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Nationalism as a concept began as a European idea. Scholars traced its origins to 18th century Western Europe and northern America. By the 19th century, the term was used to refer to the process whereby European ‘nations’ created sovereign ‘states’, the assumption being that ‘nations’ lready existed and what was needed was state-building. . The Asian realization of nationalism: States before Nations? Scholars have pointed out that in many parts of Asia and Africa before the 19th century, the idea of the ‘nation’ and ‘national consciousness’ remains at best very little understood or non-existent, particularly in tribal or feudal societies, where territorial borders were porous and many groups differentiated by race, language, religion, and culture coexisted within a single territorial space. Nation: a community sharing the common grounds. State building is by none other than nationalism.
The territory boundary is very porous , thereby difficult for national consciousness to be strengthened due to different races and religions. 2. Defining ‘Nationalism’ a. Hans Kohn: ‘Nationalism centers the supreme loyalty of the overwhelming majority of the people upon the nation-state, either existing or desired. ‘ b. Stanley l. Benn: ‘a sentiment of loyalty to a nation; a propensity to consider exclusively the interests of one’s own nation. ‘; ‘an attitude which attaches high importance to the distinctive characteristics of a nation. c. John A.
Hall: ‘belief in the primacy of a particular nation, real or constructed. d. A. D. Smith: ‘An ideological movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential “nation”. ‘ e. Stein Tonnesson and Hans Antlov: ‘An ideological movement for attaining or maintaining a nation-state. ‘ Su m mary Implicit in the word nationalism is the concern with the nation Nationalism is about the whole process of forming and maintaining nations r nation states.