What is Nationalism?

by Romila Thapar

Genres: Politics, History, India

12 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2016

About the author

Romila Thapar is an Indian historian and Professor Emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

A graduate from Panjab University, Dr. Thapar completed her PhD in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Her historical work portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.

Thapar has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.

Reviews

[Ajay]

This is called how to make a fool out of books lover. This book is an extract from another book "On Nationalism". I have read that book and it wasn't that good. I thought i will get new perspective after reading this book and obviously this one was published later, so i thought this one must be updated with new views and ideas. But no, it wasn't.
Not recommended.

[Abhishek Jha]

Biased view

Biased view, not clear what nationalism actually means and What should be it's form in the current cintext. Seems a political answer to current Chaos.

[Mohammad Hadi]

Good book

Indian nationalism is unique in itself as it gives you larger identity of an Indian and the the same time promotes the idea of protecting individual identities on the faith, cultural or linguistic basis. The book illustrates how this notion of Nationalism is being deviated in India using "Hindutva" politics and mass media.

[NEEL Singathia]

Come on , Thapar !! Is this the best you can write ?

Nobody is saying that you should chant Bharat Mata ki Jai or Jai shree Ram otherwise you will be anti national. It can be policy of individual but as far as I know there is no law/rule made by so-called Fascist Govt.

Thapar writes //Differences among historians arise
when the pseudo-nationalisms exaggerate the importance of a single history
of one religious community as being the pre-eminent history of the nation,
and denigrate and distort the history of other communities//

Aren't you guys doing the same by glorifying Muslim Invaders and ignoring atrocities committed by them or temple destructed by them.

Personally I have nothing against Biased people. In fact , they should be proud what side they are choosing. But don't sell the idea that I AM UNBIASED. No , you are not. And even if anyone thinks that people should be Unbiased then that ERA IS OVER.


But book didn't answer what the heck should be criteria of Nationalism and Why so. Thapar not only criticize Right wing (nothing wrong with it as I said ERA OF UNBIASEDNESS is OVER) but went on to defend PAkistan too so If any Indian criticize Pakistan that too is Bad Nationalism to her.

Q. What is Good Nationalism to her ?
Ans. Nothing. Just don't do anything.

Thanks Romila Thapar JI. Your books will be remembered for good paper packets which will be used by Samosa selling Shopkeeper.

[Varun]

Short and to the point.

The topic of Nationalism has received a befitting description it needed in today's political scenario. A quick read as it does not go into the root causes of things but nevertheless​ insightful. You will not be disappointed with the book

[Abhijith Nayak]

A short read, slightly pedagogic but clarifies the difference between what constitutes a nation, a territory, an ethnicity, a state and a government

[Jagadeesh Kumar]

This short read is an excerpt from the book "On Nationalism" which is co-authored by Romila Thapar.

Tries to distinguish between different versions of nationalism, the banal and sensible.

[Abhidev H M]

Imagined

[rith]

incredible foundation for what it means to be a nation and what a nation “deserves”