The rise of nations, with an Arabic twist

In his classic book, Imagined Communities, the British professor Benedict Anderson writes that the age of nationalism is far from over. He argues that belonging to a nation bestows the highest level of legitimacy on our modern political life.

The book, which was recently published in Arabic by the Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies, presents an alternative worldview to nationalism and covers a wide range of topics in a relatively slim volume. The author describes the book's methodology as somewhere between Marxism and liberalism.

The nation as an imagined political community

A nation is an imagined political community, imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.

Anderson defines a nation as "an imagined political community - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign". From this definition, the author explores the cultural roots of the concept of the nation, as he believes the concept of nation only emerged in Europe after the decline of Latin as a sacred and universal language, in an age of scientific discoveries and innovations, and especially after the invention of the printing press.

Anderson argues that other factors, such as moving away from inherited absolute monarchy and the dominance of the church contributed to the emergence of the "nation".

These developments allowed people to think for themselves and connect with others in new ways, especially through print. Print was the platform on which modern nations were based. By the year 1500, approximately 20 million books had been printed. The print industry was an early capitalist project, constantly searching for new markets and publishers, opening new branches around Europe, which contributed to the spread and standardisation of local languages among millions of people.

Widespread printing furthered the emergence of the Protestant reformation movement in Germany in the 16th century, after Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. The German translation spread throughout the country in a matter of weeks.

Thereafter, books published in German increased and "north western German" vernacular became the salient language due to its inclusivity.

However, Arabic developed into a national language differently from German and Latin. In the Arabic edition’s foreword, publisher Azmi Bishara writes that Arabic did not develop out of another language, such as French from Latin, and local Arabic dialects did not become printed languages, and it was not promoted as part of a nationalist project, like modern Hebrew.

In the case of Arabic, he says, a sacred language became a national language, and this meant that the secular and religious were to an extent mixed, and many imagined an Arabic nation in religious terms.

In the chapter titled "Creole Pioneers", Anderson discusses the development of national liberation movements in the Americas at the hands of Creole settlers, which took place before the national liberation movements in Europe. Anderson says that the end of these successful movements in the Americas coincided with the start of nation states in Europe.

Old Europe, new nationalisms

In the chapter "Old Languages New Models", the author believes that the new nationalisms that changed the old world in Europe between 1820 and 1920 were united by two things: firstly the ideological and political importance of "print vernacular", and secondly, the republican models recently minted in the Americas and France.

In the case of Arabic, a sacred language became a national language.

The author also points out that the independent republics that emerged in the Americas kept the colonial administrative borders. These republics become the model for later nation states in Europe, Asia and Africa.

With the spread of nationalist vernaculars and sentiments among the populations of the empires, and the weakening legitimacy of ruling dynasties, dynastic groups were forced to adopt the language and nationalisms of the masses. For example, French was the language of the Romanov dynasty in Saint Petersburg in the 18th century, and German was the language of the nobility in the Russian countryside, Poland and Ukraine.

What Anderson calls "the nationalism of the last wave" was mostly in colonial Asia and Africa, and emerged as a reaction to colonialism, spurred on by industrial capitalism.

At the end of his book, the author clears nationalism of responsibility for racism. He argues that racism cannot be equated with nationalism, as nationalism strips its opponents of their nationality and restrict them to their biological traits.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.