Nationalism

Nationalism is the common psychological or mental feeling of the stake holders of

a nation. It is nothing materialistic or mechanical, rather a subjective,
psychological feeling that this nation is their own. It cannot be measured in any
scale rather it is expressed in the performance of the stake holders of a nation.
So, the concept of nation is the forefather of the concept of nationalism, and
actually it historically originates by some steps:

Growth of Nation Common feeling of the stakeholders

nationality building of nation i.e., nationalism

Growth of Nationality:
So, the very first step is the growth of nationality. There are certain factors, based
on which nationality is developed in the heart of a group of people. These factors
are exemplified below:
1. Common race: People with common race have similarity in their taste,
culture, festivals and so on which creates a feeling of unity in them and that
is the precondition for the growth of nationality.

2. Common language and literature: Language is the medium through which

we can express our thoughts and feelings. Moreover, literature is the
reflection of mind. So, common language and literature denotes fulfillment
of expression of feeling which is a key to nourish nationality. For example,
people from different European countries came to United States and made
the American nation based on their common language, English.

3. Geographical Unity: Residing in the same territory, the feeling of

cooperation, protection and love is naturally developed in a group of
people. This fact makes them strongly attached with the land and
stimulates the growth of nationality.
 4. Common religion: Along with the other factors, religion immensely
strengthened the process of nationality growth in the past. Religion played
the most important role in the development of Muslim nationality in the
undivided India.

5. Common custom, history, heritage, culture: Develops a spirit of oneness

among the group of people.

6. Common political and economic aspiration: With the identical political and
economic aspiration, it is very natural for a group of people to be united
and form an organization. Having the same political goal, that group of
people work together to achieve that just like a full-fledged nation and this
is the sublime food of nourishing nationality.

7. Common mode of production

Nation Building:
The word “nation” comes from the Latin word “natio” and “natus” the meaning of
which is “born”
Depending upon those factors, nationality has been grown among a group of
people and afterwards, when they become aware of their personal rights and
political consciousness (i.e., ability to elect people’s representative as per own
choice) has been developed among them, then the group of people can be
considered as a nation which is a modern political philosophy.
In the ancient times, although there was the growth of nationality, nation building
procedure was not done. The reason behind this is the huge influence of religion
at that time. The religious organizations held the top most power of the society at
that time. But after the Renaissance in Europe and Industrial revolution, people
become aware of their rights and they have their own demands and claims, that
eventually made them politically conscious to govern themselves as their own and
the influence of religion was reduced. Thus, sovereignty and citizen rights develop
the concept of nation.

Common land is also an important factor for nation building. Sometimes people
living in different states can develop common consciousness among them. But
they can not be treated as a nation unless they have a common boundary.

After the nation building procedure is done, common spiritual feelings to possess
the nation, has been nourished in the heart of the historically constituted stable
community of people formed into political body, and this sentimental political
concept directly related to struggle of power signifying the individuality of its own
is considered as nationalism. It is not a product of reason, but a product of feeling
which is instinctive with man. Equality, Fraternity and liberty are another
important component of nationalism.

It is not necessary that always nation building will result into state formation.
State has its distinct characteristics, if that can fulfill those conditions, only then
they can form a state, otherwise not. For example, the hill tract people of
Bangladesh have their own way of life and common feelings, so there is growth of
nationality, moreover they have their separate government, so they are politically
conscious, and so nation building procedure is done there. But as they lack
sovereignty, there is no state formation.

Merits of Nationalism:
1. First and foremost merit of nationalism is the development of patriotism.
Obviously, we can express our patriotism by maintaining our duties in our
designated fields properly. Thus, it will result in self-development and also
development in personality. The feeling of nationalism inspires us to
undertake heroic struggle and supreme sacrifice for the state. The best
example of this is our Liberation War, 1971.
 2. Preservation of national culture: Culture is a distinct feature of a nation.
Nationalism creates a feel of ownness and so it inspires to feel the culture
of the nation to our own. This ultimately results in the deep affection for
the national culture.
3. Poet, Orators and Painters inspired: Nationalism inspires the poets, orators
and painters of a nation so immensely that they try to signify their own
nation in their work. Thus, we have seen our great painter Zainul Abedin to
depict the picture of famine in 1770 to create world awareness about the
famine. Thus, we have got so many immortal works inspired by nationalism
4. Independence: Nationalism inspires every nation to achieve independence.
If all nations can grow according to their own, there will be lesser chance of
war and greater chance of a peaceful world.
5. Imperialism Checked: The tide of imperialism can be checked by the force
of nationalism. For example, the imperialism in Asia had come to an end
when nationalism grew among the residents.
6. Democratic Ideas: Nationalism is proved to be able to give rise to
democratic ideas. Because nationalism creates a fellow filling for all people
of the nation and then it is very much feasible to respect others’ opinion.
7. Loyalty to Government: Nationalism creates utmost respect for the nation
and subsequently to the government that ultimately results in the increase
of loyalty towards the Government.
8. Social and Political Unity: Nationalism is the best force that can unite
people. Fellow feeling is the pre requisite of unity. Nationalism creates that
kind of feeling among all the people of the nation and so they work
together for national interest that ultimately results in unity from both
social and political aspect.
9. Promoting Internationalism: Nationalism is a smaller part of
internationalism. It is the first step towards internationalism.

