DOCSLIB.ORG

Colonising Nationalism: Zionist Political Discourse 1845-1948

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Colonising Nationalism: Zionist Political Discourse 1845-1948 A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Colonising Nationalism: Zionist Political Discourse 1845-1948 Heba Youssef DPhil University of Sussex 2012 Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature Colonising Nationalism: Zionist Political Discourse 1845-1948 This thesis traces the emergence of the Zionist political movement from the mid nineteenth century until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The thesis explores the impetus behind the mainstream political movement which led to the establishment of the State, throwing light on the kaleidoscope of spiritual and political Zionisms. However, the ultimate focus is on the statist form of Zionist ideology which marginalised other forms of Zionism rendering them historical curiosities devoid of meaningful political impact. I analyse the texts of some prominent Zionist ideologues through the theoretical framework of nationalist, colonial and post-colonial theories forging the concept of colonial nationalism to interpret and analyse Zionism. I limit my work to Zionist political texts and their anchor in the surrounding milieu of European nationalism and colonialism in the 19th century. The chapters deal with different trends within the then emergent movement from spiritual Zionism and the religious justification of political Zionism through liberal and bi-national Zionisms. Each chapter engages with Zionist political thought offering textual analysis and historical contextualisation of the major forms of the movement. I argue that at its inception, Zionism was anchored in European ethno- nationalism and colonialism and a modern and highly contingent interpretation of the Hebrew biblical traditions. As such it is rendered a reactionary and regressive form of ethno-nationalist colonialism that, as an ideology in the contemporary world, it can only survive when it is premised on ideas of cultural supremacy. Thus post-Zionism with its espousal of a multiplicity of narratives and valorisation of minority rights is, rather than forging a new de-territorialized identity, a return to a model of diasporic Jewish identity where a common cultural heritage is disparate from citizenship and nationality. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: ........................................................................................... 13 NATIONALISM, COLONIALISM AND ZIONISM ......................... 13 CHAPTER II ........................................................................................... 46 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 46 CHAPTER III: ........................................................................................ 74 ZIONISM AND RELIGION ................................................................. 74 CHAPTER IV: ...................................................................................... 102 OFFICIAL ZIONISM .......................................................................... 102 CHAPTER V: ........................................................................................ 145 BUBER AND THE BI-NATIONAL STATE PROPOSAL .............. 145 1 CHAPTER VI: ...................................................................................... 176 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................. 194 2 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge first of all my supervisors Professor Andrew Hadfield, Dr Minoli Salgado and Dr Mick Johnson for their patience and support, academic and otherwise. Their feedback and critiques have been valuable and have shaped my thinking in many ways. I have also benefited immeasurably from feedback and critical appraisals of particular chapters from several friends: Anna Bogen, Argha Banerjee, Chris Guider, Eva Hilberg, Kumiko Kiuchi, Shamira Meghani, and Aaron Winter. I am greatly indebted to all of them. My warm thanks to Dr Vinita Damodaran for taking the time to discuss my project and interrogate my ideas. Dr Daniel Dor has given me valuable advice and insight for which thanks are due. I am very grateful to Professors Alun Howkins, Norman Vance and Laura Marcus for their advice and encouragement. I am grateful to the Graduate Centre in the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex for providing me with facilities and supportive conditions in which to work. Margaret Reynolds, the Graduate Centre co-ordinater, deserves particular gratitude for all her support and encouragement that go beyond her call of duty. I thank my students on the Colonial and Postcolonial Cultures MA course for the discussions and responses which have helped me think from different perspectives. I would also like to thank Sam Elmer from Sussex University IT Services. I am greatly indebted to Professors Omar Abd-el-Aziz, Sami Gamal-E’din, Mahmoud Hassan, Zainab Raafat and Salah Sorour from the University of Alexandria for their kindness, encouragement and support. My heartfelt thanks to Francis