This is first of many posts exploring idea behind India as Nation - State
It is a contradiction of modern nation states, as much as they are affirmation of what is common among its people, it is also, to some extent, a negation, an exclusion from another idea.
States were not always of nation-states form.
Greeks had city states, Athens , Sparta etc. Although all if them had same religion and same pantheon of Gods and goddesses, they had different school of thoughts. There school of philosophies were completely contradictory in some cases, the cities tried to organize their social structure in accordance with the underpinning philosophy. Indeed the very existence of city- states was affirmation of different schools.
Greeks were fiercely independent spirit and zealously guarded their identity.
Their arts, their institutions were reflection of their identity.
Athens was the most celebrated state ofcourse and is immortal in history for diverse schools which originated from its soil, in a way defining western civilization.
Spartan were radically different, they adapted a austere militarily lifestyle.
The Greek states were notoriously disunited, except for the Persian wars, the spent much of their energy fighting among themselves, ultimately allowing Romans to take over.
Romans who succeeded the Greeks adapted Greek schools, roman philosophy was an evolution of greek.Where Roman excelled Greeks were in establishing political institutions.
Although Greek had democracy, Romans were able to evolve institutions harmonized with democracy. It is a different matter that republic was subverted first by dictators and later Caesars.
Here it must be mentioned that although Greeks and Romans had evolved philosophy, they nevertheless were not egalitarian, despite presence of egalitarian school. Their societies had different classes of citizens, then their were slaves and then there was rest of Europe, which was considered to be barbarian. One of the goals of ambitious Romans was to bring civilization to Europe. This was to be repeated by European later.
Ancient Europe was different from Greeks or for that matter Romans. At that time Europe still in nomadic stage and culturally much more primitive than ancient civilizations. The Europeans were still divided on the basis of tribal identity. The territory exchanged between tribes, and there was a turbulent relation with Romans. The nature of religion was essentially naturalistic, and the pantheon was humanization of various forces of nature. Religion was an extension of tribal identity and evolved as fortune of tribes changed.
Rise of Mithraism (or Sun - God) during the turn of 1st century established a common unifying aspect to some extent , however this religion belonged to elites, who embraced it under Roman influence. The masses continued to worship previous deities, as the later religion was not proletyzing.
This changed however after Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, suitably modified with Mithraism, as the official religion of Roman empire. New testament enjoined believers to spread the gospel, in order to rescue non believers from eternal damnation. Under roman patronage and zealous evangelists, Christianity caught on and by 9th century most of Europe was Christian. In this respect, this was the first time when state and religion worked together to reinforce each other. This was to be repeated to various degrees of success during colonization of Africa and Asia.
Thus Christianity provided first basis for unification, it was further strengthened by establishment of first holy roman empire. However the tribal identity in Europe still remained.
The unification was complete after the establishment of Pope as temporal authority over Europe
In order to secure his position, Pope Urban II gave a call for Crusade and thus started a turbulent period. While as long as crusades were succeeding, Popes were able to reign supreme , however after the failure of Christians to secure Holy Land, this authority eroded. Increasing assertiveness of local rules (owing their allegiance to tribal and linguistic identities), resentment with Pope, along with period of enlightenment , the primitive contours of modern European nations started taking shape. Various cities emerged as centres of cultural and scientific re awakening. This with rise of middle class who were eager to establish a identity in contrast to kingdom , in order to challenge divinity of Kings was what ultimately established various nation- states.
Britain, owing to its geography was first to define itself. Holland, France and Spain followed.
Germany and Italy established thanks to the efforts of Bismarck and Garibaldi. Eastern Europe states would come only after dismemberment of Austria-Hungary empire.
Therefore European nation states can be deconstructed roughly in the following order.Tribal & Linguistic(French, German), then secretarian (i.e protestant, catholic etc) and then religion (i.e Christianity)
American countries including US were defined by immigration of Europeans to the new world.
Depending on the circumstance of immigration the borders were defined. However culturally south America remains fluid and more or less homogeneous. Revolutions in Latin America have always been launched across the continent and the politics in general follow the same trend.
While Latin America was defined by immigration of Hispanic, USA was defined by immigration of English puritans. The immigrants thrived because of opportunities available and soon developed separate identity, which found expression in American war on independence.
This restive energy was the result behind rapid expansion of US from 12 states to a transcontinental entity.Since then American constitution is the guiding force behind USA.
Therefore the USA can be deconstructed roughly as following immigration (from Europe except Spain), religion (puritanism), and the constitution.
Canada came on its own only after Anglo- American war of 1812, after repelling USA incursion, it realized itself as a separate entity.
There are two conclusion from above.
1) Nation-States are relatively modern construct.
2) It is primarily a western construct.
I think it can be safely said then that Modern nation state are reaffirmation of some idea, this idea may be tribal or linguistic affinity, may be same religion. However in case of India none of this holds true, the idea behind India is much more refined or abstract. I will try to explore it in later post.
I have not covered other ancient civilizations , however the point remains.
In ancient times territories changed hands between different Kingdom and therefore the nature of states could be said to empire-states rather than nation state.
Civilizations waxed and waned according to the territory, but state never coincided with Civilization.However in general there was continuity between civilizations.
