POLITICAL SCIENCE:6 (INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS)

TOPIC: NATIONALITY MEANING DEFINATION & ELEMENTS

SUBMITTED TO:
D.R CHINTALA VENKATA RAMANA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SUBMITTED BY:
D. VENKAT KRISHNA REDDY
B.ALL.B(B) 4THSEMESTER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
First and foremost, praise and thanks in the God, the almighty, for his shower of

         blessings throughout my assignment to complete it successfully.

I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my experience

Mr. C. Venkat Ramana, assistant prof., Christ Academy Institute of law Bangalore for
giving me the opportunity to work on this assignment.

I am very grateful for his help throughout the assignment.

Although, this report has been prepared with utmost care and deep routed   

 interest.  Even then I accept respondent and imperfection.

  D. VENKAT KRISHNA REDDY

                                                                             B.ALL.B(B) 4thSEM 

CERTIFICATE
 This is to certify that the forgoing study by Mr. Venkat Krishna Reddy student of

  Christ Academy institute of Law, Bangalore, in hereby approved as creditable

            work on the topic “Nationality meaning definition and elements”

Place:  Bangalore        

Date:  01-06-2021                                                        

Mr. C. Venkata Ramana.

                                                                      (Political science), CAIL, Bangalore.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ACKNOWLEGEMENT
2. CERTIFICATE
3. INTRODUCTION
4. DEFINATIONS
5. NATIONALITY VS CITIZENSHIP
6. NATIONALITY VS NATIONAL IDENTITY
7. NATIONALITY AND NATIONALISM
8. DIMENSIONS OF NATIONALITY
9. ELEMENTS OF NATIONALISM
10. CONCLUSION
11. BIBLOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION

Nationality is a legal relationship between an individual person and a state. Nationality is a

legal relationship between on individual person and a state. Nationality affords the state
jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state. Nationality is
the state of belonging to a particular country or nation. The term “Nationality” is derived
from the Latin word “natus” meaning (to be born), belonging to some racial stock or being
related by birth or having blood relationship. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the
person and affords the person the protection of the state. What these rights and duties are
varies from state to state. 

This relationship generally enables intervention by a State to provide help and protection to
its nationals when they are harmed by other States. By custom and international conventions,
it is the right of each state to determine who its nationals are. Such determinations are part
of nationality law. In some cases, determinations of nationality are also governed by
public international law for example, by treaties on statelessness and the European
Convention on Nationality. Nationality differs technically and legally from citizenship, which
is a different legal relationship between a person and a country.

The noun national can include both citizens and non-citizens. The most common
distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political
life of the state, such as by voting or standing for election. 

However, in most modern countries all nationals are citizens of the state, and full citizens are
always nationals of the state. 

DEFINITIONS 

❖ Cambridge Dictionary, “Nationality means a group of people of some

race, religion, traditions etc. 
❖ Merriam Webstrer, “Nationality means a people having a common
origin, tradition and language and capable of forming or actually
constituting a nation state.” 
 ❖ James A.H.Murray’s says that, “Nationality is an extensive aggregate of
persons, so  closely associated with each other by common descent,
language or history as to form a  distinct race or people, usually
organized as a separate political state and occupying a  definite
territory.” 
❖ Greenfeld, “Nationality is the synonym of a people, a polity or even a
territory”. This is a non-ethnic use of nationality’. 
❖ Samuel Johnson - “Nationality is people distinguished from another
people, generally by their language…. Or government”. 

NATIONALITY VERSUS CITIZENSHIP 

Conceptually, citizenship is focused on the internal political life of the state and
nationality is a matter of international dealings. In the modern era, the concept of full
citizenship encompasses not only active political rights, but full civil rights and
social rights. Nationality is a necessary but not sufficient condition to exercise full
political rights within a state or other polity. 

Nationality is required for full citizenship, and some people have no nationality in
international law. A person who is denied full citizenship or nationality is commonly
called a stateless person.  Historically, the most significant difference between a
national and a citizen is that the citizen has the right to vote for elected officials, and
to be elected. This distinction between full citizenship and other, lesser relationships
goes back to antiquity.

Until the 19th and 20th centuries, it was typical for only a small percentage of people
who belonged to a city or state to be full citizens. In the past, most people were
excluded from citizenship on the basis of sex, socioeconomic class, ethnicity,
religion, and other factors. However, they held a legal relationship with their
government akin to the modern concept of nationality. 

NATIONALITY VERSUS NATIONAL IDENTITY 

National identity is a person's subjective sense of belonging to one state or to one
nation. A person may be a national of a state, in the sense of being its citizen,
without subjectively or emotionally feeling a part of that state, for example many
migrants in Europe often identify with their ancestral and/or religious background
rather than with the state of which they are citizens.  Conversely, a person may feel
that he belongs to one state without having any legal relationship to it. For example,
children who were brought to the U.S. illegally when quite young and grow up there
with little contact with their native country and its culture often have a national
identity of feeling American, despite legally being nationals of a different country. 

NATIONALITY AND NATIONALISM 

Nationality is practically a contract between a person and a nation or country. The

person will pay allegiance (be a good citizen) to a nation and the nation will protect
his or her rights. In case your nation is not worth your nationality, you can change it
by gaining or buying citizenship of another country. Nationalism is a feeling. A
person generally gets a feeling of nationalism when his or her country has the
coronation day of the nation’s monarch. For people living in democracy, its
generally their Independence Day which arouses the feelings of nationalism. 