Clark-Lowes, Manal El-Sayed, Chris Guider, Eleanor Gregory, Jenny Huynh, Donna MacPherson, Grainne O’Connel, Valerie Pascual and Chris Stokes for their friendship and for cheering me on along the way. Each one of them has been a source of assistance in their own special way. The solidarity and support of my friends Eva Hilberg and Shamira Meghani deserve particularly warm thanks. The extent to which I owe my friends and intellectual allies Anna Bogen and Kumiko Kiuchi is greater than can be expressed here; suffice it to say that the inspiration to continue and not give up has come from them. I am very grateful for the love and support of my mother and my brother. Introduction This thesis is about Zionism. The thesis is not intended as an expose of Zionist thought and discourse, rather it is my exploration of a distinctive movement which is simultaneously an ethno-nationalist and a colonial-settler one, a model which I call colonising nationalism. Colonising nationalism or colonial nationalism (I use the two expressions interchangeably throughout this thesis) involves a category of territorial, ethnic nationalism: a project to establish a nation-state based on Jewishness as an ethnicity. For Jewish communities in different parts of the world, territorial nationalism was ‘different from and alien to the ethnic Jewish way of life’ , therefore, colonising nationalism employed the methodology of European settlement colonies in order to acquire territory and statehood. Colonising nationalism, thus, can be defined as a category of ethnic nationalism that employs an ethnic settlement form of colonialism as a methodology to realise its goals. Khalidi (1971), Rodinson (1973, 1974) and Shafir (1989), among others, have analysed Zionism as colonialism, although Shafir was the first to locate it within the typology of settler colonialism put forth by D. K. Fieldhouse and George Fredrickson (Fieldhouse 1966; Fredrickson 1988). Shafir develops the four-way typology of colonialism offered by D. K. Fieldhouse and George Fredrickson by adding a new category of colonialism, which he calls ethnic plantation settlement/colony. He locates Israel within this colonial model. An ethnic plantation colony is based upon massive European immigration and control of indigenous land and opposition to ethnic mixture with the local non- European population. The concept of colonising nationalism, which this thesis develops, goes further by merging these theories and establishing a causal relationship between them: the ethno-nationalist project uses the model of ethnic colonialism as methodology to reach the national goal. Hence, colonising nationalism is a territorial ethno-nationalist movement that seeks to found a nation-state by settler colonial methods, specifically the ethnic settlement colony, in other words a colony that rejects ethnic mixture with the indigenous population. Furthermore, the colonial nationalist model seeks to erase the indigenous character and culture of the target area and replace it with an ‘invented tradition’, in the Hobsbawmian sense, of the new settlers 2 (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983). Zionism is the colonial nationalist movement par excellence. Zionism represents an intersection between a colonial enterprise and an ethno- nationalist movement which has aimed to found a secular state that, paradoxically, uses religious texts to justify its ethos. This makes Zionism distinctive amongst other nationalist and colonial-settler movements. This thesis argues that the above combination gives rise to an intriguing discourse that drifts from the nationalistic to the colonial
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 11. Nationalism, Nation Making, & the Postcolonial States of Asia, Africa
    After Independence: Making and Protecting the Nation in Postcolonial and Postcommunist States Lowell W. Barrington, Editor http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=126246 The University of Michigan Press 11. Nationalism, Nation Making, & the Postcolonial States of Asia, Africa, & Eurasia RONALD GRIGOR SUNY I have benefited enormously from Lowell Barrington’s clarifying essays on ethnicity and nationalism. His distinction insisting on territorial- ity for the nation but not for ethnicity is very useful. At the same time, in our many discussions, I have argued that his de‹nition of the nation remains, for my money, too objectivist. So I have amended the de‹nitions he offers in his introductory chapter as a prelude to my own discussion of nationalism after independence. My additions are in brackets. “What makes nations different from other groups,” writes Barrington, “is that they are collectives [who feel they are] united by shared cultural features (such as language, myths, and values) and the belief in the right to territorial self-determination. Put another way, they are groups of people [who believe they are] linked by unifying cultural characteristics and the desire to con- trol a territory that is thought of as the group’s rightful homeland.” My amendments here are meant to emphasize the unease I have about too concrete a notion of “cultural features” or “cultural characteristics.” Having heard all my life about the importance of preserving ethnic culture and remaining unsure about what that entailed, I subscribe to a notion
