Nationalism

The author's aim is to view, in a preliminary manner, patriotism and nationalism, as they function inside patriots and nationalists. How do people feel when they discharge their roles and why do they feel that way? The author does not maintain that other modes of analysis, history, political science, journalism, literature are less important. They are different. The author has employed a psychological or behavioural approach, because such an approach has been more or less neglected. It is the author's view that those who approach the material on international politics need most a framework within which to organize that data. And, it is the author's view that the overall patterns of national and international politics, in the modern era, are caused by sharp differences in social, economic and political modernization among and within nations. It is this differential modernization that in turn causes shifts in the distribution of national and world power among states. It is those changes that underlie the wars and other conflicts in our era. The immensely complex pattern creates shifts in power; the shifts themselves and their consequences are not easily deflected by diplomacy or by military power. Nationalism is unquestionably one of the most important issues if not the most important issues, if not the most important one, of India. The country is facing external and internal dangers, and the pressure of recent events has underlined the need to be much more wary of internal dangers because they can cause greater harm as they erode and weaken the inner strength of a nation. One of our costly failures has been our inability to build a strong national identity and give it such a pride of place that it cannot be vanquished by other identities. The purpose of this book is to understand the foundations of nationalism through a patient analysis. The book will be useful for politicians, students of politics and the general reader.