International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)

ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2022): 7.942

A Critical Analysis of Anderson‘s Imagined

Communities with Special Reference to India
Dr. Reetu Jaiswal
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi
Email: [Link][at][Link]

1. Introduction been addressed with proportionate attention. In this respect,

Benedict Anderson has filled this void with his widely
Nationalism has become one of the most tenacious acclaimed work Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
ideological bonds binding human beings together into Origin and Spread of Nationalism, considered one of the
separate political communities. There is no doubt that its most original among the scholarship on, by offering us a
value may vary, its particular content may change, but novel formulation of the concept of ‗nation‘ as something
fundamentally the nationalist feeling is described in terms of which is given a workable definition he termed the
a shared feeling of togetherness that defines the ―we‖ against ‗imagined community‘.
the ―they‖. Nations are invariably defined in terms of a
community and in terms ofthe loyalty of its citizens to the Concerned with the question of the origin of and
community. It is indeed a community of values shared by all dissemination of national consciousness, Anderson
its citizens, a common heritage, a common history, a demonstrated that, in the framework of a universal history
common character, a common sense and a common will. nations were not to be construed as the determinate products
of given sociological conditions such as language, race or
Basically, a nation has three constitutive elements: ethnie, religion. In his own formulation, these nations had been, in
states and territory. The most common typologies are Europe and everywhere else in the world, imagined into
derived from the respective weight that each of these existence. He argues that the nation is a cultural construct,
elements has had in defining the nation. If an ethnic group not in the sense of building on historical tradition but in that
forms its own state, we get ‗ethno - nationalism‘; if a state of being collectively imagined by all these going to the same
uses its bureaucracy to mobilize a single national culture, we kinds of school, viewing or listening to the same media,
get ‗official nationalism‘; finally, if the inhabitants of a sharing the same mental map of the nation and its
certain territory secede from a larger state or colonial power, surrounding world, or visiting the same museums. There is
and from a new multi - ethnic state with a joint national thus nothing immanent, or original about the nation; it is a
ideology, we get ‗plural nationalism‘. We would like, now, construct, similar everywhere, only using different symbols,
to see if we can use these three types (derived from but it always considers itself as antique.
Anderson and Smith) to map the Indian nation. The typology
is constructed on the basis of all the routes that states and Anderson starts by arguing that nationalism is ―a radically
ethnies have followed to nationhood. changed form of consciousness‖ (Anderson, 1991: xiv). For
him, the nation is an ―imagined political community - and
The first route, the creation of a new state on ethno - imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign‖ (Ibid: 6).
religious grounds, has been of little importance in East and To define it, he starts with the reason why the nation has to
Southeast Asia, but more so in South Asia. The second be imagined: ―It is imagined because the members of even
route, the broadening of an existing state into nationhood the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow
(official nationalism), is the route which was followed by members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds
Japan and Thailand. The third route, anti - colonial of each lives the image of their community‖ (Ibid: 6). Thus,
liberation, leading to the creation of a plural state in a an imagined community is different from an actual
political space demarcated by European imperialism, has community because it is not (and cannot be) based on
characterized those parts of South and Southeast Asia where quotidian face - to - face interaction between its members.
the colonial states did not converge with any former dynastic Instead, members hold in their minds a mental image of their
realm. This route, which was paved by the colonial regimes, affinity.
has been taken by India.
Anderson argues that there are three aspects to what is being
In the above para, I have made out the type of nationalism imagined (Ibid: 7):
prevailing in India. Now, here I will try to show whether 1) As ―limitation‖ because even the largest of them,
Anderson‘s concept of nation and nationalism is applicable encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings,
to India or not and if not then why? has finite, if elastic boundaries, beyond which lie other
nations.
Anderson’s view of nation and nationalism 2) As ―sovereignty‖ because the concept was born in an
While many studies have been written on nationalist age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were
political movements, the sense of nationality—the idea of a destroying the legitimacy of the divinely - ordained,
personal and cultural feeling of belonging to a nation has not hierarchical dynastic realm.