Demerits of Nationalism:
1. Greatest Enemy to Internationalism: Extreme extent of nationalism which
is uncontrolled, may lead to a disaster for other nation. Uncontrolled
legitimate pride may inspire one to belittle the other nations which is
 exactly contrary to the idea of internationalism. The example of it is what
Adolf Hitler did in the 2nd world war.
2. Crimes of Cruelty and Fanaticism: In the earlier stage of nationalism, it was
solely inspired by humanity and social unity. But in the history of last eighty
years, it can be seen that uncontrolled legitimate pride often leads one to
fanaticism towards his own nation and the result is the bigotry, crimes and
cruelty towards the other nation.
3. Spirit of Intolerance: Too much nationalism may lead to the spirit of
intolerance for example, every nation thinks itself to be the best and the
others worthless which is absolutely contradictory to the human welfare in
a broader sense.
4. Parochialism, Racialism, Persecution of minorities: When territories are
conquered by a dominant nation, excess nationalism of the dominant
nation may result in parochialism, racialism and persecution of minorities
5. Imperialism: Imperialism is a policy of extending country’s power and
influence through colonization. Too much nationalism misleads one into
this policy. For example, the colonial Brazil by the Portuguese.
6. Sentimental and inspirational concept that brings war: Nationalism works
as a sentiment that my nation is always right and to extend the power of
the nation, nationalism may lead to hatred towards the outsiders. This kind
of aggressive nationalism is called “Wolf-Pack”. Example of this can be
found in Nazi-Germany.
7. Autarchy-Economic Nationalism: Too much sentiment of nationalism may
lead to the goal of complete economic self sufficiency known as Autarchy.
But actually, this concept brings war eventually. It is a great folly and due to
this, harsh economic consequences were faced by Brazil, USA and Canada.
8. Ultra-Nationalism: It is an extreme form of nationalism where one nation
tries to exert its power over other nations by suppression. Example of it
was found in Adolf Hitler during the 2nd world war.
Internationalism:
Peaceful co-operation and co-ordination between the nations in social, political,
economic and cultural issues can be regarded as Internationalism. It is a feeling
that individual is not only a member of his nation but also a citizen of the world.
The main goal of internationalism is an international society composed of national
societies existing together in close harmony and co-operation. It is a feeling of
brotherhood nourished by all the people of the world.
This concept grew up after the 1st and 2nd world war. To promote
internationalism, firstly, League of Nations were founded but they can not play
their role properly and so the world had to see the second world war. After that
United Nations was founded in 1945.

Increasing Factors for Internationalism:

1. Scientific Invention: “Global Village”
2. Information Technology
3. Modern Agency, Media
4. Trade and Commerce: A country cannot export if it is not ready to import.
Thus, exchange of various commodities among nations is going on
continuously. The world has become an economic unit creating economic
inter dependence.
5. Avoiding war using modern arms: In the modern era, no one will entangle
in a war using horse and knife, not even bullets. Now there are so many
destructive arms like atom bomb, hydrogen bomb and so on using which
will be great threat for the man kind. In this situation, intelligent mind must
divert into the concept of co-operation for avoiding such suicidal wars.
6. Capitalism: Capitalism has created international borderless market breaking
all the barriers of isolation of a single nation.
7. Sovereignty
8. Imperialism
9. Ideological Diversity
10. Regionalism
Conclusion
Although there are all beautiful concepts of internationalism, the world is still
facing so many disputes between the countries, like Russia and Ukraine or
Palestine and Israel. By investigation, we can come to the fact that, this happens
because the international organizations like The United Nations are influenced by
powerful countries and so they are not so much effective to ensure global piece.

So, we can conclude with the fact that all the international organizations should
be made effective to ensure global harmony.