Multiple Modernities and Nationalism Revisited

This book aims to re-examine the modernity of nationalism from the perspective of the theory of multiple modernities. The theory of multiple modernities proposes a fresh understanding of modernity by focusing on the workings of human agency. Modernity is a series of constitution and re-constitution of various cultural and political programmes which are proposed in order to fill the gap between the transcendent order and the mundane reality; it is a human endeavour to make sense of the environment and to bring about a better future by making changes to it. Nationalism is now conceptualised as a form of such cultural programmes that suggests a range of nation-centric world views, and is an integral part of modernity. The re-conceptualisation of nationalism is judged to be necessary because of the recent re-examination of the concept of modernity in social theory. If nationalism is inherently modern, any re-examination of modernity should invite a re-examination of nationalism as well.