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. Introduction The Invention of an Ethnic Nationalism he Hindu nationalist movement started to monopolize the front pages of Indian newspapers in the 1990s when the political T party that represented it in the political arena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP—which translates roughly as Indian People’s Party), rose to power. From 2 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, the BJP increased its tally to 88 in 1989, 120 in 1991, 161 in 1996—at which time it became the largest party in that assembly—and to 178 in 1998. At that point it was in a position to form a coalition government, an achievement it repeated after the 1999 mid-term elections. For the first time in Indian history, Hindu nationalism had managed to take over power. The BJP and its allies remained in office for five full years, until 2004. The general public discovered Hindu nationalism in operation over these years. But it had of course already been active in Indian politics and society for decades; in fact, this ism is one of the oldest ideological streams in India. It took concrete shape in the 1920s and even harks back to more nascent shapes in the nineteenth century. As a movement, too, Hindu nationalism is heir to a long tradition. Its main incarnation today, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS—or the National Volunteer Corps), was founded in 1925, soon after the first Indian communist party, and before the first Indian socialist party.
    [Show full text]
  • Domestic Ethnic Nationalism and Regional European Transnationalism: a Confluence of Impediments Opposing Turkey’S EU Accession Bid Glen M.E
    Cedarville University DigitalCommons@Cedarville History and Government Faculty Presentations Department of History and Government 4-3-2013 Domestic Ethnic Nationalism and Regional European Transnationalism: A Confluence of Impediments Opposing Turkey’s EU Accession Bid Glen M.E. Duerr Cedarville University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/ history_and_government_presentations Part of the History Commons, and the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Duerr, Glen M.E., "Domestic Ethnic Nationalism and Regional European Transnationalism: A Confluence of Impediments Opposing Turkey’s EU Accession Bid" (2013). History and Government Faculty Presentations. 26. https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/history_and_government_presentations/26 This Conference Proceeding is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@Cedarville, a service of the Centennial Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in History and Government Faculty Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Cedarville. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Domestic Ethnic Nationalism and Regional European Transnationalism: A Confluence of Impediments Opposing Turkey’s EU Accession Bid Glen M.E. Duerr Assistant Professor of International Studies Cedarville University [email protected] Paper prepared for the International Studies Association (ISA) conference in San Francisco, California, April 2-5, 2013 This paper constitutes a preliminary
    [Show full text]
  • JABOTINSKY on CANADA and the Unlted STATES*
    A CASE OFLIMITED VISION: JABOTINSKY ON CANADA AND THE UNlTED STATES* From its inception in 1897, and even earlier in its period of gestation, Zionism has been extremely popular in Canada. Adherence to the movement seemed all but universal among Canada's Jews by the World War I era. Even in the interwar period, as the flush of first achievement wore off and as the Canadian Jewish community became more acclimated, the movement in Canada functioned at a near-fever pitch. During the twenties and thirties funds were raised, acculturatedJews adhered toZionism with some settling in Palestine, and prominent gentile politicians publicly supported the movement. The contrast with the United States was striking. There, Zionism got a very slow start. At the outbreak of World War I only one American Jew in three hundred belonged to the Zionist movement; and, unlike Canada, a very strong undercurrent of anti-Zionism emerged in the Jewish community and among gentiles. The conversion to Zionism of Louis D. Brandeis-prominent lawyer and the first Jew to sit on the United States Supreme Court-the proclamation of the Balfour Declaration, and the conquest of Palestine by the British gave Zionism in the United States a significant boost during the war. Afterwards, however, American Zionism, like the country itself, returned to "normalcy." Membership in the movement plummeted; fundraising languished; potential settlers for Palestine were not to be found. One of the chief impediments to Zionism in America had to do with the nature of the relationship of American Jews to their country. Zionism was predicated on the proposition that Jews were doomed to .( 2 Michuel Brown be aliens in every country but their own.
