Nation and Its Modes of Oppressions in South Asia

400 Pages·2022·2.489 MB·English

by  Sajal Nag

Nation and Its Modes of
Oppressions in South Asia
The modern world had experienced the emergence of nation and
nationhood as the most important inventions of modern times – a ‘God of
modernity’ – most pursued, omnipotent and omnipresent. It has developed
into the dominant discourse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This book shows that etymologically the concept of nation was actually
a term of ‘othering’ rather than self in medieval Europe and argues that
contrary to established understanding, ‘nation’ as form of political identity
developed in the colonies and NOT in Europe which only appropriated it
to perpetuate their colonial ambitions.
Colonial South Asia internalized this discourse and despite a critique
from a section of their intelligentsia, adopted it as their ideal. While Europe
termed this adoption as ‘derivative,’ the actual ramification was much more
devastating for the nations that were born out of such discursive processes.
There were contestations, conflicts, communalization, hegemonisation and
marginalization. The new political frameworks resulted in hostilities and
bloodshed, unleashed politics of retribution and facilitated majoritarianism,
minority persecution and collective authoritarianism which brutalized
individuals and collectivities in South Asian nations in the name of
nationalism. It began an unending process of ‘othering’ of individuals, groups
and communities to establish the hegemony, exclusivity and absolute power
of the dominant community. While shedding light on these ramifications, the
book also discusses various prominent ideas and contemporary theories on
nationalism alongside pivotal socio-cultural factors which have significantly
shaped the formation of modern nation states and their politics.
Topical and nuanced, this book will be indispensable to researchers,
scholars and readers interested in nationalism, political theory, political
philosophy, political sociology, political history, political science, modern
history, post-colonial studies and South Asia studies.
Sajal Nag is currently Professor and Head, Department of History and
Dean, School of Social Sciences, Assam University, Silchar. He was the first
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Chair Professor of Social Sciences, Presidency
University, Kolkata, and a former Commonwealth Fellow 2004–05,
Charles Wallace Fellow at the University of Cambridge 2008 and Senior
Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, 2013–2014. Some of his
publications include The Uprising: Colonial State, Christian Missionaries,
and Anti-Slavery Movement in North East India, 1907–1950 (2016),
Bridging State and Nation: Politics of Peace in Nagaland and Mizoram,
with Rita Manchanda and Tapan Bose (2015), Blending Region and Nation:
Essays in Honour of Prof Amalendu Guha (2019), The Beleaguered Nation:
Making and Unmaking of the Assamese Nationality (New Delhi, 2016),
Pied Pipers in North East India: Bamboo Flowers, Rat famine and Politics
of Philanthropy (Delhi, 2008); Playing with Nature: History and Politics
of Environment in North East India (Manohar & Routledge, Delhi, 2016),
Forces of Nature: Essays in History and Politics of Environment in India
(Manohar & Routledge, Delhi, 2016), Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity,
Insurgency and Sub Nationalism in North East India (Delhi, 2002) and
Making of the Union: Integration of Princely States and Excluded Areas
1947–50 (2004).
Nation and Its Modes of
Oppressions in South Asia
Sajal Nag
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 Sajal Nag
The right of Sajal Nag to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-39213-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-39732-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-35111-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003351115
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my mother
Smti Rita Rani Nag
whom I lost during the writing of this book

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 The God of Modernity 1
2 Advent of ‘Nation’ in South Asia 43
3 Extending the Geography 71
4 Tyranny of Language 106
5 Nation Begets Nations 136
6 Search for National Icons 165
7 Ousted From the Nation 186
8 Caught Between Nations 207
9 Retribution as Nationalism 221
10 Exiled by the Nation 244
11 Nation and its Outsiders 265
12 Nation Without Women 286
13 Nation and its Dissenters 321
viii Contents
14 Betrayal of the God 336
Conclusion 355
Bibliography 372
Index 383
Preface
It is perhaps 20 years back that I read Tagore’s lectures on Nationalism,
and since then I decided to write a monograph expanding Tagore’s ideas in
terms of historical facts. Although I had started immediately, I could not
sit down to write the book, mainly because of the lack of time, and second,
I was not sure what I was going to write. But I was collecting material for
the book nevertheless. Some ideas took concrete shape in terms of proposed
chapters for the book. But since the book was not ‘happening,’ academic
compulsion of publication compelled me to publish some of the written
chapters as articles in different journals. It was during the Covid-19 pan-
demic lockdown that I revived my interest in the book. Since I was stranded
in Silchar and could not go home to Shillong, I needed work to get out of a
lockdown-related depression. Among my many pending projects, this one,
whose title I had already decided at the time of conceptualization, took
precedence. This is because of the way nations and nationalities and nation-
states responded to the Covid-19 situation. It shocked me how groups of
people called nations behaved to their own members during the pandemic.
It resolved my situation, and I decided to complete the book. So I brought
out all the material of the book in one place and started to work on it. While
a number of chapters were written but unfortunately already published as
articles, they needed to be revised. Certain new chapters had to be writ-
ten. But my conviction regarding the oppressions of nations was so strong
that the book took shape during the lockdown. Although the publication
of certain chapters had reduced the freshness of the ideas and information,
the messages they tried to convey were strong and relevant. Hence, these
continued to remain the core chapters. New chapters complimented them.
Even though the contents are not thematically or chronologically sequen-
tial, they convey the idea the book was conceptualized to bear. Themes of
chapters might seem isolated and unconnected, but in reality, they are con-
nected by the running idea of the book, which was to show the essentially
and inherently tyrannical character of nationhood. The one failing of the
book is reading on the ever-increasing number of publications on nations
and nationalism. It is perhaps humanly impossible to read all the materials
related to nationalism. Hence, I had to pick and choose. As I wrote, I also