Volume 12 Issue 7, July 2023

[Link]
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR23724115511 DOI: 10.21275/SR23724115511 1794
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2022): 7.942
3) As ―community‖ because regardless of the actual Two more factors in Anderson‘s argument could be regarded
inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the as central to the origins of nationalism—the decline of
nation is always conceived as deep, horizontal dynastic realm and the changing apprehension of time. The
comradeship. former was important because it called for a new foundation
Anderson is insistent that ―imagined‖ does not mean ―false‖, of legitimacy and, in due course of time, nations came to be
because all communities beyond the original gatherer - regarded as providing that foundation. The ruling elites even
hunter groups have to conduct a similar act of imagining: stated at some point to consciously try and shape emerging
―communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/ nations in a certain way through the instrument of nationalist
genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined‖ ideology. The changing apprehension of time allowed for
(Ibid: 6). Anderson‘s argument is that this imagining took the first time a look to the past as to history and not as a
place historically with the collapsing of three fundamental reflection of the future or realization of the future. It allowed
cultural conceptions that he outlines as (Ibid: 36): for the first time a look at the future as to an essentially,
limitless period of time. The present became the calendaric
1) The first of these was the idea that a particular script - present and not the scatological expectation of the end of the
language offered privileged access to ontological truth, world. This allowed for new opportunities for
precisely because it was an inseparable part of that truth. ―manufacturing‖ commonality creating a sense of tradition
2) Second was the belief that society was naturally and continuity that would be convincing enough to create
organized around and under high centres — monarchs the community in the imagination of the people.
who were persons apart from other human beings and
who ruled by some form of cosmological (divine) The remainder of the book sets out how national
dispensation. consciousness spread and was transmuted into nationalism.
3) Third was a conception of temporality in which He argues there were three main kinds of nationalism,
cosmology and history were indistinguishable, the arising in successive waves: ―Creole Nationalism‖
origins of the world and of men essentially identical. associated with the revolt of the American colonies (―creole‖
in its Spanish use means a Latin American of European
Such notions rooted human lives and families in the very ancestry); ―Language Nationalism‖ associated with Western
nature of things, giving certain meanings to the everyday Europe; and ―Official Nationalism‖ associated with central
fatalities of existence (above all death, loss and servitude) and Eastern Europe and with the Asian and African anti -
and offering in various ways, redemption from them. All colonial movements.
these conceptions were subverted by economic change,
discoveries, social and scientific and the development of In this way, Anderson explained the conception of nation
increasingly rapid communications. ―No surprise then that and nationalism more than any previous writer. Anderson
the search was on, so to speak, for a new way of linking established that the phenomenon of nationalism was
fraternity, power and time together‖ (Ibid: 36). constructed and historical, not natural and eternal.