    [Show full text]
  • Varieties of American Popular Nationalism.” American Sociological Review 81(5):949-980
    Bonikowski, Bart, and Paul DiMaggio. 2016. “Varieties of American Popular Nationalism.” American Sociological Review 81(5):949-980. Publisher’s version: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/81/5/949 Varieties of American Popular Nationalism Bart Bonikowski Harvard University Paul DiMaggio New York University Abstract Despite the relevance of nationalism for politics and intergroup relations, sociologists have devoted surprisingly little attention to the phenomenon in the United States, and historians and political psychologists who do study the United States have limited their focus to specific forms of nationalist sentiment: ethnocultural or civic nationalism, patriotism, or national pride. This article innovates, first, by examining an unusually broad set of measures (from the 2004 GSS) tapping national identification, ethnocultural and civic criteria for national membership, domain- specific national pride, and invidious comparisons to other nations, thus providing a fuller depiction of Americans’ national self-understanding. Second, we use latent class analysis to explore heterogeneity, partitioning the sample into classes characterized by distinctive patterns of attitudes. Conventional distinctions between ethnocultural and civic nationalism describe just about half of the U.S. population and do not account for the unexpectedly low levels of national pride found among respondents who hold restrictive definitions of American nationhood. A subset of primarily younger and well-educated Americans lacks any strong form of patriotic sentiment; a larger class, primarily older and less well educated, embraces every form of nationalist sentiment. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and partisan identification, these classes vary significantly in attitudes toward ethnic minorities, immigration, and national sovereignty. Finally, using comparable data from 1996 and 2012, we find structural continuity and distributional change in national sentiments over a period marked by terrorist attacks, war, economic crisis, and political contention.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
    Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Threats to European Security Stockholm International Peace Research Institute SIPRI is an independent institute for research into problems of peace and conflict, especially those of arms control and disarmament. It was established in 1966 to commemorate Sweden’s 150 years of unbroken peace. The Institute is financed mainly by the Swedish Parliament. The staff, the Governing Board and the Scientific Council are international. The Governing Board and the Scientific Council are not responsible for the views expressed in the publications of the Institute. Governing Board Professor Daniel Tarschys, MP, Chairman (Sweden) Sir Brian Urquhart, Vice Chairman (United Kingdom) Professor Catherine Kelleher (United States) Dr Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica) Dr Gyula Horn (Hungary) Dr Lothar Rühl (Germany) The Director Director Dr Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Poland) Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Pipers väg 28, S-170 73 Solna, Sweden Cable: SIPRI Telephone: 46 8/655 97 00 Telefax: 46 8/655 97 33 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict Threats to European Security SIPRI Research Report No. 5 Stephen Iwan Griffiths OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1993 Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © SIPRI 1993 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
    [Show full text]
  • Rabbi Avraham Yizhak Hacohen Kook: Between Exile and Messianic Redemption*
    Rabbi Avraham Yizhak HaCohen Kook: Between Exile and Messianic Redemption* Judith Winther Copenhagen Religious Zionism—Between Messsianism and A-Messianism Until the 19th century and, to a certain ex- tute a purely human form of redemption for a tent, somewhat into the 20th, most adherents redeemer sent by God, and therefore appeared of traditional, orthodox Judaism were reluc- to incite rebellion against God. tant about, or indifferent towards, the active, Maimonides' active, realistic Messianism realistic Messianism of Maimonides who averr- was, with subsequent Zionist doctrines, first ed that only the servitude of the Jews to foreign reintroduced by Judah Alkalai, Sephardic Rab- kings separates this world from the world to bi of Semlin, Bessarabia (1798-1878),3 and Zwi come.1 More broadly speaking, to Maimonides Hirsch Kalisher, Rabbi of Thorn, district of the Messianic age is the time when the Jewish Poznan (1795-1874).4 people will liberate itself from its oppressors Both men taught that the Messianic pro- to obtain national and political freedom and cess should be subdivided into a natural and independence. Maimonides thus rejects those a miraculous phase. Redemption is primari- Jewish approaches according to which the Mes- ly in human hands, and redemption through a sianic age will be a time of supernatural qual- miracle can only come at a later stage. They ities and apocalyptic events, an end to human held that the resettling and restoration of the history as we know it. land was athalta di-geullah, the beginning of Traditional, orthodox insistence on Mes- redemption. They also maintained that there sianism as a passive phenomenon is related to follows, from a religious point of view, an obli- the rabbinic teaching in which any attempt to gation for the Jews to return to Zion and re- leave the Diaspora and return to Zion in order build the country by modern methods.
