$ ;most notabl the abolition of serfdom and noblemen>s ta'7
e'empt status= and the promotion of moderniBed communications and large7scale capitalist
enterprise8
6(
+argel depri&ed of its feudal pri&ileges and securit1 and incapable of
competing economicall *ith the great latifundists and energetic ?erman and Ae*ish
entrepreneurs1 the old middle and lo*er 0agar nobilit declined into an angr1 frightened
rural gentr8
+uc,1 ho*e&er1 *as on their side1 3umiliatingl defeated b <russian armies on the field of
.oniggratB in "$((1 !ienna *as forced to accede to the institution of the Dual 0onarch in
the Ausgleich ;Compromise= of "$(C8 From then on1 the .ingdom of 3ungar enFoed a &er
considerable autonom in the running of its internal affairs8 The initial beneficiaries of the
Ausgleich *ere a group of liberal7minded high 0agar aristocrats and educated
professionals8 In "$($1 the administration of the culti&ated magnate Count ?ula Andrass
enacted a Nationalities +a* *hich ga&e the non70agar minorities >e&er right the had e&er
claimed or could ha&e claimed 7 short of turning 3ungar into a federation8>
6C
But TisBa>s
accession to the premiership in "$C: opened an era in *hich the reactionar gentr
successfull reconstituted their position1 relati&el free from !iennese interference8
In the economic field1 the TisBa regime ga&e the great agrarian magnates a free hand1
6$
but
political po*er *as essentiall monopoliBed b the gentr8 For1
D"4:E there remained onl one refuge for the dispossessed/ the administrati&e net*or, of national
and local go&ernment and the arm8 For these1 3ungar needed a tremendous staffJ and if she did
not she could at least pretend to8 3alf the countr consisted of>nationalities>to be ,ept in chec,8 To
pa a host of reliable1 0agar1 gentlemanl countr magistrates to control them1 so the argument
ran1 *as a modest price for the national interest8 The problem of multi7nationalities *as also a
godsendJ it e'cused the proliferation of sinecures8
Thus >the magnates held their entailed estatesJ the gentr held their entailed Fobs8>
6#
Such *as
the social basis for a pitiless polic of enforced 0agariBation *hich after "$C: made the
Nationalities +a* a dead letter8 +egal narro*ing of the suffrage1 proliferation of rotten
boroughs1 rigged elections1 and organiBed political thugger in the rural areas
:4
simultaneousl consolidated the po*er of TisBa and his constituenc and underscored the
>official> character of their nationalism8
AdsBi rightl compares this late7nineteenth7centur 0agariBation to >the polic of Russian
Tsardom against the <oles1 the Finns1 and the RutheniansJ the polic of <russia against the
<oles and DanesJ and the polic of feudal England against the Irish8>
:"
The ne'us of reaction
and official nationalism is nicel illustrated b these facts/ *hile linguistic 0agariBation
*as a central element of regime polic1 b the end of the "$$4s onl 9 per cent of the
officials in the more important branches of central and local go&ernments *ere Romanian1
although Romanians constituted 94 per cent of the population1 and >e&en these 9 per cent are
emploed in the lo*est grades8
X:9
On the other hand1 in D"4(E the 3ungarian parliament prior
to 2orld 2ar I1 there *as >not a single representati&e of the *or,ing classes and of the
landless peasantr ;the great maForit of the countr=888 and there *ere onl $ Romanians and
Slo&a,s out of a total membership of 6"% in a countr in *hich onl :6 per cent of the
inhabitants spo,e 0agar as their mother7tongue8>
:%
Small *onder1 then1 that *hen !ienna
sent in troops to dissol&e this parliament in "#4(1 >not e&en a single mass7meeting1 a single
placard1 or a single popular proclamation protested against the ne* era of K!iennese
absolutism8K On the contrar the *or,ing masses and nationalities regarded *ith malicious
Fo the impotent struggle of the national oligarch8>
:6
The triumph of the reactionar 0agar gentr>s >official nationalism> after "$C: cannot1
ho*e&er1 be e'plained solel b that group>s o*n political strength1 nor b the freedom of
manoeu&re it inherited from the Ausgleich8 The fact is that until "#4( the 3absburg court did
not feel in a position to assert itself decisi&el against a regime *hich in man respects
remained a pillar of the empire8 Abo&e all1 the dnast *as incapable of superimposing a
strenuous official nationalism of its o*n8 Not merel because the regime *as1 in the *ords of
the eminent socialist !i,tor Adler1 1'!soltisms gemildert drch Schlam%erei Dabsolutism
tempered b slo&enlinessE8>
::
D"4CE +ater than almost an*here else1 the dnast clung to
&anished conceptions8 >In his religios msticism1 each 3absburg felt himself connected b a
special tie *ith di&init1 as an e'ecutor of the di&ine *ill8 This e'plains their almost
unscrupulous attitude in the midst of historical catastrophes1 and their pro&erbial
ungratefulness8 )er)an# vom Case Ca!s!rg became a *idel spread slogan8>
:(
In addition1
bitter Fealous of 3ohenBollern <russia1 *hich increasingl made off *ith the plate of the
3ol Roman Empire and turned itself into ?erman1 ,ept the dnast insisting on FranB II >s
splendid >patriotism for me8>
At the same time1 it is interesting that in its last das the dnast disco&ered1 perhaps to its
o*n surprise1 affinities *ith its Social Democrats1 to the point that some of their common
enemies spo,e sneeringl of >BurgsoBialismus DCourt SocialismE>8 In this tentati&e coalition
there *as doubtless a mi'ture of 0achia&ellism and idealism on each side8 One can see this
mi'ture in the &ehement campaign led b the Austrian Social Democrats against the
economic and militar >separatism> pressed b the regime of Count Ist&an TisBa in "#4:8 .arl
Renner1 for e'ample1 >chastiBed the co*ardice of the Austrian bourgeoisie *ho began to
acGuiesce in the separatistic plans of the 0agars1 though Kthe 3ungarian mar,et is
incomparabl more significant for 'strian ca%ital than DtheE 0oroccan is for the ?erman1K
*hich ?erman foreign polic defends so energeticall8 In the claim for an independent
3ungarian customs territor he sa* nothing else than the clamouring of cit shar,s1
s*indlers1 and political demagogues1 against the ver0 interests of 'strian indstr0- of the
Austrian *or,ing7classes1 and of the 3ungarian agricultural population8>
:C
Similarl1 Otto
Bauer *rote that/
:$
D"4$E In the era of the Russian re&olution Dof "#4:E1 no one *ill dare to use na,ed militar force to
subFugate the countr D3ungarE1 rent as it is b class and national antagonisms8 But the inner
conflicts of the countr *ill pro&ide the Cro*n *ith another instrument of po*er *hich it *ill
ha&e to e'ploit if it does not *ish to suffer the fate of the 3ouse of Bernadotte8 It can not be the
organ of t*o *ills and et still intend to rule o&er 3ungar and Austria8 3ence it must ta,e steps to
ensure that 3ungar and Austria ha&e a common *ill1 and that it constructs a single realm $Reich&.
3ungar>s in*ard fragmentation offers her the possibilit to achie&e this goal8 She *ill dispatch
her arm to 3ungar to recapture it for the realm1 but she *ill inscribe on her banners/
-ncorrupted1 uni&ersal and eGual suffrageQ Right of coalition for the agricultural laborerQ National
autonomQ She *ill counterpose to the idea of an independent 3ungarian nation7state
$.ationahtaat& the idea of the Mnited States of Kreat 'stria DsicE1 the idea of a federati&e state
$(ndesstaat&- in *hich each nation *ill administer independentl its o*n national affairs1 and all
the nations *ill unite in one state for the preser&ation of their common interests8 Ine&itabl and
una&oidabl1 the idea of a federati&e state of nationalities $.ationalitdten!ndesstaat& *ill become
an instrument of the Cro*n DsicQ7 3er#8eg der Grone&- *hose realm is being destroed b the
deca of Dualism8
It seems reasonable to detect in this -nited States of ?reat Austria ;-S?A= residues of the
-SA and the -nited .ingdom of ?reat Britain and Northern Ireland ;one da to be ruled b a
+abour <art=1 as *ell as a foreshado*ing of a -nion of So&iet Socialist Republics *hose
stretch is strangel reminiscent of CBardom>s8 The fact is that this -S?A seemed1 in its
imaginer>s mind1 the necessar heir of a %articlar dnastic dominion ;?reat Austria= 7 *ith
its enfranchised components e'actl those produced b centuries of 3absburg >huc,sterings>8
Such >imperial> imaginings *ere partl the misfortune of a socialism born in the capital of
one of Europe>s great dnastic D"4#E empires8
:#
As *e ha&e noted earlier1 the ne* imagined
communities ;including the still7born1 but still imagined -S?A= conFured up b le'icograph
and print7capitalism al*as regarded themsel&es as someho* ancient8 In an age in *hich
>histor> itself *as still *idel concei&ed in terms of>great e&ents> and >great leaders>1 pearls
strung along a thread of narrati&e1 it *as ob&iousl tempting to decipher the communit>s past
in antiGue dnasties8 3ence a -S?A in *hich the membrane separating empire from nation1
cro*n from proletariat1 is almost transparent8 Nor *as Bauer unusual in all this8 A 2illiam
the ConGueror and a ?eorge I1 neither of *hom could spea, English1 continue to appear
unproblematicall as beads in the nec,lace >.ings of England>8 >Saint> Stephen ;r8 "44"7"4%$=
might admonish his successor that/
(4
The utilit of foreigners and guests is so great that the can be gi&en a place of si'th importance
among the roal ornaments8888 For1 as the guests come from &arious regions and pro&inces1 the
bring *ith them &arious languages and customs1 &arious ,no*ledges and arms8 All these adorn the
roal court1 heighten its splendour1 and terrif the haughtiness of foreign po*ers8 For a countr
unified in language and customs is fragile and *ea,8888
But such *ords *ould not in the least pre&ent his subseGuent apotheosis as the First .ing of
3ungar8
In conclusion1 then it has been argued that from about the middle of the nineteenth centur
there de&eloped *hat Seton72atson terms >official nationalisms> inside Europe8 These
nationalisms *ere historicall >impossible> until after the appearance of popular linguistic7
nationalisms1 for1 at bottom1 the *ere res%onses b po*er7groups 7 primaril1 but not
e'clusi&el1 dnastic and aristocratic I D""4E threatened *ith e'clusion from1 or
marginaliBation in1 popular imagined communities8 A sort of tectonic uphea&al *as
beginning1 *hich1 after "#"$ and "#6:1 tipped these groups to*ards drainages in Estoril and
0onte Carlo8 Such official nationalisms *ere conser&ati&e1 not to sa reactionar1 %olicies-
adapted from the model of the largel spontaneous popular nationalisms that preceded them8
("
Nor *ere the ultimatel confined to Europe and the +e&ant8 In the name of imperialism1
&er similar policies *ere pursued b the same sorts of groups in the &ast Asian and African
territories subFected in the course of the nineteenth centur8
(9
Finall1 refracted into non7
European cultures and histories1 the *ere pic,ed up and imitated b indigenous ruling
groups in those fe* Bones ;among them Aapan and Siam= *hich escaped direct subFection8
In almost e&er case1 official nationalism concealed a discrepanc bet*een nation and
dnastic realm8 3ence a *orld7*ide contradiction/ Slo&a,s *ere to be 0agariBed1 Indians
AngliciBed1 and .oreans Aapanified1 but the *ould not be permitted to Foin pilgrimages
*hich *ould allo* them to administer 0agars1 Englishmen1 or Aapanese8 The banGuet to
*hich the *ere in&ited al*as turned out to be a Barmecide feast8 The reason for all this
*as D"""E not simpl racismJ it *as also the fact that at the core of the empires nations too
*ere emerging73ungarian1 English1 and Aapanese8 And these nations *ere also instincti&el
resistant to >foreign> rule8 Imperialist ideolog in the post7"$:4 era thus tpicall had the
character of a conFuring7tric,8 3o* much it *as a conFuring7tric, is suggested b the
eGuanimit *ith *hich metropolitan popular classes e&entuall shrugged off the >losses> of
the colonies1 e&en in cases li,e Algeria *here the colon had been legall incorporated into
the metropole8 In the end1 it is al*as the ruling classes1 bourgeois certainl1 but abo&e all
aristocratic1 that long mourn the empires1 and their grief al*as has a stage Gualit to it8
"8 It is nice that *hat e&entuall became the late British Empire has not been ruled b an >English> dnast since
the earl ele&enth centur/ since then a motle parade of Normans ;<lantagenets=1 2elsh ;Tudors=1 Scots
;Stuarts=1 Dutch ;3ouse of Orange= and ?ermans ;3ano&erians= ha&e sGuatted on the imperial throne8 No one
much cared until the philological re&olution and a paro'sm of English nationalism in 2orld 2ar I8 3ouse of
2indsor rhmes *ith 3ouse of Schonbrunn or 3ouse of !ersailles8
98 AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 C"8 It is interesting that Aoseph had refused to ta,e the coronation oath as .ing of
3ungar because this *ould ha&e committed him to respecting the >constitutional> pri&ileges of the 0agar
nobilit8 Ignotus1 3ungar1 p8 6C8
%8 Ibid81 p8 "%C8 Emphasis added8
68 One could argue that a long era closed in "$661 *hen 0agar finall replaced +atin as language7of7state in
the .ingdom of 3ungar8 But1 as *e ha&e seen1 dog7+atin *as in fact the vernaclar of the 0agar middle and
lo*er nobilit until *ell into the nineteenth centur8
:8 From <rofessor Chehabi of 3ar&ard -ni&ersit I ha&e learned that the Shah *as in the first instance imitating
his father1 ReBa <ahla&i1 *ho1 on being e'iled b +ondon to 0auritius in "#6"1 included some Iranian soil in his
luggage8
(8 Seton72atson1 .ations and States- p8 "6$8 Alas1 the bite e'tends onl to Eastern Europe8 Seton72atson is
rightl sardonic at the e'pense of Romano& and So&iet regimes1 but o&erloo,s analogous policies being pursued
in +ondon1 <aris1 Berlin1 0adrid and 2ashington8
C8 There is an instructi&e parallel to all this in the politico7militar reforms of Scharnhorst1 Clause*itB and
?neisenau *ho in a selfconsciousl conser&ati&e spirit adapted man of the spontaneous inno&ations of the
French Re&olution for the erection of the great modular professionall7officered1 standing1 conscript arm of the
nineteenth centur8
$8 Ibid81 pp8 $%7$C8
#8 Ibid81 p8 $C8
"48 This *eld>s disintegration is cloc,ed b the procession from British Empire to British Common*ealth1 to
Common*ealth1 to88 88H
""8 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- pp8 "4(ff8
"98 >Some Reflections>1 p8 :8
"%8 In a boo, significantl entitled Inventing 'merica: Jefferson1s )eclaration of Inde%endence- ?ar 2ills
argues in fact that the nationalist Aefferson>s thin,ing *as fundamentall shaped1 not b +oc,e1 but b 3ume1
3utcheson1 Adam Smith1 and other eminences of the Scottish Enlightenment8
"68 *edal Societ0- I1 p8 698
":8 .ations and States- pp8 %47%"8
"(8 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- p8 "9%8
"C8 2e can be confident that this bumptious oung middle7class English -&aro& ,ne* nothing about either
>nati&e literature>8
"$8 See Donald Eugene Smith1 India as a Seclar State- pp8 %%C7%$J and <erci&al Spear1 India- Pa#istan and the
3est- p8 "(%8
"#8 Smith1 India- p8 %%#8
948 See1 for e'ample1 Roffs po,er7faced account of the founding in "#4: of the .uala .angsar 0ala College1
*hich Guic,l became ,no*n1 *holl *ithout iron1 as >the 0ala Eton8> True to 0acaula>s prescriptions1 its
pupils *ere dra*n from the >respectable classes>7i8e8 the compliant 0ala aristocrac8 3alf the earl boarders
*ere direct descendants of &arious 0ala sultans8 2illiam R8 Roff1 +he 2rigins of 6ala0 .ationalism- pp8 "447
"4:8
9"8 The trans7-ral populations *ere another stor8
998 See his 6emories of 60 9ife and +imes- pp8 %%"7%98 Emphases added8
9%8 It is true that Indian officials *ere emploed in BurmaJ but Burma *as administrati&el part of British India
until "#%C8 Indians also ser&ed in subordinate capacities7especiall in the police7in British 0alaa and
Singapore1 but the ser&ed as >locals> and >immigrants>1 i8e8 *ere not transferable >bac,> to India>s police forces8
Note that the emphasis here is on officials/ Indian labourers1 merchants1 and e&en professionals1 mo&ed in
siBeable numbers to British colonies in Southeast Asia1 South and East Africa1 and e&en the Caribbean8
968 To be sure1 b late Ed*ardian times1 a fe* >*hite colonials>did migrate to +ondon and become members of
<arliament or prominent press7lords8
9:8 3ere the ,e figure *as Omura 0asuFiro ;"$967"$(#=1 the so7called >Father of the Aapanese ArmK8 A lo*7
ran,ing Choshu samurai1 he started his career b studing 2estern medicine through Dutch7language manuals8
;It *ill be recalled that until "$:6 the Dutch *ere the onl 2esterners permitted access to Aapan1 and this access
*as limited essentiall to the island of Deshima off the Ba,ufu7controlled port of Nagasa,i8= On graduating
from the Te,iFu,u in Osa,a1 then the best Dutch7language training centre in the countr1 he returned home to
practise medicine 7 but *ithout much success8 In "$:%1 he too, a position in -*aFima as instructor in 2estern
learning1 *ith a fora to Nagasa,i to stud na&al science8 ;3e designed and super&ised the building of Aapan>s
first steamship on the basis of *ritten manuals8= 3is chance came after <err>s arri&alJ he mo&ed to Edo in "$:(
to *or, as an instructor at *hat *ould become the National 0ilitar Academ and at the Ba,ufu>s top research
office for the stud of 2estern te'ts8 3is translations of European militar *or,s especiall on Napoleon>s
inno&ations in strateg and tactics1 *on him fame and recall to Choshu in "$(4 to ser&e as militar ad&iser8 In
"$(67(:1 he pro&ed the rele&ance of his *riting as a successful commander in the Choshu ci&il *ar8
SubseGuentl he became the first 0eiFi 0inister of 2ar1 and dre* up the regime>s re&olutionar plans for mass
conscription and elimination of the samurai as a legal caste8 For his pains he *as assassinated b an outraged
samurai8 See Albert 08 Craig1 ,hosh in the 6ei;i Restoration- especiall pp8 94979461 9(C79$48
9(8 A contemporar Aapanese obser&er1 Guoted in E8 3eibert Norman1 Soldier and Peasant in Ja%an- p8 %"8
9C8 The ,ne* this from bitter personal e'perience8 In "$(91 an English sGuadron had le&elled half the Satsuma
port of .agoshimaJ in "$(61 aFoint American1 Dutch1 and English na&al unit destroed the Choshu coastal
fortifications at Shimonose,i8 Aohn 08 0a,i1 Ja%anese 6ilitarism- pp8 "6(76C8
9$8 All this reminds one of those reforms accomplished in <russia after "$"4 in response to Bliicher>s
impassioned plea to Berlin/ >?et us a national armQ> !agts1 ' Cistor0 of 6ilitarism- p8 "%4J Cf8 ?ordon A8
Craig1 +he Politics of the Prssian 'rm0- ch8 98
9#8 But I ha&e been informed b scholars of Aapan that recent e'ca&ations of the earliest roal tombs suggest
strongl that the famil ma originall ha&e been 7 horrorsQ 7 .orean8 The Aapanese go&ernment has strongl
discouraged further research on these sites8
%48 0aruama 0asao1 +hoght and (ehavior in 6odem Ja%anese Politics- p8 "%$8
%"8 Ibid81 pp8 "%#7648
%98 -nluc,il1 the onl alternati&e to the officiall7nationaliBing d0nastic states of the time 7 Austro73ungar 7
*as not among the po*ers *ith a significant presence in the Far East8
%%8 As translated and cited in Richard Storr1 +he )o!le Patriots- p8 %$8
%68 The follo*ing section is a condensed &ersion of part of m >Studies of the Thai State/ the State of Thai
Studies>1 in Elie8er(. '0alHed.@ +he State of +hai Stdies.
%:8 Batte nicel sho*s that the purpose of the oung monarch>s &isits to Bata&ia and Singapore in "$C4 and to
India in "$C9 *as1 in Chulalong,orn>s o*n s*eet *ords1 >selecting *hat ma be safe models8> See >The 0ilitar1
?o&ernment and Societ in Siam1 "$($7"#"41> p8 ""$8
%(8 >The inspiration of !aFira&udh>s D2achira*ut>sE nationalist program *as1 first and foremost1 ?reat Britain1
the 2estern nation !aFira&udh ,ne* best1 at this time a nation caught up in imperialist enthusiasm8> 2alter F8
!ella1 ,hai0oA Ging La;iravdh and the )evelo%ment of +hai .ationalism- %. 'i&8 See also pp8 ( and (C7($8
%C8 The stri,e *as occasioned b the go&ernment>s decision to e'act the same head7ta' on the Chinese as on the
nati&e Thai8 3itherto it had been lo*er1 as an inducement to immigration8 See Be&ars D81 0abr1 +he
)evelo%ment of 9a!or Instittions in +hailand- p8 %$8 ;E'ploitation of the Chinese came mainl &ia the opium7
farm8=
%$8 For genealogical details1 see m >Studies of the Thai State1> p8 9"68
%#8 3e also coined the slogan1 ,hat- Sasana- Gasat ;Nation1 Religion1 0onarch= *hich has been the shibboleth
of right*ing regimes in Siam for the last Guarter of a centur8 3ere -&aro&>s Autocrac1 Orthodo'1 Nationalit
appear in re&ersed Thai order8
648 Ignotus1 Cngar0- pp8 6C76$8 Thus in "$94 the +iger im Schlafroc# ;Tiger in a Nightgo*n=1 Emperor FranB
II1 made a fine impression *ith his +atin address to the 3ungarian magnates assembled in <est8 In "$9:1
ho*e&er1 the romantic7radical grand seigneur Count Ist&an SBecheni >staggered his fello*7magnates> in the
Diet b addressing them in 0agarQ AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 $4J and Ignotus1 Cngar0- p8 :"8
6"8 Translated citation from his +he 2ld Cngar0 ;"#"4= in AasBi1 +he )issoltion- pp8 C47C"8 ?riin*ald ;"$%#7
"$#"= *as an interesting and tragic figure8 Born to a 0agariBed noble famil of Sa'on descent1 he became both
a superb administrator and one of 3ungar>s earliest social scientists8 The publication of his research
demonstrating that the famous 0agar gentr7controlled >counties> *ere parasites on the nation e&o,ed a sa&age
campaign of public obloGu8 3e fled to <aris and there dro*ned himself in the Seine8 Ignotus1 Cngar0- pp8
"4$7"4#8
698 AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 9##8
6%8 The .ossuth regime instituted adult male suffrage1 but *ith such high propert Gualifications that relati&el
fe* persons *ere in a position to &ote8
668 Ignotus1 Cngar0- p8 :(8
6:8 Ibid81 p8 :#8
6(8 Ignotus obser&es that Bach did pro&ide the noblemen *ith some financial compensation for the loss of their
pri&ileges1 >probabl neither more nor less than the *ould ha&e got under .ossuth> ;pp8 (67(:=8
6C8 Ibid81 p8 C68
6$8 As a result1 the number of entailed estates trebled bet*een "$(C and "#"$8 If one includes Church propert1
full one third of all land in 3ungar *as entailed b the end of the Dual 0onarch8 ?erman and Ae*ish
capitalists also did *ell under TisBa8
6#8 Ibid81 pp8 $" and $98
:48 The thugger *as mainl the *or, of the notorious >pandoors1> part of the arm put at the disposal of the
count administrators and deploed as a &iolent rural police8
:"8 +he )issoltion- p8 %9$8
:98 According to the calculations of +aFos 0ocsar HSome 3ords on the .ationalit0 Pro!lem- Budapest1 "$$(=1
cited in ibid81 pp8 %%"7%%98 0ocsar ;"$9(7"#"(= had in "$C6 established a small Independence <art in the
3ungarian parliament to fight for .ossuth>s ideas1 particularl on the minorities Guestion8 3is speeches
denouncing TisBa>s blatant &iolations of the "$($ Nationalities +a* led first to his phsical e'trusion from
parliament and then e'pulsion from his o*n part8 In "$$$1 he *as returned to parliament from a *holl
Romanian constituenc and became largel a political outcast8 Ignotus1 Cngar0- p8 "4#8
:%8 AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 %%68
:68 Ibid81 p8 %(98 Right into the t*entieth centur there *as a spurious Gualit to this >national oligarch8>AasBi
reports the di&erting stor of one correspondent of a famous 3ungarian dail *ho during 2orld 2ar I
inter&ie*ed the *ounded officer *ho *ould become the reactionar dictator of 3ungar in the inter7*ar ears8
3orth *as enraged b the article>s description of his thoughts >*inging bac, to the 3ungarian fatherland1 home
of the ancestors8> >Remember1> he said >that1 if m chief *arlord is in Baden1 then m fatherland is also thereQ>
+he )issoltion- p8 "698
::8 Ibid81 p8 "(:8 >And in the good old das *hen there *as still such a place as Imperial Austria1 one could
lea&e the train of e&ents1 get into an ordinar train on an ordinar rail*a7line1 and tra&el bac, home88 88 Of
course cars also dro&e along those roads 7 but not too man carsQ The conGuest of the air had begun here tooJ but
not too intensi&el8 No* and then a ship *as sent off to South America or the Far EastJ but not too often8 There
*as no ambition to ha&e *orld mar,ets and *orld po*er8 3ere one *as in the centre of Europe1 at the focal
point of the *orld>sold a'esJ the *ords >colon> and >o&erseas> had the ring of something as et utterl untried
and remote8 There *as some displa of lu'ur1 but it *as not1 of course as o&ersophisticated as the French8 One
*ent in for sportJ but not in madl Anglo7Sa'on fashion8 One spent tremendous sums on the armJ but onl Fust
enough to assure one of remaining the second *ea,est among the great po*ers8> Robert 0usil1 +he 6an
3ithot Nalities- I1 pp8 %"7%98 This boo, is the great comic no&el of our centur8
:(8 AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 "%:8 Author>s emphasis8 2hen 0etternich *as dismissed after the "$6$
insurrections and had to flee1 >nobod in the *hole court as,ed him *here he *ould go and ho* he could li&e8>
Sic transit8
:C8 Ibid81 p8 "$"8 Emphases added8
:$8 Otto Bauer1 )ie .ationalitatenfrage nd die So8ialdemocratie ;"#4C=1 as found in his 3er#asga!e- I1 p8
6$98 Italics in the original8 Comparison of this translation *ith that of AasBi1 gi&en in the original &ersion of this
boo,1 offers food for thought8
:#8 Surel the also reflect the characteristic mindset of a *ell7,no*n tpe of left*ing European intellectual1
proud of his command of the ci&iliBed languages1 his Enlightenment heritage1 and his penetrating understanding
of e&erone else>s problems8 In this pride1 internationalist and aristocratic ingredients are rather e&enl mi'ed8
(48 AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 %#8
("8 3alf a centur ago AasBi had alread suspected as much/ >One ma as, *hether the late imperialist
de&elopments of nationalism do reall emanate from the genuine sources of the national idea and not from the
monopolistic interests of certain groups *hich *ere alien to the original conception of national aims8> Ibid81 p8
9$(8 Emphasis added8
(98 The point is nicel underlined b in&ersion in the case of the Netherlands Indies1 *hich in its last das *as
still to a large e'tent ruled through a language *hich *e ,no* toda as >Indonesian8> This is1 I thin,1 the onl
case of a large colonial possession in *hich to the end a non7European language remained a language7of7state8
The anomal is primaril to be e'plained b the sheer antiGuit of the colon1 *hich *as founded earl in the
se&enteenth centur b a corporation ;the !ereenigde Oostindische Compagnie=7long before the age of official
nationalism8 Doubtless there *as also a certain lac, of confidence on the part of the Dutch in modern times that
their language and culture had a European cachet comparable to that of English1 French1 ?erman1 Spanish1 or
Italian8 ;Belgians in the Congo *ould use French rather than Flemish8= Finall1 colonial educational polic *as
e'ceptionall conser&ati&e/ in "#641 *hen the indigenous population numbered *ell o&er C4 millions1 there
*ere onl (%C >nati&es> in college1 and onl %C graduated *ith BAs8 See ?eorge 0cT8 .ahin1 .ationalism and
Revoltion in Indonesia- p8 %98 For more on the Indonesian case1 see belo*1 Chapter !II8
C8 The +ast 2a&e
D""%E The First 2orld 2ar brought the age of high dnasticism to an end8 B "#991
3absburgs1 3ohenBollerns1 Romano&s and Ottomans *ere gone8 In place of the Congress of
Berlin came the +eague of .ations- from *hich non7Europeans *ere not e'cluded8 From this
time on1 the legitimate international norm *as the nation7state1 so that in the +eague e&en the
sur&i&ing imperial po*ers came dressed in national costume rather than imperial uniform8
After the cataclsm of 2orld 2ar II the nation7state tide reached full flood8 B the mid7
"#C4s e&en the <ortuguese Empire had become a thing of the past8
The ne* states of the post72orld 2ar II period ha&e their o*n character1 *hich nonetheless
is incomprehensible e'cept in terms of the succession of models *e ha&e been considering8
One *a of underlining this ancestr is to remind oursel&es that a &er large number of these
;mainl non7European= nations came to ha&e European languages7of7state8 If the resembled
the >American> model in this respect1 the too, from linguistic European nationalism its
ardent populism1 and from official nationalism its Russifing polic7orientation8 The did so
because Americans and Europeans had li&ed through comple' historical e'periences *hich
*ere no* e&er*here modularl imagined1 and because the European languages7of7state the
emploed *ere the legac of imperialist official nationalism8 This is *h so often in the
>nation7building> policies of D""6E the ne* states one sees both a genuine1 popular nationalist
enthusiasm and a sstematic1 e&en 0achia&ellian1 instilling of nationalist ideolog through
the mass media1 the educational sstem1 administrati&e regulations1 and so forth8 In turn1 this
blend of popular and official nationalism has been the product of anomalies created b
European imperialism/ the *ell7,no*n arbitrariness of frontiers1 and bilingual intelligentsias
poised precariousl o&er di&erse monoglot populations8 One can thus thin, of man of these
nations as proFects the achie&ement of *hich is still in progress1 et proFects concei&ed more
in the spirit of 0aBBini than that of -&aro&8
In considering the origins of recent >colonial nationalism>1 one central similarit *ith the
colonial nationalisms of an earlier age immediatel stri,es the ee/ the isomorphism bet*een
each nationalism>s territorial stretch and that of the pre&ious imperial administrati&e unit8 The
