IMAGINED COMMUNITIES BENEDICT ANDERSON

1. IMAGINED COMMUNITIES BENEDICT ANDERSON both Marxist and liberal attempts to explain nationalism were unsatisfactory. nationalism according to Anderson: is an imagined politicalcommunity that is imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. Cultural roots of nationalism : (i) religious community and (ii) the dynastic realm Decline of religious community because of the explorations of the non-European world and the gradual waning of the sacred language. Dynastic realm - centered on kinship, and its legitimacy is derived from divinity rather than populations.

2. Conception of temporality in which cosmology and history were indistinguishable. • In the 18th century Europe saw the rise of newspapers and novels. • Resorted to the vernacular languages rather than the old privileged languages. • Print languages created national consciousness in three different ways (i) created unified models of exchange and communication (ii) gave a fixity to language (iii) created “languages of power” different from the older administrative vernaculars

3. Creole communities developed early conceptions of nation-ness well before most of Europe • 2 most common explanations for this are : (i) Madrid's tightening control (ii) spread of Enlightenment ideas • A Creole rising to a position of importance in Spain was almost unheard of • Emergence of local presses, the Creole print-men, played a vital historical role.

4. Close of the era of successful national liberation movements in the America coincided with the onset of the age of nationalism in Europe. • “new nationalism” was different in two aspects : (i) “national print languages were of central ideological and political importance (ii) they were able to work with existing models provided by the Creole pioneers • State of bureaucracy underwent a rapid expansion which led to the rise of a bureaucratic middle class.

5. Official nationalism developed after, and in reaction to, popular nationalist movements • These nationalisms were conservative, even reactionary, policies adapted from the popular nationalism that proceeded them • Pursued by the colonial powers in Asia and Africa • Official nationalism was later on also picked up by non-European countries (eg Japan and Siam)

6. “last wave” of nationalism – transformation of the colonial state to the national state • One important aspect of the expansion of the state functions was the generation of centralized and standardized school system • Nation-ness is “natural” in the sense that it contains something that is unchosen (gender, color, parentage) • Racism and anti-Semitism does not derive from nationalism • Racism erases nation-ness

7. Imagined Communities came under criticism (notably from Partha Chatterjee), for its assumption that nationalism could be unproblematically exported from Europe to post-colonial societies • Anderson’s theory of nationalism took on a universal form, and failed to consider adequately the subjectivities of the post-colonial experiences • In response to this criticism Anderson added the chapter Census, Map, and Museum

8. The census, maps and museums created something bounded, determinate and countable • The census - created identities • The map - totalizing classification • Museums - state appeared as a guardian of traditions