    [Show full text]
  • Transnationalism and the Revival of Nationalism Andalusia Knoll Soloff and Trevor R
    Transnationalism and the Revival of Nationalism Andalusia Knoll Soloff and Trevor R. Getz Is nationalism still relevant in the world today? Does it serve to unite or divide people? These are questions that are meaningful for many groups around the world. 1070L Transnationalism and the Revival of Nationalism Andalusia Knoll Soloff and Trevor R. Getz A world of nation-states Since the eighteenth century, the rise of the nation-state has been a major force in world events. In our globalized world today, billions of people use the same social networks and listen to the same hit songs, wear the same style jeans, and play the same video games. Yet almost everybody is still a citizen of a nation-state, and national identity still motivates people. In fact, nationalism may be on the rise. Sports offers an interesting forum for considering nationalism and the role of the nation-state. The biggest sporting events in the world—the Olympics and the Football (Soccer) World Cup—pit teams of the different nation- states against each other. They pursue medals while promoting national pride. Some scholars believe sporting competitions like these demonstrate the importance to people of identifying with a group. If group inclusion is an essential part of being human, then national identities and nationalism are powerful motivators. However, sports also show the complexity of nation-states. For example, the United Nations recognizes 195 sovereign nation-states. The FIFA World Cup only allows those 195 to show their flags, even though 211 teams can participate in the qualifying games. Some of these flag-free teams represent communities that aren’t fully recognized nation-states.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: a Multilevel Process Theory1
    The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory1 Andreas Wimmer University of California, Los Angeles Primordialist and constructivist authors have debated the nature of ethnicity “as such” and therefore failed to explain why its charac- teristics vary so dramatically across cases, displaying different de- grees of social closure, political salience, cultural distinctiveness, and historical stability. The author introduces a multilevel process theory to understand how these characteristics are generated and trans- formed over time. The theory assumes that ethnic boundaries are the outcome of the classificatory struggles and negotiations between actors situated in a social field. Three characteristics of a field—the institutional order, distribution of power, and political networks— determine which actors will adopt which strategy of ethnic boundary making. The author then discusses the conditions under which these negotiations will lead to a shared understanding of the location and meaning of boundaries. The nature of this consensus explains the particular characteristics of an ethnic boundary. A final section iden- tifies endogenous and exogenous mechanisms of change. TOWARD A COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY OF ETHNIC BOUNDARIES Beyond Constructivism The comparative study of ethnicity rests firmly on the ground established by Fredrik Barth (1969b) in his well-known introduction to a collection 1 Various versions of this article were presented at UCLA’s Department of Sociology, the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies of the University of Osnabru¨ ck, Harvard’s Center for European Studies, the Center for Comparative Re- search of Yale University, the Association for the Study of Ethnicity at the London School of Economics, the Center for Ethnicity and Citizenship of the University of Bristol, the Department of Political Science and International Relations of University College Dublin, and the Department of Sociology of the University of Go¨ttingen.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism and Identity