similarit is b no means fortuitousJ it is clearl related to the geograph of all colonial
pilgrimages8 The difference lies in the fact that the contours of eighteenth7centur Creole
pilgrimages *ere shaped not onl b the centraliBing ambitions of metropolitan absolutism1
but b real problems of communication and transportation1 and a general technological
primiti&eness8 In the t*entieth centur1 these problems had largel been o&ercome1 and in
their place came a Aanus7faced >Russification>8
I argued earlier that in the late eighteenth centur the imperial administrati&e unit came to
acGuire a national meaning in part because it circumscribed the ascent of Creole
functionaries8 So too in the t*entieth centur8 For e&en in cases *here a oung bro*n or
blac, Englishman came to recei&e some education or training in the metropole1 in a *a that
fe* of his creole progenitors had been able to do1 that *as tpicall the last time he made this
bureaucratic pilgrimage8 From then on1 the ape' of his looping flight *as the highest
administrative centre to :hich he cold !e assigned: Rangoon1 Accra1 ?eorgeto*n1 or
Colombo8 5et in each constricted Fourne he found bilingual tra&elling companions *ith
*hom he came to feel a gro*ing communalit8 In his Fourne he understood rather Guic,l
that his point of origin 7 concei&ed either ethnicall1 linguisticall1 or geographicall 7 *as of
small significance8 At most it started him on this pilgrimage rather than that/ it did not
fundamentall determine D"":E his destination or his companions8 Out of this pattern came
that subtle1 half7concealed transformation1 step b step1 of the colonial7state into the national7
state1 a transformation made possible not onl b a solid continuit of personnel1 but b the
established s,ein of Fournes through *hich each state *as e'perienced b its functionaries8
"
5et increasingl after the middle of the nineteenth centur1 and abo&e all in the t*entieth1 the
Fournes *ere no longer made b a mere handful of tra&ellers1 but rather b huge and
&ariegated cro*ds8 The central factors at *or, *ere three8 First and foremost *as the
enormous increase in phsical mobilit made possible b the astonishing achie&ements of
industrial capitalism 7 rail*as and steamships in the last centur1 motor transport and
a&iation in this8 The interminable Fournes of the old Americas *ere Guic,l becoming things
of the past8
Second1 imperial >Russification> had its practical as *ell as ideological side8 The sheer siBe of
the global European empires1 and the &ast populations subFected1 meant that purel
metropolitan1 or e&en creole1 bureaucracies *ere neither recruitable nor affordable8 The
colonial state1 and1 some*hat later1 corporate capital1 needed armies of cler,s1 *ho to be
useful had to be bilingual1 capable of mediating linguisticall bet*een the metropolitan
nation and the coloniBed peoples8 The need *as all the greater as the specialiBed functions of
the state e&er*here multiplied after the turn of the centur8 Alongside the old district officer
appeared the medical officer1 the irrigation engineer1 the agricultural e'tension7*or,er1 the
school7teacher1 the policeman1 and so on8 2ith e&er enlargement of the state1 the s*arm of
its inner pilgrims s*elled8
9
D""(E Third *as the spread of modern7stle education1 not onl b the colonial state1 but also
b pri&ate religious and secular organiBations8 This e'pansion occurred not simpl to pro&ide
cadres for go&ernmental and corporate hierarchies1 but also because of the gro*ing
acceptance of the moral importance of modern ,no*ledge e&en for coloniBed populations8
%
;Indeed the phenomenon of the educated unemploed *as alread beginning to be apparent
in a &ariet of colonial states8=
It is generall recogniBed that the intelligentsias *ere central to the rise of nationalism in the
colonial territories1 not least because colonialism ensured that nati&e agrarian magnates1 big
merchants1 industrial entrepreneurs1 and e&en a large professional class *ere relati&e rarities8
Almost e&er*here economic po*er *as either monopoliBed b the colonialists themsel&es1
or une&enl shared *ith a politicall impotent class of pariah ;non7nati&e= businessmen7
+ebanese1 Indian and Arab in colonial Africa1 Chinese1 Indian1 and Arab in colonial Asia8 It
is no less generall recogniBed that the intelligentsias> &anguard role deri&ed from their
bilingual literac1 or rather literac and bilingualism8 <rint7literac alread made possible the
imagined communit floating in homogeneous1 empt time of *hich *e ha&e spo,en earlier8
Bilingualism meant access1 through the European language7of7state1 to modern 2estern
culture in the broadest sense1 and1 in particular1 to the models of nationalism1 nation7ness1 and
nation7state produced else*here in the course of the nineteenth centur8
6
In "#"%1 the Dutch colonial regime in Bata&ia1 ta,ing its lead from D""CE The 3ague1
sponsored massi&e colon7*ide festi&ities to celebrate the centennial of the >national
liberation> of the Netherlands from French imperialism8 Orders *ent out to secure phsical
participation and financial contributions1 not merel from the local Dutch and Eurasian
communities1 but also from the subFect nati&e population8 In protest1 the earl Aa&anese7
Indonesian nationalist Su*ardi SurFaning7rat ;.i 3adFar De*antoro= *rote his famous
Dutch7language ne*spaper article >Als i,eens Nederlander *as> ;If I *ere for once to be a
Dutchman=8
:
In m opinion1 there is something out of place 7 something indecent 7 if *e ;I still being a
Dutchman in m imagination= as, the nati&es to Foin the festi&ities *hich celebrate our
independence8 Firstl1 *e *ill hurt their sensiti&e feelings because *e are here celebrating our o*n
independence in their nati&e countr *hich *e coloniBe8 At the moment *e are &er happ
because a hundred ears ago *e liberated oursel&es from foreign dominationJ and all of this is
occurring in front of the ees of those *ho are still under our domination8 Does it not occur to us
that these poor sla&es are also longing for such a moment as this1 *hen the li,e us *ill be able to
celebrate their independenceH Or do *e perhaps feel that because of our soul7destroing polic *e
regard all human souls as deadH If that is so1 then *e are deluding oursel&es1 because no matter
ho* primiti&e a communit is1 it is against an tpe of oppression8 If I *ere a Dutchman1 I *ould
not organiBe an independence celebration in a countr *here the independence of the people has
been stolen8
2ith these *ords Su*ardi *as able to turn Dutch histor against the Dutch1 b scraping
boldl at the *eld bet*een Dutch nationalism and imperialism8 Furthermore1 b the
imaginar transformation of D""$E himself into a temporar Dutchman ;*hich in&ited a
reciprocal transformation of his Dutch readers into temporar Indonesians=1 he undermined
all the racist fatalities that underla Dutch colonial ideolog8
(
Su*ardi>s broadside 7 *hich delighted his Indonesian as much as it irritated his Dutch
audience7is e'emplar of a *orld7*ide t*entieth7centur phenomenon8 For the parado' of
imperial official nationalism *as that it ine&itabl brought *hat *ere increasingl thought of
and *ritten about as European >national histories> into the consciousnesses of the coloniBed 7
not merel &ia occasional obtuse festi&ities1 but also through reading7rooms and classrooms8
C
!ietnamese oungsters could not a&oid learning about the %hiloso%hes and the Re&olution1
and *hat Debra calls >our secular antagonism to ?erman>8
$
0agna Carta1 the 0other of
<arliaments1 and the ?lorious Re&olution1 glossed as English national histor1 entered
schools all o&er the British Empire8 Belgium>s independence struggle against 3olland *as not
erasable from schoolboo,s Congolese children *ould one da read8 So also the histories of
the -SA in the <hilippines and1 last of all1 <ortugal in 0oBambiGue and Angola8 The iron1
of course1 is that these histories *ere *ritten out of a historiographical consciousness *hich
b the turn of the centur *as1 all o&er Europe1>becoming nationall defined8 ;The barons
*ho imposed 0agna Carta on Aohn <lantagenet did not spea, >English1> and had no
conception of themsel&es as >Englishmen1> but the *ere firml defined as earl patriots in
the classrooms of the -nited .ingdom C44 ears later8=
5et there is a characteristic feature of the emerging nationalist intelligentsias in the colonies
*hich to some degree mar,s them off D""#E from the &ernaculariBing nationalist
intelligentsias of nineteenth7centur Europe8 Almost in&ariabl the *ere &er oung1 and
attached a comple' political significance to their outh7a significance *hich1 though it has
changed o&er time1 remains important to this da8 The rise of ;modern)organiBed= Burmese
nationalism is often dated to the founding in "#4$ of the 5oung 0en>s Buddhist Association
in RangoonJ and of 0alaan b the establishment in "#%$ of the .esatuan 0elau 0uda
;-nion of 0ala 5outh=8 Indonesians annuall celebrate the Sm%ah Pemda ;Oath of
5outh= dra*n up and s*orn b the nationalist outh congress of "#9$8 And so on8 It is
perfectl true that in one sense Europe had been there before 7 if *e thin, of 5oung Ireland1
5oung Ital1 and the li,e8 Both in Europe and in the colonies >oung> and >outh> signified
dnamism1 progress1 self7sacrificing idealism and re&olutionar *ill8 But in Europe >oung>
had little in the *a of definable sociological contours8 One could be middle7aged and still
part of 5oung IrelandJ one could be illiterate and still part of 5oung Ital8 The reason1 of
course1 *as that the language of these nationalisms *as either a &ernacular mother7tongue to
*hich the members had spo,en access from the cradle1 or1 as in the case of Ireland1 a
metropolitan language *hich had sun, such deep roots in sections of the population o&er
centuries of conGuest that it too could manifest itself1 creole7stle1 as a &ernacular8 There *as
thus no necessar connection bet*een language1 age1 class1 and status8
In the colonies things *ere &er different8 5outh meant1 abo&e all1 the first generation in an
significant numbers to ha&e acGuired a European education1 mar,ing them off linguisticall
and culturall from their parents> generation1 as *ell from the &ast bul, of their coloniBed
agemates ;cf8 B8 C8 <al=8 Burma>s >English7language> 50BA1 modelled in part on the 50CA1
*as built b English7reading schoolbos8 In the Netherlands Indies one finds1 inter a)*1 Aong
Aa&a ;5oung Aa&a=1 Aong Ambon ;5oung Amboina=1 and Aong Islamietenbond ;+eague of
5oung 0uslims= 7 titles incomprehensible to an oung nati&e unacGuainted *ith the
colonial tongue8 In the colonies1 then1 b >5outh> *e mean >Schooled 5outh1> at least at the
start8 This in turn reminds us again of the uniGue role plaed b D"94E colonial school7
sstems in promoting colonial nationalisms8
#
The case of Indonesia affords a fascinatingl intricate illustration of this process1 not least
because of its enormous siBe1 huge population ;e&en in colonial times=1 geographical
fragmentation ;about %1444 islands=1 religious &ariegation ;0uslims1 Buddhists1 Catholics1
assorted <rotestants1 3indu7Balinese1 and >animists>=1 and ethnolinguistic di&ersit ;*ell o&er
"44 distinct groups=8 Furthermore1 as its hbrid pseudo73ellenic name suggests1 its stretch
does not remotel correspond to an precolonial domainJ on the contrar1 at least until
?eneral Suharto>s brutal in&asion of e'7<ortuguese East Timor in "#C:1 its boundaries ha&e
been those left behind b the last Dutch conGuests ;c8 "#"4=8
Some of the peoples on the eastern coast of Sumatra are not onl phsicall close1 across the
narro* Straits of 0alacca1 to the populations of the *estern littoral of the 0ala <eninsula1
but the are ethnicall related1 understand each other>s speech1 ha&e a common religion1 and
so forth8 These same Sumatrans share neither mother7tongue1 ethnicit1 nor religion *ith the
Ambonese1 located D"9"E on islands thousands of miles a*a to the east8 5et during this
centur the ha&e come to understand the Ambonese as fello*7Indonesians1 the 0alas as
foreigners8
Nothing nurtured this bonding more than the schools that the regime in Bata&ia set up in
increasing numbers after the turn of the centur8 To see *h1 one has to remember that in
complete contrast to traditional1 indigenous schools1 *hich *ere al*as local and personal
enterprises ;e&en if1 in good 0uslim fashion1 there *as plent of horiBontal mo&ement of
students from one particularl *ell7reputed ulama7teacher to another=1 the go&ernment
schools formed a colossal1 highl rationaliBed1 tightl centraliBed hierarch1 structurall
analogous to the state bureaucrac itself8 -niform te'tboo,s1 standardiBed diplomas and
teaching certificates1 a strictl regulated gradation of age7groups1
"4
classes and instructional
materials1 in themsel&es created a self7contained1 coherent uni&erse of e'perience8 But no less
important *as the hierarch>s geograph8 StandardiBed elementar schools came to be
scattered about in &illages and small to*nships of the colonJ Funior and senior middle7
schools in larger to*ns and pro&incial centresJ *hile tertiar education ;the pramid>s ape'=
*as confined to the colonial capital of Bata&ia and the Dutch7built cit of Bandung1 "44
miles south*est in the cool <riangan highlands8 Thus the t*entieth7centur colonial school7
sstem brought into being pilgrimages *hich paralleled longer7established functionar
Fournes8 The Rome of these pilgrimages *as Bata&ia/ not Singapore1 not 0anila1 not
Rangoon1 not e&en the old Aa&anese roal capitals of AogFa,arta and Sura,arta8
""
From all
o&er the &ast colon1 but from no*here outside it1 the tender pilgrims made their in*ard1
up*ard *a1 meeting fello*7pilgrims from different1 perhaps once hostile1 &illages in
primar schoolJ from different ethnolinguistic groups in middle7schoolJ and from e&er D"99E
part of the realm in the tertiar institutions of the capital8
"9
And the ,ne* that from *here&er
the had come the still had read the same boo,s and done the same sums8 The also ,ne*1
e&en if the ne&er got so far 7 and most did not 7 that Rome *as Bata&ia1 and that all these
Fourneings deri&ed their >sense> from the capital1 in effect e'plaining *h >*e> are >here>
>together8> To put it another *a1 their common e'perience1 and the amiabl competiti&e
comradeship of the classroom1 ga&e the maps of the colon *hich the studied ;al*as
coloured differentl from British 0alaa or the American <hilippines= a territoriall specific
imagined realit *hich *as e&er da confirmed b the accents and phsiognomies of their
classmates8
"%
And *hat *ere the all togetherH The Dutch *ere Guite clear on this point/ *hate&er mother7
tongue the spo,e1 the *ere irremediabl inlanders- a *ord *hich1 li,e the English >nati&es>
and the French 1indigenes-1 al*as carried an unintentionall parado'ical semantic load8 In
this colon1 as in each separate1 other colon1 it meant that the persons referred to *ere both
>inferior> and 1!elonged there1 ;Fust as the Dutch1 being >nati&es> of 3olland1 belonged there@.
Con&ersel1 the Dutch b such language assigned themsel&es1 along *ith superiorit1 >not7
belonging7there>8 The *ord also implied that in their common inferiorit1 the inlanders *ere
e"all0 contemptible1 no matter *hat ethnolinguistic group or class the came from8 5et e&en
this miserable eGualit of condition had a definite perimeter8 For inlander al*as raised the
Guestion >nati&e of *hatH>8 If the Dutch sometimes spo,e as if inlanders *ere a *orld7
categor1 e'perience sho*ed that this notion *as hardl sustainable in practice8 Inlanders
stopped at the coloured colon>s dra*n edge8 Beond that *ere1 &ariousl1 >nati&es>1 indigenes
and indios. 0oreo&er1 colonial legal terminolog included the categor vreemde
oosterlingen ;foreign Orientals=1 *hich had the dubious ring of false coin 7 as it *ere
>foreign nati&es8> Such >foreign Orientals1> mainl Chinese1 Arabs and Aapanese1 though the
might li&e in the colon1 had a politico7 D"9%E legal status superior to that of the >nati&e
nati&es>8 Furthermore1 tin 3olland *as sufficientl a*ed b the 0eiFi oligarchs> economic
strength and militar pro*ess for Aapanese in the colon to be legall promoted1 from "$##
on1 to >honorar Europeans>8 From all this1 b a sort of sedimentation1 inlander - e'cluding
*hites1 Dutchmen1 Chinese1 Arabs1 Aapanese1 >nati&es1> indigenes- and indios - gre* e&er
more specific in contentJ until1 li,e a ripe lar&a1 it *as suddenl transmogrified into the
spectacular butterfl called >Indonesian>8
2hile it is true that the concepts inlander and >nati&e> could ne&er be trul generaliBed racist
notions1 since the al*as implied roots in some specific habitat1
"6
the case of Indonesia
should not lead us to assume that each >nati&e> habitat had preordained or immutable frontiers8
T*o e'amples *ill sho* the contrar/ French 2est Africa and French Indochina8
In its heda1 the Ecole Normale 2illiam <ont in Da,ar1 though onl a secondar school1
*as still the ape' of the colonial educational pramid in French 2est Africa8
":
To 2illiam
<ont came intelligent students from *hat *e ,no* toda as ?uinea1 0ali1 the I&or Coast1
Senegal1 and so on8 2e should not be surprised therefore if the pilgrimages of these bos1
terminating in Da,ar1 *ere initiall read in French D2estE African terms1 of *hich the
parado'ical concept negritde - essence of African7ness e'pressible onl in French1 language
of the 2illiam <ont classrooms 7 is an unforgettable smbol8 5et the apicalit of 2illiam
<ont *as accidental and e&anescent8 As more secondar schools *ere constructed in French
2est Africa1 it *as no longer necessar for bright bos to ma,e so distant a D"96E pilgrimage8
And in an case the educational centralit of 2illiam <ont *as ne&er matched b a
comparable administrati&e centralit of Da,ar8 The interchangeabilit of French 2est
African bos on the benches of 2illiam <ont *as not paralleled b their later bureaucratic
substitutabilit in the French 2est African colonial administration8 3ence1 the school>s Old
Bos *ent home to become1 e&entuall1 ?uinean or 0alian nationalist leaders1 *hile
retaining a >2est African> camaraderie and solidar intimac lost to succeeding generations8
"(
In much the same *a1 for one generation of relati&el *ell educated adolescents1 the curious
hbrid >Indochine> had a real1 e'perienced1 imagined meaning8
"C
This entit1 it *ill be
recalled1 *as not legall proclaimed until "$$C1 and did not acGuire its fullest territorial form
until "#4C1 though acti&e French meddling in the general area *ent bac, a centur earlier8
Broadl spea,ing1 the educational polic pursued b the colonial rulers of >Indochine> had t*o
fundamental purposes
"$
7 both of *hich1 as it turned out1 contributed to the gro*th of an
>Indochinese> consciousness8 One aim *as to brea, e'isting politico7cultural ties bet*een the
coloniBed peoples and the immediate e'tra7Indochinese D"9:E *orld8 As far as >Cambodge>
and >+aos> *ere concerned1
"#
the target *as Siam1 *hich had pre&iousl e'ercised a &ariable
suBeraint o&er them and shared *ith both the rituals1 institutions1 and sacred language of
3inaana Buddhism8 ;In addition1 the language and script of the lo*land +ao *ere1 and are1
closel related to those of the Thai=8 It *as precisel out of this concern that the French
e'perimented first in those Bones last seiBed from Siam *ith the so7called >reno&ated pagoda
schools1> *hich *ere designed to mo&e .hmer mon,s and their pupils out of the Thai orbit
into that of Indochina8
94
In eastern Indochina ;m shorthand for >Ton,in1> >Annam1> and >Cochin China>=1 the target *as
China and Chinese ci&iliBation8 Although the dnasties ruling in 3anoi and 3ue had for
centuries defended their independence from <e,ing1 the came to rule through a mandarinate
consciousl modelled on that of the Chinese8 Recruitment into the state machiner *as
geared to *ritten e'aminations in the Confucian classicsJ dnastic documents *ere *ritten in
Chinese charactersJ and the ruling class *as hea&il SiniciBed in culture8 These long7standing
ties assumed an additionall un*elcome character after about "$#:1 *hen the *ritings of
such Chinese reformers as .>ang 5u7*ei and +iang Ch>i7ch>ao1 and nationalists li,e Sun 5at7
sen1 began seeping across the northern frontier of the colon8
9"
D"9(E Accordingl1 Confucian e'aminations *ere successi&el abolished in >Ton,in> in "#":
and in >Annam> in "#"$8 3enceforth1 recruitment into the ci&il ser&ices of Indochina *as to
ta,e place e'clusi&el through a de&eloping French colonial education sstem8 Furthermore1
"oc ng- a romaniBed phonetic script originall de&ised b Aesuit missionaries in the
se&enteenth centur1
99
and adopted b the authorities for use in >Cochin China> as earl as the
"$(4s1 *as consciousl promoted to brea, the lin,s *ith China7and perhaps also *ith the
indigenous past7b ma,ing dnastic records and ancient literatures inaccessible to a ne*
generation of coloniBed !ietnamese8
9%
The second aim of educational polic *as to produce a carefull7calibrated Guantum of
French7spea,ing and French7*riting Indo7chinese to ser&e as a politicall reliable1 grateful1
and acculturated indigenous elite1 filling the subordinate echelons of the colon>s bureaucrac
and larger commercial enterprises8
96
The intricacies of the colonial educational sstem need not detain us here8 For our present
purposes1 the ,e characteristic of the sstem *as that it formed a single1 if ramshac,le1
pramid1 of *hich1 until the mid7"#%4s1 the upper terraces all la in the east8 -p until then1
for D"9CE e'ample1 the onl state7sponsored l0cees *ere located in 3anoi and SaigonJ and
throughout the pre*ar colonial period1 the sole uni&ersit in Indochina *as located in 3anoi1
so to spea, Fust do*n the street from the palace of the ?o&ernor7?eneral8
9:
The climbers of
these terraces included all the maFor &ernacular7spea,ers of the French domain/ !ietnamese1
Chinese1 .hmer1 and +ao ;and not a fe* oung French colonials=8 For the climbers1 coming
from1 shall *e sa1 0 Tho1 Battambang1 !ientiane1 and !inh1 the meaning of their
con&ergence had to be >Indochinese1> in the same *a that the polglot and polethnic student
bod of Bata&ia and Bandung had to read theirs as >Indonesian8>
9(
This Indochinese7ness1
although it *as Guite real1 *as nonetheless imagined b a tin group1 and not for &er long8
2h did it turn out to be so e&anescent1 *hile Indonesian7ness sur&i&ed and deepenedH
First there *as a mar,ed change of course in colonial education1 abo&e all as applied in
eastern Indochina1 from about "#"C on8 The actual1 or immediatel impending1 liGuidation of
the traditional Confucian e'amination sstem persuaded more and more members of the
!ietnamese elite to tr to place their children in the best French schools a&ailable1 so as to
ensure their bureaucratic futures8 The resulting competition for places in the fe* good
schools D"9$E a&ailable aroused a particularl strong reaction from the colons- *ho regarded
these schools as b right a largel French preser&e8 The colonial regime>s solution to the
problem *as to create a separate and subordinate >Franco7!ietnamese> educational structure
*hich placed special emphasis1 in its lo*er grades1 on !ietnamese7language instruction in
"oc ng ;*ith French taught as a second language &ia the medium of "oc ng@.
B4
This
polic shift had t*o complementar results8 On the one hand1 go&ernment publication of
hundreds of thousands of "oc ng primers significantl accelerated the spread of this
European7in&ented script1 unintentionall helping to turn it1 bet*een "#94 and "#6:1 into the
popular medium for the e'pression of !ietnamese cultural ;and national= solidarit8
9$
For
e&en if onl "4 per cent of the !ietnamese7spea,ing population *as literate b the late "#%4s1
this *as a proportion unprecedented in the histor of this people8 0oreo&er1 these literates
*ere1 unli,e the Confucian literati1 deepl committed to a rapid increase in their o*n
numbers8 ;Similarl1 in >Cambodge> and >+aos>1 if on a more limited scale1 the authorities
promoted the %rinting of elementar school7te'ts in the &ernaculars1 initiall and mainl in
the traditional orthographies1 later and more feebl in romaniBed scripts=8
9#
On the other hand1
the polic *or,ed to e'clude non7nati&e7!ietnamese7spea,ers residing in eastern Indochina8
In the case of the .hmer .rom of >Cochin D"9#E China1> it *or,ed1 in combination *ith the
colonial regime>s *illingness to permit them to ha&e >Franco7.hmer> elementar schools li,e
those being encouraged in the <rotectorate1 to re7orient ambitions !ac# up the 0e,ong8 Thus
those .hmer .rom adolescents *ho aspired to higher education in the administrati&e capital
of Indochina ;and1 for a select fe*1 e&en in metropolitan France= increasingl too, the detour
&ia <hnom <enh rather than the high*a through Saigon8
Second1 in "#%: the College Siso*ath in <hnom <enh *as upgraded into a full7fledged state
l0c1ee- *ith a status eGual to1 and a crriclm identical :ith- those of the e'isting state
l0cOes in Saigon and 3anoi8 Although its students *ere at first dra*n hea&il ;in the tradition
of the College= from local Sino7.hmer merchant families and those of resident !ietnamese
functionaries1 the proportion of nati&e .hmers steadil increased8
%4
It is probabl fair to sa
that1 after "#641 the great bul, of .hmer7spea,ing adolescents *ho achie&ed a solid French
high7school education did so in the neat colonial capital the colonialists had built for the
Norodoms8
Third *as the fact that there *as no real isomorphism bet*een the educational and
administrati&e pilgrimages in Indochina8 The French made no bones about e'pressing the
&ie* that if the !ietnamese *ere untrust*orth and grasping1 the *ere nonetheless
decisi&el more energetic and intelligent than the >child7li,e> .hmer and +ao8 Accordingl1
the made e'tensi&e use of !ietnamese functionaries in *estern Indochina8
%"
The "C(1444
!ietnamese residing in >Cambodge> in "#%C7representing less than one per cent of the "#
million !ietnamese7spea,ers of the colon1 but about ( per cent of the <rotectorate>s
population 7 formed a relati&el successful group1 for *hom therefore Indochina had a rather
solid meaning1 as it did for D"%4E the :41444 sent into >+aos> prior to "#6:8 <articularl the
functionaries among them1 *ho might be posted from place to place in all fi&e subsections of
the colon1 could *ell imagine Indochina as the *ide stage on *hich the *ould continue to
perform8
Such imagining *as much less eas for +ao and .hmer functionaries1 although there *as no
formal or legal prohibition on full7Indochinese careers for them8 E&en the more ambitious
oungsters coming from the c8%9(1444 ;"#%C= .hmer .rom communit in eastern Indochina
;representing perhaps "4 per cent of the entire .hmer7spea,ing population= found that in
%ractice the had &er limited career prospects outside >Cambodge>8 Thus .hmer and +ao
might sit alongside !ietnamese in French7language secondar and tertiar schools in Saigon
and 3anoi1 but the *ere unli,el to go on to share administrati&e offices there8 +i,e
oungsters from Cotonou and AbidFan in Da,ar1 the *ere destined to go bac,1 on
graduation1 to the >homes> colonialism had demarcated for them8 To put it another *a1 if
their educational pilgrimages *ere directed to*ards 3anoi1 their administrati&e Fournes
ended in <hnom <enh and !ientiane8
Out of these contradictions emerged those .hmer7spea,ing students *ho subseGuentl came
to be remembered as the first Cambodian nationalists8 The man *ho can reasonabl be
regarded as the >father> of .hmer nationalism1 Son Ngoc Thanh1 *as1 as his !ietnamiBed
name suggests1 a .hmer .rom *ho *as educated in Saigon and for a *hile held a minor
Fudicial post in that cit8 But in the mid7"#%4s he abandoned the <aris of the 0e,ong Delta to
see, a more promising future in its Blois8 <rince Siso*ath 5oute&ong attended secondar
school in Saigon before lea&ing for France for further stud8 2hen he returned to <hnom
<enh fifteen ears later1 after 2orld 2ar II1 he helped to found the ;.hmer= Democratic
<art and ser&ed as <rime 0inister in "#6(7"#6C8 3is Defence 0inister1 Sonn !oeunnsai1
undertoo, &irtuall the same Fournes8 3u .anthoul1 Democratic <rime 0inister in "#:"7
"#:91 had graduated from an ecole normale in 3anoi in "#%"1 and *as then returned to
<hnom <enh1 *here he e&entuall Foined the +cee Siso*ath>s teaching staff8
%9
<erhaps most
e'emplar of all is the D"%"E figure of Ieu .oeus1 first of a melanchol line of assassinated
.hmer political leaders8
%%
Born in the pro&ince of Battambang in "#4: 7 *hen it *as still
ruled from Bang,o,7he attended a local >reformed pagoda school> before entering an
>Indochinese> elementar school in Battambang to*n8 In "#9"1 he proceeded to the College
Siso*ath in the <rotectorate>s capital1 and then to a college de commerce in 3anoi1 from
*hich he graduated in "#9C at the top of his French7reading class8 3oping to stud chemistr
in Bordeau'1 he too, and passed the scholarship e'amination8 But the colonial state bloc,ed
his *a abroad8 3e returned to his nati&e Battambang1 *here he ran a pharmac1 continuing
to do so e&en after Bang,o, regained the pro&ince in "#6"8 After the Aapanese collapse in
August "#6:1 he reappeared in >Cambodge> as a Democratic parliamentarian8 It is notable that
he *as in his *a a lineal descendent of the illustrious philologists of an earlier Europe1
insofar as he designed a tpe*riter ,eboard for the .hmer script and published a *eight
t*o7&olume Pheasa Ghmer DThe .hmer +anguageE1 or as the misleading title7page of the
"#(C edition has it1 9a 9ange ,am!odgienne HMn Essai d1etde raisonn1e@.
