PATTERNS OF INVENTION

An old saying describes a nation as a group of people united by a common mistake about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors. Pointing to a tenuous link with the past and a heartfelt detachment from other peoples, this witticism is as helpful an introduction to the dynamics of inventing a nation as any scholarly definition. Unless an “us” is created that is separate from “them,” organizing human beings into a political unit can hardly succeed. The maintenance and historical adjustment of this collective identity, as fictitious as its symbols might be, serves an important political function by providing a framework for the difficult integration of diverging social groups, religions, and lifestyles - even antagonistic ideologies.

In terms of scholarly definitions, the understanding of the nation as an imagined political community, though not new, has received much attention in recent years. Political scientists and historians have even become fearful that the discussion is shifting precariously from the realm of constitutional law and political ideologies to that of cultural mentalities and generalities. Yet, although social scientists such as Ernest Gellner and Miroslav Hroch have made the connection between nationalism and modernization watertight,