For Anderson, the solution was provided by the emergence Can Anderson’s views be relevant to India?
of ―print capitalism‖. He sees print capitalism as laying the
foundation in these ways: they created unified field of What Anderson failed to take sufficient notice of, however,
exchange and communication, they gave a new fixed form to is the extent to which the boundaries of the imaginable for
language, and they created a language of power of a kind, ‗most of the world‘ are already determined by a particular
different from the older administrative vernaculars. Print form of the nation - state prescribed by the West. Embedded
capitalism created the possibility of a vast market beyond within that form, according to Partha Chatterjee, is a
the tiny minority who could understand Latin. According to predetermined relationship between community and the
him, print - language (Ibid: 44 - 45): state, in which community must take the form of nation: ― (t)
1) Created unified field of exchange communication below he modern state, embedded as it is within the universal
Latin and above the spoken vernacular, narrative of capital, cannot recognize within its jurisdiction
2) Gave a new fixity to language which in the long run any form of community except the single, determinate,
helped to build that image of antiquity so central to the demographically enumerable form of nation. ‖ (Chatterjee,
subjective idea of the nation, and 1993: 238)
3) Created languages of power with certain dialects
playing a dominant part in communication through India has a greater cultural variety. One of its cultural
printing. varieties is that religious factors have played much the same
divisive role that vernacular languages have played in
These were ―largely unselfconscious processes resulting Europe. What Benedict Anderson calls the standard
from the explosive interaction between capitalism, linguistic or vernacular model is difficult to find in Asia, and
technology and human linguistic diversity‖ (Ibid: 45). this confirms that India has not just pirated European
Although vernacular language was critical to the original models, but has based the image of her nation on the
formation of national consciousness, once nationalism differences that she herself considers most important.
became available as a model, it was no longer necessary for
new nation to have this as their basis. Thus, Anderson argues India was a kind of historical community although it was not
that one of the major components of the environment in unified under one state. What made India into a nation - state
which nations emerged was language. in our wide definition of the word was not racial, religious or
linguistic unity, but the inclusive idea of an Indian
Volume 12 Issue 7, July 2023
[Link]
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR23724115511 DOI: 10.21275/SR23724115511 1795
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2022): 7.942
civilization with a great peninsular geo - body. But the been imagined. In any case, there are many nations
civilizational, inclusive strand of Indian nationalism has all throughout the world that share the same language.
along been challenged by regional and religious opposition Therefore, the ‗language‘ of nationalism must be conceived
groups. It is important not to forget that Gandhi‘s of differently, in idiomatic rather than linguistic terms.
nationalism was not so much aimed at the criterion of a
nation - state; he rarely talked about an Indian nation. 2. Conclusion
Nationalism was patriotism, in defence of a nation, but of a
moral order derived from ancestral loyalty and communal Though Anderson had a very important place among
integrity. His mission was to recreate the sense of an Indian nationalists, his idea of ‗imagined communities‘ was
civilization, regarding its people and create the conditions criticized by many philosophers. In India, it can be said that
for autonomous moral growth. it is not a totally natural country, because most of its parts
have been added and separated during its creation. But it
There is no doubt that Asian nations have been formed in the cannot be said to be imagined also. Because it has a variety
image of African and European modular forms, to use of languages, castes, religions etc. So, it is an objective
Benedict Anderson‘s expression, but this is only one side of civilization that has made it a nation, not a subjective
the coin. On the other are the limitations imposed by, the imagination. The print media has come here, after its
usage made of local culture. There is something to be learnt existence as a nation. So, it cannot be taken as a cause of
from the Bengali Subaltern intellectual Partha Chatterjee, building a nation at least in India.
who attacks the idea that Indian national identity was
imagined uniquely through the lens of the colonial power, The question is that, is there no way out of a self - serving
and asks: If non - western nationalists could choose only image of the nation that will steer clear of imagining the
between certain forms of already imagined communities, nation? Yes, it seems there is, if we can go back to Tagore.
what then was there left to imagine? He challenges Benedict Let us remember him in this mad world of flaming national
Anderson by broadening the question of identity from the passions, ―It is my conviction‖, wrote Tagore in
political to the ‗private‘ sphere and arguing that identities Nationalism, ―that my countrymen will truly gain their India
