Re: [silk] On countries not being nation states

[Bruce A. Metcalf]

On 7/30/21 2:35 AM, Ameya Nagarajan wrote:


Could you expand a bit more on the un-nationality of India? Are we
not, rather, a multinational state and the trouble we run into is
that we're trying to forge a unified identity and unlike the US we
don't have strong citizen rights etc?


I think the US could also be defined as a multinational state. Strong 
citizen rights? Not so much, and they are presently under attack from a 
substantial minority who want to impose authoritarian rule.


Fortunately, this minority is incompetent, and doesn't include our 
military, which is all that kept us from becoming a military 
dictatorship last January.


But it is hard to try and form a nation from a state that was created by 
a combination of occupation, mass kidnapping, loose borders, and a 
history of internal strife. The very fact that we still have fifty 
nearly autonomous States speaks loudly to the level of tribalism still 
prevalent here, and even those are multinational.


I can thus sympathize with Indians over the challenges. Yes, both 
countries are worse due to the pressure of the pandemic, but if there 
weren't cracks in the foundation to begin with, the pressure wouldn't 
have spawned such evil changes.


So far, the only proposal I've heard that has even a chance of success 
is to hand everybody guns and let them shoot it out. Sadly, that's the 
process the US is going through, though not deliberately, and it's not 
going well.


I wish I had answers to go with my sympathy, as we two aren't the only 
countries facing this problem.


Cheers,
/ Bruce /

Re: [silk] On countries not being nation states

[Ameya Nagarajan]

FINALLY got around to reading this. Could you expand a bit more on the
un-nationality of India? Are we not, rather, a multinational state and the
trouble we run into is that we're trying to forge a unified identity and
unlike the US we don't have strong citizen rights etc?


Cordially,
Ameya Nagarajan
(she/her)







On Sat, 3 Jul 2021 at 23:08, Devdas Bhagat  wrote:

> https://acoup.blog/2021/07/02/collections-my-country-isnt-a-nation/
>
> This is about the US, but I have been thinking about India along the same
> lines
> (mostly inspired by the Hindi imposition debates and the resistance to
> Hindi in
> the southern states).
>
> Being Maharashtrian has never been a political identity (in spite of the
> best
> attempts of the Shiv Sena).
>
> Devdas Bhagat
>
>

[silk] On countries not being nation states

[Devdas Bhagat]

https://acoup.blog/2021/07/02/collections-my-country-isnt-a-nation/

This is about the US, but I have been thinking about India along the same lines
(mostly inspired by the Hindi imposition debates and the resistance to Hindi in
the southern states).

Being Maharashtrian has never been a political identity (in spite of the best
attempts of the Shiv Sena).

Devdas Bhagat