A Study of Nationalism as Modernization

Abstract

The aftermath of the second world war and the emergence of the third world states as nation-states have brought the theories of nationalism to a crisis. The tramatic experiences of aggressive nationalism in Asia and Europe caused a wave of moral indignation and the subsequent alliances of European states for defence and reconstruction hearalded a search for internationlism and supra-national alliances. If the world was divided into ideological camps thereafter, the main thesis still remained that nations must be linked in terms of ideologies and mutual dependence, and the sovereignty of the nation-states should, to that extent, be bridled, either for preserving the values of liberal democracy and freedom or for heighttening international working class solidarity. It was assumed that ideological and not national, boundaries would henceforth divide the world. But nationalism was not to die yet. The supranational alliances all over the world were found to be forums of national bargaining conducted in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion. Internationalism was championed to the extent that in subserved national interests. The world was grouped and regrouped in different blocs-some of them ideological, and others continental and pan-ethnic-but never subordinationg to an appreciable extent the interests and aspirations of individual nation-states.