HY2229

Nation-building in Singapore: AY 2014-5
HY2229: Lecture 3

THE ORIGINS OF NATIONALISM

A. Introduction 1. The Conceptual Issue

2. The Historical Problem

B. The Conceptual Issue: Definitions

1. Development of ‘Nationalism’

a. The European roots of nationalism: Nations before States?

Nationalism as a concept began as a European idea. Scholars traced its origins to 18th century Western Europe and northern America. By the 19th century, the term was used to refer to the process whereby European ‘nations’ created sovereign ‘states’, the assumption being that ‘nations’ already existed and what was needed was state-building.

b. The Asian realization of nationalism: States before Nations?

Scholars have pointed out that in many parts of Asia and Africa before the 19th century, the idea of the ‘nation’ and ‘national consciousness’ remains at best very little understood or non-existent, particularly in tribal or feudal societies, where territorial borders were porous and many groups differentiated by race, language, religion, and culture coexisted within a single territorial space.

Nation: a community sharing the common grounds.
State building is by none other than nationalism.

The territory boundary is very porous , thereby difficult for national consciousness to be strengthened due to different races and religions.

2. Defining ‘Nationalism’

a. Hans Kohn:
‘Nationalism centers the supreme loyalty of the overwhelming majority of the people upon the nation-state, either existing or desired.’

b. Stanley I. Benn:
‘a sentiment of loyalty to a nation; a propensity … to consider exclusively the interests of one’s own nation.’; ‘an attitude which attaches high importance to the distinctive characteristics of a nation.’

c. John A. Hall:
‘belief in the primacy of a particular nation, real or constructed.

d. A.D. Smith:
‘An ideological movement for attaining and maintaining autonomy, unity and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential “nation”.’

e. Stein Tonnesson and Hans Antlov:
‘An ideological movement for attaining or maintaining a nation-state.’

Summary
Implicit in the word nationalism is the concern with the nation

Nationalism is about the whole process of forming and maintaining nations or nation states.

3. Defining ‘Nation’

a. The criteria (checklist) approach:

Rupert Emerson: ‘a single people, traditionally fixed on a well-defined territory, speaking the same language and preferably a language all its own, possessing a distinctive culture, and shaped to a common mould by many generations of shared historical experience’.

b. The conceptual approach:

(1) The Ethnic dimension: ‘Nation’ as an ethnically homogenous community or ethnie. (See A.D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1986.)

in Latin means To be born! of like same blood.

(2) The Cultural dimension: ‘Nation’ as a community sharing certain cultural distinctiveness. (See Ernest Gellner, Nationalism (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.)

(3) The Political dimension: ‘Nation’ as a political community. (See Hugh Seton-Watson, Nations and States: An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism (Boulder: Westview Press, 1977.)

United Nations are created after World War II. Singapore a part of it.
A nation is a community of people whose members are bond tgt by a sense of solidarity.

(4) The Psychological dimension: ‘Nation’ as an ‘imagined community’. (See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991.)

subjective! Sth that is not tangible.
THe existence of a nation is .. a daily plebiscite.

C. The Historical Problem: ‘Origins’

1. The problem of a Singapore ‘nation’

a. The pattern of history

What would history tell us about the prospects of creating a Singapore ‘nation’?

Nation is catergoried
A nation cannot be defined by a list of criteria. nation is characterized by the want for independence

b. The presence of impediments

What would be the obstacles to creating a Singapore ‘nation’?
Physical
Political

2. The provision of a Singaporean ‘nationalism’

a. Pre-1941: The British and ‘Ethnic’ Nationalism

(1) No strong indigenous Singaporean nationalism had developed to challenge British rule.
Desire was to strengthen ethnic identity.
Drawn to political development in motherland
Distracted by being given a voice in public forums.
Displaced by Singapore's peace and prosperity
Disallowed by the British (SG was invaluable to them)

(2) Instead, external events influenced the development of ethnic nationalism

b. 1941-1945: The Japanese and ‘Ethnic’ Nationalism

(1) No strong Singaporean nationalism developed.

(a) Ethnic tensions and rivalry increased.
Japanese treated malays better than the Chinese , creating the agony and thus ethnic rivalry

(b) Enthusiastic reception for British ‘liberators’.

(c) Encounter no nationalist war of liberation.

Got a bit of Nationalism as British was then welcome

c. Post-1945: The onset of ‘Territorial’ Nationalism

(1) The process whereby a nationalist movement arises among the heterogeneous populations within the confines of a colonial state with the aim of taking over from the colonial power, and adopting the latter’s administrative unit as the basis of the projected ‘nation’. (A.D. Smith)

d. Post-1965: The onset of ‘Singaporean’ Nationalism?

(1) ‘[Singapore’s separation from Malaysia] kindled the first feelings of Singapore nationalism … Singaporeans began to feel a collective sentiment of nationalism. Faced with this tenuous but forced independence, the leaders of the PAP undertook policies designed to foster Singaporean nationalism’. (W.E. Willmott)

D. Conclusion

Singapore at 50 – Are we a Nation?

©Assoc Prof Albert Lau
27 January 2015