9 the Modern State as Imperial State 97

7/25/2019 9 the Modern State as Imperial State 97

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THE MODERN STATE AS

THE IMPERIAL STATEWeek 9


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OVERVIEW


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NATION-STATES

The emergence of nation-statesin non-European parts of theworld are seen to be part of anatural progression of worldhistory

This conflates the processes of colonialism andimperialism with the neutral processes ofmodernization

National identity in the world beyond Europe isusually associated with the struggle againstcolonialism

However, the colonial question needs to beconsidered as integral to the development of thenation-state within Europe as well


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THEORIES OF NATIONALISM

AnthonySmith:ethnicities exist everywhere andso each nation has its origin in its own sharedculture and history

EricHobsbawm:the invention of mass-national

traditions to create cohesive communities is aninevitable consequence of the divisions generatedby modern capitalism

BenedictAnderson:the nationalist demand fora sovereign, limited community arises out of themodern processes of print capitalism

Emergence in the UK and France, followed byGermany and Italy, then the rest of the world


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EMERGENCE OF NATION-STATES


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IMAGINED COMMUNITIES

When immediate contact doesnot occur then the communitythat exists is an imagined one this is not to imply that it isimaginary

People imagine others doingthings similar to themselveswithin the same temporal space

The new development that led to nationalism was the

emergence of communities based around printedvernacular languages Later versions of nationalism are seen to be pirated/modeled on earlier ones


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IMAGINED COMMUNITIES

Latin and North AmericaCreole nationalism where print-men created theidea of the nation in relation to travels to Europe

Europe

Vernacular nationalism based on history andlanguage, creating dictionaries, grammars, nationalliteratures

Eastern Europe and AsiaOfficial nationalisms created by dynastic rulers in anattempt to reassert control in the face of vernacularmovements

Africa and AsiaColonial nationalism is pirated from all of the above


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POSTCOLONIAL RESPONSE

ParthaChatterjeeasks:If nationalisms in the rest of the world have tochoose their imagined community from certainmodular forms already made available to

them by Europe and the Americas, what dothey have left to imagine?

Those in the postcolonial world are

condemned only to be the consumers ofmodernity, never its creators, or authors:Even our imaginations must remain forevercolonized (Chatterjee 1996: 216)


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THE PROJECT OF THE NATION-

STATE


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COLONIAL GOVERNMENTALITY

Colonial populations were routinely seenas subordinated subjects whose health andresources were objects of legitimateinterest to the colonial government

The first application of finger printing wasin India in the1860s where it was used bythe colonial government in Bengal

Vaccination / immunisation programmeswere first instituted in the colonies

English literature appeared as a subject inthe curriculum of the colonies long before itwas ever institutionalized in the home country(see Viswanathan1989)


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RECONSIDERATIONS

The interpretation of Britain and France asindependently originary, and others as imitation,is not the only way of understanding thephenomenon of the modern nation-state

The nation-state emerged in the context of thecolonial state and developments that aregenerally ascribed to one are done so byabstracting phenomena out of the relationshipsand interconnections between them

By locating the nation-state within the context ofthe wider interconnections would enrich ourunderstandings of particular events as well asthe wider contexts in which they occur


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ORIGINAL AND THE COPY

With the assumption of a particular version of

the nation-state having emerged in 18thcentury

Europe, and then being modelled or copied by

others, there is no option but to theorize others in

relation to that original model and as beingimitations of itas Charles Taylor (1999) argues, all they (that is,

non-Europeans) want to do is what has already been

done in the WestThus, distinguishing between the original and

the copy has implications for the way in which

different histories are understood and analyzed


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ORIGINAL AND THE COPY

Following Foucault (1969) in describing theoriginal, what is taken as important is thehistory of changes and transformationsthe ways in which new forms rose up to produce new

landscapesThe copy is understood in terms of inertiaa slow accumulation of the pasta sedimentation of things in which what is addressedis what is held in common as opposed to what is

uniqueThis maps onto the way in which things arevalued with the original being more highlyregarded than the copy, which is mere imitation


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IN SUM

When nationalism emerged in the rest of Europethere was no feeling that the nation was notculturally equipped to reach the standards set outby the pace-makers, Britain and France

Yet, with the emergence of nationalism in otherparts of the world, it was often suggested thatsome time of development and civilization usually colonial rule and education had to passbefore these countries could be considered

prepared for self-ruleThe refrain of not yet emanates from a historicalconception of cultural progress that justifiescolonial intervention in the name of that progressand, in doing so, denies coevalness with others


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The difference between being European andbeing Europeanized is the difference thatproduces knowledge as a form of social control inwhich to be Europeanized isemphaticallynot to

be European (Bhabha)The nation-state emerged as a colonial stateThe writing out of the colonial relationship fromunderstandings of its emergence impoverishesour analyses of it

The failure to address this complex relationshipis key to the continuing misapprehension aboutthe singularity of modernity and its dispersalglobally from Europe outwards


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QUESTIONS FOR READING:

What does it mean to say that modern state

formation is aculturalproject?

In which ways is colonialism implicated in the

project of the nation state?

In your reading groups, research one example of

something that you would imagine occurred first

in Europe, but actually has its roots elsewheree.g. fingerprinting

Documents

9 the Modern State as Imperial State 97