3>
But this te't
made its first appearance 7 &olume " onl 7 in "#6C1 *hen its author *as Chairman of the
Constituent Assembl in <hnom <enh1 not in "#%C1 *hen he *as &egetating in Battambang1
*hen as et no .hmer7spea,ing l0ceens had been produced b the +cee Siso*ath1 and *hen
Indochina still had an ephemeral realit8 B "#6C1 .hmer7spea,ers 7 at least those from
>Cambodge> 7 *ere no longer attending classes in Saigon or 3anoi8 A ne* generation *as
coming on the scene for *hom >Indochine> *as histor and >!ietnam> no* a real and foreign
countr8
It is true that brutal in&asions and occupations during the nineteenth centur1 ordered b the
Nguen dnasts in 3u(1 left bitter fol,7memories among the .hmer1 including those in that
>Cochin China> fated to become part of !ietnam8 But comparable bitternesses D"%9E e'isted in
the Netherlands Indies/ Sundanese against Aa&aneseJ Bata, against 0inang,abauJ Sasa,
against BalineseJ ToraFa against BugineseJ Aa&anese against Ambonese1 and so on8 The so7
called >federalist polic> pursued bet*een "#6: and "#6$ b the formidable +ieutenant
?o&ernor7?eneral 3ubertus &an 0oo, to outflan, the infant Indonesian Republic attempted
precisel to e'ploit such bitternesses8
%:
But in spite of a spate of ethnic rebellions in almost all
parts of independent Indonesia bet*een "#:4 and "#(61 >Indonesia> sur&i&ed8 In part it
sur&i&ed because Bata&ia remained the educational ape' to the end1 but also because colonial
administrati&e polic did not rusticate educated Sundanese to the >Sundalands1> or Bata, to
their place of origin in the highlands of North Sumatra8 !irtuall all the maFor ethnolinguistic
groups *ere1 b the end of the colonial period1 accustomed to the idea that there *as an
archipelagic stage on *hich the had parts to pla8 Thus1 onl one of the rebellions of "#:47
(6 had se%aratist ambitionsJ all the rest *ere competiti&e *ithin a single Indonesian political
sstem8
%(
In addition1 one can not ignore the curious accident that b the "#94s an >Indonesian
language>had come into self7conscious e'istence8 3o* this accident came about is so
instructi&e that it seems *orth a brief digression8 Earlier1 mention *as made of the fact that
onl to a limited and late e'tent *ere the Indies ruled through Dutch8 3o* could it not be so1
*hen the Dutch had begun their local conGuests in the earl se&enteenth centur1 *hile
Dutch7language instruction for inlanders *as not seriousl underta,en until the earl
t*entiethH 2hat happened instead *as that b a slo*1 largel unplanned process1 a strange
language7of7state e&ol&ed on the basis of an ancient inter7insular lingua franca8
%C
Called
dienstmaleisch ;perhaps >ser&ice70ala> D"%%E or >administrati&e70ala>=1 it belonged
tpologicall *ith >Ottoman> and that >fiscal ?erman> *hich emerged from the polglot
barrac,s of the 3absburg empire8
%$
B the earl nineteenth centur it *as solidl in place
inside officialdom8 2hen print7capitalism arri&ed on the scene in a siBeable *a after mid7
centur1 the language mo&ed out into the mar,etplace and the media8 -sed at first mainl b
Chinese and Eurasian ne*spapermen and printers1 it *as pic,ed up b inlanders at the
centur>s close8 Nuic,l the dienst branch of its famil tree *as forgotten and replaced b a
putati&e ancestor in the Riau Islands ;of *hich the most important had 7 perhaps fortunatel
7since "$"# become British Singapore=8 B "#9$1 shaped b t*o generations of urban *riters
and readers1 it *as read to be adopted b 5oung Indonesia as the national;7ist= language
!ahasa Indonesia. Since then1 it has ne&er loo,ed bac,8
5et1 in the end1 the Indonesian case1 interesting as it is1 should not mislead us into thin,ing
that1 if 3olland had been a bigger po*er1
%#
and had arri&ed in "$:4 rather than "(441 the
national language could not Fust as *ell ha&e been Dutch8 Nothing suggests that ?hanaian
nationalism is an less real than Indonesian simpl because its national language is English
rather than Ashanti8 It is al*as a mista,e to treat languages in the *a that certain nationalist
ideologues treat them7as em!lems of nation7ness1 li,e flags1 costumes1 fol,7dances1 and the
rest8 0uch the most important thing about language is its capacit for generating imagined
communities1 building in effect %articlar solidarities. After all1 imperial languages are still
vernaclars- D"%6E and thus particular &ernaculars among man8 If radical 0oBambiGue
spea,s <ortuguese1 the significance of this is that <ortuguese is the medium through *hich
0oBambiGue is imagined ;and at the same time limits its stretch into TanBania and Mambia=8
Seen from this perspecti&e the use of <ortuguese in 0oBambiGue ;or English in India= is
basicall no different than the use of English in Australia or <ortuguese in BraBil8 +anguage
is not an instrument of e'clusion/ in principle1 anone can learn an language8 On the
contrar1 it is fundamentall inclusi&e1 limited onl b the fatalit of Babel/ no one li&es long
enough to learn all languages8 <rint7language is *hat in&ents nationalism1 not a particular
language per se8
64
The onl Guestion7mar, standing o&er languages li,e <ortuguese in
0oBambiGue and English in India is *hether the administrati&e and educational sstems1
particularl the latter1 can generate a politicall sufficient diffusion of bilingualism8 Thirt
ears ago1 almost no Indonesian spo,e !ahasa Indonesia as his or her mother7tongueJ
&irtuall e&erone had their o*n >ethnic> language and some1 especiall people in the
nationalist mo&ement1 !ahasa Indonesia?dienst-maleisch as *ell8 Toda there are perhaps
millions of oung Indonesians1 from doBens of ethnolinguistic bac,grounds1 *ho spea,
Indonesian as their mother7tongue8
It is not clear et *hether thirt ears from no* there *ill be a generation of 0oBambiGuians
*ho spea, onl 0oBambiGue7<ortuguese8 But1 in this late t*entieth centur1 it is not
necessaril the case that the emergence of such a generation is a sine "a non for D"%:E
0oBambiGuian national solidarit8 In the first place1 ad&ances in communications technolog1
especiall radio and tele&ision1 gi&e print allies una&ailable a centur ago8 0ultilingual
broadcasting can conFure up the imagined communit to illiterates and populations *ith
different mother7tongues8 ;3ere there are resemblances to the conFuring up of mediae&al
Christendom through &isual representations and bilingual literati8= In the second place1
t*entieth7centur nationalisms ha&e1 as I ha&e been arguing1 a profoundl modular character8
The can1 and do1 dra* on more than a centur and a half of human e'perience and three
earlier models of nationalism8 Nationalist leaders are thus in a position consciousl to deplo
ci&il and militar educational sstems modelled on official nationalism>sJ elections1 part
organiBations1 and cultural celebrations modelled on the popular nationalisms of ninteenth7
centur EuropeJ and the citiBen7republican idea brought into the *orld b the Americas8
Abo&e all1 the &er idea of>nation> is no* nestled firml in &irtuall all print7languagesJ and
nation7ness is &irtuall inseparable from political consciousness8
In a *orld in *hich the national state is the o&er*helming norm1 all of this means that nations
can no* be imagined *ithout linguistic communalit 7 not in the nai&e spirit of nosotros los
'mericanos- but out of a general a*areness of *hat modern histor has demonstrated to be
possible8
6"
It seems fitting1 in this conte't1 to conclude this chapter b returning to Europe and
considering briefl that nation *hose linguistic di&ersit has so often been used as a cudgel to
club proponents of language7based theories of nationalism8
In "$#"1 amidst no&el Fubilees mar,ing the (44th anni&ersar of the Confederac of Sch*B1
Ob*alden1 and Nid*alden1 the S*iss state >decided on> "9#" as the date of the >founding> of
S*itBerland8
69
Such a decision1 *aiting (44 ears to be made1 has its di&erting aspects1 and
suggests alread that modernit rather than antiGuit characteriBes D"%(E S*iss nationalism8
Indeed1 3ughes goes so far as to argue that the "$#" Fubilees mar, the birth of this
nationalism1 commenting that >in the first half of the nineteenth centur888 nationhood sat
rather lightl on the shoulders of the culti&ated middle classes/ 0me de Stael D"C((7"$"CE1
Fuseli D"C6"7"$9:E1 Angelica .auffmann D"C6"7"$4CE1 Sismondi D"CC%7"$69E1 BenFamin
Constant D"C(C7"$%4E1 are the all S*issH>
6%
If the implied ans*er is >hardl1> its significance
deri&es from the fact that1 all o&er the Europe surrounding S*itBerland1 the first half of the
nineteenth centur sa* the burgeoning of &ernacular nationalist mo&ements in *hich
>culti&ated middle classes> ;as it *ere1 philologists R capitalists= plaed central parts8 2h
then did nationalism come so late to S*itBerland1 and *hat conseGuences did that lateness
ha&e for its ultimate shaping ;in particular1 its contemporar multiplicit of >national
languages>=H
<art of the ans*er lies in the outh of the S*iss state1 *hich1 3ughes dril obser&es1 is
difficult to trace bac, beond "$"%7": >*ithout the aid of some pre&arication8>
66
3e reminds
us that the first real S*iss citiBenship1 the introduction of direct ;male= suffrage1 and the
ending of>internal> tolls and customs areas *ere achie&ements of the 3el&etic Republic
forcibl brought into being b the French occupation of "C#$8 Onl in "$4% did the state
include significant numbers of Italian7spea,ers1 *ith the acGuisition of Ticino8 Onl in "$":
did it gain the populous French7spea,ing areas of !alais1 ?ene&a1 and Neuchatel from a
&engefull anti7French 3ol Alliance7in e'change for neutralit and a highl conser&ati&e
constitution8
6:
In effect1 toda>s multilingual S*itBerland is a product of the earl nineteenth
centur8
6(
A second factor *as the countr>s bac,*ardness ;*hich1 combined D"%CE *ith its forbidding
topograph and lac, of e'ploitable resources1 helped to ,eep it from absorption b more
po*erful neighbours=8 Toda it ma be difficult to remember that until 2orld 2ar II
S*itBerland *as a poor countr1 *ith a standard of li&ing half that of England>s1 and an
o&er*helmingl rral countr8 In "$:41 barel ( per cent of the population li&ed in
minimall urban areas1 and as late as "#94 the figure had risen onl to 9C8( per cent8
6C
Throughout the nineteenth centur1 then1 the bul, of the population *as an immobile ;e'cept
for the age7old e'port of hard ouths as mercenaries and <apal ?uards= peasantr8 The
countr>s bac,*ardness *as not merel economic1 it *as also political and cultural8 >Old
S*itBerland1> the area of *hich did not change bet*een ":": and "$4%1 and most of *hose
inhabitants spo,e one or other of numerous ?erman patois1 *as ruled b a loose coalition of
cantonal aristocratic oligarchies8 >The secret of the long duration of the Confederac *as its
double nature8 Against outside enemies it produced a sufficient unit of peoples8 Against
internal rebellion1 it produced a sufficient unit of oligarchies8 If peasants rebelled1 as the
did three times or so in e&er centur1 then differences *ould be put aside and the
governments of other cantons *ould lend their assistance1 mediating often1 but not al*as1 in
fa&our of their fello*7ruler8>
6$
E'cept for the absence of monarchical institutions1 the picture
is not much different from that of the innumerable pett principalities *ithin the 3ol Roman
Empire1 of *hich +iechtenstein1 on S*itBerland>s eastern border1 is a last odd relic8
6#
It is instructi&e that as late as "$6$1 almost t*o generations after the S*iss state came into
being1 ancient religious clea&ages *ere much more politicall salient than linguistic ones8
Remar,abl enough1 in territories unalterabl7denoted Catholic <rotestantism *as nla:fl-
and in those so7denoted <rotestant Catholicism *as D"%$E illegalJ and these la*s *ere strictl
enforced8 ;+anguage *as a matter of personal choice and con&enience=8 Onl after "$6$1 in
the bac,*ash of Europe7*ide re&olutionar uphea&als and the general spread of
&ernaculariBing national mo&ements1 did language ta,e religion>s place1 and the countr
become segmented into unalterabl7denoted linguistic Bones8 ;Religion no* became a matter
of personal choice=8
:4
Finall1 the persistence 7 in such a small countr 7 of a large &ariet of sometimes mutuall7
unintelligible ?erman idiolects suggests the late arri&al of print7capitalism and standardiBed
modern education to much of S*iss peasant societ8 Thus Cochs%rache ;print7?erman= has
had1 until rather recentl1 the language7of7state status of drarisch detsch and dienstmaleisch.
Furthermore1 3ughes remar,s that toda >higher> officials are e'pected to ha&e a *or,ing
,no*ledge of t*o federal languages1 impling that the same competence is not e'pected of
their subordinates8 Indirectl1 a similar point is made b the Federal Directi&e of "#:4 *hich
insists that 1Edcated ?erman S*iss are certainl able to *or, in French1 as are edcated
Italian S*iss8>
:"
2e ha&e1 in effect1 a situation *hich at bottom is not too different from
0oBambiGue>s7a bilingual political class ensconced o&er a &ariet of monolingual
populations1 *ith onl this dissimilarit/ the >second language> is that of a po*erful neighbour
rather than of a former colonial ruler8
Nonetheless1 in &ie* of the fact that in "#"4 the maternal language of almost C% per cent of
the population *as ?erman1 99 per cent French1 6 per cent Italian1 and " per cent Romansch
;these proportions ha&e scarcel &aried o&er the inter&ening decades=1 it is perhaps surprising
that in the second half of the nineteenth centur 7era of official nationalisms 7
?ermanification *as not attempted8 Certainl up to "#"6 strong pro7?erman smpathies
e'isted8 Bet*een ?erman and ?erman S*itBerland borders *ere porous in the e'treme8
Trade and in&estment1 as *ell as aristocrats and professionals1 mo&ed bac, and forth Guite
freel8 But S*itBerland also abutted on t*o other maFor European po*ers1 France and Ital1
and the D"%#E political ris,s of ?ermaniBing *ere plain8 +egal parit bet*een ?erman1
French1 and Italian *as thus the ob&erse side of the coin of S*iss neutralit8
:9
All of the preceding e&idence indicates that S*iss nationalism is best understood as part of
the >last *a&e>8 If 3ughes is right in dating its birth to "$#"1 it is not much more than a decade
older than Burmese or Indonesian nationalism8 In other *ords1 it arose in that period of *orld
histor in *hich the nation *as becoming an international norm1 and in *hich it *as possible
to >model> nation7ness in a much more comple' *a than hitherto8 If the conser&ati&e
political1 and bac,*ard socio7economic1 structure of S*itBerland >delaed> the rise of
nationalism1
:%
the fact that its pre7modern political institutions *ere non7dnastic and non7
monarchical helped to pre&ent the e'cesses of official nationalism ;contrast the case of Siam
discussed in Chapter (=8 Finall1 as in the case of the Southeast Asian e'amples1 the
appearance of S*iss nationalism on the e&e of the communications re&olution of the
t*entieth centur made it possible and practical to >represent> the imagined communit in
*as that did not reGuire linguistic uniformit8
In conclusion1 it ma be *orth restating the general argument of this chapter8 The >last *a&e>
of nationalisms1 most of them in the colonial territories of Asia and Africa1 *as in its origins
a response to the ne*7stle global imperialism made possible b the achie&ements of
industrial capitalism8 As 0ar' put it in his inimitable *a/ >The need of a constantl
e'panding mar,et for its products chases the bourgeoisie o&er the *hole face of the globe8>
:6
But capitalism had also1 not least b its dissemination of print1 helped to create popular1
&ernacular7based nationalisms in Europe1 *hich to different degrees undermined the age7old
dnastic principle1 and egged into self7 D"64E naturaliBation e&er dnast positioned to do so8
Official nationalism7*eld of the ne* national and old dnastic principles ;the (ritish Empire=
7 led in turn to *hat1 for con&enience1 one can call >Russifica7tion> in the e'tra7European
colonies8 This ideological tendenc meshed neatl *ith practical e'igencies8 The late7
nineteenth7centur empires *ere too large and too far7flung to be ruled b a handful of
nationals8 0oreo&er1 in tandem *ith capitalism the state *as rapidl multipling its
functions1 in both the metropoles and the colonies8 Combined1 these forces generated
>Russifing> school7sstems intended in part to produce the reGuired subordinate cadres for
state and corporate bureaucracies8 These school7sstems1 centraliBed and standardiBed1
created Guite ne* pilgrimages *hich tpicall had their Romes in the &arious colonial
capitals1 for the nations hidden at the core of the empires *ould permit no more in*ard
ascension8 -suall1 but b no means al*as1 these educational pilgrimages *ere paralleled1
or replicated1 in the administrati&e sphere8 The interloc, bet*een particular educational and
administrati&e pilgrimages pro&ided the territorial base for ne* >imagined communities> in
*hich nati&es could come to see themsel&es as >nationals>8 The e'pansion of the colonial state
*hich1 so to spea,1 in&ited >nati&es> into schools and offices1 and of colonial capitalism *hich1
as it *ere1 e'cluded them from boardrooms1 meant that to an unprecedented e'tent the ,e
earl spo,esmen for colonial nationalism *ere lonel1 bilingual intelligentsias unattached to
sturd local bourgeoisies8
As bilingual intelligentsias1 ho*e&er1 and abo&e all as earl7t*entieth7centur intelligentsias1
the had access1 inside the classroom and outside1 to models of nation1 nation7ness1 and
nationalism distilled from the turbulent1 chaotic e'periences of more than a centur of
American and European histor8 These models1 in turn1 helped to gi&e shape to a thousand
inchoate dreams8 In &aring combinations1 the lessons of Creole1 &ernacular and official
nationalism *ere copied1 adapted1 and impro&ed upon8 Finall1 as *ith increasing speed
capitalism transformed the means of phsical and intellectual communication1 the
intelligentsias found *as to bpass print in propagating the imagined communit1 not
merel to illiterate masses1 but e&en to literate masses reading different languages8
"8 Not onl1 of course b functionaries1 though the *ere the main group8 Consider1 for e'ample1 the geograph
of.oli 6e +angere ;and man other nationalist no&els=8 Though some of the most important characters in RiBal>s
te't are Spanish1 and some of the Filipino characters ha&e been to Spain ;off the no&el>s stage=1 the
circumambience of tra&el b an of the characters is confined to *hat1 ele&en ears after its publication and t*o
ears after its author>s e'ecution1 *ould become the Republic of the <hilippines8
98 To gi&e onl one e'ample/ b "#9$1 there *ere almost 9:41444 indigenes on the paroll of the Netherlands
East Indies1 and these formed #4S of all state functionaries8 ;Smptomaticall1 the *idel discrepant salaries
and pensions of Dutch and nati&e officials1 *hen combined1 ate up :4S of state e'pendituresQ=8 See Amr
!andenbosch1 +he )tch East Indies- pp8 "C"7C%8 5et Dutchmen *ere proportionatel nine times as thic, on the
bureaucratic ground as *ere Englishmen in British ;non7>nati&e state>= India8
%8 E&en in the ultra7conser&ati&e Netherlands Indies1 the number of nati&es recei&ing a primar 2estern7stle
education shot up from an a&erage of 91#$C in the ears "#44746 to C61(#C in "#9$J *hile those recei&ing a
2estern7stle secondar education increased in the same span of time from 9: to (16($8 .ahin1 .ationalism- p8
%"8
68 To borro* from Anthon Barnett1 it also >allo*ed the intellectuals to sa to their fello*7spea,ers Dof the
indigenous &ernacularsE that K*eK can be li,e KthemK>8
:8 It appeared originall in )e Ex%res on Aul "%1 "#"%1 but *as Guic,l translated into >Indonesian> and
published in the nati&e press8 Su*ardi *as then 96 ears old8 An unusuall *ell7educated and progressi&e
aristocrat1 he had in "#"9 Foined *ith a Aa&anese commoner1 Dr8 TFipto 0angoen,oesoemo1 and a Eurasian1
Eduard Dou*es De,,er1 to form the Indische <artiF1 the colon>s first political part8 For a brief1 but useful1
stud of Su*ardi1 see Sa&itri Scherer1 >3armon and Dissonance/ Earl Nationalist Thought in Aa&a>1 chapter 98
3er Appendi' I gi&es an English translation of the famous article1 from *hich this passage is dra*n8
(8 Notice the educational lin,age here bet*een >imagined> and >imaginar> communities8
C8 The celebrations of "#"% *ere agreeabl emblematic of official nationalism in another sense8 The >national
liberation> commemorated *as in fact the restoration of the 3ouse of Orange b the &ictorious armies of the
3ol Alliance ;not the establishment of the Bata&ian Republic in "C#:=J and half the liberated nation soon
seceded to form the .ingdom of Belgium in "$%48 But the >national liberation> gloss *as certainl *hat Su*ardi
imbibed in his colonial classroom8
$8 >0ar'ism and the National Nuestion1> p8 6"8
#8 Our focus here *ill be on ci&ilian schools8 But their militar counterparts *ere often important too8 The
professionall officered standing arm pioneered b <russia earl in the nineteenth centur has reGuired an
educational pramid in some *as more elaborate1 if not more specialiBed1 than its ci&ilian analogue8 5oung
officers ;>Tur,s>= produced b ne* militar academies ha&e often plaed significant roles in the de&elopment of
nationalism8 Emblematic is the case of 0aFor Chu,uma NBeog*u1 *ho masterminded the Aanuar ":1"#(( coup
in Nigeria8 A Christian Ibo1 he *as among the first group of oung Nigerians sent for training to Sandhurst to
ma,e possible the transformation of a *hite7officered colonial mercenar force into a national arm1 on
Nigeria>s attainment of independence in "#(48 ;If he attended Sandhurst *ith the future Brigadier Afrifa1 *ho1
also in "#((1 *as to o&erthro* his go&ernment1 each nati&e *as destined to return to his o*n imperial habitat=8
It is stri,ing e&idence of the po*er of the <russian model that he *as able to lead 0uslim 3ausa troops in
assassinating the Sardauna of So,oto and other 0uslim 3ausa aristocrats1 and1 conseGuentl1 destro the
0uslim73ausa7dominated go&ernment of Abuba,ar Tafa*a Bale*a1 It is no less stri,ing a sign of colonial7
school7generated nationalism that o&er Radio .aduna he assured his countrmen that >ou *ill no more be
ashamed to sa that ou are Nigerian8> ;Nuotation ta,en from Anthon 3808 .ir,7?reene1 ,risis and ,onflict in
.igeria: ' )ocmentar0 Sorce (oo#- p8 "9(8= 5et nationalism *as thinl enough then spread in Nigeria for
NBeog*u>s nationalist coup to be Guic,l interpreted as an Ibo plotJ hence the militar mutinies of Aul1 the anti7
Ibo pogroms of September and October1 and Biafra>s secession in 0a "#(C8 ;See Robin +uc,ham>s superb +he
.igerian 6ilitar0- passim8=
"48 The idea of a student being >too old> to be in class L or 51 unthin,able in a traditional 0uslim school1 *as an
unselfconscious a'iom of the colonial 2estern7stle school8
""8 -ltimatel1 of course1 the apices *ere The 3ague1 Amsterdam1 and +eidenJ but those *ho could seriousl
dream of studing there *ere a tin handful8
"98 Being secular1 t*entieth7centur schools the *ere usuall co7educational1 though *ith bos the
preponderant maForit8 3ence lo&e7affairs1 and Guite often marriages1 >off the school7bench1> *hich crossed all
traditional lines8
"%8 Su,arno ne&er sa* the 2est Irian for *hich he fought so hard till he *as o&er (48 3ere1 as in the
schoolroom maps1 *e see fiction seeping into realit 7 cf8 .oli and El Peri"illo Samiento.
"68 Compare1 b contrast1 >half7breeds> or >niggers1> *ho1 beginning at Calais1 could crop up an*here on the
planet outside the -nited .ingdom8
":8 On the origins and de&elopment of this famous school1 see Abdou 0oumouni1 91EJcation en 'fri"e- pp8
6"76#J on its political significance1 Ruth Schachter 6orgentha- Political Parties in *rench-S%ea#ing 3est
'frica- %%. "97"61"$79"8 Originall an untitled ecole normale located in Saint7+ouis1 it *as mo&ed to ?oree1 Fust
outside Da,ar1 in "#"%8 SubseGuentl it *as named after 2illiam 0erlaud7<ont1 the fourth go&ernor7general
;"#4$7":= of French 2est Africa8 Serge Thion informs me that the name 2illiam ;as opposed to ?uillaume= has
long been in &ogue in the area around Bordeau'8 3e is surel right in attributing this popularit to the historic
ties *ith England created b the *ine tradeJ but it seems Fust possible that it goes bac, to the era *hen Bordeau'
;?uenne= *as still a solid part of the realm ruled from +ondon8
"(8 There seems to ha&e been nothing similar in British 2est Africa1 *hether because the British colonies *ere
non7contiguous1 or because +ondon *as *ealth and liberal enough to start secondar schools almost
simultaneousl in the maFor territories1 or because of the localism of ri&al <rotestant missionar organiBations8
Achimota School1 a secondar school founded b the colonial state in Accra in "#9C1 Guic,l became the main
pea, of a ?old Coast7specific educational pramid1 and after independence it *as *here the children of cabinet
ministers began learning ho* to succeed their fathers8 A ri&al pea,1 0fantsipim Secondar School1 had the
ad&antage of seniorit ;it *as founded in "$C(=1 but the *ea,nesses of locale ;Cape Coast= and semi7detachment
from the state ;it *as in denominational hands till *ell after independence=8 I o*e this information to 0ohamed
Chambas8
"C8 It led1 inter alia- to a one7generation ;"#%47"#:"H= Indochinese Communist <art in *hich1 for a time1
oungsters *hose mother tongues might be !ietnamese1 .hmer1 or +ao participated8 Toda1 the formation of
this part is sometimes &ie*ed merel as an e'pression of >age7old !ietnamese e'pansionism8> In fact1 it *as
sired b the Comintern out of the educational ;and to a lesser e'tent administrati&e= sstem of French Indochina8
"$8 This polic is abl and thoroughl discussed in ?ail <aradise .ell1 >Franco7!ietnamese Schools1 "#"$ to
"#%$>8 -nluc,il1 the author concentrates e'clusi&el on the !ietnamese7spea,ing population of Indochina8
"#8 I use this perhaps clums terminolog to emphasiBe the colonial origins of these entities8 >+aos> *as
assembled out of a cluster of ri&al principalities1 lea&ing more than half of the +ao7spea,ing population in Siam8
The boundaries of >Cambodge> conformed neither to an particular historical stretch of the precolonial realm1
nor to the distribution of the .hmer7spea,ing peoples8 Some hundreds of thousands of such people ended up
trapped in >Cochin China1> producing in time that distinct communit ,no*n as the .hmer .rom ;do*n7ri&er
.hmer=8
948 The pursued this aim b establishing in the "#%4s an Ecole Superieure de <ali in <hnom <enh1 an
ecclesiastical college attended b both .hmer7 and +ao7spea,ing mon,s8 The attempt to turn Buddhist ees
a*a from Bang,o, seems not to ha&e been *holl successful8 In "#69 ;shortl after Siam regained control of
much of north*estern >Cambodge> *ith Aapanese assistance=1 the French arrested a &enerable professor of the
Ecole for possession and distribution of>sub&ersi&e> Thai educational materials8 ;0ost li,el1 these materials
*ere some of the strongl nationalist school7te'ts produced b the &ociferousl anti7French regime of Field7
0arshal <lae, <hibunsong,hram ;"#%$7"#66=8
9"8 Da&id ?8 0arr1 Lietnamese +radition on +rial- 19BF-19>I- p8 "6(8 No less alarming *ere smuggled Chinese
translations of such troubling French authors as Rousseau8 ;.ell1 >Franco7!ietnamese Schools1 p8 "#=8
998 In its final form1 this script is usuall attributed to the gifted le'icographer Ale'andre de Rhodes1 *ho in
"(:" published his remar,able )ictionarim annamiticm- lsitanm et latinm.
