ANDERSON’S CONCEPTION OF A NATION AS “AN IMAGINED POLITICAL COMMUNITY”

Abstract

In Benedict Anderson’s ‘Imagined Communities’, he explains what a nation is and how its existence came into being. Following Anderson’s contention, one can possibly delve into the fundamental question of ‘what is a nation?’ Despite the various views on the idea of a nation, the inevitable problem lies within the inadequacy of the answer since there is no objective criterion that fulfills to the definition of a nation.[1] But generally, by nation, it is understood and interpreted as a political boundary where large number of people is linked by common elements like language, culture, ethnicity, history, religion and so on. Anderson on the other hand, conceptualized a nation as “an imagined political community— and both inherently limited and sovereign”.[2] This imagination as a successful activity was made possible with the advancement of print-capitalism. Print-capitalism, with the enrichment in the field of communication that takes the form of newspaper and novel has inked in the mind of the people filtering an idea of national consciousness. Hence, communication in terms of Anderson’s opinion plays a fundamental role in allowing people to picture themselves not as a disparate population but to see themselves in terms of a unified whole. The present paper is an attempt to specify and analyze some of the issues that has been undermined in Anderson’s conception of a nation. The issues are articulated on two accounts—

• The importance of spontaneity of individuals in developing the sense of nationalism and
• The problem of hierarchy in the field information and communication.

The paper is structured into two sections and a conclusion. In the first section, the paper examines some of the shortcomings associated with the materialist fashion of articulating the concept of nation. And in the second section, the paper discusses on how communication to certain degree may fail to cause the arousal of nationalism among individuals.