were also formed and kept alive in homes and social by fighting against the education which teaches them that a
networks where Europeans had no access. country is greater than the ideals of humanity‖ (Tagore,
1996: 423). Tagore draws the concept of nation not in the
Chatterjee concedes that the British established the religious, sense that Anderson has imagined or Western nations have
caste, linguistic and ethnic categories that are used in built, but in the sense of civilization and culture, personal
modern India, and acknowledges the role of these categories relations. Gandhi has also accepted the existence of nation in
in the formation of Indian national identity. Still, he rejects India, before the arrival of the Britishers, in its ancient
the idea that ‗India‘ is an entirely modern creation, and tradition and civilization. India has not imitated the concept
argues: ―The more nationalism engaged in its contest with of nation - state from the West after being ruled by the
the colonial power in the outer domain of politics, the more Britishers, but it had that sense of nationhood in its tradition,
it insisted on displaying the marks of ‗essential‘ cultural in its culture and in its ‗civilization‘. Though it is acceptable
differences so as to keep out the colonizer from that inner that the modern concept of nation has affected it to a great
domain of national life and to proclaim its sovereignty over extent, but it does not conclude that it has built the Indian
it. ‖ (Ibid: 26) This ‗essential‘ inner or spiritual domain of nation. It has only modified our nation. Gandhi, in his book
culture was never colonized, he claims, and although it was Hind Swaraj (1938), not only criticized modernity but also
developed in response to Western imperialism, it was always gave a full description of what kind of a nation India is and
Indian and never European. In the inner domain, the nation should be.
was already sovereign. Further, Chatterjee ventures to
disrupt the unifying aspiration of Indian nationalism, and Thus, Anderson‘s view of imagined communities was totally
argues that there are different co - existing national voices or affected by his surroundings. Perhaps, he was not fully
‗fragments‘ –among women, peasants, elite, castes, outcasts aware of the conditions of other countries like India, where
- each with its separate discourse. Anderson never, actually, language, print media, etc. were not the root cause of nation
addresses the real problem: how does nationalist thought - building. So, it can be said that though his theory was very
overcome cultural relativism in order to create a effective and praiseful, it does not suit the context of India.
‗homogeneous‘ cultural identity to which millions of people
can willingly subordinate existing socio - political and References
cultural identities? If the masses are to be invited into history
in a language they understand, how is this to be achieved? [1] Anderson, B. (1983/1991). Imagined Communities:
What is the language? It cannot be language as such since Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
language is not a viable basis for constructing identities that New York: Verso.
are limited. As Anderson himself points out, languages are [2] Chatterjee, P. (1986). Nationalist Thought and the
open - ended and can be learnt; nor can it be print - language Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? New Delhi:
rather than language per se since print - languages are no Oxford University Press.
less open than spoken ones. Anderson‘s implication is that [3] Chatterjee, P. (1993). The Nation and Its Fragments:
print - languages create a vernacular literary tradition on a Colonial and Post - Colonial Histories. Princeton:
national basis but that again presupposes a per - existing Princeton University Press.
national identity, and creation of ‗national‘ traditions must. [4] Davidson, N. (2008). "Reimagined Communities".
By very definition, come after the concept of nation has first International Socialism. International Socialism, Issue
Volume 12 Issue 7, July 2023
[Link]
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR23724115511 DOI: 10.21275/SR23724115511 1796
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2022): 7.942
117, http: //[Link]. org. uk/index.
php4?id=401&issue=117, retrieved on 10.28.2022.
[5] Gandhi, M. K. (1938/ 2006). Hind Swaraj or Indian
Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Mudranalaya.
[6] Hutchinson, J. and Smith, A. (ed.) (2000).
Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science.
Vol. III. London: Routledge Publication.
[7] Krishnaswami, R. and Hawley, J. C. (2007).
Postcolonial and the Global. University ofMinneapolis:
Minnesota Press.
[8] Mondal, A. A. (2003). Nationalism and Post -
Colonial Identity: Culture and Ideology in India and
Egypt. London: Routledge Curzon.
[9] Smith, A. D. (1991). National Identity. London:
Penguin Books.
[10] Smith, A. D. (1998). Nationalism and Modernism: A
Critical Survey of Recent Theories of Nations and
Nationalism. London: Routledge
[11] Smith, A. D. (2001). Nationalism. Cambridge: Polity
Press.
[12] Tagore, R. (1996). "Nationalism". In S. K. Das, The
English Writings ofRabindranath Tagore Vol.2.
(pp.417 - 466). New Delhi: Sahitya Academy.

Volume 12 Issue 7, July 2023

[Link]
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR23724115511 DOI: 10.21275/SR23724115511 1797