9%8 >D0ostE French colonial officials of the late nineteenth centur888 *ere con&inced that to achie&e permanent
colonial success reGuired the harsh curtailment of Chinese influences1 including the *riting sstem8
0issionaries often sa* the Confucian literati as the main obstacle to the general Catholic con&ersion of
!ietnam8 3ence1 in their &ie*1 to eliminate the Chinese language *as simultaneousl to isolate !ietnam from
its heritage and to neutraliBe the traditional elite8> ;0arr1 Lietnamese +radition- p8 "6:=8 .ell Guotes one
colonial *riter thus/ >in effect1 the teaching of Guoc ngu alone888 *ill ha&e the result of communicating to
!ietnamese onl the French *riting1 literature1 and philosoph *hich *e *ish them Dto be e'posed toE8 That is
those D*or,sE *hich *e Fudge useful to them and easil assimilable/ onl the te'ts *hich *e transcribe into
Guoc ngu8> >Franco7!ietnamese Schools>1 p8 998
968 See Ibid81 pp8 "67":8 For a *ider1 lo*er stratum of the Indochinese population ?o&ernor7?eneral Albert
Sarraut ;author of the "#"C Code of <ublic Instruction= urged/ >a simple education1 reduced to essentials1
permitting the child to learn all that *ill be useful to him to ,no* in his humble career of farmer or artisan to
ameliorate the natural and social conditions of his e'istence8> Ibid81 p8 "C8
9:8 In "#%C1 a total of (%" students *ere enrolled1 :$4 of them in the faculties of la* and medicine8 Ibid81 p8 C#J
see also pp8 (#7C#1 for the biBarre histor of this institution1 founded in "#4(1 closed in "#4$1 reopened in "#"$1
and ne&er1 till the late "#%4s1 much more than a glorified &ocational college8
9(8 As I shall be concentrating on .hmers and !ietnamese belo*1 this ma be the place to ma,e a brief
reference to some prominent +ao8 The present <rime 0inister of +aos1 .asone <houm&ihan attended the
-ni&ersit of 3anoi>s medical facult in the late "#%4s8 The head of state1 <rince Souphanou&ong1 graduated
from 3anoi>s +cee Albert Sarraut before obtaining an engineering degree in metropolitan France8 3is elder
brother1 <rince <hetsarath Ratana&ongsa1 *ho headed the short7li&ed +ao Issara ;Free +ao= anticolonial
go&ernment in !ientiane from October "#6: to April "#6(1 had as a outh been graduated from Saigon>s +cee
Chasseloup7+aubat8 <rior to 2orld 2ar II1 the highest educational institution in >+aos> *as the small College
Di8e8 Funior high schoolE <a&ie in !ientiane8 See AosephA8 Masloff1 Pathet 9ao- pp8 "467"4:J and >%%6#>
Dpseudonm of <hetsarath Ratana&ongsaE1 Iron 6an of 9aos- pp8 "9 and 6(8 It is re&ealing1 I thin,1 that in his
account of his later schooldas in <aris1 <hetsarath regularl and unselfconsciousl spea,s of his identifiabl
+ao1 .hmer1 and !ietnamese classmates as >the Indochinese students8> See1 e8g81 ibid81 pp8 "67":8
9C8 Thus in the pre&iousl >integrated> l0c1ees Chasseloup7+aubat and Albert Sarraut1 sub7standard >nati&e
sections> *ere established in "#"C7"#"$8 These >nati&e sections> e&entuall turned respecti&el into the +cee
<etrus . and the +cee du <rotectorat8 ;Ibid81 pp8 (47(%=8 Nonetheless1 a minorit of pri&ileged indigenes
continued to attend the >real French> l0c1ees ;the adolescent Norodom Sihanou, graced Chasseloup7+aubat=1
*hile a minorit of >French> ;mainl Eurasians and nati&es *ith French legal status= attended <etrus . and its
sister institution in 3anoi8
9$8 0arr notes that in the "#94s >e&en the most optimistic member of the intelligentsia Dcommitted to "oc ngS&
could not ha&e guessed that onl t*o decades later1 citiBens of a Democratic Republic of !ietnam *ould be able
to conduct all important affairs 7 political11militar1 economic1 scientific and academic 7 in spo,en !ietnamese
lin,ed to the "oc ng *riting sstem8> Lietnamese +radition- p8 ":48 It *as also a disagreeable surprise to the
French8
9#8 It is instructi&e that one of the first issues raised b the earl .hmer nationalists of the late "#%4s *as the
>menace>of a so7called>Guoc ngu7iBation>of the .hmer script b the colonial authorities8
%48 The pattern *as not immediatel follo*ed in !ientiane8 Toe reports that in the course of the "#%4s onl :9
+ao *ere graduated from the College Dhe *rongl terms it +ceeE <a&ie1 as opposed to #( !ietnamese8 9aos- p8
6:8
%"8 It is possible that this influ' paralleled the institution of the Franco7!ietnamese school sstem1 in that it
deflected !ietnamese from competing *ith French nationals in the more ad&anced1 eastern parts of Indochina8
In "#%C1 there *ere %#1444 Europeans li&ing in >Cochin China1> >Annam> and >Ton,in1> and onl %1"44 in
>Cambodge> and >+aos> combined8 0arr1 Lietnamese +radition- p8 9%8
%98 Biographical materials on these men *ere ,indl pro&ided to me b Ste&e 3eder8
%%8 3e died in "#:41 in a grenade attac, on the Democratic <art headGuarters organiBed b an un,no*n1 but
probabl princel1 hand8
%68 <ublished in <hnom <enh b the +ibrairie 0itserei DFree FriendsE >0isleading> because the entire te't is in
.hmer8 Biographical details on leu .oeus1 dra*n from his "#(6 cremation &olume1 *ere generousl passed on
to me b Ste&e 3eder8
%:8 See .ahin1 .ationalism- chapter "9J Anthon Reid1 +he Indonesian .ational Revoltion- 19>I-IF- chapter
(J and 3enri Alers1 2m een rode ofgroene 6erde#a- passim8
%(8 The e'ception *as the aborti&e Republic of the South 0oluccas8 ChristianiBed Ambonese had long been
hea&il recruited for the repressi&e colonial arm8 0an fought under &an 0oo, against the ne*7born
re&olutionar Indonesian RepublicJ after 3olland>s recognition of Indonesian independence in "#:41 the had
some reason to e'pect an unpleasant future8
%C8 See the &aluable account in Aohn 3offman1 >A Foreign In&estment/ Indies 0ala to "#491> Indonesia- 9C
;April "#C#=1 pp8 (:7#98
%$8 The militar >constituted something li,e an anal tonal caste- the members of *hich li&ed e&en in their
pri&ate li&es ordinarl distinct from their national en&ironments and spo,e &er often a special language1 the so7
called ararisch detsch ;Kfiscal ?ermanK=1 as it *as ironicall named b the representati&es of the literar
?erman1 meaning b it a strange linguistic mi'ture *hich does not ta,e the rules of grammar &er
seriousl8>AasBi1 +he )issoltion- p8 "668 Author>s emphases8
%#8 Not merel in the ob&ious sense8 Because1 in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries1 3olland had1 for all
intents and purposes1 onl one colon1 and a huge1 profitable one at that1 it *as Guite practical to train its
functionaries in a ;single= non7European diensttaal. O&er time1 special schools and faculties gre* up in the
metropole to prepare future functionaries linguisticall8 For multi7continental empires li,e the British1 no single
locall7based diensttaal *ould ha&e sufficed8
648 0arr>s account of language7de&elopment in eastern Indochina is &er re&ealing on this point8 3e notes that
as late as c8 "#"4 >most educated !ietnamese assumed that Chinese or French1 or both1 *ere essential modes of
KhigherK communication8> HLietnamese +radition- %. "%C=8 After "#941 ho*e&er1 and partl as a result of state
promotion of the phonetic "oc tig script1 things changed Guic,l8 B then >the belief *as gro*ing that spo,en
!ietnamese *as an important and perhaps DsicE essential component of national identit8 E&en intellectuals more
at home in French than in their mother tongue came to appreciate the significance of the fact that at least $:S of
their fello*7countrmen spo,e the same language8> ;p8 "%$= The *ere b then full a*are of the role of mass
literac in ad&ancing the nation7states of Europe and Aapan8 5et 0arr also sho*s that for a long time there *as
no clear correlation bet*een language7preference and political stance/ >-pholding the !ietnamese mother
tongue *as not inherentl patriotic1 an more than promoting the French language *as inherentl
collaborationist8> ;p8 ":4=8
6"8 I sa >can> because there are ob&iousl plent of cases *here the possibilit has been1 and is being1 reFected8
In such cases1 for e'ample Old <a,istan1 the e'planation is not ethno7cultural pluralism1 but barred pilgrimages8
698 Christopher 3ughes1 S:it8erland- p8 "4C8 This e'cellent te't1 for *hich Seton72atson rightl e'presses his
admiration1 is the basis for the argument that follo*s8
6%8 Ibid81 p8 9"$8 The dates are m interpolations8
668 Ibid81 p8 $:8
6:8 <lus Aargau1 St8 ?allen and ?risons8 This last is of special interest since toda it is the sur&i&ing home of
Romansch1 the most echt7S*iss of the countr>s national languages7a status it achie&ed1 ho*e&er1 onl in "#%CQ
Ibid81 pp8 :# and $:8
6(8 2e might note in passing that 0me8 de Stael barel sur&i&ed long enough to see its birth8 Besides1 her
famil1 li,e that of Sismondi1 came from ?ene&a1 *hich *as an independent statelet outside >S*itBerland> until
"$":8 Small *onder that S*iss nationhood rested >rather lightl> on their shoulders8
6C8 Ibid81 pp8 "C% and 9C68 An nineteenth7centur >culti&ated middle class> had to be &er small8
6$8 Ibid81 p8 $(8 Emphasis added8
6#8 An absence of monarchies also characteriBed the 3anseatic +eague1 a loose political coalition to *hich it
*ould be problematic to attribute either statehood or nationhood8
:48 Ibid81 p8 9C68
:"8 Ibid81 pp8 :#7(48 Emphases added8
:98 Romansch>s ele&ation in "#%C scarcel disguised the original calculation8
:%8 The social structure of 3ungar *as also bac,*ard1 but 0agar aristocrats sat inside a huge polethnic
dnastic empire1 in *hich their putati&e language7group formed merel a minorit1 albeit a &er important one8
Small1 republican S*itBerland>s aristocratic oligarch *as ne&er threatened in the same *a8
:68 0ar' and Engels1 +he ,ommnist 6anifesto- p8 %C8 2ho but 0ar' *ould ha&e described this *orld7
transforming class as being >chased>H
$8 <atriotism and Racism
D"6"E In the preceding chapters I ha&e tried to delineate the processes b *hich the nation
came to be imagined1 and1 once imagined1 modelled1 adapted and transformed8 Such an
analsis has necessaril been concerned primaril *ith social change and different forms of
consciousness8 But it is doubtful *hether either social change or transformed
consciousnesses1 in themsel&es1 do much to e'plain the attachment that peoples feel for the
in&entions of their imaginations 7 or1 to re&i&e a Guestion raised at the beginning of this te't7
*h people are read to die for these in&entions8
In an age *hen it is so common for progressi&e1 cosmopolitan intellectuals ;particularl in
EuropeH= to insist on the near7pathological character of nationalism1 its roots in fear and
hatred of the Other1 and its affinities *ith racism1
"
it is useful to remind oursel&es that nations
inspire lo&e1 and often profoundl self7sacrificing lo&e8 The cultural products of nationalism7
poetr1 prose fiction1 music1 plastic arts 7 sho* this lo&e &er clearl in thousands of different
forms and stles8 On the other hand1 ho* trul rare it is to find D"69E analogos nationalist
products e'pressing fear and loathing8
9
E&en in the case of coloniBed peoples1 *ho ha&e
e&er reason to feel hatred for their imperialist rulers1 it is astonishing ho* insignificant the
element of hatred is in these e'pression of national feeling8 3ere1 for e'ample1 are the first
and last stanBas of Pltimo 'diQs- the famous poem *ritten b RiBal as he a*aited e'ecution
at the hands of Spanish imperialism/
%
"8 Adi\s1 <atria adorada1 regi\n del sol Guerida1
<erla del 0ar de Oriente1 nuestro perdido edPn1
A darte &o1 alegre1 la triste mustia &idaJ
5 fuera m]s brillante1 m]s fresca1 m]s florida1
TambiPn por ti la diera1 la diera por tu bien888
"98 Entonces nada importa me pongas en ol&ido/
Tu atm\sfera1 tu espacio1 tus &alles cruBarPJ
!ibrante limpia nota serP par tu o^doJ
Aroma1 luB1 colores1 rumor1 canto1 gemido1
Constante repitiendo la esencia de mi fe8
"%8 0i <atria idolatrada1 dolor de mis dolores1
Nuerida Filipinas1 oe el postrer adi\s8
Ah^1 te deFo todo/ mis padres1 mis amores8
!o donde no ha escla&os1 &erdugos ni opresoresJ
Donde la fe no mata1 donde el Gue reina es Dios8
"68 Adi\s1 padres hermanos1 troBos del alma m^a1
Amigos de la infancia1 en el perdido hogarJ
Dad gracias1 Gue descanso del fatigoso d^aJ
Adi\s1 dulce e'tranFera1 mi amiga1 mi alegr^aJ
Adi\s1 Gueridos sPres8 0orir es descansar8
D"6%E Notice not onl that the nationalit of the >trants> goes unmentioned1 but that RiBal>s
passionate patriotism is e'pressed superbl in >their> language8
6
Something of the nature of this political lo&e can be deciphered from the *as in *hich
languages describe its obFect/ either in the &ocabular of ,inship ;motherland1 Laterland-
%atria@ or that of home Hheimat or tanah air Dearth and *ater1 the phrase for the Indonesians>
nati&e archipelagoE=8 Both idioms denote something to *hich one is naturall tied8 As *e
ha&e seen earlier1 in e&erthing >natural> there is al*as something unchosen8 In this *a1
nation7ness is assimilated to s,in7colour1 gender1 parentage and birth7era 7 all those things one
can not help8 And in these >natural ties> one senses *hat one might call >the beaut of
gemeinschaft1. To put it another *a1 precisel because such ties are not chosen1 the ha&e
about them a halo of disinterestedness8
2hile it is true that in the past t*o decades the idea of the famil7 D"66E as7articulated7po*er7
structure has been much *ritten about1 such a conception is certainl foreign to the
o&er*helming bul, of man,ind8 Rather1 the famil has traditionall been concei&ed as the
domain of disinterested lo&e and solidarit8 So too1 if historians1 diplomats1 politicians1 and
social scientists are Guite at ease *ith the idea of>national interest1K for most ordinar people
of *hate&er class the *hole point of the nation is that it is interestless8 Aust for that reason1 it
can as, for sacrifices8
As noted earlier1 the great *ars of this centur are e'traordinar not so much in the
unprecedented scale on *hich the permitted people to ,ill1 as in the colossal numbers
persuaded to la do*n their li&es8 Is it not certain that the numbers of those ,illed &astl
e'ceeded those *ho ,illedH The idea of the ultimate sacrifice comes onl *ith an idea of
purit1 through fatalit8
Ding for one>s countr1 *hich usuall one does not choose1 assumes a moral grandeur *hich
ding for the +abour <art1 the American 0edical Association1 or perhaps e&en Amnest
International can not ri&al1 for these are all bodies one can Foin or lea&e at eas *ill8 Ding
for the re&olution also dra*s its grandeur from the degree to *hich it is felt to be something
fundamentall pure8 ;If people imagined the proletariat merel0 as a group in hot pursuit of
refrigerators1 holidas1 or po*er1 ho* far *ould the1 including members of the proletariat1
be *illing to die for itH=
:
Ironicall enough1 it ma be that to the e'tent that 0ar'ist
interpretations of histor are felt ;rather than intellected= as representations of ineluctable
necessit1 the also acGuire an aura of purit and disinterestedness8
3ere *e ma usefull return once more to language8 First1 one notes the primordialness of
languages1 e&en those ,no*n to be modern8 No one can gi&e the date for the birth of an
language8 Each looms up imperceptibl out of a horiBonless past8 ;Insofar as homo sa%iens is
homo dicens- it can seem difficult to imagine an origin of D"6:E language ne*er than the
species itself8= +anguages thus appear rooted beond almost anthing else in contemporar
societies8 At the same time1 nothing connects us affecti&el to the dead more than language8
If English7spea,ers hear the *ords >Earth to earth1 ashes to ashes1 dust to dust> 7 created
almost four7and7a7half centuries ago 7 the get a ghostl intimation of simultaneit across
homogeneous1 empt time8 The *eight of the *ords deri&es onl in part from their solemn
meaningJ it comes also from an as7it7*ere ancestral >Englishness>8
Second1 there is a special ,ind of contemporaneous communit *hich language alone
suggests7abo&e all in the form of poetr and songs8 Ta,e national anthems1 for e'ample1 sung
on national holidas8 No matter ho* banal the *ords and mediocre the tunes1 there is in this
singing an e'perience of simultaneit8 At precisel such moments1 people *holl un,no*n to
each other utter the same &erses to the same melod8 The image/ unisonance8
(
Singing the
0arseillaise1 2altBing 0atilda1 and Indonesia Raa pro&ide occasions for unisonalit1 for the
echoed phsical realiBation of the imagined communit8 ;So does listening to Dand mabe
silentl chiming in *ithE the recitation of ceremonial poetr1 such as sections of +he (oo# of
,ommon Pra0er.@ 3o* selfless this unisonance feelsQ If *e are a*are that others are singing
these songs precisel *hen and as *e are1 *e ha&e no idea *ho the ma be1 or e&en *here1
out of earshot1 the are singing8 Nothing connects us all but imagined sound8
5et such choruses are Foinable in time8 If I am a +ett1 m daughter ma be an Australian8 The
son of an Italian immigrant to Ne* 5or, *ill find ancestors in the <ilgrim Fathers8 If
nationalness has about it an aura of fatalit1 it is nonetheless a fatalit embedded in histor0.
3ere San 0artin>s edict baptiBing Nuechua7spea,ing Indians as ><eru&ians>7a mo&ement that
has affinities *ith religious con&ersion 7 is e'emplar8 For it sho*s that from the start the
nation *as concei&ed in language1 not in blood1 and that one could be >in&ited into> the
imagined communit8 Thus toda1 e&en the most insular nations accept the principle of
natrali8ation ;*onderful *ordQ=1 no matter ho* difficult in practice the ma ma,e it8
D"6(E Seen as both a historical fatalit and as a communit imagined through language1 the
nation presents itself as simultaneousl open and closed8 This parado' is *ell illustrated in
the shifting rhthms of these famous lines on the death of Aohn 0oore during the battle of
Coruna/
C
"8 Not a drum *as heard1 not a funeral note1
As his corse to the rampart *e hurriedJ
Not a soldier discharged his fare*ell shot
O>er the gra&e *here our hero *e buried8
98 2e buried him dar,l at dead of night1
The sods *ith our baonets turningJ
B the struggling moonbeams> mist light1
And the lantern diml burning8
%8 No useless coffin enclosed his breast1
Not in sheet or in shroud *e *ound himJ
But he la li,e a *arrior ta,ing his rest1
2ith his martial cloa, around him888
:8 2e thought1 as *e hollo*ed his narro* bed1
And smoothed do*n his lonel pillo*1
That the foe and the stranger *ould tread o>er his head
And *e far a*a on the billo*888
$8 Slo*l and sadl *e laid him do*n8
From the field of his fame fresh and gorJ
2e car&ed not a line1 and *e raised not a stone I
But *e left him alone *ith his glorQ
The lines celebrate a heroic memor *ith a beaut inseparable from the English language 7
one untranslatable1 audible onl to its spea,ers and readers8 5et both 0oore and his eulogist
*ere Irishmen8 And there is no reason *h a descendant of 0oore>s French or Spanish >foes>
can not full hear the poem>s resonance/ English1 li,e an other language1 is al*as open to
ne* spea,ers1 listeners1 and readers8
D"6CE +isten to Thomas Bro*ne1 encompassing in a pair of sentences the length and breadth
of man>s histor/
$
E&en the old ambitions had the ad&antage of ours1 in the attempts of their &ainglories1 *ho acting
earl and before the probable 0eridian of time1 ha&e b this time found great accomplishment of
their designs1 *hereb the ancient 3eroes ha&e alread out7lasted their 0onuments1 and
0echanicall preser&ations8 But in this latter Scene of time *e cannot e'pect such 0ummies unto
our memories1 *hen ambition ma fear the <rophec of Elias1 and Charles the Fifth can ne&er
hope to li&e *ithin t*o 0ethusela>s of 3ector8
3ere ancient Egpt1 ?reece1 and Audaea are united *ith the 3ol Roman Empire1 but their
unification across thousands of ears and thousands of miles is accomplished *ithin the
particularit of Bro*ne>s se&enteenth7centur English prose8
#
The passage can1 of course1 up
to a point be translated8 But the eerie splendour of >probable 0eridian of time1> >0echanicall
preser&ations1> >such 0ummies unto our memories1> and >t*o 0ethusela>s of 3ector>can bring
goose7flesh to the napes onl of English7readers8
On this page1 it opens itself *ide to the reader8 On the other hand1 the no less eerie splendour
of the final lines of>5ang Sudah3ilang>b the great Indonesian author <ramoeda Ananta
Toer/
"4
Suara itu hana terdengar beberapa deti, saFa dalam hidup8 ?etaranna sebentar berdengung1
ta,,an terulangi lagi8 Tapi seperti Fuga halna dengan ,ali +usi ang abadi menggarisi ,ota Blora1
dan seperti ,ali itu Fuga1 suara ang tersimpan menggarisi ,enangan dan ingatan itu mengalir Fuga 7
mengalir ,emuarana1 ,elaut ang ta, bertepi8 Dan ta, seorangpun tahu ,apan laut itu a,an ,ering
dan berhenti berdeburan8
D"6$E 3ilang8
Semua itu sudah hilang dari Fang,auan pancDhEa7indera8
on the same print page1 are most li,el closed8
""
If e&er language is acGuirable1 its acGuisition reGuires a real portion of a person>s life/ each
ne* conGuest is measured against shortening das8 2hat limits one>s access to other
languages is not their imper&iousness but one>s o*n mortalit8 3ence a certain pri&ac to all
languages8 French and American imperialists go&erned1 e'ploited1 and ,illed !ietnamese
o&er man ears8 But *hate&er else the made off *ith1 the !ietnamese language staed put8
Accordingl1 onl too often1 a rage at !ietnamese >inscrutabilit1> and that obscure despair
*hich engenders the &enomous argots of ding colonialisms/ >goo,s1> 1ratons1- etc8
"9
;In the
longer run1 the onl responses to the &ast pri&ac of the language of the oppressed are retreat
or further massacre8=
Such epithets are1 in their inner form1 characteristicall racist1 and decipherment of this form
*ill ser&e to sho* *h Nairn is basicall mista,en in arguing that racism and anti7semitism
deri&e from nationalism 7 and thus that >seen in sufficient historical depth1 fascism tells us
more about nationalism than an other episode8 U
"%
A *ord li,e >slant1> for e'ample1
abbre&iated from >slant7eed>1 does not simpl e'press an ordinar political enmit8 It erases
nation7ness b reducing the ad&ersar to his biological phsiognom8
"6
It denies1 b
substituting for1 >!ietnameseJ>Fust as raton denies1 b substituting for1 >Algerian>8 At the same
time1 it stirs >!ietnamese> into a nameless sludge along *ith >.orean1> >Chinese1> >Filipino1> and
so on8 The character of this &ocabular ma become still more e&ident if it is contrasted *ith
other !ietnam72ar7period *ords li,e >Charlie> and D"6#E >!8C8>1 or from an earlier era1
>Boches1> >3uns1> >Aaps> and >Frogs1>all of *hich appl onl to one specific nationalit1 and thus
concede1 in hatred1 the ad&ersar>s membership in a league of nations8
":
The fact of the matter is that nationalism thin,s in terms of historical destinies1 *hile racism
dreams of eternal contaminations1 transmitted from the origins of time through an endless
seGuence of loathsome copulations/ outside histor8 Niggers are1 than,s to the in&isible tar7
brush1 fore&er niggersJ Ae*s1 the seed of Abraham1 fore&er Ae*s1 no matter *hat passports
the carr or *hat languages the spea, and read8 ;Thus for the NaBi1 the Je:ish ?erman *as
al*as an impostor8=
"(
The dreams of racism actuall ha&e their origin in ideologies of class- rather than in those of
nation/ abo&e all in claims to di&init among rulers and to >blue> or >*hite> blood and
>breeding> among aristocracies8
"C
No surprise then that the putati&e sire of modern racism
should be1 not some pett7bourgeois nationalist1 but Aoseph Arthur1 Comte de ?obineau8
"$
Nor that1 on the *hole1 racism and D":4E anti7semitism manifest themsel&es1 not across
national boundaries1 but *ithin them8 In other *ords1 the Fustif not so much foreign *ars as
domestic repression and domination8
"#
2here racism de&eloped outside Europe in the nineteenth centur1 it *as al*as associated
*ith European domination1 for t*o con&erging reasons8 First and most important *as the rise
of official nationalism and colonial >Russification>8 As has been repeatedl emphasiBed
official nationalism *as tpicall a response on the part of threatened dnastic and
aristocratic groups 7 upper classes - to popular &ernacular nationalism8 Colonial racism *as a
maFor element in that conception of >Empire> *hich attempted to *eld dnastic legitimac
and national communit8 It did so b generaliBing a principle of innate1 inherited superiorit
on *hich its o*n domestic position *as ;ho*e&er sha,il= based to the &astness of the
o&erseas possessions1 co&ertl ;or not so co&ertl= con&eing the idea that if1 sa1 English
lords *ere naturall superior to other Englishmen1 no matter/ these other Englishmen *ere no
less superior to the subFected nati&es8 Indeed one is tempted to argue that the e'istence of late
colonial empires e&en ser&ed to shore % domestic aristocratic bastions1 since the appeared
to confirm on a global1 modern stage antiGue conceptions of po*er and pri&ilege8
It could do so *ith some effect because7and here is our second reason7 the colonial empire1
*ith its rapidl e'panding bureaucratic apparatus and its >Russifing> policies1 permitted
siBeable numbers of bourgeois and pett bourgeois to pla aristocrat off centre court/ i8e8
an*here in the empire e'cept at home8 In each colon one found this griml amusing
ta!lea vivant: the bourgeois gentilhomme spea,ing poetr against a bac,cloth of spacious
mansions and gardens filled *ith mimosa and bougain&illea1 and a large supporting cast of
housebos1 grooms1 gardeners1 coo,s1 amahs1 maids1 *asher*omen1 D":"E and1 abo&e all1
horses8
94
E&en those *ho did not manage to li&e in this stle1 such as oung bachelors1
nonetheless had the grandl eGui&ocal status of a French nobleman on the e&e of a
FacGuerie/
9"
In 0oulmein1 in lo*er Burma Dthis obscure to*n needs e'plaining to readers in the metropoleE1 I
*as hated b large numbers of people 7 the onl time in m life that I ha&e been important enough
for this to happen to me8 I *as sub7di&isional police officer of the to*n8
This >tropical ?othic> *as made possible b the o&er*helming po*er that high capitalism had
gi&en the metropole 7 a po*er so great that it could be ,ept1 so to spea,1 in the *ings8
Nothing better illustrates capitalism in feudal7aristocratic drag than colonial militaries1 *hich
*ere notoriousl distinct from those of the metropoles1 often e&en in formal institutional
terms8
99
Thus in Europe one had the >First Arm1> recruited b conscription on a mass1 citiBen1
metropolitan baseJ ideologicall concei&ed as the defender of the heimatD dressed in practical1
utilitarian ,ha,iJ armed *ith the latest affordable *eaponsJ in peacetime isolated in barrac,s1
in *ar stationed in trenches or behind hea& field7guns8 Outside Europe one had the >Second
Arm1> recruited ;belo* the officer le&el= from local religious or ethnic minorities on a
mercenar basisJ ideologicall concei&ed as an internal police forceJ dressed to ,ill in bed7 or
ballroomJ armed *ith s*ords and obsolete industrial *eaponsJ in peace on displa1 in *ar on
horsebac,8 If the <russian ?eneral Staff1 Europe>s militar teacher1 stressed the
anonmous solidarit of a professionaliBed corps1 ballistics1 railroads1 engineering1 strategic
planning1 and the li,e1 the colonial arm stressed glor1 epaulettes1 personal heroism1 polo1
and an archaiBing courtliness among its officers8 ;It could afford D":9E to do so because the
First Arm and the Na& *ere there in the bac,ground8= This mentalit sur&i&ed a long time8
In Ton,in1 in "$#61 +aute *rote/
9%
Nuel dommage de n>_tre pas &enu ici di' ans plus t`tQ Nuelles carriares b fonder et b mener8 Il
n> a pas ici un de ces petits lieutenants1 chefs de poste et de reconnaissance1 Gui ne dP&eloppe en (
mois plus dZinitiati&e1 de &olontP1 d>endurance1 de %ersonnalitO- Gu>un officier de France en toute sa
carriare8
In Ton,in1 in "#:"1 Aean de +attre de Tassign1 Y*ho li,ed officers *ho combined guts *ith
Kstle1K too, an immediate li,ing to the dashing ca&alrman DColonel de CastriesE *ith his
bright7red Spahi cap and scarf1 his magnificent riding7crop1 and his combination of eas7
going manners and dcal mien1 *hich made him as irresistible to *omen in Indochina in the
"#:4s as he had been to <arisiennes of the "#%4s8Z
96
Another instructi&e indication of the aristocratic or pseudo7aristocratic deri&ation of colonial
racism *as the tpical >solidarit D":%E among *hites1> *hich lin,ed colonial rulers from
different national metropoles1 *hate&er their internal ri&alries and conflicts8 This solidarit1
in its curious trans7state character1 reminds one instantl of the class solidarit of Europe>s
nineteenth7centur aristocracies1 mediated through each other>s hunting7lodges1 spas1 and
ballroomsJ and of that brotherhood of >officers and gentlemen1> *hich in the ?ene&a
con&ention guaranteeing pri&ileged treatment to captured enem officers- as opposed to
partisans or ci&ilians1 has an agreeabl t*entieth7centur e'pression8
The argument adumbrated thus far can also be pursued from the side of colonial populations8
For1 the pronouncements of certain colonial ideologues aside1 it is remar,able ho* little that
dubious entit ,no*n as >re&erse racism> manifested itself in the anticolonial mo&ements8 In
this matter it is eas to be decei&ed b language8 There is1 for e'ample1 a sense in *hich the
Aa&anese *ord londo ;deri&ed from 3ollander or Nederlander= meant not onl >Dutch> but
>*hites8> But the deri&ation itself sho*s that1 for Aa&anese peasants1 *ho scarcel e&er
encountered an >*hites> but Dutch1 the t*o meanings effecti&el o&erlapped8 SimilaF7l1 in
French colonial territories1 1les !lancs1 meant rulers *hose Frenchness *as indistinguishable
from their *hiteness8 In neither case1 so far as I ,no*1 did londo or !lanc either lose caste or
breed derogator secondar distinctions8
9:
On the contrar1 the spirit of anticolonial nationalism is that of the heart7rending Constitution
of 0a,ario Sa,a>s short7li&ed Republic of .atagalugan ;"#49=1 *hich said1 among other
things/
9(
D":6E No Tagalog1 born in this Tagalog archipelago1 shall e'alt an person abo&e the rest because
of his race or the colour of his s,inJ fair1 dar,1 rich1 poor1 educated and ignorant 7 all are
completel eGual1 and should be in one loo! Din*ard spiritE8 There ma be differences in
education1 *ealth1 or appearance1 but ne&er in essential nature H%ag#atao@ and abilit to ser&e a
cause8
One can find *ithout difficult analogies on the other side of the globe8 Spanish7spea,ing
mestiBo 0e'icans trace their ancestries1 not to Castilian conGuistadors1 but to half7obliterated
ABtecs1 0aans1 Toltecs and Mapotecs8 -ruguaan re&olutionar patriots1 Creoles
themsel&es1 too, up the name of Tupac Amaru1 the last great indigenous rebel against creole
oppression1 *ho died under unspea,able tortures in "C$"8
It ma appear parado'ical that the obFects of all these attachments are >imagined> 7
anonmous1 faceless fello*7Tagalogs1 e'terminated tribes1 0other Russia1 or the tanah air.
But amor %atriae does not differ in this respect from the other affections1 in *hich there is
al*as an element of fond imagining8 ;This is *h loo,ing at the photo7albums of strangers>
*eddings is li,e studing the archaeologist>s groundplan of the 3anging ?ardens of
Bablon8= 2hat the ee is to the lo&er 7 that particular1 ordinar ee he or she is born *ith 7
language 7 *hate&er language histor has made his or her mother7tongue 7 is to the patriot8
Through that language1 encountered at mother>s ,nee and parted *ith onl at the gra&e1 pasts
are restored1 fello*ships are imagined1 and futures dreamed8
"8 Cf8 the passage in Nairn>s (rea#-% of (ritain- pp8 "67": abo&e1 and 3obsba*m>s some*hat Biedermeier
dictum/ >the basic fact DisE that 0ar'ists as such are not nationalists8> >Some Reflections1> p8 "48
98 Can the reader thin, immediatel of e&en three 3mns of 3ateH The second stanBa of ?od Sa&e the
Nueen).ing is *orded instructi&el/ >O +ord our ?od1 arise)Scatter her)his enemies)And ma,e them
fallJ)Confound their politics1) Frustrate their ,na&ish tric,sJ)On Thee our hopes *e fi'J)?od sa&e us all8> Notice
that these enemies ha&e no identit and could as *ell be Englishmen as anone else since the are >her)his>
enemies not >ours8> The entire anthem is a paean to monarch1 not to the)a nation 7 *hich is not once mentioned8
%8 Or in the translation of Trinidad T8 Subido/
"8 Fare*ell1 dear +and1 belo&ed of the sun1
<earl of the Orient seas1 lost <aradiseQ
?ladl1 I *ill to ou this life undoneJ
2ere it a fairer1 fresher1 fuller one1
I>d cede it still1 our *eal to realiBe888
"98 2hat matters then that ou forget me1 *hen
I might e'plore our e&>r dear retreatH
Be as a note1 pulsing and pureJ and then1
Be scent1 light1 toneJ be song or sign1 againJ
And through it all1 m theme of faith1 repeat8
"%8 +and I enshrine1 list to m last fare*ellQ
<hilippines1 +o&e1 of pains m pain e'treme1
I lea&e ou all1 all *hom I lo&e so *ell1
To go *here neither sla&es nor trants d*ell1
2here Faith ,ills not1 and *here ?od reigns supreme8
"68 Fare*ell to all m soul does comprehend I
O ,ith and ,in in m home dispossessedJ
?i&e than,s m da oppressi&e is at endJ
Fare*ell1 s*eet stranger1 m delight and friendJ
Fare*ell1 dear ones8 To die is but to rest8
Aaime C8 de !era1 El 1Mltimo 'dios1 de Ri8al: estdio critico-ex%ositivo- pp8 $#7#41 and "4"7"49 ;the
translation=8
68 It *as1 ho*e&er1 Guic,l translated into Tagalog b the great Filipino re&olutionar Andres Bonifacio8 3is
&ersion is gi&en in ibid81 pp8 "4C7"4#8
:8 This formulation should not at all be ta,en to mean that re&olutionar mo&ements do not pursue material
obFecti&es8 But these obFecti&es are en&isioned1 not as a congeries of indi&idual acGuisitions1 but as the
conditions of Rousseau>s shared !onher.
