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Laldinpuia Hmar

Amaan Shreyas

CT-0001-20: Introduction to Critical Thinking

17 December 2021

Nationalism: Unity through Culture and Heritage

Nationalist's thoughts in bringing the unification of the story of modern India was

through the cherishment of one’s culture and heritage in the past. One particularly piece of

information with the idea of the nationalist thought is given in the book Jawaharlal Nehru:

The Thinking Dynamo written by P.R.Kyndiah that talks about Jawaharlal Nehru’s leadership

to the people through the period of nationalist transition and his appreciation of India’s

culture and heritage that was attained through the nationalist thoughts. His perception of the

tribals and his panoramic views for the future with his unique equation brought the story of

modern India. However, the idea was that it was not only Nehru’s works that brought the

story of modern India but the great achievements and struggles fought by the nationalists

should also be cherished knowing that it was those nationalists, Gandhi, Nehru himself and

the latter fighters who brought our modern India. Nehru’s vision and perception were great,

but our main concern must lie in the way Nehru continued to appreciate and convince people

through the culture and heritage of India and explore whether the idea of nationalist thought

applies to the formation of the north eastern states.

In the book Jawaharlal Nehru: The Thinking Dynamo, we were introduced to how

Jawaharlal Nehru built the story of India and became the architect of modern India. Nehru’s

vision of India for its growing stature in international affairs, parliamentary democracy,

economic planning and development, science and his other visions made India today the
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power to be reckoned with on the world stage.  (Kyndiah 21) However, to make such a story

and have visions, it is necessary to see the nationalists and Gandhi’s role in the struggle and

attainment of nationalism. Partha Chatterjee's nationalist thought brought us to the idea of

how India’s nationalism was fought through “three stages or moments”. (Chatterjee 50)

Nehru’s building of the story of India is important but taking a look back at the three

moments is crucial for our understanding of how Nehru continued to bring up the thoughts of

the nationalists and enriched them into the story of India. The three moments-departure,

manoeuvre and arrival talked about how India had a culturally rich heritage that no other

civilisations could take. The nationalists were proud of our own rich culture and heritage and

they had the power to say that the colonists were good at nothing. As this nationalist thought

was the key point in uttering our history after the moment of arrival (Chatterjee 51), Nehru’s

main aim was also to fashion the new elements within the Indian environment. He used

nationalist thoughts knowing that the nation’s strength lay in the synthesis of our cultures and

religions prevalent in our country.  If our nationalists had not brought the admiration of our

own culture and heritage, the story of today’s India would be quite different. We would

admire our different ethnicities without a oneness in the nation which could be the direct

effect of an active revolution by the use of thuggery against the armed forces or even our

fellow beings. But as the thoughts were on the rich culture and heritage of India, it was less

unchallenging for Nehru to continue our stories as it was the thoughts that the nationalists had

already fought through in the past. So, cherishing one’s own culture and heritage brought a

flame to light up the nationalism of India.

As the moment of arrival brought India a story, India as one nation now became an

“imagined political community” (Anderson 6) as stated by Anderson. Anderson called it

imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know of their fellow

members, meet them or even hear of them. (Anderson 6) When Nehru started giving India its
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story, he came to know that the north-eastern parts of India were greatly imagined from the

rest of the country. Due to the differences in appearances, religions, languages and tribal

status, the nation did not even consider them as their fellow members. But Nehru captured the

hearts of the tribal people with his identification with their feelings and aspirations. (Kyndiah

48) He appreciated the nationalist thought of moments and advocated the allowing of the

tribal people to grow according to their genius without upsetting social and cultural moorings,

but his main ideology was to nurture such things to the central core of the Indian spirit of

oneness. The north-eastern states brought Anderson’s impressive thoughts of the religious

community in a dissimilar way. According to Anderson, religious declination after the

Enlightenment was overtaken by nationalism which gave meaning to the people. (Anderson

