Understanding the pathology of nationhood
The last five decades have been the most abrupt ‘Short- Waves Period’ in the history humankind. The changes are unprecedented and rapid in technological advancement and boom in the availability of information. The human evolution is entering into inorganic evolution. Human transfers, information transfer, displacements and misplacements have changed the paradigm of existence. Nation states at apex level is becoming security states with leaked borders, visible and invisible. It has generated rise in primordial populism to compete for power race within the nation-state internal politics. The organic revolution in linearity has fallen out from its trajectory of notion of progress and stability. It has made people fall apart, at all levels, from families to institutions. On the other hand, the inorganic changes have made ecology spilt with new unknown crisis, ecological as well as epidemic. This world is estranged and unfamiliar place at all levels. Outside the home is the other and other is unpredictable, always in making and unmaking new social bonds. This is for everybody, elites as well as for unprivileged. This has made public judgements faulty, discourses flawed and information incomplete. Papulations are led by discourses, which are fragile and half-truths and more lies. It is resulting in human consequences of misfortune. It is what globalization has turned out to be a new social and political consciousness on choice, landing in uncertainties. It is radicalization of an individual and is so alluring, without understanding its consequences. The state needs new inputs for nation building process, besides security paradigm envisaged.
The borders are leaked, digital world is uncontrolled and transfer of technology remains unchecked. Presuming that militarily might and ideological determination can make enemy and friend difference discernable is a flawed understanding. It is a historical juncture, where migrations and displacements are regular happenings. people remain simmering with discontentment. Everybody is avoiding everybody. The consensus is fragile, momentary. The world order is in churning. The experiment of a nation-state to make peace happening is in crisis. Modernity needs supplements from multiple modernity. That is civilizational response. Civilization is not racial or religious, but it is an organic evolution with material and non-material lag having sensitization for longer years of human kind. Modernity brought to it an abrupt end with the European centrality with consensus on knowledge and culture. It was division on geographical priorities. Within two hundred years of its advent, this comprehension of construed geographies got mixed in profaned notion of social geographies. Europe faced its first crisis in holocaust and then as a result of second wave migration, the American Melting pot experiment drenched with history imprints from migrants produced racial binaries in different lenses; invisible and visible minorities, natives and blacks with diction and phonological ranking as commodities.
The advent of new century augmented the rise of Chinese civilization and disquiet and discontentment in the rest of the world. China has not experienced flow of migration to its land. Rather, Chinese migration to the western countries have remained invisible but historically conscious of their obligations towards their native country. What they learnt in the western countries, transferred it to their country to make it different than other migrants, substantially. China with innovations and adaptations, without indignity sold it to the world to become a changed rich country. Chinese have history in continuity with the social geography intact. Its ecology and inorganic revolution syncretize with organic journey. It is how China will remain distinct, unperturbed for longer period of history despite the process of globalization. Our early leadership emerging from the National Movement had understood this historical mantra. Despite India was cut in partition, India remained India. Its pluralism, consensus on moral groundings, geographical spaces and spiritual blending are the symbolic representations of its historical civilizational journeying. The civilization blending overcame the vulnerabilities of one party rule in view of its homogeneity. Its cultural organic homogeneity is its strength, for it does have problems of cultural diversities on surface. China knows the strength of Indian pluralism. It values it with skepticism. Our ruling elite moves with liberal populism. It is good, so long it has open eyes on the fundamental strength of our historical journey, the organic evolution of Indian civilization. It is visible in history; howsoever profane discourses might be; it can be strengthened with pride. The blending spaces created by non-elite reformers, when tyrannical rulers had encroached upon those spaces have given us pluralism. We need to value it. It is neither minority appeasement nor irrational majortism. It is inherent respect of minorities for majority and majority’s care for minorities. The ruling elites of faiths and politics have to make the atmosphere conducive, so that we are not falling in the false discourse of radical nationalism in our institutions. The failure of liberal discourse in the nation building process of a nation state has created primordial discourse which is not in line with organic evolution. It has disruptions. It could not succeed in USA, which is more or less based on the notion of a-historicity. How can it succeed in the countries which have baggage and burden of history? Nation states have no alternatives at present juncture of history. Borders will remain guarded. However, the nation state in real politic has to be built not alone on security paradigm. It has to be on the lines of civilization strength of historical evolution. In our case, the blended traditions are to be strengthened, which have been given to us by different historical segments in our cultural encounters. The western models have failed. The suburban conflicts in UK, the catastrophes in the West Asia, the resent upsurge in Bangladesh and the simmering edginess in Pakistan are the stories of pathology of nationhood. The leaders and reformers, while being patriotic to their countries have to explore the global remedies for peaceful coexistence. Its essential requirement is respect for differance and un-vindictiveness of rulers. Sheikh Hasina crushed opposition only to wait for it to boomerang.
The recipe of biotechnology and the grasp of AI, not before long will change the ‘hominid mould’. The established conventional stories will change. Therefore, concerns of nationalism are to be broadened with global and universal perspectives. The political nationalism of western origin and religious nationalism of pre-modern era, equally have limitations and constrains to succeed. The ruling elite and educated middle class have to understand it. This is testing time of statesmanship.
Prof Ashok Kaul, Retired Emeritus professor in Sociology at Banaras Hindu University