(8 Contrast this a ca%etta chorus *ith the language of e&erda life1 *hich is tpicall e'perienced
decani)cantoris7fashion as dialogue and e'change8
C8 >The Burial of Sir Aohn 0oore1> in +he Poems of ,harles 3olfe- pp8 "798
$8 C0driota%hia- Mme-(riall- or- ' )iscorse of the Se%lchralA Mmes latel0 fond in .orfol#- pp8 C97C%8 On
>the probable 0eridian of time> compare Bishop Otto of Freising8
#8 5et >England> goes unmentioned in this unification8 2e are reminded of those pro&incial ne*spapers *hich
brought the *hole *orld1 through Spanish1 into Caracas and Bogota8
"48 In +;erita dari (lora DTales from BloraE1 pp8 ":7661 at p8 668
""8 Still1 listen to themQ I ha&e adapted the original spelling to accord *ith current con&ention and to ma,e the
Guotation completel phonetic8
"98 The logic here is/ "8 I *ill be dead before I ha&e penetrated them8 98 0 po*er is such that the ha&e had to
learn m language8 %8 But this means that m pri&ac has been penetrated8 Terming them >goo,s> is small
re&enge8
"%8 +he (rea#-% of (ritain- pp8 %%C and %6C8
"68 Notice that there is no ob&ious1 selfconscious antonm to >slant8> >Round>H >Straight>H >O&al>H
":8 Not onl1 in fact1 in an earlier era8 Nonetheless1 there is a *hiff of the antiGue7shop about these *ords of
Debra/ >I can concei&e of no hope for Europe sa&e under the hegemon of a re&olutionar France1 firml
grasping the banner of independence8 Sometimes I *onder if the *hole Kanti7BocheK mtholog and our secular
antagonism to ?erman ma not be one da indispensable for sa&ing the re&olution1 or e&en our national7
democratic inheritance8> >0ar'ism and the National Nuestion1> p8 6"8
"(8 The significance of the emergence of Mionism and the birth of Israel is that the former mar,s the
reimagining of an ancient religious communit as a nation1 do*n there among the other nations 7 *hile the latter
charts an alchemic change from *andering de&otee to local patriot8
"C8 >From the side of the landed aristocrac came conceptions of inherent superiorit in the ruling class1 and a
sensiti&it to status1 prominent traits *ell into the t*entieth centur8 Fed b ne* sources1 these conceptions
could later be &ulgariBed DsicE and made appealing to the ?erman population as a *hole in doctrines of racial
superiorit8> Barrington 0oore1 Ar81 Social 2rigins of )ictatorshi% and )emocrac0- p8 6%(8
"$8 ?obineau>s dates are perfect8 3e *as born in "$"(1 t*o ears after the restoration of the Bourbons to the
French throne8 3is diplomatic career1 "$6$7"$CC1 blossomed under +ouis Napoleon>s Second Empire and the
reactionar monarchist regime of 0arie Edme <atrice 0aurice1 Comte de 0ac0ahon1 former imperialist
proconsul in Algiers8 3is Essai sr I1lnegalit1e des Races Cmaines appeared in "$:6 7 should one sa in
response to the popular &ernacular7nationalist insurrections of "$6$H
"#8 South African racism has not1 in the age of !orster and Botha1 stood in the *a of amicable relations
;ho*e&er discreetl handled= *ith prominent blac, politicians in certain independent African states8 If Ae*s
suffer discrimination in the So&iet -nion1 that did not pre&ent respectful *or,ing relations bet*een BreBhne&
and .issinger8
948 For a stunning collection of photographs of such tableau' &i&ants in the Netherlands Indies ;and an elegantl
ironical te't=1 see >E8 Breton de NiFs1> +em%o )oeloe.
9"8 ?eorge Or*ell1 >Shooting an Elephant1> in +he 2r:ell Reader- p8 %8 The *ords in sGuare brac,ets are of
course m interpolation8
998 The .NI+ ;.onin,liF, Nederlandsch7Indisch +eger= *as Guite separate from the .+ ;.onin,liF, +eger= in
3olland8 The +egion Etrangere *as almost from the start legall prohibited from operations on continental
French soil8
9%8 9ettres d +on#in et de 6adagascar H159>-1599@- p8 $68 +etter of December 991 "$#61 from 3anoi8
Emphases added8
968 Bernard B8 Fall1 Cell is a Ler0 Small Place: +he Siege of)ien (ien Ph- p8 :(8 One can imagine the shudder
of Clause*itB>s ghost8 DSpahi1 deri&ed li,e Sepo from the Ottoman Sipahi1 meant mercenar irregular
ca&alrmen of the >Second Arm> in Algeria8E It is true that the France of +aute and de +attre *as a
Republican France8 3o*e&er1 the often tal,ati&e ?rande 0uette had since the start of the Third Republic been
an aslum for aristocrats increasingl e'cluded from po*er in all other important institutions of public life8 B
"$#$1 a full Guarter of all Brigadier7 and 0aFor7?enerals *ere aristocrats8 0oreo&er1 this aristocrat7dominated
officer corps *as crucial to nineteenth and t*entieth7centur French imperialism8 >The rigorous control imposed
on the arm in the metro%ole ne&er e'tended full to la *rance d1otre-mer. The e'tension of the French Empire
in the nineteenth centur *as partiall the result of uncontrolled initiati&e on the part of colonial militar
commanders8 French 2est Africa1 largel the creation of ?eneral Faidherbe1 and the French Congo as *ell1
o*ed most of their e'pansion to independent militar foras into the hinterland8 0ilitar officers *ere also
responsible for thefaits accom%lis *hich led to a French protectorate in Tahiti in "$691 and1 to a lesser e'tent1 to
the French occupation of Ton,in in Indochina in the "$$4>s888 In "$#C ?allieni summaril abolished the
monarch in 0adagascar and deported the Nueen1 all *ithout consulting the French go&ernment1 *hich later
accepted the)ait accom%li. .. >Aohn S8 Ambler1 +he *rench 'rm0 in Politics- 19>I-196B- pp8 "47"" and 998
9:8 I ha&e ne&er heard of an abusi&e argot *ord in Indonesian or Aa&anese for either >Dutch> or >*hite8> Compare
the Anglo7Sa'on treasur/ niggers1 *ops1 ,i,es1 goo,s1 slants1 fuBB*uBBies1 and a hundred more8 It is possible
that this innocence of racist argots is true primaril of coloniBed populations8 Blac,s in America7and surel
else*here 7 ha&e de&eloped a &aried counter7&ocabular ;hon,ies1 ofas1 etc8=8
9(8 As cited in Renaldo Ileto>s masterl Pas0!n and Revoltion: Po%lar 6ovements in the Phili%%ines- 15>F-
191F- p8 9"$8 Sa,a>s rebel republic lasted until "#4C1 *hen he *as captured and e'ecuted b the Americans8
-nderstanding the first sentence reGuires remembering that three centuries of Spanish rule and Chinese
immigration had produced a siBeable mestiBo population in the islands8
#8 The Angel of 3istor
D"::E 2e began this brief stud *ith the recent *ars bet*een the Socialist Republic of
!ietnam1 Democratic .ampuchea1 and the <eople>s Republic of ChinaJ so it is onl fitting to
return finall to that point of departure8 Does anthing of *hat has meantime been said help
to deepen our understanding of their outbrea,H
In +he (rea#-% of (ritain- Tom Nairn has some &aluable *ords on the relationship bet*een
the British political sstem and those of the rest of the modern *orld8
"
Alone1 Dthe British sstemE represented a >slo*1 con&entional gro*th1 not li,e the others1 the
product of deliberate invention- resulting from a theor8> Arri&ing later1 those others >attempted to
sum up at a stro,e the fruits of the e'perience of the state *hich had e&ol&ed its constitutionalism
through se&eral centuries>888 Because it *as first1 the English 7 later British 7 e'perience remained
distinct8 Because the came second1 into a *orld *here the English Re&olution had alread
succeeded and e'panded1 later bourgeois societies could not repeat this earl de&elopment8 Their
std0 and imitation engendered something s!stantiall0 different: the trul modern doctrine of the
abstract D":(E or >impersonal> state *hich1 because of its abstract nature1 could be imitated in
subseGuent histor8
This ma of course be seen as the ordinar logic of de&elopmental processes8 It *as an earl
specimen of *hat *as later dignified *ith such titles as >the la* of une&en and combined
de&elopment8> Actual repetition and imitation are scarcel e&er possible1 *hether politicall1
economicall1 sociall1 or technologicall1 because the uni&erse is alread too much altered b the
first cause one is coping8
2hat Nairn sas of the modern state is no less true of the t*in conceptions of *hich our three
embattled socialist countries are contemporar realiBations/ re&olution and nationalism8 It is
perhaps too eas to forget that this pair1 li,e capitalism and 0ar'ism1 are inventions- on
*hich patents are impossible to preser&e8 The are there1 so to spea,1 for the pirating8 Out of
these piracies and onl0 out of them1 comes this *ell7,no*n anomal/ societies such as those
of Cuba1 Albania1 and China1 *hich1 insofar as the are re&olutionar7socialist1 concei&e of
themsel&es as >ahead> of those of France1 S*itBerland1 and the -nited States1 but *hich1
insofar as the are characteriBed b lo* producti&it1 miserable li&ing standards1 and
bac,*ard technolog1 are no less certainl understood as >behind8> ;Thus Chou En7lai>s
melanchol dream of catching up *ith capitalist Britain b the ear 94448=
As noted earlier1 3obsba*m *as right to obser&e that >the French Re&olution *as not made
or led b a formed part or mo&ement in the modern sense1 nor b men attempting to carr
out a sstematic programme8> But1 than,s to print7capitalism1 the French e'perience *as not
merel ineradicable from human memor1 it *as also learnable7from8 Out of almost a centur
of modular theoriBing and practical e'perimentation came the Bolshe&i,s1 *ho made the first
successful >planned> re&olution ;e&en if the success *ould not ha&e been possible *ithout
3indenburg>s earlier triumphs at Tannenberg and the 0asurian +a,es= and attempted to carr
out a sstematic programme ;e&en if in practice impro&isation *as the order of the da=8 It
also seems clear that :ithot such plans and programmes a re&olution in a realm barel
entering the era of industrial capitalism *as out of the Guestion8 The Bolshe&i, re&olutionar
model has been decisi&e for all t*entieth7centur re&olutions because it made them D":CE
imaginable in societies still more bac,*ard than All the Russias8 ;It opened the possibilit of1
so to spea,1 cutting histor off at the pass8= The s,ilful earl e'perimentations of 0ao Tse7
tung confirmed the utilit of the model outside Europe8 One can thus see a sort of culmination
of the modular process in the case of Cambodia1 *here in "#(9 less than 98: per cent of the
t*o7and7a7half7million7strong adult *or,7force *as >*or,ing class1> and less than 48: per cent
>capitalists8>
9
In much the same *a1 since the end of the eighteenth centur nationalism has undergone a
process of modulation and adaptation1 according to different eras1 political regimes1
economies and social structures8 The >imagined communit> has1 as a result1 spread out to
e&er concei&able contemporar societ8 If it is permissible to use modern Cambodia to
illustrate an e'treme modular transfer of >re&olution1> it is perhaps eGuitable to use !ietnam to
illustrate that of nationalism1 b a brief e'cursus on the nation>s name8
On his coronation in "$491 ?ia7long *ished to call his realm >Nam !iet and sent en&os to
gain <e,ing>s assent8 The 0anchu Son of 3ea&en1 ho*e&er1 insisted that it be >!i(t Nam8>
The reason for this in&ersion is as follo*s/ >!iet Nam> ;or in Chinese 5u>eh7nan= means1
roughl >to the south of !iet ;5iieh=1> a realm conGuered b the 3an se&enteen centuries
earlier and reputed to co&er toda>s Chinese pro&inces of .*angtung and .*angsi1 as *ell as
the Red Ri&er &alle8 ?ia7long>s >Nam !iSt1> ho*e&er1 meant >Southern !iHt) 5iieh1> in effect
a claim to the old realm8 In the *ords of Ale'ander 2oodside1 >the name K!ietnamK as a
*hole *as hardl so *ell esteemed b !ietnamese rulers a centur ago1 emanating as it had
from <e,ing1 as it is in this centur8 An artificial appellation then1 it *as used e'tensi&el
neither b the Chinese nor b the !ietnamese8 The Chinese clung to the offensi&e T>ang *ord
KAnnamK888 The D":$E !ietnamese court1 on the other hand1 pri&atel in&ented another name
for its ,ingdom in "$%$7%# and did not bother to inform the Chinese8 Its ne* name1 Dai Nam1
the K?reat SouthK or KImperial South1K appeared *ith regularit on court documents and
official historical compilations8 But it has not sur&i&ed to the present8>
%
This ne* name is
interesting in t*o respects8 First1 it contains no >!iet>7namese element8 Second1 its territorial
reference seems purel relational 7 >south> ;of the 0iddle .ingdom=8
6
That toda>s !ietnamese proudl defend a !i(t Nam scornfull in&ented b a nineteenth7
centur 0anchu dnast reminds us of Renan>s dictum that nations must ha&e >oublie bien des
choses1> but also1 parado'icall1 of the imaginati&e po*er of nationalism8
If one loo,s bac, at the !ietnam of the "#%4s or the Cambodia of the "#(4s1 one finds1
mtatis mtandis- man similarities/ a huge1 illiterate1 e'ploited peasantr1 a minuscule
*or,ing class1 a fragmentar bourgeoisie1 and a tin1 di&ided intelligentsia8
:
No sober
contemporar analst1 &ie*ing these conditions obFecti&el1 *ould in either case ha&e
predicted the re&olutions soon to follo*1 or their *rec,ed triumphs8 ;In fact1 much the same
could be said1 and for much the same reasons1 of the China of "#"48= 2hat made them
possible1 in the end1 *as >planning re&olution> and >imagining the nation8>
(
D":#E The policies of the <ol <ot regime can onl in a &er limited sense be attributed to
traditional .hmer culture or to its leaders> cruelt1 paranoia1 and megalomania8 The .hmer
ha&e had their share of megalomaniac despotsJ some of these1 ho*e&er1 *ere responsible for
Ang,or8 Far more important are the models of *hat re&olutions ha&e1 can1 should1 and should
not do1 dra*n from France1 the -SSR1 China1 and !ietnam7and all the boo,s *ritten about
them in French8
C
0uch the same is true of nationalism8 Contemporar nationalism is the heir to t*o centuries
of historic change8 For all the reasons that I ha&e attempted to s,etch out1 the legacies are
trul Aanus7headed8 For the legators include not onl San 0artin and ?aribaldi1 but -&aro&
and 0acaula8 As *e ha&e seen1 >official nationalism> *as from the start a conscious1 self7
protecti&e %olic0- intimatel lin,ed to the preser&ation of imperial7dnastic interests8 But
once >out there for all to see1> it *as as copable as <russia>s earl7nineteenth7centur militar
reforms1 and b the same &ariet of political and social sstems8 The one persistent feature of
this stle of nationalism *as1 and is1 that it is official-i.e. something emanating from the state1
and ser&ing the interests of the state first and foremost8
Thus the model of official nationalism assumes its rele&ance abo&e all at the moment *hen
re&olutionaries successfull ta,e control of the state1 and are for the first time in a position to
use the po*er of the state in pursuit of their &isions8 The rele&ance is all the greater insofar as
e&en the most determinedl radical re&olutionaries al*as1 to some degree1 inherit the state
from the fallen regime8 Some of these D"(4E legacies are smbolic1 but not the less important
for that8 Despite Trots,>s unease1 the capital of the -SSR *as mo&ed bac, to the old CBarist
capital of 0osco*J and for o&er (: ears C<S- leaders ha&e made polic in the .remlin1
ancient citadel of CBarist po*er 7 out of all possible sites in the socialist state>s &ast
territories8 Similarl1 the <RC>s capital is that of the 0anchus ;*hile Chiang .ai7she, had
mo&ed it to Nan,ing=1 and the CC< leaders congregate in the Forbidden Cit of the Sons of
3ea&en8 In fact1 there are &er fe*1 if an1 socialist leaderships *hich ha&e not clambered up
into such *orn1 *arm seats8 At a less ob&ious le&el1 successful re&olutionaries also inherit the
*iring of the old state/ sometimes functionaries and informers1 but al*as files1 dossiers1
archi&es1 la*s1 financial records1 censuses1 maps1 treaties1 correspondence1 memoranda1 and
so on8 +i,e the comple' electrical sstem in an large mansion *hen the o*ner has fled1 the
state a*aits the ne* o*ner>s hand at the s*itch to be &er much its old brilliant self again8
One should therefore not be much surprised if re&olutionar leadershi%s- consciousl or
unconsciousl1 come to pla lord of the manor8 2e are not thin,ing here simpl of
DFugash&ili>s self7identification *ith I&an ?roBnii1 or 0ao>s e'pressed admiration for the
trant Ch>in Shih 3uang7ti1 or Aosip BroB>s re&i&al of Ruritanian pomp and ceremon8
$
>Official nationalism> enters post7re&olutionar leadership stles in a much more subtle *a8
B this I mean that such leaderships come easil to adopt the putati&e nationalnost of the
older dnasts and the dnastic state8 In a stri,ing retroacti&e mo&ement1 dnasts *ho ,ne*
nothing of >China1> >5ugosla&ia1> >!ietnam> or >Cambodia> become nationals ;e&en if not
al*as >deser&ing> nationals=8 Out of this accommodation comes in&ariabl that >state>
0achia&ellism *hich is so stri,ing a feature of post7re&olutionar regimes in contrast to
re&olutionar nationalist mo&ements8 The more the ancient dnastic state is naturaliBed1 the
more its antiGue finer can be *rapped around re&olutionar shoulders8 The image of
Aaa&arman !3>s Ang,or1 emblaBoned on the flag of 0ar'ist Democratic .ampuchea ;as on
those of +on Nol>s puppet republic D"("E and of Sihanou,>s monarchical Cambodge=1 is a
rebus not of piet but of po*er8
#
I emphasiBe leadershi%s- because it is leaderships1 not people1 *ho inherit old s*itchboards
and palaces8 No one imagines1 I presume1 that the broad masses of the Chinese people gi&e a
fig for *hat happens along the colonial border bet*een Cambodia and !ietnam8 Nor is it at
all li,el that .hmer and !ietnamese peasants *anted *ars bet*een their peoples1 or *ere
consulted in the matter8 In a &er real sense these *ere >chancellor *ars> in *hich popular
nationalism *as mobiliBed largel after the fact and al*as in a language of self7defence8
;3ence the particularl lo* enthusiasm in China1 *here this language *as least plausible1
e&en under the neon7lit blaBon of >So&iet hegemonism8>=
"4
In all of this1 China1 !ietnam1 and Cambodia are not in the least uniGue8
""
This is *h there
are small grounds for hope that the precedents the ha&e set for inter7socialist *ars *ill not
be follo*ed1 or that the imagined communit of the socialist nation *ill soon be remaindered8
But nothing can be usefull done to limit or pre&ent such *ars unless *e abandon fictions
li,e >0ar'ists as such are not nationalists1> or >nationalism is the patholog of modern
de&elopmental histor1> and1 instead1 do our slo* best to learn the real1 and imagined1
e'perience of the past8
Of the Angel of 3istor1 2alter BenFamin *rote that/
"9
D"(9E 3is face is turned to*ards the past8 2here *e percei&e a chain of e&ents1 he sees one single
catastrophe *hich ,eeps piling *rec,age upon *rec,age and hurls it in front of his feet8 The angel
*ould li,e to sta1 a*a,en the dead1 and ma,e *hole *hat has been smashed8 But a storm is
blo*ing from <aradiseJ it has got caught in his *ings *ith such &iolence that the angel can no
longer close them8 This storm irresistibl propels him into the future to *hich his bac, is turned1
*hile the pile of debris before him gro*s s,*ard8 This storm is *hat *e call progress8
But the Angel is immortal1 and our faces are turned to*ards the obscurit ahead8
"8 At pp8 "C7"$8 Emphases added8 The inner Guotation is ta,en from Charles Frederic, Strong>s 6odem Political
,onstittions- p8 9$8
98 According to the calculations of Ed*in 2ells1 on the basis of Table # in Cambodge1 0inistere du <lan et
Institut National de la StatistiGue et des Recherches EconomiGues1 R1esltats finals J Recensement Keneral de
la Po%lation 196B. 2ells di&ides the rest of the *or,ing population as follo*s/ go&ernment officials and ne*
pett bourgeoisie1 $SJ traditional pett bourgeoisie ;traders1 etc8=1 C8:SJ agricultural proletariat1 "8$SJ peasants1
C$8%S8 There *ere less than "1%44 capitalists o*ning actual manufacturing enterprises8
%8 Lietnam and the ,hinese 6odel- pp8 "9479"8
68 This is not altogether surprising8 >The !ietnamese bureaucrat loo,ed ChineseJ the !ietnamese peasant loo,ed
Southeast Asian8 The bureaucrat had to *rite Chinese1 *ear Chinese7stle go*ns1 li&e in a Chinese7stle house1
ride in a Chinese7stle sedan chair1 and e&en follo* Chinese7stle idiosncracies of conspicuous consumption1
li,e ,eeping a goldfish pond in his Southeast Asian garden8> Ibid81 p8 "##8
:8 According to the "#%C census1 #%7#:S of the !ietnamese population *as still li&ing in rural areas8 No more
than "4S of the population *as functionall literate in an script8 No more than 941444 persons had completed
upper primar ;grade C7"4= schooling bet*een "#94 and "#%$8 And *hat !ietnamese 0ar'ists called the
>indigenous bourgeoisieK 7 described b 0arr as mainl absentee landlords1 combined *ith some entrepreneurs
and a fe* higher officials 7 totalled about "41:44 families1 or about 48:S of the population8 Lietnamese
+radition- 9:79(1 %61 and %C8 Compare the data in note 9 abo&e8
(8 And1 as in the case of the Bolshe&i,s1 fortunate catastrophes/ for China1 Aapan>s massi&e in&asion in "#%CJ for
!ietnam1 the smashing of the 0aginot +ine and her o*n brief occupation b the AapaneseJ for Cambodia1 the
massi&e o&erflo* of the American *ar on !ietnam into her eastern territories after 0arch "#C48 In each case the
e'isting ancien regime- *hether .uomintang1 French colonial1 or feudal7monarchist1 *as fatall undermined b
e'traneous forces8
C8 One might suggest >es> to the levee en masse and the Terror1 >no> to Thermidor and Bonapartism1 for FranceJ
>es> to 2ar Communism1 collecti&iBation1 and the 0osco* Trials1 >no> to N8E8<8 and de7StaliniBation1 for the
So&iet -nionJ >es> to peasant guerrilla communism1 the ?reat +eap For*ard1 and the Cultural Re&olution1 >no>
to the +ushan <lenum1 for ChinaJ >es> to the August Re&olution and the formal liGuidation of the Indochinese
Communist <art in "#6:1 >no>to damaging concessions to >senior> communist parties as e'emplified in the
?ene&a Accords1 for !ietnam8
$8 See the e'traordinar account1 b no means *holl polemical1 in 0ilo&an DFilas1 +ito: the Stor0 from Inside-
chapter 61 especiall pp8 "%% ff8
#8 Ob&iousl1 the tendencies outlined abo&e are b no means characteristic onl of re&olutionar 0ar'ist
regimes8 The focus here is on such regimes both because of the historic 0ar'ist commitment to proletarian
internationalism and the destruction of feudal and capitalist states1 and because of the ne* Indochina *ars8 For a
decipherment of the archaiBing iconograph of the right7*ing Suharto regime in Indonesia1 see m 9angage
and Po:er: Ex%loring Political ,ltres in Indonesia- chapter :8
"48 The difference bet*een the in&entions of>official nationalism> and those of other tpes is usuall that
bet*een lies and mths8
""8 On the other hand1 it is possible that at the end of this centur historians ma attribute >official nationalist>
e'cesses committed b post7re&olutionar socialist regimes in no small part to the disFuncture bet*een socialist
model and agrarian realit8
"98 Illminations- p8 9:#8 The angel>s ee is that of 3ee#end1s bac,7turned mo&ing camera1 before *hich *rec,
after *rec, looms up momentaril on an endless high*a before &anishing o&er the horiBon8
"48 Census1 0ap1 0useum
D"(%E In the original edition of Imagined ,ommnities I *rote that >so often in the Knation7
buildingK policies of the ne* states one sees both a genuine1 popular nationalist enthusiasm1
and a sstematic1 e&en 0achia&ellian1 instilling of nationalist ideolog through the mass
media1 the educational sstem1 administrati&e regulations1 and so forth8>
"
0 short7sighted
assumption then *as that official nationalism in the coloniBed *orlds of Asia and Africa *as
modelled directl on that of the dnastic states of nineteenth7centur Europe8 SubseGuent
reflection has persuaded me that this &ie* *as hast and superficial1 and that the immediate
genealog should be traced to the imaginings of the colonial state8 At first sight1 this
conclusion ma seem surprising1 since colonial states *ere tpicall anti7nationalist1 and
often &iolentl so8 But if one loo,s beneath colonial ideologies and policies to the grammar in
*hich1 from the mid nineteenth centur1 the *ere deploed1 the lineage becomes decidedl
more clear8
Fe* things bring this grammar into more &isible relief than three institutions of po*er *hich1
although in&ented before the mid nineteenth centur1 changed their form and function as the
coloniBed Bones entered the age of mechanical reproduction8 These three institutions *ere the
census1 the map1 and the museum/ together1 the D"(6E profoundl shaped the *a in *hich
the colonial state imagined its dominion 7 the nature of the human beings it ruled1 the
geograph of its domain1 and the legitimac of its ancestr8 To e'plore the character of this
ne'us I shall1 in this chapter1 confine m attention to Southeast Asia1 since m conclusions
are tentati&e1 and m claims to serious specialiBation limited to that region8 Southeast Asia
does1 ho*e&er1 offer those *ith comparati&e historical interests special ad&antages1 since it
includes territories coloniBed b almost all the >*hite> imperial po*ers 7 Britain1 France1
Spain1 <ortugal1 The Netherlands1 and the -nited States 7 as *ell as uncoloniBed Siam8
Readers *ith greater ,no*ledge of other parts of Asia and Africa than mine *ill be better
positioned to Fudge if m argument is sustainable on a *ider historical and geographical
stage8
T3E CENS-S
In t*o &aluable recent papers the sociologist Charles 3irschman has begun the stud of the
mentalites of the British colonial census7ma,ers for the Straits Settlements and peninsular
0alaa1 and their successors *or,ing for the independent conglomerate state of 0alasia8
9
3irschman>s facsimiles of the >identit categories> of successi&e censuses from the late
nineteenth centur up to the recent present sho* an e'traordinaril rapid1 superficiall
arbitrar1 series of changes1 in *hich categories are continuousl agglomerated1
disaggregated1 recombined1 intermi'ed1 and reordered ;but the politicall po*erful identit
categories al*as lead the list=8 From these censuses he dra*s t*o principal conclusions8 The
first is that1 as the colonial period *ore on1 the census categories became more &isibl and
e'clusi&el racial8
%
Religious identit1 on the other hand1 D"(:E graduall disappeared as a
primar census classification8 >3indoos>7ran,ed alongside >.lings1> and >Bengalees>7&anished
after the first census of "$C"8 ><arsees> lasted until the census of "#4"1 *here the still
appeared 7 pac,ed in *ith >Bengalis1> >Burmese1> and >Tamils>7under the broad categor
>Tamils and Other Nati&es of India8> 3is second conclusion is that1 on the *hole1 the large
racial categories *ere retained and e&en concentrated after independence1 but no*
redesignated and reran,ed as >0alasian1> >Chinese1> >Indian1> and >Other8> 5et anomalies
continued up into the "#$4s8 In the "#$4 census >Si,h> still appeared ner&ousl as a
pseudoethnic subcategor 7 alongside >0alaahK and >Telegu1> ><a,istani> and >Bangladeshi1>
>Sri +an,an Tamil1> and >Other Sri +an,an1>7 under the general heading >Indian8>
But 3irschman>s *onderful facsimiles encourage one to go beond his immediate analtical
concerns8 Ta,e1 for e'ample1 the "#"" Federated 0ala States Census1 *hich lists under
>0ala <opulation b Race> the follo*ing/ >0ala1> >Aa&anese1> >Sa,ai1> >BanFarese1> >Boanese1>
>0endeling> ;sic=1 >.rinchi> ;sic=1 >Aambi1> >Achinese1> >Bugis1> and >Other8> Of these >groups> all
but ;most= >0ala> and >Sa,ai> originated from the islands of Sumatra1 Aa&a1 Southern Borneo1
and the Celebes1 all parts of the huge neighboring colon of the Netherlands East Indies8 But
these e'tra7F0S origins recei&e no recognition from the census7ma,ers *ho1 in constructing
their >0alas1> ,eep their ees modestl lo*ered to their o*n colonial borders8 ;Needless to
sa1 across the *aters1 Dutch census7ma,ers *ere constructing a different imagining of
>0alas1> as a minor ethnicit alongside1 not abo&e1 >Achinese1> >Aa&anese1> and the li,e8=
>Aambi> and >.rinchi> refer to places1 rather than to anthing remotel identifiable as
ethnolinguistic8 It is e'tremel unli,el that1 in "#""1 more than a tin fraction of those
categoriBed and subcategoriBed *ould ha&e recogniBed themsel&es under such labels8 These
>identities1> imagined b the ;confusedl= classifing mind of the colonial state1 still a*aited a
reification *hich imperial administrati&e penetration *ould soon ma,e possible8 One notices1
in D"((E addition1 the census7ma,ers> passion for completeness and un7ambiguit8 3ence their
intolerance of multiple1 politicall >trans7&estite1> blurred1 or changing identifications8 3ence
the *eird subcategor1 under each racial group1 of>Others>7 *ho1 nonetheless1 are absolutel
not to be confused *ith other >Others8> The fiction of the census is that e&erone is in it1 and
that e&erone has one 7 and onl one 7 e'tremel clear place8 No fractions8
This mode of imagining b the colonial state had origins much older than the censuses of the
"$C4s1 so that1 in order full to understand *h the late7nineteenth7centur censuses are et
profoundl no&el1 it is useful to loo, bac, to the earliest das of European penetration of
Southeast Asia8 T*o e'amples1 dra*n from the <hilippine and Indonesian archipelagoes1 are
instructi&e8 In an important recent boo,1 2illiam 3enr Scott has attempted meticulousl to
reconstruct the class structure of the pre73ispanic <hilippines1 on the basis of the earliest
Spanish records8
6
As a professional historian Scott is perfectl a*are that the <hilippines
o*es its name to Felipe II of >Spain1> and that1 but for mischance or luc,1 the archipelago
might ha&e fallen into Dutch or English hands1 become politicall segmented1 or been
recombined *ith further conGuests8
:
It is tempting therefore to attribute his curious choice of
topic to his long residence in the <hilippines and his strong smpath *ith a Filipino
nationalism that has been1 for a centur no*1 on the trail of an aboriginal Eden8 But the
chances are good that the deeper basis for the shaping of his imagination *as the sources on
*hich he *as D"(CE compelled to rel8 For the fact is that *here&er in the islands the earliest
clerics and conGuistadors &entured the espied1 on shore1 %rinci%als- hidalgos- %echeros- and
esclavos ;princes1 noblemen1 commoners and sla&es= 7 Guasi7estates adapted from the social
classifications of late mediae&al Iberia8 The documents the left behind offer plent of
incidental e&idence that the 1hidalgos1 *ere mostl una*are of one another>s e'istence in the
huge1 scattered1 and sparsel populated archipelago1 and1 *here a*are1 usuall sa* one
another not as hidalgos- but as enemies or potential sla&es8 But the po*er of the grid is so
great that such e&idence is marginaliBed in Scott>s imagination1 and therefore it is hard for
him to see that the >class structure> of the precolonial period is a >census> imagining created
from the poops of Spanish galleons8 2here&er the0 :ent- hidalgos andesclavos loomed up1
*ho could onl be aggregated as such1 that is >structurall1> b an incipient colonial state8
For Indonesia *e ha&e1 than,s to the research of 0ason 3oadle1 a detailed account of an
important Fudicial case decided in the coastal port of Cirebon1 Aa&a1 at the end of the
se&enteenth centur8
(
B luc,1 the Dutch ;!OC= and local Cirebonese records are still
a&ailable8 If the Cirebonese account onl had sur&i&ed1 *e *ould ,no* the accused murderer
as a high official of the Cirebonese court1 and onl b his title .i Aria 0arta Ningrat1 not a
personal name8 The !OC records1 ho*e&er1 angril identif him as a ,hinees - indeed that is
the single most important piece of information about him that the con&e8 It is clear then
that the Cirebonese court classified people b ran, and status1 *hile the Compan did so b
something li,e >race8> There is no reason *hate&er to thin, that the accused murderer7*hose
high status attests to his and his ancestors> long integration into Cirebonese societ1 no matter
*hat their origins 7 thought of himself as >a> ,hinees. 3o* then did the !OC arri&e at this
classificationH From *hat poops *as it possible to imagine ,hinees1= Surel onl those
ferociousl mercantile poops *hich1 under centraliBed command1 ro&ed ceaselessl from port
to port bet*een the ?ulf of 0ergui and the mouth of the 5angtBe7,iang8 Obli&ious of the
D"($E heterogeneous populations of the 0iddle .ingdomJ of the mutual incomprehensibilit
of man of their spo,en languagesJ and of the peculiar social and geographic origins of their
diaspora across coastal Southeast Asia1 the Compan imagined1 *ith its trans7oceanic ee1 an
endless series of ,hine8en- as the conGuistadors had seen an endless series of hidalgos. And
on the basis of this in&enti&e census it began to insist that those under its control *hom it
categoriBed as ,hine8en dress1 reside1 marr1 be buried1 and beGueath propert according to
that census8 It is stri,ing that the much less far7faring and commerciall minded Iberians in
the <hilippines imagined a Guite different census categor/ *hat the called sangle0. Sangle0
*as an incorporation into Spanish of the 3o,,iensengli - meaning >trader8U
C
One can imagine
Spanish proto7census men as,ing the traders dra*n to 0anila b the galleon trade/ >2ho are
ouH>1 and being sensibl told/ >2e are traders8>
$
Not sailing the se&en Asian seas1 for t*o
centuries the Iberians remained in a comfortabl pro&incial conceptual fog8 Onl &er slo*l
did the sangle0 turn into >Chinese>7until the *ord disappeared in the earl nineteenth centur
to ma,e *a for a !OC7stle chino.
