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Cultural nationalism is a term used by scholars of nationalism to describe efforts among the intelligentsia to promote the formation of national communities through emphasis on a common culture. It is contrasted with "political" nationalism, which refers to specific movements for national self-determination through the establishment of a nation-state. [1] [2] [3]
John Hutchinson's 1987 work The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism argued against earlier scholarship that tended to conflate nationalism and state-seeking movements. [4] Hutchinson developed a typography distinguishing cultural from political nationalists, describing how the former act as moral innovators, emerging at times of crisis, to engender movements that offer new maps of identity based on historical myths that - in turn - may inspire programmes of socio-political regeneration from the latter. He emphasises the dynamic role of historians and artists, showing how they interact with religious reformists and a discontented modernising intelligentsia to form national identities.
In his later work, Hutchinson admits his earlier distinction may be too simplistic [5] and recognises:
It is often hard in practice to separate cultural and political nationalisms. Cultural nationalists often engage in political, even insurrectionary activities, and nationalists whose goal is for political independence may justify their claims by arguments that their nation has an ancient distinctive culture that is threatened by foreign rule.
— John Hutchinson, Cultural Nationalism, p.75
What distinguishes these cultural "revivals" from earlier ones is their political dynamism, arising from the "coming together of neo-classical and pre-romantic European intellectual currents". [6] These cultural nationalist movements aimed at cultural homogenisation and utilised the study of history as a resource for social innovation. Intellectuals aim to "present populations with new maps of identity and political prescriptions that claim to combine the virtues of historical tradition and modern progress at times of crisis". [7]
Anthony D. Smith describes how intellectuals played a primary role in generating cultural perceptions of nationalism:
Wherever one turns in Europe, their seminal position in generating and analysing the concepts, myths, symbols and ideology of nationalism is apparent. This applies to the first appearance of the core doctrine and to the antecedent concepts of national character, genius of the nation and national will. [8]
Smith posits the challenges posed to traditional religion and society in the Age of Revolution propelled many intellectuals to "discover alternative principles and concepts, and a new mythology and symbolism, to legitimate and ground human thought and action". [9] The simultaneous concept of 'historicism' was characterised by an emerging belief in the birth, growth, and decay of specific peoples and cultures, which became "increasingly attractive as a framework for inquiry into the past and present and [...] an explanatory principle in elucidating the meaning of events, past and present". [10]
Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte are considered key figures who argued for such a cultural definition of nationhood. They emphasised the distinctness of national cultures based predominantly around language, stressing its character as "the epitome of people’s unique historical memories and traditions and the central source of the national spirit". [11]
Miroslav Hroch argues cultural nationalism laid the foundation for the emergence political nationalism. [12]
For Yael Tamir, the right to national self-determination represents the embodiment of the "unique cultural essence of cultural groups" and their right to develop cultural distinctiveness, irrespective of whether these groups seek an independent nation-state. [13]
Some scholars, such as Craig Calhoun and Eric Hobsbawm, among others, criticize cultural definitions for neglecting the role of the state in the formation of national identities and the role played by socio-political elites in constructing cultural identities. Similarly, Paul Brass argues national identities are not given but rather the product of the politics of socio-political elites. [14]
Umut Ozkirimli rejects a sharp distinction between cultural and political nationalism, emphasising that nationalism is about both. He states it simultaneously involves "the ‘culturalization’ of politics and the ‘politicisation’ of culture". [15]
Moderate manifestations of Flemish [16] or Hindu [17] nationalisms might be "cultural nationalism", while these same movements also include forms of ethnic nationalism and national mysticism.
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining its sovereignty (self-governance) over its perceived homeland to create a nation-state. It holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power. It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics, religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity or solidarity. Nationalism, therefore, seeks to preserve and foster a nation's traditional culture. There are various definitions of a "nation", which leads to different types of nationalism. The two main divergent forms identified by scholars are ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism.
A nation is a large type of social organization where a collective identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory or society. Some nations are constructed around ethnicity while others are bound by political constitutions.
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to a country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects. It may encompass a set of concepts closely related to nationalism, mostly civic nationalism and sometimes cultural nationalism.
Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Religious nationalism can be understood in a number of ways, such as nationalism as a religion itself, a position articulated by Carlton Hayes in his text Nationalism: A Religion, or as the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, ideology, or affiliation. This relationship can be broken down into two aspects: the politicisation of religion and the influence of religion on politics.
Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji, was the second Sarsanghchalak ("Chief") of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar is considered one of the most influential and prominent figures among Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by his followers.
National identity is a person's identity or sense of belonging to one or more states or one or more nations. It is the sense of "a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language". National identity may refer to the subjective feeling one shares with a group of people about a nation, regardless of one's legal citizenship status. National identity is viewed in psychological terms as "an awareness of difference", a "feeling and recognition of 'we' and 'they'". National identity also includes the general population and diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while being made up of several component ethnic groups. Hyphenated ethnicities are examples of the confluence of multiple ethnic and national identities within a single person or entity.
Historiography is the study of how history is written. One pervasive influence upon the writing of history has been nationalism, a set of beliefs about political legitimacy and cultural identity. Nationalism has provided a significant framework for historical writing in Europe and in those former colonies influenced by Europe since the nineteenth century. Typically official school textbooks are based on the nationalist model and focus on the emergence, trials and successes of the forces of nationalism.
Queer nationalism is a phenomenon related both to the gay and lesbian liberation movement and nationalism. Adherents of this movement support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs.
Civic nationalism, otherwise known as democratic nationalism and liberal nationalism, is a form of nationalism that adheres to traditional liberal values of freedom, tolerance, equality, and individual rights, and is not based on ethnocentrism. Civic nationalists often defend the value of national identity by saying that individuals need it as a partial shared aspect of their identity in order to lead meaningful, autonomous lives and that democratic polities need a national identity to function properly.
Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, was the third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Among scholars of nationalism, a number of types of nationalism have been presented. Nationalism may manifest itself as part of official state ideology or as a popular non-state movement and may be expressed along civic, ethnic, language, religious or ideological lines. These self-definitions of the nation are used to classify types of nationalism, but such categories are not mutually exclusive and many nationalist movements combine some or all of these elements to varying degrees. Nationalist movements can also be classified by other criteria, such as scale and location.
John Hutchinson is a British academic. He is a reader in nationalism at the London School of Economics (LSE), in the Department of Government.
Ethnosymbolism is a school of thought in the study of nationalism that stresses the importance of symbols, myths, values and traditions in the formation and persistence of the modern nation state.
According to some scholars, a national identity of the English as the people or ethnic group dominant in England can be traced to the Anglo-Saxon period.
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" is a simplistic translation of हिन्दू राष्ट्रवाद. It is better described as "Hindu polity".
Arab nationalism is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, glorifies the Arabic language as well as Arabic literature, and calls for the rejuvenation of Arab society through total unification. It bases itself on the premise that the people of the Arab world — from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea — constitute one nation bound together by a common identity: ethnicity, language, culture, history, geography, and politics.
John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics. Breuilly is the author of the pioneering Nationalism and the State (1982).
Composite nationalism is a concept that argues that the Indian nation is made up of people of diverse cultures, castes, communities, and faiths. The idea teaches that "nationalism cannot be defined by religion in India." While Indian citizens maintain their distinctive religious traditions, they are members of one united Indian nation. Composite nationalism maintains that prior to the arrival of the British into the subcontinent, no enmity between people of different religious faiths existed; and as such these artificial divisions can be overcome by Indian society.
Several scholars of nationalism support the existence of nationalism in the Middle Ages. This school of thought differs from modernism, the predominant school of thought on nationalism, which suggests that nationalism developed largely after the late 18th century and the French Revolution. Theories on the existence of nationalism in the Middle Ages may belong to the general paradigms of ethnosymbolism and primordialism (perennialism).
The demarcation between cultural and political nationalism is whether the primary concern is with the establishment of a strong community or a strong territorial state, as the basis of the nation
The counterpart of this political idea [i.e. the revolutionary doctrine of the sovereignty of the people] in the 19th century is cultural nationalism. The phrase denotes the belief that each nation in Europe had from its earliest formation developed a culture of its own, with features as unique as its language, even though its language and culture might have near relatives over the frontier.
