Origins Of Nationalism

If we focus on the given world situation from past hundred years. It is no surprise why political scientist and philosophers have paid and continuously paying increasing attention on this particular topic. The very word nation has meant different thing to different people from time to time. Questions like, what counts as nation? Is it something which we should define it by language? by its culture? By ethnicity? There are many areas of disagreement. Questions like what is relationship between nationalism and nation? What are the origins of nationalism? One of the most profound things about nationalism is sometimes it comes up as a good force for betterment of humanity and at some other points it works for the greatest evils. At this particular

Apart from this, nationalism and national sentiments are two different things but often we commits a mistake by combining them together as nationalism. Even though, It may be argued that one leads to another but the fact remains same that they are completely different from one another. National sentiment can be for or against anything where whole nation or a more than majority holds a same view such as against corruption or for a social change.Where as nationalism comes from state created national identity, where people may or may not identify ourselves from state created symbol and has a belief that it is superior than other nations. People have argued in the past that former leads to latter but here I beg to differ because one does not leads to another but when we start associating our identity with state created symbols with pride then anything which glorifies that particular symbol or glorifies people associated with that symbol automatically gets associated with nationalism. But when we start questioning the symbols or the very nature of work then it often tags us as anti-

People began to identify with the country at large, rather than the smaller units of their family, town or province. When the early emergence of a popular patriotic nationalism took place in the 18th century, and it was actively promoted by the political leaders, freedom fighters and by the writers and intellectuals of the time. National symbols, national anthem, national flag, artificial boundaries and narratives were constructed and adopted. The political convulsions of the late 18th century associated with the American and French revolution massively augmented the widespread appeal of patriotic nationalism. The political development of nationalism and the push for one sovereignty culminated with the ethnic/national revolutions. Since that time, nationalism has become one of the most significant political and social forces in history, perhaps most notably as a major influence on or postulate of World war one and especially world war two. Concepts of nationalism have spread through widespread literacy, education and communication technologies as Benedict Anderson argued that "Print language is what invents nationalism, not a particular language. I completely agree with benedict Anderson because through print media, one or few persons or influential persons ideas are spread and that is what is taught to students from very childhood or early education which leads on the