    Nationalism and identity Dr. Sylvie Bernard-Patel [email protected] Nationalism Both of the 'great discourses of modernity, liberalism and Marxism, led people to expect not the revival but the gradual disappearance of the nationalist passion' (Stuart Hall, 1992) Contemporary sociologists claim that a process of globalisation has been taking place National boundaries becoming less significant in social life: Communication systems (e.g. internet) transcend such boundaries World's financial market linked by technology Resurgence of nationalism in recent debates - individuals identify more with their nation than with any other grouping: Demands for independence by the Scottish and Welsh in Britain – the Basques in Spain and the Breton in France Nationalism was important following the collapse of the USSR with demands for independence for Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine among all other countries Former Yugoslavia saw violent civil war as Croatians, Serbs and Bosniacs fought for territory in future independent states Since World War II, every conflict defined itself in nationalist term – the end of the era of nationalism so preconided is not remotely in sight! Nationalism is the most universally legitimate value claimed in the political of our time Importance of nationalism cannot be neglected in social theory, as it becomes an important feature of social life and one that shows little sign of becoming less important! Definition of Nationalism A nation can be defined as a imagined political community, both inherently limited and sovereign: Imagined
    [Show full text]
  • (Ethnic) Nationalism. the Origins and Critique of the Dichotomy
    polish 3()’ 171 10 sociological review ISSN 1231 – 1413 KRZYSZTOF JASKUŁOWSKI Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities Western (civic) versus Eastern (ethnic) Nationalism. The Origins and Critique of the Dichotomy Abstract: The author focuses on Hans Kohn (1891–1971) who is generally regarded as the founding father of modern Anglophone academic research on nationalism. He was first to adopt a more neutral stance toward nationalism, one that made sustained attempt at dispassionate analysis of the phenomenon in order to define, classify and explain it. However, not only did he bring in a innovative and novel perspective to the subject by producing broad comparative studies but he was responsible for introducing one of the basic and long-lasting themes to the study of nationalism, namely a strongly moralistic distinction between a good nationalism, which he associated with the West, and a bad nationalism allegedly typical for the non-Western world. The paper discusses three questions: first, how did Kohn conceptualize the differences between the two types of nationalism? Second, how and why did he come to his conclusions and, finally, if it can be argued as many authors claim, that his discrimination between the two types of nationalism are valid and useful? Keywords: Hans Kohn; nationalism; Eastern nationalism; ethnic nationalism; Western nationalism; civic nationalism; nationalism studies. Introduction Anglophone students of nationalism have recognized Hans Kohn (1891–1971) as one of the most learned and influential authorities on history of nationalism (Wolf 1976: 651; Kuzio 2002; Özkirimli 2000; Snyder 1995). Kohn’s works together with the writings of Carlton Hayes are generally regarded as a turning point in the study of nationalism in the English-speaking world.
    [Show full text]
  • Two Types of Nationalism in Europe?
    Russian and Euro-Asian Bulletin Vol.7 No.12 December 1997 Published by the Contemporary Europe Research Centre University of Melbourne Two Types of Nationalism in Europe? Stefan Auer Dec 1997 While intellectuals and some politicians in a radical change in the relationship between the West have seen Europe approaching the polity and culture, and that this in turn pro- ‘postmodern’ age, in which the conception duced nationalism. The salient feature of the of a national state would become outdated preceding agrarian societies was, according and would be replaced by a new multina- to Gellner, cultural diversity and fragmenta- tional and multicultural entity, the ‘back- tion in small autonomous sub-communities, ward’ neighbours in the East have been said each of which lived in its own specific id- to be prone to succumb to a resurgence of iom. A peasant had no need to communicate nationalism. Thus, analysts like Schöpflin1 with the elite of high culture who existed saw confirmed the old concept2 of two es- beyond his/her experience (which was usu- sentially different forms of nationalism: the ally limited to the size of his/her valley). The enlightened Western, that is supportive of modern industrial and predominantly urban democracy, and the backward Eastern, that society required mass literacy and a high de- is an obstacle to any genuinely democratic gree of social mobility, which could only be society. The differences are, however, not achieved by nearly universal access to a well described by this reference to geogra- state-sponsored ‘national’ educational sys- phy. Rather, two (or more) different concep- tem.
    [Show full text]