The Battle of Belonging: On Nationalism, Patriotism, And What it Means to Be Indian

by Shashi Tharoor

As the German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas has observed, the success of the nation-state was derived from its establishing relations of solidarity between the citizens as its basis, rather than the old feudal or monarchical allegiances. But, Habermas goes on to point out, ‘this republican achievement is endangered when, conversely, the integrative force of the nation of citizens is traced back to the pre-political fact of a quasi-natural people, that is, to something independent of and prior to the political opinion—and will-formation—of the citizens themselves’.69 The evocation of the past can thus be both a cementing factor in nationalism and one that undermines it—an important insight, as we shall see, in the context of contemporary India.