12) But in the north eastern states having their different religions and languages, their own

religious and language admirations made a gap that resulted in the divisions amongst

themselves and with the other Indians. However, Nehru again brought this religious

fundamentalism to the core of India, knowing that it could be a poison to weaken the national

strength. In a country like India, which has many faiths and religions, no real nationalism can

be built up except on the basis of secularity. (Kyndiah 23,24) There might be dissimilarities

in physical, biological and spiritual traits, but there was an “imagined Indianness” and

Anderson called this the “horizontal comradeship”. (Anderson 7) The bringing and upliftment

of our culture through our nationalist thought had been the main contributor for bringing

oneness in the continuation of India’s story.

However, if the three moments of the nationalist thought brought the unity of India’s

nationalism, it is necessary to consider these thoughts into the separation of the different

imagined north eastern states. As stated before, the north eastern states had different

religions, languages, cultures and heritage and Nehru made a story based on their differences.

To extend the story and argue with the three moments, let us consider the state of Mizoram
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which was previously part of Assam. From Assam, it was first carved into Union Territory

and later became Mizoram which was the 23rd state of the country. (“Mizoram”) The

separation of the two states was a result of active revolution as it was fought through various

protests and armed insurgencies between Indian forces and Mizoram forces called the Mizo

National Front. (“Mizo National Front Uprising”) However, if a state of Mizoram could be

separated from Assam using an active revolution, the three moments of Partha Chatterjee's

nationalist thought could not be applied as they were of passive revolution. However, if the

passive revolution was taken into account and the three moments were considered and

applied to the formation of Mizoram from Assam, it would give us different answers. To

begin with, the moment of departure could not be accepted as during those struggles, both the

states were inferior in both technologies and only superior in their cultural, societal and

spiritual beliefs. Both of the states did not differ in most accounts which could not lead to the

distinction of the states and the people. Also, the moment of manoeuvre could not be

achieved as being both in the states of India, it was impossible to challenge each other by

saying that you were good at nothing and you produced bad things only. As the moments of

separation of the states were after the 1970s, people had already begun to be aware of

humankind and there was mutual respect and understanding amongst each other. Instead of

saying negative thoughts, they were the ones who helped each other after the separation of

the states and even for the formation of the government. Without the moment of departure

and manoeuvre, the moment of arrival could not attain its fullest development. Therefore,

during those ages, the separation of two states under the same Indian administrative structure

through the three moments of passive revolution was challenging as we are all under an

“imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.” 

(Anderson 6).
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 An analysis of Nehru’s ideology and vision through the texts of Imagined

Community and Nationalist Thought and the Cultural World gave us the information how the

nationalist thought of the three moments brought a story for the engineering of modern India

and it strengthened the idea of imagined community and the idea of oneness. The moments

were brought by the passive revolution that was critiqued through the idea of nation

formation and the formation of states. This clearly proves that the idea of one revolution does

not work out according to the different situations and trying to find a hole to fit in can be

always challenging. But as Nehru’s ideology of unity, the foremost tool is to cherish the

heritage and cultures of our nation. Whether being a minority, a tribal or the majority of the

population, if one does not cherish the cultural ethnicity of the nation, it could be a poison

leading to the destruction of a nation. Gandhi’s role in the struggle and attainment of

independence and Nehru’s vision for the future and the present in building modern India

(Kyndiah 21) through insurmountable challenges were the champions that helped us in

uniting and making India’s story.

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Works Cited

Kyndiah, P. R. Jawaharlal Nehru: The Thinking Dynamo. Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd

India, 1989.

Chatterjee, P. (1993). The nation and its fragments: Colonial and postcolonial histories (Vol.

11). Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Benedict, A. (1987). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of

nationalism.

“Mizoram.” Wikipedia, 13 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizoram.

“Mizo National Front Uprising.” Wikipedia, 9 Sept. 2021,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizo_National_Front_uprising.