The real inno&ation of the census7ta,ers of the "$C4s *as1 therefore1 not in the constrction
of ethnic7racial classifications1 but rather in their sstematic "antification. <recolonial rulers
in the 0alao7Aa&anese *orld had attempted enumerations of the populations under their
control1 but these too, the form of ta'7rolls and le&7lists8 Their purposes *ere concrete and
specific/ to ,eep trac, of those on *hom ta'es and militar conscription could effecti&el be
imposed7 for these rulers *ere interested solel in economic surplus and armable manpo*er8
Earl European regimes in the region did not1 in this respect1 differ mar,edl from their
predecessors8 But after "$:4 colonial authorities *ere using increasingl sophisticated
administrati&e means to enumerate populations1 including the *omen and children ;*hom the
ancient rulers had al*as ignored=1 D"(#E according to a maBe of grids *hich had no
immediate financial or militar purpose8 In the old das1 those subFects liable for ta'es and
conscription *ere usuall *ell a*are of their numerabilitJ ruler and ruled understood each
other &er *ell1 if antagonisticall1 on the matter8 But b "$C41 a non7ta'paing1 unle&able
>Cochin7Chinese> *oman could li&e out her life1 happil or unhappil1 in the Straits
Settlements1 *ithout the slightest a*areness that this *as ho* she *as being mapped from on
high8 3ere the peculiarit of the ne* census becomes apparent8 It tried carefull to count the
obFects of its fe&erish imagining8 ?i&en the e'clusi&e nature of the classificator sstem1 and
the logic of Guantification itself1 a >Cochin7Chinese>had to be understood as one digit in an
aggregable series of replicable >Cochin7Chinese>7*ithin1 of course1 the state>s domain8 The
ne* demographic topograph put do*n deep social and institutional roots as the colonial
state multiplied its siBe and functions8 ?uided b its imagined map it organiBed the ne*
educational1 Furidical1 public7health1 police1 and immigration bureaucracies it *as building on
the principle of ethno7racial hierarchies *hich *ere1 ho*e&er1 al*as understood in terms of
parallel series8 The flo* of subFect populations through the mesh of differential schools1
courts1 clinics1 police stations and immigration offices created >traffic7habits> *hich in time
ga&e real social life to the state>s earlier fantasies8
Needless to sa1 it *as not al*as plain sailing1 and the state freGuentl bumped into
discomforting realities8 Far and a*a the most important of these *as religious affiliation1
*hich ser&ed as the basis of &er old1 &er stable imagined communities not in the least
aligned *ith the secular state>s authoritarian grid7map8 To different degrees1 in different
Southeast Asian colonies1 the rulers *ere compelled to ma,e mess accommodations1
especiall to Islam and Buddhism8 In particular1 religious shrines1 schools1 and courts 7 access
to *hich *as determined b indi&idual popular self7choice1 not the census 7 continued to
flourish8 The state could rarel do more than tr to regulate1 constrict1 count1 standardiBe1 and
hierarchicall subordinate these institutions to its o*n8
#
It *as precisel because D"C4E
temples1 mosGues1 schools and courts *ere topographicall anomalous that the *ere
understood as Bones of freedom and 7 in time 7fortresses from *hich religious1 later
nationalist1 anticolonials could go forth to battle8 At the same time1 there *ere freGuent
endea&ours to force a better alignment of census *ith religious communities b7 so far as *as
possible 7 politicall and Furidicall ethniciBing the latter8 In the Federated States of colonial
0alaa1 this tas, *as relati&el eas8 Those *hom the regime regarded as being in the series
>0ala> *ere hustled off to the courts of >their> castrated Sultans1 *hich *ere in substantial
part administered according to Islamic la*8
"4
>Islamic> *as thus treated as reall Fust another
name for >0ala8> ;Onl after independence in "#:C *ere efforts made b certain political
groups to re&erse this logic b reading >0ala> as reall another name for >Islamic>=8 In the
&ast1 heterogeneous Netherlands Indies1 *here b the end of the colonial era an arra of
Guarrelling missionar organiBations had made substantial con&ersions in *idel scattered
Bones1 a parallel dri&e faced much more substantial obstacles8 5et e&en there1 the "#94s and
"#%4s sa* the gro*th of >ethnic> Christianities ;the Bata, Church1 the .aro Church1 later the
Daa, Church1 and so on= *hich de&eloped in part because the state allocated proseltiBing
Bones to different missionar groups according to its o*n census7topograph8 2ith Islam
Bata&ia had no comparable success8 It did not dare to prohibit the pilgrimage to 0ecca1
though it tried to inhibit the gro*th of the pilgrims> numbers1 policed their tra&els1 and spied
on them from an outpost at Aiddah set up Fust for this purpose8 None of these measures
sufficed to pre&ent the intensification of Indies 0uslim contacts *ith the &ast *orld of Islam
outside1 and especiall the ne* currents of thought emanating from Cairo8
""
T3E 0A<
In the meantime1 ho*e&er1 Cairo and 0ecca *ere beginning to be &isualiBed in a strange ne*
*a1 no longer simpl as sites in a sacred D"C"E 0uslim geograph1 but also as dots on paper
sheets *hich included dots for <aris1 0osco*1 0anila and CaracasJ and the plane relationship
bet*een these indifferentl profane and sacred dots *as determined b nothing beond the
mathematicall calculated flight of the cro*8 The 0ercatorian map1 brought in b the
European coloniBers1 *as beginning1 &ia print1 to shape the imagination of Southeast Asians8
In a recent1 brilliant thesis the Thai historian Thongchai 2ini7cha,ul has traced the comple'
processes b *hich a bordered >Siam> came into being bet*een "$:4 and "#"48
"9
3is account
is instructi&e precisel because Siam *as not coloniBed1 though *hat1 in the end1 came to be
its borders *ere coloniall determined8 In the Thai case1 therefore1 one can see unusuall
clearl the emergence of a ne* state7mind *ithin a >traditional> structure of political po*er8
-p until the accession1 in "$:"1 of the intelligent Rama I! ;the 0ong,ut of +he Ging and I@-
onl t*o tpes of map e'isted in Siam1 and both *ere hand7made/ the age of mechanical
reproduction had not et there da*ned8 One *as *hat could be called a >cosmograph1> a
formal1 smbolic representation of the Three 2orlds of traditional Buddhist cosmolog8 The
cosmograph *as not organiBed horiBontall1 li,e our o*n mapsJ rather a series of
supraterrestrial hea&ens and subterrestrial hells *edged in the &isible *orld along a single
&ertical a'is8 It *as useless for an Fourne sa&e that in search of merit and sal&ation8 The
second tpe1 *holl profane1 consisted of diagrammatic guides for militar campaigns and
coastal shipping8 OrganiBed roughl b the Guadrant1 their main features *ere *ritten7in
notes on marching and sailing times1 reGuired because the mapma,ers had no technical
conception of scale8 Co&ering onl terrestrial1 profane space1 the *ere usuall dra*n in a
Gueer obliGue perspecti&e or mi'ture of perspecti&es1 as if the dra*ers> ees1 accustomed
from dail life to see the landscape horiBontall1 at ee7le&el1 nonetheless *ere influenced
subliminall b the &erticalit of the cosmograph8 Thongchai points out that these guide7
maps1 al*as local1 *ere D"C9E ne&er situated in a larger1 stable geographic conte't1 and that
the bird>s7ee &ie* con&ention of modern maps *as *holl foreign to them8
Neither tpe of map mar,ed borders8 Their ma,ers *ould ha&e found incomprehensible the
follo*ing elegant formulation of Richard 0uir/
"%
+ocated at the interfaces bet*een adFacent state territories1 international boundaries ha&e a special
significance in determining the limits of so&ereign authorit and defining the spatial form of the
contained political regions8888 Boundaries 88 occur *here the &ertical interfaces bet*een state
so&ereignties intersect the surface of the earth8888 As &ertical interfaces1 boundaries ha&e no
horiBontal e'tent8888
Boundar7stones and similar mar,ers did e'ist1 and indeed multiplied along the *estern
fringes of the realm as the British pressed in from +o*er Burma8 But these stones *ere set up
discontinuousl at strategic mountain passes and fords1 and *ere often substantial distances
from corresponding stones set up b the ad&ersar8 The *ere understood horiBontall1 at ee
le&el1 as e'tension points of roal po*erJ not >from the air8> Onl in the "$C4s did Thai
leaders begin thin,ing of boundaries as segments of a continuous map7line corresponding to
nothing &isible on the ground1 but demarcating an e'clusi&e so&ereignt *edged bet*een
other so&ereignties8 In "$C6 appeared the first geographical te'tboo,1 b the American
missionar A8 28 !an D,e 7 an earl product of the print7capitalism that *as b then
s*eeping into Siam8 In "$$91 Rama ! established a special mapping school in Bang,o,8 In
"$#91 0inister of Education <rince Damrong RaFanuphab1 inaugurating a modern7stle
school sstem for the countr1 made geograph a compulsor subFect at the Funior secondar
le&el8 In "#441 or thereabouts1 *as published Phmisat Sa0am D?eograph of SiamE b 28?8
Aohnson1 the model for all printed geographies of the countr from that time on*ards8
"6
D"C%E Thongchai notes that the &ectoral con&ergence of print7capitalism *ith the ne*
conception of spatial realit presented b these maps had an immediate impact on the
&ocabular of Thai politics8 Bet*een "#44 and "#":1 the traditional *ords #rng and mang
largel disappeared1 because the imaged dominion in terms of sacred capitals and &isible1
discontinuous population centers8
":
In their place came %rathet- >countr1> *hich imaged it in
the in&isible terms of bounded territorial space8
"(
+i,e censuses1 European7stle maps *or,ed on the basis of a totaliBing classification1 and led
their bureaucratic producers and consumers to*ards policies *ith re&olutionar
conseGuences8 E&er since Aohn 3arrison>s "C(" in&ention of the chronometer1 *hich made
possible the precise calculation of longitudes1 the entire planet>s cur&ed surface had been
subFected to a geometrical grid *hich sGuared off empt seas and une'plored regions in
measured bo'es8
"C
The tas, of1 as it *ere1 >filling in> the bo'es *as to be accomplished b
e'plorers1 sur&eors1 and militar forces8 In Southeast Asia1 the second half of the nineteenth
centur *as the golden age of militar sur&eors 7 colonial and1 a little later1 Thai8 The *ere
on the march to put space under the same sur&eillance *hich the census7ma,ers *ere tring
to impose on persons8 Triangulation b triangulation1 *ar b *ar1 treat b treat1 the
alignment of map and po*er proceeded8 In the apt *ords of Thongchai/
"$
In terms of most communication theories and common sense1 a map is a scientific abstraction of
realit8 A map merel represents something *hich alread e'ists obFecti&el >there8> In the histor I
ha&e described1 this relationship *as re&ersed8 A map anticipated spatial realit1 not &ice &ersa8 In
other *ords1 a map *as a model for1 rather than a model of1 *hat it purported to represent8888 It had
become a D"C6E real instrument to concretiBe proFections on the earth>s surface8 A map *as no*
necessar for the ne* administrati&e mechanisms and for the troops to bac, up their claims8 8 8 8
The discourse of mapping *as the paradigm *hich both administrati&e and militar operations
*or,ed *ithin and ser&ed8
B the turn of the centur1 *ith <rince Damrong>s reforms at the 0inistr of the Interior ;a
fine mapping name=1 the administration of the realm *as finall put on a *holl territorial7
cartographic basis1 follo*ing earlier practice in the neighboring colonies8
It *ould be un*ise to o&erloo, the crucial intersection bet*een map and census8 For the ne*
map ser&ed firml to brea, off the infinite series of>3a,,as1> >Non7Tamil Sri +an,ans1> and
>Aa&anese> that the formal apparatus of the census conFured up1 b delimiting territoriall
*here1 for political purposes1 the ended8 Con&ersel1 b a sort of demographic triangulation1
the census filled in politicall the formal topograph of the map8
Out of these changes emerged t*o final a&atars of the map ;both instituted b the late
colonial state= *hich directl prefigure the official nationalisms of t*entieth centur
Southeast Asia8 Full a*are of their interloper status in the distant tropics1 but arri&ing from a
ci&iliBation in *hich the legal inheritance and the legal transferabilit of geographic space
had long been established1
"#
the Europeans freGuentl attempted to legitimiBe the spread of
their po*er b Guasi7legal methods8 Among the more popular of these *as their >inheritance>
of the putati&e so&ereignties of nati&e rulers *hom the Europeans had eliminated or
subFected8 Either *a1 the usurpers *ere in the business1 especiall &is7a7&is other Europeans1
of reconstructing the propert7histor of their ne* possessions8 3ence the appearance1 late in
the nineteenth centur especiall1 of >historical maps1> designed to demonstrate1 in the ne*
cartographic D"C:E discourse1 the antiGuit of specific1 tightl bounded territorial units8
Through chronologicall arranged seGuences of such maps1 a sort of political7biographical
narrati&e of the realm came into being1 sometimes *ith &ast historical depth8
94
In turn1 this
narrati&e *as adopted1 if often adapted1 b the nation7states *hich1 in the t*entieth centur1
became the colonial states> legatees8
9"
The second a&atar *as the map7as7logo8 Its origins *ere reasonabl innocent 7 the practice of
the imperial states of coloring their colonies on maps *ith an imperial de8 In +ondon>s
imperial maps1 British colonies *ere usuall pin,7red1 French purple7blue1 Dutch ello*7
bro*n1 and so on8 Ded this *a1 each colon appeared li,e a detachable piece of a Figsa*
puBBle8 As this Figsa*> effect became normal1 each >piece> could be *holl detached from its
geographic conte't8 In its final form all e'planator glosses could be summaril remo&ed/
lines of longitude and latitude1 place names1 signs for ri&ers1 seas1 and mountains1
neigh!ors. <ure sign1 no longer compass to the *orld8 In this shape1 the map entered an
infinitel reproducible series1 a&ailable for transfer to posters1 official seals1 letterheads1
magaBine and te'tboo, co&ers1 tablecloths1 and hotel *alls8 Instantl recogniBable1
e&er*here &isible1 the logo7map penetrated deep into the popular imagination1 forming a
po*erful emblem for the anticolonial nationalisms being born8
99
D"C(E 0odern Indonesia offers us a fine1 painful e'ample of this process8 In "$9$ the first
fe&er7ridden Dutch settlement *as made on the island of Ne* ?uinea8 Although the
settlement had to be abandoned in "$%(1 the Dutch Cro*n proclaimed so&ereignt o&er that
part of the island ling *est of "6" degrees longitude ;an in&isible line *hich corresponded to
nothing on the ground1 but bo'ed in Conrad>s diminishing *hite spaces=1 *ith the e'ception
of some coastal stretches regarded as under the so&ereignt of the Sultan of Tidore8 Onl in
"#4" did The 3ague bu out the Sultan1 and incorporate 2est Ne* ?uinea into the
Netherlands Indies 7Fust in time for logoiBation8 +arge parts of the region remained Conrad7
*hite until after 2orld 2ar IIJ the handful of Dutchmen there *ere mostl missionaries1
mineral7prospectors 7 and *ardens of special prison7camps for die7hard radical Indonesian
nationalists8 The s*amps north of 0erau,e1 at the e'treme southeastern edge of Dutch Ne*
?uinea1 *ere selected as the site of these facilities precisel because the region *as regarded
as utterl remote from the rest of the colon1 and the >stone7age> local population as *holl
uncontaminated b nationalist thin,ing8
9%
The internment1 and often interment1 there of nationalist martrs ga&e 2est Ne* ?uinea a
central place in the fol,lore of the anticolonial struggle1 and made it a sacred site in the
national imagining/ Indonesia Free1 from Sabang ;at the north*estern tip of Sumatra= to 7
*here else butH 7 0erau,e8 It made no difference at all that1 aside from the fe* hundred
internees1 no nationalists e&er sa* Ne* ?uinea *ith their o*n ees until the "#(4s8 But
Dutch colonial logo7maps sped across in the colon1 sho*ing a 2est Ne* ?uinea :ith
nothing to its East- unconsciousl reinforced the de&eloping imagined ties8 2hen1 in the
aftermath of the bitter anticolonial *ars of "#6:76#1 the Dutch *ere forced to cede
so&ereignt of the archipelago to a -nited States of Indonesia1 the attempted ;for reasons
that need not detain us here= to separate 2est Ne* ?uinea D"CCE once again1 ,eep it
temporaril under colonial rule1 and prepare it for independent nationhood8 Not until "#(%
*as this enterprise abandoned1 as a result of hea& American diplomatic pressure and
Indonesian militar raids8 Onl then did <resident Su,arno &isit for the first time1 at the age
of si't7t*o1 a region about *hich he had tirelessl orated for four decades8 The subseGuent
painful relations bet*een the populations of 2est Ne* ?uinea and the emissaries of the
independent Indonesian state can be attributed to the fact that Indonesians more or less
sincerel regard these populations as >brothers and sisters1> *hile the populations themsel&es1
for the most part1 see things &er differentl8
96
This difference o*es much to census and map8 Ne* ?uinea>s remoteness and rugged terrain
created o&er the millennia an e'traordinar linguistic fragmentation8 2hen the Dutch left the
region in "#(% the estimated that *ithin the C441444 population there e'isted *ell o&er 944
mostl mutuall unintelligible languages8
9:
0an of the remoter >tribal> groups *ere not e&en
a*are of one another>s e'istence8 But1 especiall after "#:41 Dutch missionaries and Dutch
officials for the first time made serious efforts to >unif> them b ta,ing censuses1 e'panding
communications net*or,s1 establishing schools1 and erecting supra7>tribal> go&ernmental
structures8 This effort *as launched b a colonial state *hich1 as *e noted earlier1 *as uniGue
in that it had go&erned the Indies1 not primaril &ia a European language1 but through
>administrati&e 0ala8>
9(
3ence 2est Ne* ?uinea *as >brought up> in the same language in
*hich Indonesia had earlier been raised ;and *hich became the national language in due
course=8 The iron is that !ahasa Indonesia thus became D"C$E the lingua franca of a
burgeoning 2est Ne* ?uinean1 2est <apuan nationalism8
9C
But *hat brought the often Guarrelling oung 2est <apuan nationalists together1 especiall
after "#(%1 *as the map8 Though the Indonesian state changed the region>s name from 2est
Nieu* ?uinea1 first to Irian Barat ;2est Irian= and then to Irian Aaa1 it read its local realit
from the colonial7era bird>s7ee atlas8 A scattering of anthropologists1 missionaries and local
officials might ,no* and thin, about the Ndanis1 the Asmats1 and the Baudis8 But the state
itself1 and through it the Indonesian population as a *hole1 sa* onl a phantom >Irianese>
Horang Irian@ named after the ma%D because phantom1 to be imagined in Guasi7logo form/
>negroid> features1 penis7sheaths1 and so on8 In a *a that reminds us ho* Indonesia came
first to be imagined *ithin the racist structures of the earl7t*entieth7centur Netherlands
East Indies1 an embro >Irianese> national communit1 bounded b 0eridian "6" and the
neighboring pro&inces of North and South 0oluccas1 emerged8 At the time *hen its most
prominent and attracti&e spo,esman1 Arnold Ap1 *as murdered b the state in "#$61 he *as
curator of a state7built museum de&oted to >Irianese> ;pro&incial= culture8
T3E 0-SE-0
The lin, bet*een Ap>s occupation and assassination is not at all accidental8 For museums1 and
the museumiBing imagination1 are both profoundl political8 That his museum *as instituted
b a distant Aa,arta sho*s us ho* the ne* nation7state of Indonesia learned from its
immediate ancestor1 the colonial Netherlands East Indies8 The present proliferation of
museums around Southeast Asia suggests a general process of political inheriting at *or,8
An understanding of this process reGuires a consideration of the no&el nineteenth7centur
colonial archaeolog that made such museums possible8
D"C#E -p until the earl nineteenth centur the colonial rulers in Southeast Asia e'hibited
&er little interest in the antiGue monuments of the ci&iliBations the had subFected8 Thomas
Stamford Raffles1 ominous emissar from 2illiam Aones>s Calcutta1 *as the first prominent
colonial official not merel to amass a large personal collection of local o!;ets d1art- but
sstematicall to stud their histor8
9$
Thereafter1 *ith increasing speed1 the grandeurs of the
Borobudur1 of Ang,or1 of <agan1 and of other ancient sites *ere successi&el disinterred1
unFungled1 measured1 photographed1 reconstructed1 fenced off1 analsed1 and displaed8
9#
Colonial Archaeological Ser&ices became po*erful and prestigious institutions1 calling on the
ser&ices of some e'ceptionall capable scholar7officials8
%4
D"$4E To e'plore full *h this happened1 *hen it happened1 *ould ta,e us too far afield8 It
ma be enough here to suggest that the change *as associated *ith the eclipse of the
commercial7colonial regimes of the t*o great East India Companies1 and the rise of the true
modern colon1 directl attached to the metropole8
%"
The prestige of the colonial state *as
accordingl no* intimatel lin,ed to that of its homeland superior8 It is noticeable ho*
hea&il concentrated archaeological efforts *ere on the restoration of imposing monuments
;and ho* these monuments began to be plotted on maps for public distribution and
edification/ a ,ind of necrological census *as under *a=8 No doubt this emphasis reflected
general Orientalist fashions8 But the substantial funds in&ested allo* us to suspect that the
state had its o*n1 non7scientific reasons8 Three immediatel suggest themsel&es1 of *hich the
last is surel the most important8
In the first place1 the timing of the archaeological push coincided *ith the first political
struggle o&er the state>s educational policies8
%9
D"$"E ><rogressi&es>7colonials as *ell as
nati&es7*ere urging maFor in&estments in modern schooling8 Against them *ere arraed
conser&ati&es *ho feared the long7term conseGuences of such schooling1 and preferred the
nati&es to sta nati&e8 In this light1 archaeological restorations 7 soon follo*ed b state7
sponsored printed editions of traditional literar te'ts7 can be seen as a sort of conser&ati&e
educational program1 *hich also ser&ed as a prete't for resisting the pressure of the
progressi&es8 Second1 the formal ideological programme of the reconstructions al*as placed
the builders of the monuments and the colonial nati&es in a certain hierarch8 In some cases1
as in the Dutch East Indies up until the "#%4s1 the idea *as entertained that the builders *ere
actuall not of the same >race> as the nati&es ;the *ere >reall>Indianimmigrants=8
%%
In other
cases1 as in Burma1 *hat *as imagined *as a secular decadence1 such that contemporar
nati&es *ere no longer capable of their putati&e ancestors> achie&ements8 Seen in this light1
the reconstructed monuments1 Fu'taposed *ith the surrounding rural po&ert1 said to the
nati&es/ Our &er presence sho*s that ou ha&e al*as been1 or ha&e long become1 incapable
of either greatness or self7rule8
The third reason ta,es us deeper1 and closer to the map8 2e ha&e seen earlier1 in our
discussion of the >historical map1> ho* colonial regimes began attaching themself to antiGuit
as much as conGuest1 originall for Guite straightfor*ard 0achia&ellian7legalistic reasons8 As
time passed1 ho*e&er1 there *as less and less openl brutal tal, about right of conGuest1 and
more and more effort to create alternati&e legitimacies8 0ore and more Europeans *ere being
born in Southeast Asia1 and being tempted to ma,e it their home8 0onumental archaeolog1
increasingl lin,ed to tourism1 allo*ed the state to appear as the guardian of a generaliBed1
but also local8 Tradition8 The old sacred sites *ere to be incorporated into the map of the
colon1 and their ancient prestige ;*hich1 if this had D"$9E disappeared1 as it often had1 the
state *ould attempt to re&i&e= draped around the mappers8 This parado'ical situation is nicel
illustrated b the fact that the reconstructed monuments often had smartl laid7out la*ns
around them1 and al*as e'planator tablets1 complete *ith datings1 planted here and there8
0oreo&er1 the *ere to be ,ept empt of people1 e'cept for perambulator tourists ;no
religious ceremonies or pilgrimages1 so far as possible=8 0useumiBed this *a1 the *ere
repositioned as regalia for aseclar colonial state8
But1 as noted abo&e1 a characteristic feature of the instrumentalities of this profane state *as
infinite reproducibilit1 a reproducibilit made technicall possible b print and photograph1
but politico7culturall b the disbelief of the rulers themsel&es in the real sacredness of local
sites8 A sort of progression is detectable e&er*here/ ;"= massi&e1 technicall sophisticated
archaeological reports1 complete *ith doBens of photographs1 recording the process of
reconstruction of particular1 distinct ruinsJ ;9= +a&ishl illustrated boo,s for public
consumption1 including e'emplar plates of all the maFor sites reconstructed :ithin the
colon0 ;so much the better if1 as in the Netherlands Indies1 3indu7Buddhist shrines could be
Fu'taposed to restored Islamic mosGues=8
%6
Than,s to print7capitalism1 a sort of pictorial
census of the state>s patrimon becomes a&ailable1 e&en if at high cost1 to the state>s subFectsJ
;%= A general logoiBation1 made possible b the profaning processes outlined abo&e8 <ostage
stamps1 *ith their characteristic series7 tropical birds1 fruits1 fauna1 *h not monuments as
*ellH 7 are e'emplar of this stage8 But postcards and schoolroom te'tboo,s follo* the same
logic8 From there it is onl a step into the mar,et/ 3otel <agan1 Borobudur Fried Chic,en1
and so on8
2hile this ,ind of archaeolog1 maturing in the age of mech7 D"$%E anical reproduction1 *as
profoundl political1 it *as political at such a deep le&el that almost e&erone1 including the
personnel of the colonial state ;*ho1 b the "#%4s1 *ere in most of Southeast Asia #4 per cent
nati&e= *as unconscious of the fact8 It had all become normal and e&erda8 It *as precisel
the infinite Guotidian reproducibilit of its regalia that re&ealed the real po*er of the state8
It is probabl not too surprising that post7independence states1 *hich e'hibited mar,ed
continuities *ith their colonial predecessors1 inherited this form of political museumiBing8
For e'ample1 on # No&ember "#($1 as part of the celebrations commemorating the ":th
anni&ersar of Cambodia>s independence1 Norodom Sihanou, had a large *ood and papier7
mache replica of the great Baon temple of Ang,or displaed in the national sports stadium
in <hnom <enh8
%:
The replica *as e'ceptionall coarse and crude1 but it ser&ed its purpose 7
instant recogniBabilit &ia a histor of colonial7era logoiBation8 >Ah1 our Baon> 7 but *ith the
memor of French colonial restorers *holl banished8 French7reconstructed Ang,or 2at1
again in Figsa*> form1 became1 as noted in Chapter #1 the central smbol of the successi&e
flags of Sihanou,>s roalist1 +on Nol>s militarist1 and <ol <ot>s Aacobin regimes8
0ore stri,ing still is e&idence of inheritance at a more popular le&el8 One re&ealing e'ample
is a series of paintings of episodes in the national histor commissioned b Indonesia>s
0inistr of Education in the "#:4s8 The paintings *ere to be mass7produced and distributed
throughout the primar7school sstemJ oung Indonesians *ere to ha&e on the *alls of their
classrooms 7 e&er*here 7 &isual representations of their countr>s past8 0ost of the
bac,grounds *ere done in the predictable sentimental7naturalist stle of earl7t*entieth7
centur commercial art1 and the human figures ta,en either from colonial7era museum
dioramas or from the popular :a0ang orang pseudohistorical fol,7drama8 The most
interesting of the series1 ho*e&er1 offered children a representation of the Borobudur8 In
realit1 this colossal monument1 *ith its :46 Buddha images1 "16(4 pictorial and "19"9
decorati&e stone panels1 is a fantastic storehouse of ancient Aa&anese sculpture8 But the *ell7
regarded artist imagines the D"$6E mar&el in its ninth centur A8D8 heda *ith instructi&e
per&ersit8 The Borobudur is painted completel *hite1 *ith not a trace of sculpture &isible8
Surrounded b *ell7trimmed la*ns and tid tree7lined a&enues1 not a single hman !eing is
in sight.
