Partha Chatterjee: Why Nationalism Works

Dr Philip Holden, University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore

POLITICAL DISCOURSE: THEORIES OF COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM

Thus anti-colonial nationalism shares a thematic with colonialism, even when the problematic is exactly opposite. Nationalism accepts the notions of progress towards reason and modernity propounded by colonialism. Freed from the rule of colonial difference, however, nationalism can bring modernity to the citizens of the new nation in a way that colonialism never could. Colonialism presents itself as governmentality, but deeply, at the last resort, it must resort to force, to sovereignty, a premodern form of power. In its lack of representativeness, colonialism can never realize the project of modernity; nationalism can.

 

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Last Modified: 19 April, 2002