DIMENSIONS OF NATIONALITY 

Two dimensions of Nationality:  

1. ANCIENT UNDERSTANDING OF NATIONALITY: Nationality

refers to ethnic groups which means a group of people who share a
common ethnic identity, language, culture, tradition, history. 

2. MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF NATIONALITY: Nationality is the

legal relationship between on individual person and a state. Nationality is
something that affords the state jurisdiction over a person. Membership of
a particular nation or state is given by origin, by birth, by naturalization
and by ownership. 
ELEMENTS OF NATIONALITY 

The elements that promote the feelings of Nationality are as follows: 

1) Geographical Unity or Common Residence: Common residence,

common territory or geographical unity is a basic factor which helps to
promote the national feelings or the feelings of nationality. The races
and the people who do not inhabit a common territory for a long
time and who are not geographically united, will not tend to have
uniformity and civilization. On the contrary, those races or those
people who inhabit a common territory for a long period of time will
naturally cherish the passion for patriotism which paves the way to
national unity.
For example, Britain was named after the British, Turkey after the
Turks, Hindustan (India is also called) after Hindus, Afghanistan after
Afghans etc. 
2) Community of Race: Racial unity is one of the most universal bases
of nationality. It is the strongest bond of cohesion. People belonging to
the same race are naturally more united than those who belong to
different races. Burgess and Leacock regard racial unity as the only
basis of nationality. Professor Zimmern is of the opinion that every
nationality enjoys the feelings of group institution which is primarily
determined by the racial unity and purity of blood.
For example, before the World war II, Hitler united Germany and
Mussolini united Italy on the racial basis. And if the country is not
racially united the development of nationality is hindered. 

3) Community of Language, Tradition and Culture: The community of

language, tradition and culture is closely related to the community of race
and helps in promoting nationality. Common language helps a lot in
uniting people. People sharing common language also share common
culture and literature. It is the unity of language that helps us in keeping
contact with other countries. Language is the medium of expression.
Similarly, cultural unity develops the sentiment of nationality. It is this
cultural unity that separates a particular group of people from the rest of
the world. The victorious countries try to force their language and culture
on the enslaved countries. 

4) Common Religion: Religion has played a vital role in developing the

national sentiment and in consolidating a nation. In the past it had proved a
cementing force for uniting the people in the one nation. According to Dr.
Garner, “Community of religion was once regarded as a mark of
nationality and in earlier times it played an important basis of national
consolidation.” During the Ancient and Medieval ages, Politics was much
influenced by religion. It doesn’t mean it has changed today in modern
world but the intensity has decreased. Culture and Language are the two
pillars of national unity. And it is religion that provided the people of a
particular country with a common language. Common religion helps a lot
in promoting the feelings of nationality.  For example, during the sixth and
seventh century, Islam united the Arabs into one nation. The national
development is sometimes hindered by the religious differences, deep-
rooted into the soil of a particular country. But in spite of these religious
differences and differences of sects, nationality goes on developing. 

5) Common Political Aspirations: Common political aspirations are

regarded these days more important than most other essential factors that
promote the feelings of nationality. According to Durcheim, “A nationality
is a group of the group members who wish to live under the same laws and
form a state.” These days nationality goes on developing in spite of the
differences of language, caste, creed and culture. These differences are
found among the people who share the common political laws and
aspirations. Common political aspirations are visible in all
national movements, India could see this political unity only because of
foreign yoke. In 1962, when China committed an aggression on India, the
national feelings gathered force again, and people showed a very rare type
of political unity. Similar unity was seen at the time of war with Pakistan
in 1965 and 1971. After the aggression committed on Germany by
Napoleon, the national feelings were promoted in Germany, Austria,
Hungary and Italy. 
 6) Common History: Common history is one of the factors promoting the
sentiments of nationality, regards a common historic factor as “the one
indispensable factor” in promoting the feelings of nationality. It is the
historical background that presents the record of trumps and achievements,
common joy and sorrows, common sufferings and common political
bondage, which promotes the sentiment of nationality in people.

For example, in India the sacrifices made by many kings like Maharana
Pratap, Shivaji, the freedom fighters whose heroic struggle even today
brings national awakening in India. Napoleon in France, Hitler in
Germany and so many heroic people awakened the minds of the citizens of
their country. 

7) Common Interest: Common Interests prove very conductive to the

development of nationality. They form one of the bases of nationality.
Common interests like economic, social and political act as a fillip in
strengthening the ties of unity. For example, common economic interests
brought about the “Zoll verein” customs union) which strengthened
national bonds in Germany. These glaring examples make it very clear that
common interests are very conductive to the development of nationality.

Common Governmental administration is also an important factor which helps in promoting

the feeling of nationality. People belonging to different races and enjoying different
nationalities reached USA and settled down there. But because afterwards they lived under
common administration for a long period of time, they forgot their original nationalities and
started calling themselves, Americans instead of English Americans or French Americans. 
CONCLUDING REMARKS  

In modern times, the understanding of nationality is confusing of rather misleading

because there is today hardly single nation in the world whose people belong to the
same racial stock. Every nation has people of mixed racial background. It is because
of immigration, inter racial marriage, the increased racial combinations have made it
difficult to find racial purity. So, it can be ascertained that the development of
nationality it neither political nor social, but definitely a psychological
phenomenon.  

BIBLOGRAPHY:

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com
2. htpps://www.nios.ac.in
3. https://www.britannica.com
4. https://www.flexiprep.com