S
One might argue that this emptiness reflects the unease of a contemporar 0uslim
painter in the face of an ancient Buddhist realit8 But I suspect that *hat *e are reall seeing
is an unselfconscious lineal descendant of colonial archaeolog/ the Borobudur as state
regalia1 and as >of course1 that>s it> logo8 A Borobudur all the more po*erful as a sign for
national identit because of e&erone>s a*areness of its location in an infinite series of
identical Borobudurs8
Interlin,ed *ith one another1 then1 the census1 the map and the museum illuminate the late
colonial state>s stle of thin,ing about its domain8 The >*arp> of this thin,ing *as a totaliBing
classificator grid1 *hich could be applied *ith endless fle'ibilit to anthing under the
state>s real or contemplated control/ peoples1 regions1 religions1 languages1 products1
monuments1 and so forth8 The effect of the grid *as al*as to be able to sa of anthing that
it *as this1 not thatJ it belonged here1 not there8 It *as bounded1 determinate1 and therefore7in
principle7countable8 ;The comic classificator and subclassificator census bo'es entitled
>Other> concealed all real7life anomalies b a splendid bureaucratic trom%e I1oeil@. The >*eft>
*as *hat one could call serialiBation/ the assumption that the *orld *as made up of
replicable plurals8 The particular al*as stood as a pro&isional representati&e of a series1 and
*as to be handled in this light8 This is *h the colonial state imagined a Chinese series
before an Chinese1 and a nationalist series before the appearance of an nationalists8
No one has found a better metaphor for this frame of mind than the great Indonesian no&elist
<ramoeda Ananta Toer1 *ho entitled the final &olume of his tetralog on the colonial period
Rmah Gaca - the ?lass 3ouse8 It is an image1 as po*erful as Bentham>s <anopticon1 of total
sur&eabilit8 For the colonial state did not merel aspire to D"$:E create1 under its control1 a.
human landscape of perfect &isibilitJ the condition of this >&isibilit> *as that e&erone1
e&erthing1 had ;as it *ere= a serial number8
%C
This stle of imagining did not come out of
thin air8 It *as the product of the technologies of na&igation1 astronom1 horolog1 sur&eing1
photograph and print1 to sa nothing of the deep dri&ing po*er of capitalism8
0ap and census thus shaped the grammar *hich *ould in due course ma,e possible >Burma>
and >Burmese1> >Indonesia> and >Indonesians8> But the concretiBation of these possibilities 7
con7cretiBations *hich ha&e a po*erful life toda1 long after the colonial state has
disappeared 7 o*ed much to the colonial state>s peculiar imagining of histor and po*er8
Archaeolog *as an unimaginable enterprise in precolonial Southeast AsiaJ it *as adopted in
uncoloniBed Siam late in the game1 and after the colonial state>s manner8 It created the series
>ancient monuments1> segmented *ithin the classificator1 geographic7demographic bo'
>Netherlands Indies1> and >British Burma8> Concei&ed *ithin this profane series1 each ruin
became a&ailable for sur&eillance and infinite replication8 As the colonial state>s
archaeological ser&ice made it technicall possible to assemble the series in mapped and
photographed form1 the state itself could regard the series1 up historical time1 as an album of
its ancestors8 The ,e thing *as ne&er the specific Borobudur1 nor the specific <agan1 in
*hich the state had no substantial interest and *ith *hich it had onl archaeological
connections8 The replicable series- ho*e&er1 created a historical depth of field *hich *as
easil inherited b the state>s postcolonial successor8 The final logical outcome *as the logo 7
of ><agan> or >The <hilippines1> it made little difference 7 *hich b its emptiness1
conte'tlessness1 &isual memorableness1 and infinite reproducibilit in e&er direction brought
census and map1 *arp and *oof1 into an inerasable embrace8
"8 See abo&e1 pp8 ""%7"68
98 Charles 3irschman1 >The 0eaning and 0easurement of Ethnicit in 0alasia/ An Analsis of Census
Classifications1>) of 'sian Stdies- 6(/% ;August "#$C=1 pp8 ::97$9J and >The 0a,ing of Race in Colonial
0alaa/ <olitical Econom and Racial Ideolog> Sociological *orm- "/9 ;Spring "#$(=1 pp8 %%47(98
%8 An astonishing &ariet of >Europeans> *ere enumerated right through the colonial era8 But *hereas in "$$"
the *ere still grouped primaril under the headings >resident1> >floating1> and >prisoners1> b "#"" the *ere
fraterniBing as members of a ;*hite= race>8 It is agreeable that up to the end1 the census7ma,ers *ere &isibl
uneas about *here to place those the mar,ed as >Ae*s8>
68 2illiam 3enr Scott1 ,rac#s in the Parchment ,rtain- chapter C1 >Filipino Class Structure in the Si'teenth
Centur8>
:8 In first half of the se&enteenth centur1 Spanish settlements in the archipelago came under repeated attac,
from the forces of the !ereenigde Oost7Indische Compagnie1 the greatest >transnational> corporation of the era8
For their sur&i&al1 the pious Catholic settlers o*ed a great debt to the arch7heretical <rotector1 *ho ,ept
Amsterdam>s bac, to the *all for much of his rule8 3ad the !OC been successful1 0anila1 rather than Bata&ia
DAa,artaE1 might ha&e become the centre of the >Dutch> imperium in Southeast Asia8 In "C(91 +ondon seiBed
0anila from Spain1 and held it for almost t*o ears8 It is entertaining to note that 0adrid onl got it bac, in
e'change for1 of all places1 Florida1 and the other >Spanish> possessions east of the 0ississippi8 3ad the
negotiations proceeded differentl1 the archipelago could ha&e been politicall lin,ed *ith 0alaa and
Singapore during the nineteenth centur8
(8 0ason C8 3oadle1 >State &s8 .i Aria 0arta Ningrat ;"(#(= and Tian Siang,o ;"C9479"=> ;unpublished ms81
"#$9=8
C8 See1 e8g81 Edgar 2ic,berg1 +he ,hinese in Phili%%ine 9ife- 15IF-1595- chapters " and 98
$8 The galleon trade 7 for *hich 0anila *as1 for o&er t*o centuries1 the entre%ot - e'changed Chinese sil,s and
porcelain for 0e'ican sil&er8
#8 See chapter C1 abo&e ;p8 "9:= for mention of French colonialism>s struggle to se&er Buddhism in Cambodia
from its old lin,s *ith Siam8
"48 See 2illiam Roff1 +he 2rigins of 6ala0 .ationalism- pp8 C9768
""8 See 3arr A8 Benda1 +he ,rescent and the Rising Sn- chapters "798
"98 Thongchai 2inicha,ul1 >Siam 0apped/ A 3istor of the ?eo7Bod of Siam> ;<h8D8 Thesis1 -ni&ersit of
Sdne1 "#$$=8
"%8 Richard 0uir1 6odem Political Keogra%h0- p8 ""#8
"68 Thongchai1 >Siam 0apped1> pp8 "4:7"41 9$(8
":8 For a full discussion of old conceptions of po*er in Aa&a ;*hich1 *ith minor differences1 corresponded to
that e'isting in Old Siam=1 see m 9angage and Po:er- chapter "8
"(8 Thongchai1 >Siam 0apped1> p8 ""48
"C8 Da&id S8 +andes1 Revoltion in +ime: ,loc#s and the 6a#ing of the 6odern 3orld- chapter #8
"$8 >Siam 0apped1> p8 %"48
"#8 I do not mean merel the inheritance and sale of pri&ate propert in land in the usual sense8 0ore important
*as the European practice of political transfers of lands1 *ith their populations1 &ia dnastic marriages8
<rincesses1 on marriage1 brought their husbands duchies and pett principalities1 and these transfers *ere
formall negotiated and >signed8> The tag (ellagerant alii- t- felix 'stria- n!eA *ould ha&e been
inconcei&able for an state in precolonial Asia8
948 See Thongchai1 >Siam 0apped1> p8 %$C1 on Thai ruling class absorption of this stle of imagining8 >According
to these historical maps1 moreo&er1 the geobod is not a modern particularit but is pushed bac, more than a
thousand ears8 3istorical maps thus help reFect an suggestion that nationhood emerged onl in the recent past1
and the perspecti&e that the present Siam *as a result of ruptures is precluded8 So is an idea that intercourse
bet*een Siam and the European po*ers *as the parent of Siam8>
9"8 This adoption *as b no means a 0achia&ellian ruse8 The earl nationalists in all the Southeast Asian
colonies had their consciousnesses profoundl shaped b the >format> of the colonial state and its institutions8
See chapter C abo&e8
998 In the *ritings of Nic, AoaGuin1 the contemporar <hilippines1 preeminent man of letters 7 and an
indubitable patriot 7 one can see ho* po*erfull the emblem *or,s on the most sophisticated intelligence8 Of
?eneral Antonio +una1 tragic hero of the anti7American struggle of "$#$7##1 AoaGuin *rites that he hurried to
>perform the role that had been instincti&e in the Creole for three centuries/ the defense of the form of the
<hilippines from a foreign disrupter8> ' Nestion of Ceroes- p8 "(6 ;italics added=8 Else*here he obser&es1
astonishingl1 that Spain>s >Filipino allies1 con&erts1 mercenaries sent against the Filipino rebel ma ha&e ,ept
the archipelago Spanish and Christian1 but the also ,ept it from falling apartJ> and that the >*ere fighting
;*hate&er the Spaniards ma ha&e intended= to ,eep the Filipino one8> Ibid81 p8 :$8
9%8 See Robin Osborne1Indonesia1s Secret 3ar- +he Kerrilla Strggle in Irian;a0a- pp8 $7#8
968 Since "#(% there ha&e been man blood episodes in 2est Ne* ?uinea ;no* called Irian Aaa7?reat Irian=1
partl as a result of the militariBation of the Indonesian state since "#(:1 partl because of the intermittentl
effecti&e guerrilla acti&ities of the so7called O<0 ;OrganiBation for a Free <apua=8 But these brutalities pale b
comparison *ith Aa,arta>s sa&ager in e'7<ortuguese East Timor1 *here in the first three ears after the "#C(
in&asion an estimated one7third of the population of (441444 died from *ar1 famine1 disease and >resettlement>8 I
do not thin, it a mista,e to suggest that the difference deri&es in part from East Timor>s absence from the logos
of the Netherlands East Indies and1 until "#C(1 of Indonesia>s8
9:8 Osborne1 Indonesia1s Secret 3ar- p8 98
9(8 See abo&e1 p8 ""48
9C8 The best sign for this is that the anti7Indonesian nationalist guerrilla organiBation>s name1 Organisasi <apua
0erde,a ;O<0=1 is composed of Indonesian *ords8
9$8 In "$""1 the East India Compan>s forces seiBed all the Dutch possessions in the Indies ;Napoleon had
absorbed the Netherlands into France the pre&ious ear=8 Raffles ruled in Aa&a till "$":8 3is monumental
Cistor0 of Java appeared in "$"C1 t*o ears prior to his founding of Singapore8
9#8 The museumiBing of the Borobudur1 the largest Buddhist stupa in the *orld1 e'emplifies this process8 In
"$"61 the Raffles regime >disco&ered> it1 and had it unFungled8 In "$6:1 the self7promoting ?erman artist7
ad&enturer Schaefer persuaded the Dutch authorities in Bata&ia to pa him to ma,e the first daguerrotpes8 In
"$:"1 Bata&ia sent a team of state emploees1 led b ci&il engineer F8C8 2ilsen1 to ma,e a sstematic sur&e of
the bas7reliefs and to produce a complete1 >scientific> set of lithographs8 In "$C61 Dr8 C8 +eemans1 Director of the
0useum of AntiGuities in +eiden1 published1 at the behest of the 0inister of Colonies1 the first maFor scholarl
monographJ he relied hea&il on 2ilsen>s lithographs1 ne&er ha&ing &isited the site himself8 In the "$$4s1 the
professional photographer Cephas produced a thorough modern7stle photographic sur&e8 In "#4"1 the colonial
regime established an Oudheid,undige Commissie ;Commission on AntiGuities=8 Bet*een "#4C and "#""1 the
Commission o&ersa* the complete restoration of the stupa1 carried out at state e'pense b a team under the ci&il
engineer !an Erp8 Doubtless in recognition of this success1 the Commission *as promoted1 in "#"%1 to an
Oudheid,undigen Dienst ;AntiGuities Ser&ice=1 *hich ,ept the monument spic, and span until the end of the
colonial period8 See C8 +eemans1 (oro-(odor- pp8 ii7l&J and N8A8 .rom1 Inleiding tot de Cindoe-Javaansche
Gnst- I1 chapter "8
%48 !icero CurBon ;"$##7"#4:=1 an antiGuities buff *ho1 *rites ?roslier1 >energiBed> the Archaeological Sur&e
of India1 put things &er nicel/ >It is8 8 8 eGuall our dut to dig and disco&er1 to classif1 reproduce and describe1
to cop and decipher1 and to cherish and conser&e8> ;Foucault could not ha&e said it better=8 In "$##1 the
Archaeological Department of Burma 7 then part of British India 7 *as founded1 and soon began the restoration
of <agan8 The pre&ious ear1 the ccole FranOaise d>E'tr_me7Orient *as established in Saigon1 follo*ed almost
at once b a Directorate of 0useums and 3istorical 0onuments of Indochina8 Immediatel after the French
seiBure of Siemreap and Battambang from Siam in "#4C1 an Ang,or Conser&anc *as established to CurBoniBe
Southeast Asia>s most a*e7inspiring ancient monuments8 See Bernard <hilippe ?roslier1 Indochina- pp8 "::7C1
"C67C8 As noted abo&e1 the Dutch colonial AntiGuities Commission *as founded in "#4"8 The coincidence in
dates 7 "$##1 "$#$1 "#4" 7 sho*s not onl the ,eenness *ith *hich the ri&al colonial po*ers obser&ed one
another1 but sea7changes in imperialism under *a b the turn of the centur8 As *as to be e'pected1
independent Siam ambled along more slo*l8 Its Archaeological Ser&ice *as onl set up in "#961 its National
0useum in "#9(8 See Charles 3igham1 +he 'rchaeolog0 of 6ainland Sotheast 'sia- p8 9:8
%"8 The !OC *as liGuidated1 in ban,ruptc1 in "C##8 The colon of the Netherlands Indies1 ho*e&er1 dates from
"$":1 *hen the independence of The Netherlands *as restored b the 3ol Alliance1 and 2illem I of Orange
put on a Dutch throne first in&ented in "$4( b Napoleon and his ,indl brother +ouis8 The British East India
Compan sur&i&ed till the great Indian 0utin of "$:C8
%98 The Oudheid,undige Commissie *as established b the same go&ernment that ;in "#4"= inaugurated the
ne* >Ethical <olic> for the Indies1 a polic that for the first time aimed to establish a 2estern7stle sstem of
education for substantial numbers of the coloniBed8 ?o&ernor7?eneral <aul Doumer ;"$#C7"#49= created both
the Directorate of 0useums and 3istorical 0onuments of Indochina and the colon>s modern educational
apparatus8 In Burma1 the huge e'pansion of higher education 7 *hich bet*een "#44 and "#64 increased the
number of secondar7school students eightfold1 from 9C164" to 9%%1:6%1 and of college students t*entfold1
from "": to 91%(: 7 began Fust as the Archaeological Department of Burma s*ung into action8 See Robert 38
Talor1 +he State in (rma- p8 ""68
%%8 Influenced in part b this ,ind of thin,ing1 conser&ati&e Thai intellrc tu8i.1 archaeologists1 and officials
persist to this da in attributing Ang,or to tlir msterious .hom1 *ho &anished *ithout a trace1 and certainl
ha&e no c omiri linn *ith toda>s despised Cambodians8
%68 A fine late7blooming e'ample is 'ncient Indonesian 'rt- b the Dutch scholar1 A8A8 Bernet .empers1 self7
described as >former Director of Archaeolog in Indonesia DsicE8> On pages 967: one finds maps sho*ing the
location of the ancient sites8 The first is especiall instructi&e1 since its rectangular shape ;framed on the east b
the "6"st 0eridian= *ill7nill includes <hilippine 0indanao as *ell as British70alasian north Borneo1
peninsular 0alaa1 and Singapore8 All are blan, of sites1 indeed of an naming *hatsoe&er1 e'cept for a single1
ine'plicable >.edah8> The s*itch from 3indu7Buddhism to Islam occurs after <late %648
%:8 See Gam!;a- 6: ;": December "#($=1 for some curious photographs8
%(8 The discussion here dra*s on material analsed more full in 9angage and Po:er- chapter :8
%C8 An e'emplar polic7outcome of ?lass 3ouse imaginings7an outcome of *hich e'7political prisoner
<ramoeda is painfull a*are7is the classificator ID card that all adult Indonesians must no* carr at all times8
This ID is isomorphic *ith the census7 it represents a sort of political census1 *ith special punchingU for those
in the sub7series >sub&ersi&es>and >traitors8> It is notable that this stle of census *as onl perfected after the
achie&ement of national independence8
""8 0emor and Forgetting
S<ACE NE2 AND O+D
D"$CE Ne* 5or,1 Nue&a +eon1 Nou&elle Orleans1 No&a +isboa1 Nieu* Amsterdam8 Alread
in the si'teenth centur Europeans had begun the strange habit of naming remote places1 first
in the Americas and Africa1 later in Asia1 Australia1 and Oceania1 as >ne*> &ersions of
;thereb= >old> toponms in their lands of origin8 0oreo&er1 the retained the tradition e&en
*hen such places passed to different imperial masters1 so the Nou&elle Orleans calml
became Ne* Orleans1 and Nieu* Meeland Ne* Mealand8
It *as not that1 in general1 the naming of political or religious sites as >ne*> *as in itself so
ne*8 In Southeast Asia1 for e'ample1 one finds to*ns of reasonable antiGuit *hose names
also include a term for no&elt/ Chiangmai ;Ne* Cit=1 .ota Bahru ;Ne* To*n=1 <e,anbaru
;Ne* 0ar,et=8 But in these names >ne*> in&ariabl has the meaning of>successor> to1 or
>inheritor> of1 something &anished8 >Ne*> and >old> are aligned diachronicall1 and the former
appears al*as to in&o,e an ambiguous blessing from the dead8 2hat is startling in the
American namings of the si'teenth to eighteenth centuries is that >ne*> and >old> *ere
understood snchronicall1 coe'isting *ithin homogeneous1 empt time8 !iBcaa is there
alongside Nue&a !iBcaa1 Ne* +ondon alongside +ondon/ an idiom of sibling competition
rather than of inheritance8
D"$$E This ne* snchronic no&elt could arise historicall onl *hen substantial groups of
people *ere in a position to thin, of themsel&es as li&ing lives %arallel to those of other
substantial groups of people 7 if ne&er meeting1 et certainl proceeding along the same
traFector8 Bet*een ":44 and "$44 an accumulation of technological inno&ations in the fields
of shipbuilding1 na&igation1 horolog and cartograph1 mediated through print7capitalism1
*as ma,ing this tpe of imagining possible8
"
It became concei&able to d*ell on the <eru&ian
altiplano1 on the pampas of Argentina1 or b the harbours of>Ne*> England1 and et feel
connected to certain regions or communities1 thousands of miles a*a1 in England or the
Iberian peninsula8 One could be full a*are of sharing a language and a religious faith ;to
&aring degrees=1 customs and traditions1 *ithout an great e'pectation of e&er meeting one>s
partners8
9
For this sense of parallelism or simultaneit not merel to arise1 but also to ha&e &ast political
conseGuences1 it *as necessar that the distance bet*een the parallel groups be large1 and
that the ne*er of them be substantial in siBe and permanentl settled1 as *ell as firml
subordinated to the older8 These conditions *ere met in the Americas as the had ne&er been
before8 In the first place1 the &ast e'panse of the Atlantic Ocean and the utterl different
geographical conditions e'isting on each side of it1 made impossible the sort of gradual
absorption of populations into larger politico7cultural units that transformed +as Espanas into
Espana and submerged Scotland into the -nited .ingdom8 Secondl1 as noted in Chapter 61
European migration to the Americas too, place on an astonishing scale8 B the D"$#E end of
the eighteenth centur there *ere no less than %19441444 >*hites> ;including no more than
":41444 %eninslares@ *ithin the "(1#441444 population of the 2estern empire of the
Spanish Bourbons8
%
The sheer siBe of this immigrant communit1 no less than its
o&er*helming militar1 economic and technological po*er &is7a&is the indigenous
populations1 ensured that it maintained its o*n cultural coherence and local political
ascendanc8
6
Thirdl1 the imperial metropole disposed of formidable bureaucratic and ideo7
logical apparatuses1 *hich permitted them for man centuries to impose their *ill on the
Creoles8 ;2hen one thin,s of the sheer logistical problems in&ol&ed1 the abilit of +ondon
and 0adrid to carr on long counter7re&olutionar *ars against rebel American colonists is
Guite impressi&e8=
The no&elt of all these conditions is suggested b the contrast the afford *ith the great ;and
roughl contemporaneous= Chinese and Arab migrations into Southeast Asia and East Africa8
These migrations *ere rarel >planned> b an metropole1 and e&en more rarel produced
stable relations of subordination8 In the Chinese case1 the onl dim parallel is the
e'traordinar series of &oages far across the Indian ocean *hich *ere led1 earl in the
fifteenth centur1 b the brilliant eunuch admiral Cheng7ho8 These daring enterprises1 carried
out at the orders of the 5ung7lo Emperor1 *ere intended to enforce a court monopol of
e'ternal trade *ith D"#4E Southeast Asia and the regions further *est1 against the
depredations of pri&ate Chinese merchants8
:
B mid7centur the failure of the polic *as
clearJ *hereupon the 0ing abandoned o&erseas ad&entures and did e&erthing the could to
pre&ent emigration from the 0iddle .ingdom8 The fall of southern China to the 0anchus in
"(6: produced a substantial *a&e of refugees into Southeast Asia for *hom an political ties
*ith the ne* dnast *ere unthin,able8 SubseGuent Ch>ing polic did not differ substantiall
from that of the later 0ing8 In "C"91 for e'ample1 an edict of the .>ang7hsi Emperor
prohibited all trade *ith Southeast Asia and declared that his go&ernment *ould >reGuest
foreign go&ernments to ha&e those Chinese *ho ha&e been abroad repatriated so that the
ma be e'ecuted8>
(
The last great *a&e of o&erseas migration too, place in the nineteenth
centur as the dnast disintegrated and a huge demand for uns,illed Chinese labor opened
up in colonial Southeast Asia and Siam8 Since &irtuall all migrants *ere politicall cut off
from <e,ing1 and *ere also illiterate people spea,ing mutuall unintelligible languages1 the
*ere either more or less absorbed into local cultures or *ere decisi&el subordinated to the
ad&ancing Europeans8
C
As for the Arabs1 most of their migrations originated from the 3adramaut1 ne&er a real
metropole in the era of the Ottoman and 0ughal empires8 Enterprising indi&iduals might find
*as to establish local principalities1 such as the merchant *ho founded the ,ingdom of
<ontiana, in *estern Borneo in "CC9J but he married locall1 soon lost his >Arabness> if not
his Islam1 and remained subordinated to the rising Dutch and English empires in Southeast
Asia1 not to an po*er in the Near East8 In "$%9 Said Sa>id1 lord of 0uscat1 established a
po*erful base on the East African coast and settled on the island of ManBibar1 *hich he made
the centre of a flourishing clo&e7gro*ing econom8 But the British used militar D"#"E means
to compel him to se&er his ties *ith 0uscat8
$
Thus neither Arabs nor Chinese1 though the
&entured o&erseas in &er large numbers during more or less the same centuries as the
2estern Europeans1 successfull established coherent1 *ealth1 selfconsciousl Creole
communities subordinated to a great metropolitan core8 3ence1 the *orld ne&er sa* the rise
of Ne* Basras or Ne* 2uhans8
The doubleness of the Americas and the reasons for it1 s,etched out abo&e1 help to e'plain
*h nationalism emerged first in the Ne* 2orld1 not the Old8
#
The also illuminate t*o
peculiar features of the re&olutionar *ars that raged in the Ne* 2orld bet*een "CC( and
"$9:8 On the one hand1 none of the creole re&olutionaries dreamed of ,eeping the empire
intact but rearranging its internal distribution of po*er1 reversing the pre&ious relationship of
subFection b transferring the metropole from a European to an American site8
"4
In other
*ords1 the aim *as not to ha&e Ne* +ondon succeed1 o&erthro*1 or destro Old +ondon1 but
rather to safeguard their continuing parallelism8 ;3o* ne* this stle of thought *as can be
inferred from the histor of earlier empires in decline1 *here there *as often a dream of
re%lacing the old centre8= On the other hand1 although these *ars caused a great deal of
suffering and *ere mar,ed b much barbarit1 in an odd *a the sta,es *ere rather lo*8
Neither in North nor in South America did the Creoles ha&e to fear phsical e'termination or
reduction to ser&itude1 as did so man other peoples *ho got in the *a of the Fuggernaut of
European imperialism8 The *ere after all >*hites1> Christians1 and Spanish7 or English7
spea,ersJ the *ere also the intermediaries necessar to the metropoles if the economic
*ealth of the 2estern empires *as to continue under Europe>s control8 3ence1 the *ere the
one significant e'tra7 D"#9E European group1 subFected to Europe1 that at the same time had
no need to be desperatel afraid of Europe8 The re&olutionar *ars1 bitter as the *ere1 *ere
still reassuring in that the *ere *ars bet*een ,insmen8
""
This famil lin, ensured that1 after
a certain period of acrimon had passed1 close cultural1 and sometimes political and
economic1 ties could be re,nit bet*een the former metropoles and the ne* nations8
TI0E NE2 AND O+D
If for the Creoles of the Ne* 2orld the strange toponms discussed abo&e represented
figurati&el their emerging capacit to imagine themsel&es as communities %arallel and
com%ara!le to those in Europe1 e'traordinar e&ents in the last Guarter of the eighteenth
centur ga&e this no&elt1 Guite suddenl1 a completel ne* meaning8 The first of these
e&ents *as certainl the Declaration of ;the Thirteen Colonies>= Independence in "CC(1 and
the successful militar defence of that declaration in the ears follo*ing8 This independence1
and the fact that it *as a re%!lican independence1 *as felt to be something absolutel
unprecedented1 et at the same time1 once in e'istence1 absolutel reasonable8 3ence1 *hen
histor made it possible1 in "$""1 for !eneBuelan re&olutionaries to dra* up a constitution for
the First !eneBuelan Republic1 the sa* nothing sla&ish in borro*ing &erbatim from the
Constitution of the -nited States of America8
"9
For *hat the men in <hiladelphia had *ritten
*as in the !eneBuelans> ees not something North American1 but rather something of
uni&ersal truth and &alue8 Shortl thereafter1 in "C$#1 the e'plosion in the Ne* 2orld *as
%aralleled in the Old b the &olcanic outbrea, of the French Re&olution8
"%
D"#%E It is difficult toda to recreate in the imagination a condition of life in *hich the nation
*as felt to be something utterl ne*8 But so it *as in that epoch8 The Declaration of
Independence of "CC( ma,es absolutel no reference to Christopher Columbus1 Roano,e1 or
the <ilgrim Fathers1 nor are the grounds put for*ard to Fustif independence in an *a
>historical1> in the sense of highlighting the antiGuit of the American people8 Indeed1
mar&ellousl1 the American nation is not e&en mentioned8 A profound feeling that a radical
brea, *ith the past *as occurring7a >blasting open of the continuum of histor>H7spread
rapidl8 Nothing e'emplifies this intuition better than the decision1 ta,en b the Con&ention
.ationale on : October "C#%1 to scrap the centuries7old Christian calendar and to inaugurate
a ne* *orld7era *ith the 5ear One1 starting from the abolition of the ancien regime and the
proclamation of the Republic on 99 September "C#98
"6
;No subseGuent re&olution has had
Guite this sublime confidence of no&elt1 not least because the French Re&olution has al*as
been seen as an ancestor8=
Out of this profound sense of ne*ness came also nestra santa revoltion- the beautiful
neologism created b Aose 0aria 0orelos <a&dn ;proclaimer in "$"% of the Republic of
0e'ico=1 not long before his e'ecution b the Spaniards8
":
Out of it too came San 0artin>s
"$9" decree that 1in the ftre the aborigines shall not be called Indians or nati&esJ the are
children and citiBens of <eru and the shall be ,no*n as <eru&ians8>
"(
This sentence does for
>Indians> and)or >nati&es> *hat the Con&ention in <aris had done for the Christian calendar 7 it
abolished the old time7dishonoured naming and inaugurated a completel ne* epoch8
><eru&ians> and >5ear One> thus mar, rhetoricall a profound rupture *ith the e'isting *orld8
D"#6E 5et things could not long remain this *a 7 for precisel the same reasons that had
precipitated the sense of rupture in the first place8 In the last Guarter of the eighteenth centur1
Britain alone *as manufacturing bet*een ":41444 and 9441444 *atches a ear1 man of them
for e'port8 Total European manufacture is li,el to ha&e then been close to :441444 items
annuall8
"C
Seriall published ne*spapers *ere b then a familiar part of urban ci&iliBation8
So *as the no&el1 *ith its spectacular possibilities for the representation of simultaneous
actions in homogeneous empt time8
"$
The cosmic cloc,ing *hich had made intelligible our
snchronic transoceanic pairings *as increasingl felt to entail a *holl intramundane1 serial
&ie* of social causalitJ and this sense of the *orld *as no* speedil deepening its grip on
2estern imaginations8 It is thus understandable that less than t*o decades after the
<roclamation of 5ear One came the establishment of the first academic chairs in 3istor7 in
"$"4 at the -ni&ersit of Berlin1 and in "$"9 at Napoleon>s Sorbonne8 B the second Guarter
of the nineteenth centur 3istor had become formall constituted as a >discipline1> *ith its
o*n elaborate arra of professional Fournals8
"#
!er Guic,l the 5ear One made *a for "C#9
A8D81 and the re&olutionar ruptures of "CC( and "C$# came to be figured as embedded in the
historical series and ths as historical %recedents and models.
BF
3ence1 for the members of *hat *e might call >second7generation> nationalist mo&ements1
those *hich de&eloped in Europe D"#:E bet*een about "$": to "$:41 and also for the
generation that inherited the independent national states of the Americas1 it *as no longer
possible to >recapture)The first fine careless rapture> of their re&olutionar predecessors8 For
different reasons and *ith different conseGuences1 the t*o groups thus began the process of
reading nationalism genealogicall0 - as the e'pression of an historical tradition of serial
continuit8
In Europe1 the ne* nationalisms almost immediatel began to imagine themsel&es as
>a*a,ening from sleep1> a trope *holl foreign to the Americas8 Alread in "$4% ;as *e ha&e
seen in Chapter := the oung ?ree, nationalist Adamantios .oraes *as telling a smpathetic
<arisian audience/ 1*or the first time the D?ree,E nation sur&es the hideous spectacle of its
ignorance and trem!les in measuring *ith the ee the distance separating it from its ancestors>
glor8> 3ere is perfectl e'emplified the transition from Ne* Time to Old8 >For the first time>
still echoes the ruptures of "CC( and "C$#1 but .oraes >s s*eet ees are turned1 not ahead to
San 0artin>s future1 but bac,1 in trembling1 to ancestral glories8 It *ould not ta,e long for this
e'hilarating doubleness to fade1 replaced b a modular1 >continuous> a*a,ening from a
chronologicall gauged1 A8D8 7stle slumber/ a guaranteed return to an aboriginal essence8
-ndoubtedl1 man different elements contributed to the astonishing popularit of this
trope8
9"
For present purposes1 I *ould mention onl t*o8 In the first place1 the trope too, into
account the sense of parallelism out of *hich the American nationalisms had been born and
*hich the success of the American nationalist re&olutions had greatl reinforced in Europe8 It
seemed to e'plain *h nationalist mo&ements had biBarrel cropped up in the ci&iliBed Old
2orld so ob&iousl later than in the !ar!aros .e:.
99
Read as late a*a,ening1 e&en if an
a*a,ening stimulated from afar1 it opened up an immense D"#(E antiGuit behind the epochal
sleep8 In the second place1 the trope pro&ided a crucial metaphorical lin, bet*een the ne*
European nationalisms and language8 As obser&ed earlier1 the maFor states of nineteenth7
centur Europe *ere &ast polglot polities1 of *hich the boundaries almost ne&er coincided
*ith language7communities8 0ost of their literate members had inherited from mediae&al
times the habit of thin,ing of certain languages 7 if no longer +atin1 then French1 English1
Spanish or ?erman7as languages of ci&iliBation8 Rich eighteenth7centur Dutch burghers
*ere proud to spea, onl French at homeJ ?erman *as the language of culti&ation in much
of the *estern CBarist empire1 no less than in >CBech> Bohemia8 -ntil late in the eighteenth
centur no one thought of these languages as belonging to an territoriall defined group8 But
soon thereafter1 for reasons s,etched out in Chapter %1 >unci&iliBed> &ernaculars began to
function politicall in the same *a as the Atlantic Ocean had earlier done/ i8e8 to >separate>
subFected national communities off from ancient dnastic realms8 And since in the &anguard
of most European popular nationalist mo&ements *ere literate people often naccstomed to
using these &ernaculars1 this anomal needed e'planation8 None seemed better than >sleep1>
for it permitted those intelligentsias and bourgeoisies *ho *ere becoming conscious of
themsel&es as CBechs1 3ungarians1 or Finns to figure their stud of CBech1 0agar1 or
Finnish languages1 fol,lores1 and musics as >redisco&ering> something deep7do*n al*as
,no*n8 ;Furthermore1 once one starts thin,ing about nationalit in terms of continuit1 fe*
things seem as historicall deep7rooted as languages1 for *hich no dated origins can e&er be
gi&en8=
9%
In the Americas the problem *as differentl posed8 On the one hand1 national independence
had almost e&er*here been internationall ac,no*ledged b the "$%4s8 It had thus become
an inheritance1 and1 as an inheritance- it *as compelled to enter a genealogical series8 5et the
de&eloping European instrumentalities *ere not readil a&ailable8 +anguage had ne&er been
an issue in the D"#CE American nationalist mo&ements8 As *e ha&e seen1 it *as precisel the
sharing *ith the metropole of a common language ;and common religion and common
culture= that had made the first national imaginings possible8 To be sure1 there are some
interesting cases *here one detects a sort of >European> thin,ing earl at *or,8 For e'ample1
Noah 2ebster>s "$9$ ;i8e81 >second7generation>= 'merican )ictionar0 of the English
9angage *as intended to gi&e an official imprimatur to an American language *hose
lineage *as distinct from that of English8 In <aragua1 the eighteenth7centur Aesuit tradition
of using ?uarani made it possible for a radicall non7Spanish >nati&e> language to become a
national language1 under the long1 'enophobic dictatorship of Aose Caspar RodrigueB de
Francia ;"$"67"$64=8 But1 on the *hole1 an attempt to gi&e historical depth to nationalit &ia
linguistic means faced insuperable obstacles8 !irtuall all the Creoles *ere institutionall
committed ;&ia schools1 print media1 administrati&e habits1 and so on= to European rather than
indigenous American tongues8 An e'cessi&e emphasis on linguistic lineages threatened to
blur precisel that >memor of independence> *hich it *as essential to retain8
The solution1 e&entuall applicable in both Ne* and Old 2orlds1 *as found in 3istor1 or
rather 3istor emplotted in particular *as8 2e ha&e obser&ed the speed *ith *hich Chairs
in 3istor succeeded the 5ear One8 As 3aden 2hite remar,s1 it is no less stri,ing that the
fi&e presiding geniuses of European historiograph *ere all born *ithin the Guarter centur
follo*ing the Con&ention>s rupturing of time/ Ran,e in "C#:1 0ichelet in "C#$1 TocGue&ille
in "$4:1 and 0ar' and Burc,hardt in "$"$8
96
Of the fi&e1 it is perhaps natural that 0ichelet1
self7appointed historian of the Re&olution1 most clearl e'emplifies the national imagining
being born1 for he *as the first selfconciousl to *rite on !ehalf of the dead8
9:
The follo*ing
passage is characteristic/
D"#$E Oui1 chaGue mort laisse un petit bien1 sa mPmoire1 et demande Gu>on la soigne8 <our celui Gui
n>a pas d>amis1 il faut Gue le magistral supplPe8 Car la loi1 la Fustice1 est plus sdre Gue toutes nos
tendresses oublieuses1 nos larmes si &ite sPchPes8 Cette magistrature1 c>est l>3istoire8 Et les morts
sont1 pour dire comme le Droit romain1 ces misera!iles %ersonae dont le magistral doit se
prPoccuper8 Aamais dans ma carriare Fe n>ai pas perdu de &ue ce de&oir de l>historien8 A>ai donnP b
beaucoup de morts trop oubliPs ">assistance dont moi7m_me F>aurai besoin8 Ae les ai e'humPs pour
une seconde &ie 888 Ils &i&ent maintenant a&ec nous Gui nous sentons leurs parents1 leurs amis8
Ainsi se fait une famille1 une citP commune entre les &i&ants et les morts8
9(
3ere and else*here 0ichelet made it clear that those *hom he *as e'huming *ere b no
means a random assemblage of forgotten1 anonmous dead8 The *ere those *hose
sacrifices1 throughout 3istor1 made possible the rupture of "C$# and the selfconscious
appearance of the French nation1 even :hen these sacrifices :ere not nderstood as sch !0
the victims. In "$691 he noted of these dead/ >II leur faut un Oedipe Gui leur e'pliGue leur
propre Pnigme dont ils n>ont pas eu le sens1 Gui leur apprenne ce Gue &oulaient dire leurs
paroles1 leurs actes1 Gu>ils n>ont pas compris8>
9C
This formulation is probabl unprecedented8 0ichelet not onl claimed to spea, on behalf of
large numbers of anonmous dead people1 but insisted1 *ith poignant authorit1 that he could
sa *hat the >reall> meant and >reall> *anted1 since the themsel&es >did not understand8>
From then on1 the silence of the dead *as no obstacle to the e'humation of their deepest
desires8
In this &ein1 more and more >second7generation> nationalists1 in the Americas and else*here1
learned to spea, >for> dead people *ith *hom it *as impossible or undesirable to establish a
linguistic connection8 This re&ersed &entriloGuism helped to open the *a for a selfconscious
indigenismo- especiall in the southern Americas8 At the D"##E edge/ 0e'icans spea,ing in
Spanish >for> pre7Columbian >Indian> ci&iliBations *hose languages the do not understand8
9$
3o* re&olutionar this ,ind of e'humation *as appears most clearl if *e contrast it *ith the
formulation of Fermin de !argas1 cited in chapter 98 For *here Fermin still thought
cheerfull of>e'tinguishing> li&ing Indians1 man of his political grandchildren became
obsessed *ith >remembering1> indeed >spea,ing for> them1 perhaps precisel because the had1
b then1 so often been extingished.
T3E REASS-RANCE OF FRATRICIDE
It is stri,ing that in 0ichelet>s >second generation> formulations the focus of attention is
al*as the e'humation of people and e&ents *hich stand in danger of obli&ion8
9#
3e sees no
need to thin, about >forgetting8> But *hen1 in "$$97more than a centur after the Declaration
of Independence in <hiladelphia1 and eight ears after the death of 0ichelet himself 7 Renan
published his Ne 1est-ce " 1ne nation=- it *as precisel the need for forgetting that
preoccupied him8 Reconsider1 for e'ample1 the formulation cited earlier in chapter I/
%4
Or1 l>essence d>une nation est Gue tous les indi&idus aient beaucoup de choses en commun et aussi
Gue tous aient oubliP bien des choses8 8 8 8 Tout citoen franOais doit avoir o!lie la Saint7
BarthPlem1 les massacres du 0idi au LIIIe siacle8
D944E At first sight these t*o sentences ma seem straightfor*ard8
%"
5et a fe* moments
reflection re&eals ho* biBarre the actuall are8 One notices1 for e'ample1 that Renan sa* no
reason to e'plain for his readers *hat either >la Saint7BarthPlem> or >les massacres du 0idi
au LIIIe siacle> meant8 5et *ho but >Frenchmen1> as it *ere1 *ould ha&e at once understood
that >la Saint7BarthPlem> referred to the ferocious anti73uguenot pogrom launched on 96
August ":C9 b the !alois dnast Charles IL and his Florentine motherJ or that >les
massacres du 0idi> alluded to the e'termination of the Albigensians across the broad Bone
bet*een the <renees and the Southern Alps1 instigated b Innocent III1 one of the guiltier in
a long line of guilt popesH Nor did Renan find anthing Gueer about assuming >memories> in
his readers> minds e&en though the e&ents themsel&es occurred %44 and (44 ears pre&iousl8
One is also struc, b the peremptor snta' of doit avoir o!liO ;not doit o!lier@ - >obliged
alread to ha&e forgotten>7*hich suggests1 in the ominous tone of re&enue7codes and militar
conscription la*s1 that >alread ha&ing forgotten> ancient tragedies is a prime contemporar
ci&ic dut8 In effect1 Renan>s readers *ere being told to >ha&e alread forgotten> *hat Renan>s
o*n *ords assumed that the naturall rememberedQ
3o* are *e to ma,e sense of this parado'H 2e ma start b obser&ing that the singular
*rench noun >la Saint7BarthPlem> occludes ,illers and ,illed 7 i8e81 those Catholics and
<rotestants *ho plaed one local part in the &ast unhol 3ol 2ar that raged across central
and northern Europe in the si'teenth centur1 and *ho certainl did not thin, of themsel&es
coBil together as >Frenchmen8> Similarl1 >thirteenth7centur massacres of the 0idi> blurs
unnamed &ictims and assassins behind the pure Frenchness of>0idi8> No need to remind his
readers that most of the murdered Albigensians spo,e <ro&enOal or Catalan1 and that their
murderers came from man parts of 2estern Europe8 The effect of this tropolog is to figure
episodes in the colossal religious conflicts of mediae&al and earl modern Europe as
reassuringl fratricidal *ars bet*een 7 *ho elseH - fello: *renchmen. Since *e can be
confident that1 left to themsel&es1 the o&er*helming maForit of Renan>s French
contemporaries *ould D94"E ne&er ha&e heard of Yla Saint7BarthPlem> or >les massacres du
0idi1> *e become a*are of a sstematic historiographical campaign1 deploed b the state
mainl through the state>s school sstem1 to >remind> e&er oung French*oman and
Frenchman of a series of antiGue slaughters *hich are no* inscribed as >famil histor8>
3a&ing to >ha&e alread forgotten> tragedies of *hich one needs unceasingl to be >reminded>
turns out to be a characteristic de&ice in the later construction of national genealogies8 ;It is
instructi&e that Renan does not sa that each French citiBen is obliged to >ha&e alread
forgotten> the <aris Commune8 In "$$9 its memor *as still real rather than mthic1 and
sufficientl painful to ma,e it difficult to read under the sign of>reassuring fratricide8>=
Needless to sa1 in all this there *as1 and is1 nothing especiall French8 A &ast pedagogical
industr *or,s ceaselessl to oblige oung Americans to remember)forget the hostilities of
"$("7(: as a great >ci&il> *ar bet*een >brothers> rather than bet*een7as the briefl *ere7t*o
so&ereign nation7states8 ;2e can be sure1 ho*e&er1 that if the Confederac had succeeded in
maintaining its independence1 this >ci&il *ar> *ould ha&e been replaced in memor b
something Guite unbrotherl8= English histor te'tboo,s offer the di&erting spectacle of a
great Founding Father *hom e&er schoolchild is taught to call 2illiam the ConGueror8 The
same child is not informed that 2illiam spo,e no English1 indeed could not ha&e done so1
since the English language did not e'ist in his epochJ nor is he or she told >ConGueror of
*hatH>8 For the onl intelligible modern ans*er *ould ha&e to be >ConGueror of the English1>
*hich *ould turn the old Norman predator into a more successful precursor of Napoleon and
3itler8 3ence >the ConGueror> operates as the same ,ind of ellipsis as >la Saint7Barthelem1> to
remind one of something *hich it is immediatel obligator to forget8 Norman 2illiam and
Sa'on 3arold thus meet on the battlefield of 3astings1 if not as dancing partners1 at least as
brothers8
But it is surel too eas to attribute these reassuring ancient fratricides simpl to the ic
calculations of state functionaries8 At another le&el the reflect a deep reshaping of the
imagination of *hich the state *as barel conscious1 and o&er *hich it had1 and still has1 onl
e'iguous control8 In the "#%4s people of man nationalities D949E *ent to fight in the Iberian
peninsula because the &ie*ed it as the arena in *hich global historical forces and causes
*ere at sta,e8 2hen the long7li&ed Franco regime constructed the !alle of the Fallen1 it
restricted membership in the gloom necropolis to those *ho1 in its ees1 had died in the
*orld7struggle against Bolshe&ism and atheism8 But1 at the state>s margins1 a >memor> *as
alread emerging of a >Spanish> Ci&il 2ar8 Onl after the craft trant>s death1 and the
subseGuent1 startlingl smooth transition to bourgeois democrac7in *hich it plaed a crucial
role7did this >memor> become official8 In much the same *a1 the colossal class *ar that1
from "#"$ to "#941 raged bet*een the <amirs and the !istula came to be
remembered)forgotten in So&iet film and fiction as >our> ci&il *ar1 *hile the So&iet state1 on
the *hole1 held to an orthodo' 0ar'ist reading of the struggle8
In this regard the Creole nationalisms of the Americas are especiall instructi&e8 For on the
one hand1 the American states *ere for man decades *ea,1 effecti&el decentraliBed1 and
rather modest in their educational ambitions8 On the other hand1 the American societies1 in
*hich >*hite> settlers *ere counterposed to >blac,> sla&es and half7e'terminated >nati&es1> *ere
internall ri&en to a degree Guite unmatched in Europe8 5et the imagining of that fraternit1
*ithout *hich the reassurance of fratricide can not be born1 sho*s up remar,abl earl1 and
not *ithout a curious authentic popularit8 In the -nited States of America this parado' is
particularl *ell e'emplified8
In "$641 in the midst of a brutal eight7ear *ar against the Seminoles of Florida ;and as
0ichelet *as summoning his Oedipus=1 Aames Fenimore Cooper published +he Pathfinder-
the fourth of his fi&e1 hugel popular1 +eatherstoc,ing Tales8 Central to this no&el ;and to all
but the first of its companions= is *hat +eslie Fiedler called the >austere1 almost inarticulate1
but unGuestioned lo&e> binding the >*hite> *oodsman Natt Bumppo and the noble Dela*are
chieftain Chingachgoo, ;>Chicago>Q=8
%9
5et the RenanesGue setting for their D94%E
bloodbrotherhood is not the murderous "$%4s but the last forgotten) remembered ears of
British imperial rule8 Both men are figured as >Americans1> fighting for sur&i&al 7 against the
French1 their >nati&e> allies ;the >de&ilish 0ingos>=1 and treacherous agents of ?eorge III8
2hen1 in "$:"1 3erman 0el&ille depicted Ishmael and NueeGueg coBil in bed together at
the Spouter Inn ;>there1 then1 in our hearts> honemoon1 la I and NueeGueg>=1 the noble
<olnesian sa&age *as sardonicall AmericaniBed as follo*s/
%%
8888 certain it *as that his head *as phrenologicall an e'cellent one8 It ma seem ridiculous1 but it
reminded me of ?eorge 2ashington>s head1 as seen in popular busts of him8 It had the same long
regularl graded retreating slope abo&e the bro*s1 *hich *ere li,e*ise &er proFecting1 li,e t*o
long promontories thic,l *ooded on top8 NueeGueg *as ?eorge 2ashington cannibalisticall
de&eloped8
It remained for 0ar, T*ain to create in "$$"1 *ell after the >Ci&il 2ar> and +incoln>s
Emancipation <roclamation1 the first indelible image of blac, and *hite as American
>brothers>/ Aim and 3uc, companionabl adrift on the *ide 0ississippi8
%6
But the setting is a
remembered)forgotten antebellum in *hich the blac, is still a sla&e8
These stri,ing nineteenth7centur imaginings of fraternit1 emerging >naturall> in a societ
fractured b the most &iolent racial1 class and regional antagonisms1 sho* as clearl as
anthing else that nationalism in the age of 0ichelet and Renan represented a ne* form of
consciousness 7 a consciousness that arose *hen it *as no longer possible to e'perience the
nation as ne*1 at the *a&e7top moment of rupture8
T3E BIO?RA<35 OF NATIONS
D946E All profound changes in consciousness1 b their &er nature1 bring *ith them
characteristic amnesias8 Out of such obli&ions1 in specific historical circumstances1 spring
narrati&es8 After e'periencing the phsiological and emotional changes produced b pubert1
it is impossible to >remember> the consciousness of childhood8 3o* man thousands of das
passed bet*een infanc and earl adulthood &anish beond direct recallQ 3o* strange it is to
need another>s help to learn that this na,ed bab in the ello*ed photograph1 spra*led
happil on rug or cot1 is ou8 The photograph1 fine child of the age of mechanical
reproduction1 is onl the most peremptor of a huge modern accumulation of documentar
e&idence ;birth certificates1 diaries1 report cards1 letters1 medical records1 and the li,e= *hich
simultaneousl records a certain apparent continuit and emphasiBes its loss from memor8
Out of this estrangement comes a conception of personhood1 identit0 ;es1 ou and that na,ed
bab are identical= *hich1 because it can not be >remembered1> must be narrated8 Against
biolog>s demonstration that e&er single cell in a human bod is replaced o&er se&en ears1
the narrati&es of autobiograph and biograph flood print7capitalism>s mar,ets ear b ear8
These narrati&es1 li,e the no&els and ne*spapers discussed in Chapter 91 are set in
homogeneous1 empt time8 3ence their frame is historical and their setting sociological8 This
is *h so man autobiographies begin *ith the circumstances of parents and grandparents1
for *hich the autobiographer can ha&e onl circumstantial1 te'tual e&idenceJ and *h the
biographer is at pains to record the calendrical1 A8D8 dates of t*o biographical e&ents *hich
his or her subFect can ne&er remember/ birth7da and death7da8 Nothing affords a sharper
reminder of this narrati&e>s modernit than the opening of the ?ospel according to St8
0atthe*8 For the E&angelist gi&es us an austere list of thirt males successi&el begetting one
another1 from the <atriarch Abraham do*n to Aesus Christ8 ;Onl once is a *oman
mentioned1 not because she is a begetter1 but because she is a non7Ae*ish 0oabite=8 No dates
are gi&en for an of Aesus>s forebears1 let alone sociological1 cultural1 phsiological or
political information about them8 This narrati&e D94:E stle ;*hich also reflects the rupture7
in7Bethlehem become memor= *as entirel reasonable to the sainted genealogist because he
did not concei&e of Christ as an historical >personalit1> but onl as the true Son of ?od8
As *ith modern persons1 so it is *ith nations8 A*areness of being imbedded in secular1 serial
time1 *ith all its implications of continuit1 et of >forgetting> the e'perience of this
continuit7product of the ruptures of the late eighteenth centur 7 engenders the need for a
narrati&e of >identit8> The tas, is set for 0ichelet>s magistrate8 5et bet*een narrati&es of
person and nation there is a central difference of emploment8 In the secular stor of the
>person> there is a beginning and an end8 She emerges from parental genes and social
circumstances onto a brief historical stage1 there to pla a role until her death8 After that1
nothing but the penumbra of lingering fame or influence8 ;Imagine ho* strange it *ould be1
toda1 to end a life of 3itler b obser&ing that on %4 April "#6: he proceeded straight to
3ell=8 Nations1 ho*e&er1 ha&e no clearl identifiable births1 and their deaths1 if the e&er
happen1 are ne&er natural8
%:
Because there is no Originator1 the nation>s biograph can not be
*ritten e&angelicall1 >do*n time1> through a long procreati&e chain of begettings8 The onl
alternati&e is to fashion it >up time>7 to*ards <e,ing 0an1 Aa&a 0an1 .ing Arthur1 *here&er
the lamp of archaeolog casts its fitful gleam8 This fashioning1 ho*e&er1 is mar,ed b deaths1
*hich1 in a curious in&ersion of con&entional genealog1 start from an originar present8
2orld 2ar II begets 2orld 2ar IJ out of Sedan comes AusterlitBJ the ancestor of the 2arsa*
-prising is the state of Israel8
5et the deaths that structure the nation>s biograph are of a special ,ind8 In all the "1944
pages of Fernand Braudel>s a*esome 9a 6editerrane1e et le 6onde 6editerraneen a
I1E%o"e de Phili%%e II no mention is e&er made of >la Saint7Barthelem1> though it occurred
at almost e'actl the midpoint of Felipe II>s reign8 ForBraudel1 the deaths that matter are
those mriad anonmous e&ents1 *hich1 aggregated and a&eraged into secular mortalit rates1
permit him to chart the slo*7changing conditions of life for millions of anonmous human
beings of *hom the last Guestion as,ed is their nationalit8
D94(E From Braudel>s remorselessl accumulating cemeteries1 ho*e&er1 the nation>s
biograph snatches1 against the going mortalit rate1 e'emplar suicides1 poignant
martrdoms1 assassinations1 e'ecutions1 *ars1 and holocausts8 But1 to ser&e the narrati&e
purpose1 these &iolent deaths must be remembered)forgotten as >our o*n8>
"8 The accumulation reached a frantic Benith in the >international> ;i8e81 European= search for an accurate measure
of longitude1 amusingl recounted in +andes1 Revoltion in +ime- chapter #8 In "CC(1 as the Thirteen Colonies
declared their independence1 the Kentleman1s 6aga8ine included this brief obituar for Aohn 3arrison/ >3e *as
a most ingenious mechanic1 and recei&ed the 941444 pounds re*ard Dfrom 2estminsterE for the disco&er of the
longitude DsicE8>
98 The late spreading of this consciousness to Asia is deftl alluded to in the opening pages of <ramoeda
Ananta Toer>s great historical no&el (mi 6ansia DEarth of 0an,indE8 The oung nationalist hero muses that
he *as born on the same date as the future Nueen 2ilhelmina 7 %" August "$$48 >But *hile m island *as
*rapped in the dar,ness of night1 her countr *as bathed in sunJ and if her countr *as embraced b night>s
blac,ness1 m island glittered in the eGuatorial noon8K p8 68
%8 Needless to sa1 >*hiteness> *as a legal categor *hich had a distinctl tangential relationship to comple'
social realities8 As the +iberator himself put it1 13e are the &ile offspring of the predator Spaniards *ho came
to America to bleed her *hite and to breed *ith their &ictims8 +ater the illegitimate offspring of these unions
Foined *ith the offspring of sla&es transported from Africa8> Italics added8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican
Revoltions- p8 96#8 One should be*are of assuming anthing >eternall EuropeanK in this criollismo.
Remembering all those de&outl Buddhist7Singhalese Da SouBas1 those piousl Catholic7Florinese Da Sil&as1
and those cnicall Catholic70anileno Sorianos *ho pla unproblematic social1 economic1 and political roles in
contemporar Celon1 Indonesia1 and the <hilippines1 helps one to recogniBe that1 under the right circumstances1
Europeans could be7gentl absorbed into non7European cultures8
68 Compare the fate of the huge African immigrant population8 The brut8il mechanisms of sla&er ensured not
merel its political7cultural fragmentation1 but also &rr rapidl remo&ed the possibilit of imagining blac,
communities in !rnrCucla 8md 2est Africa mo&ing in parallel traFector8
:8 See O828 2olters1 +he *all of Srivi;a0a in 6ala0 Cistor0- Appendi' C8
(8 Cited in ?8 2illiam S,inner1 ,hinese Societ0 in +hailand- pp8 ":7"(8
C8 O&erseas Chinese communities loomed large enough to stimulate deep European paranoia up to the mid
eighteenth centur1 *hen &icious anti7Chinese pogroms b 2esterners finall ceased8 Thereafter1 this unlo&el
tradition *as passed on to indigenous populations8
$8 See 0arshall ?8 3odgson1 +he Lentre of Islam- !ol8 %1 pp8 9%%7:8
#8 It is an astonishing sign of the depth of Eurocentrism that so man European icholars persist1 in the face of all
the e&idence1 in regarding nationalism as a European in&ention8
"48 But note the ironic case of BraBil8 In "$4$1 .ing Aoao !I fled to Rio de Aaneiro to escape Napoleon>s armies8
Though 2ellington had e'pelled the French b "$""1 ihe emigrant monarch1 fearing republican unrest at home1
staed on in South America until "$991 so that bet*een "$4$ and "$99 Rio *as the centre of a *orld empire
stretching to Angola1 0oBambiGue1 0acao1 and East Timor8 But this empire wa ruled b a European1 not an
American8
""8 Doubtless this *as *hat permitted the +iberator to e'claim at one point that a Negro1 i8e8 sla&e1 re&olt *ould
be >a thousand times *orse than a Spanish in&asion8> ;See abo&e1 p8 6#=8 A sla&e FacGuerie1 if successful1 might
mean the phsical e'termination of the Creoles8
"98 See 0asur1 (olivar- p8 "%"8
"%8 The French Re&olution *as in turn %aralleled in the Ne* 2orld b the outbrea, of Toussaint +>Ou&erture>s
insurrection in "C#"1 *hich b "$4( had resulted in 3aiti>s former sla&es creating the second independent
republic of the 2estern hemisphere8
"68 The oung 2ords*orth *as in France in "C#"7"C#91 and later1 in +he Prelde- *rote these famous
reminiscent lines/
Bliss *as it in that da:n to be ali&e1
But to be oung *as &er hea&enQ
Italics added8
":8 +nch1 +he S%anish-'merican Revoltions- pp8 %"67":8
"(8 As cited abo&e in chapter 68
"C8 +andes1 Revoltion in +ime- pp8 9%47%"1 66976%8
"$8 See abo&e1 Chapter 98
"#8 See 3aden 2hite1 6etahistor0: +he Cistorical Imagination in .ineteenth-,entr0 Ero%e- pp8 "%:76%1 for
a sophisticated discussion of this transformation8
948 But it *as an A8D8 *ith a difference8 Before the rupture it still retained1 ho*e&er fragilel in enlightened
Guarters1 a theological aura glo*ing from *ithin its medie&al +atin8 Anno Domini recalled that irruption of
eternit into mundane time *hich too, place in Bethlehem8 After the rupture1 reduced monogrammati7call to
A8D81 it Foined an ;English= &ernacular B8C81 Before Christ1 that encompassed a serial cosmological histor ;to
*hich the ne* science of geolog *as ma,ing signal contributions=8 2e ma Fudge ho* deep an abss a*ned
bet*een Anno Domini and A8D8)B8C8 b noting that neither the Buddhist nor the Islamic *orld1 e&en toda1
imagines an epoch mar,ed as >Before the ?autama Buddha> or >Before the 3egira8> Both ma,e uneas do *ith
the alien monogram B8C8
9"8 As late as "#:"1 the intelligent Indonesian socialist +intong 0ulia Sitorus could still *rite that/ >Till the end
of the nineteenth centur1 the coloured peoples Wtill slept soundl1 *hile the *hites *ere busil at *or, in e&er
field8K Sed;arah Pergera#an Ge!angsaan Indonesia D3istor of the Indonesian Nationalist 0o&ementE1 p8 :8 >
998 One could perhaps sa that these re&olutions *ere1 in European ees1 the 1'irit reall important %olitical
e&ents that had e&er occurred across the Atlantic8
9%8 Still1 historical depth is not infinite8 At some point English &anishes into Norman French and Anglo7Sa'onJ
French into +atin and >?erman> <ran,ishJ and so on8 2e shall see belo* ho* additional depth of field came to
be achie&ed8
968 6etahistor0- p8 "648 3egel1 born in "CC41 *as alread in his late teens *hen the Re&olution bro,e out1 but
his Lorlesngen ii!er die Philoso%hie der 3eltgeschtihte were onl published in "$%C1 si' ears after his death8
9:8 2hite1 6etahistor0- p8 ":#8
9(8 Aules 0ichelet1 2evres ,om%tetes- LLI1 p8 9($1 in the preface to &olume 9 ;>AusGu>au "$e Brumaire>= of his
uncompleted Cistoire d RIRe Siecle. I o*e the reference to 6etahistor0- but the translation 2hite uses is
unsatisfactor8
9C8 Cited in Roland Barthes1 ed81 6ichelet %ar li-meme- p8 #98 The &olume of the 2evres ,om%etes containing
this Guotation has not et been published8
9$8 Con&ersel1 in all 0e'ico there is onl one statue of 3ernan Cortes8 This monument1 tuc,ed discreetl a*a
in a niche of 0e'ico Cit1 *as onl put up at the end of the "#C4s1 b the odious regime of Aose +opeB <ortillo8
9#8 Doutbless because for much of his life he suffered under restored or ersatB legitimacies8 3is commitment to
"C$# and to France is mo&ingl sho*n b his refusal to s*ear an oath of loalt to +ouis Napoleon8 Abruptl
dismissed from his post as National Archi&ist1 he li&ed in near7po&ert till his death in "$C67long enough1
ho*e&er1 to *itness the mounteban,>s fall and the restoration of republican institutions8
%48 Renan *as born in "$9%1 a Guarter of a centur after 0ichelet1 and passed much of his outh under the
cnicall official7nationalist regime of 0ichelet>s persecutor8
%"8 I understood them so in "#$%1 alas8
%98 See his 9ove and )eath in the 'merican .ovel- p8 "#98 Fiedler read this relationship pschologicall1 and
ahistoricall1 as an instance of American fiction>s failure to deal *ith adult heterose'ual lo&e and its obsession
*ith death1 incest1 and innocent homoeroticism8 Rather than a national eroticism1 it is1 I suspect1 an eroticiBed
nationalism that is at *or,8 0ale7male bondings in a <rotestant societ *hich from the start rigidl prohibited
miscegenation are paralleled b male7female >hol lo&es> in the nationalist fiction of +atin America1 *here
Catholicism permitted the gro*th of a large mestiBo population8 ;It is telling that English has had to borro*
>mestiBo> from Spanish8=
%%8 3erman 0el&ille1 6o!0 )ic#- p8 C"8 3o* the author must ha&e sa&oured the malignant final phraseQ
%68 It is agreeable to note that the publication of Cc#le!err0 *inn preceded b onl a fe* months Renan>s
e&ocation of >la Saint7BarthPlem8>
%:8 For such apocalpses the neologism >genocide> *as Guite recentl coined
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and Ne* 5or,/ E&erman>s +ibrar8 "#6(8
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