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Ronan Okram
M.A. IV semester(final)
Term Paper
University of Delhi
Topic:- Language, nationalism , religion and
their relations to each other.

Importance of Language in a
nation
Language has always been a catalyst in the
idea of a nation. What makes language so
special is that it helps in binding the entire
populace into a single thread and forge a
single identity and cultural lineage. We see
this attempt to thread a single identity in
our education system, in particular,
compulsory study of Hindi language in
schools in India. By teaching Hindi in an
early age, the different section of this
country blends in with the idea of a common
entity. Communication among the people of
the country is also one factor to study this
Hindi. If we ask ourselves why Hindi in

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particular among many different languages in

India?? The answer would be because Hindi
language shares many similarities with many
other languages in the country which is
related in one way or the other to Hindi.
And thus makes it ideal to forge a single
entity and common identity. In a diverse
country like India with many different cultures
and languages, the difficult task of unifying
this diverse country does makes us wonder
on the role of Hindi. Though its all well and
good in forging a single identity through
Hindi, there is always the notion of Other.
In a country as diverse as India its always
problematic to give importance to only one
language. I will elaborate on this.
After independence, the Indian union declared
Hindi in Devnagiri script to be the official
language of India. It was supposed to replace
English after the independence. Each states
were allowed to use their own official
language for ease of governance. But
english was to be used until 1965 according
to the constitution of that time. Because
most of the governance and law was done in
English due to our colonial past and it will
take time to translate all of them to hindi.
Now when the time came to amend this

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constitution to replace English with Hindi.

Many states in India protested especially the
southern states whose language has no link
to hindi at all. As the protest got momentum
English stayed to be one of the official
languages. More so English was widely
recognise due to the colonial past.
What I am trying to point out is that
there is almost always a constant struggle
underneath the idea of a nation. We give a
part of our identity to strive as a whole
nation on one hand and the drive to
maintain and preserve the regional identity
on the other. In a country like India its
always problematic to have one language for
all. Thats precisely the reason why we have
the list of schedule languages in the Indian
constitution which promotes and encourage
the list of languages. Currently there are
twenty-two official languages recognised by
the Indian constitution. In short Hindi is not
the official language of India but all the
twenty-two schedule languages. The example
can be seen in the Indian parliament where
the representative can address in Hindi or
English or their own language. The reason of
not able to impose a single language for all
in India is in my opinion, not only of the

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diversity but the way language plays a role

in each and every community and society.
Language is the mirror from which each
community see their culture and it is often
said that if you understand a language you
will understand the nuances of the culture.
So in a way language is the key to unlock
the door to respective cultures. Its
understandable when many states in India
agitated when Hindi was announced to be
the only official language of the new
republic. They feared of culturally being
suppressed by other parts. The whole
Dravidian movement in southern India could
be traced to this period. And the movement
still holds strong in this states.

Another mention I would like to make is the

culture and heritage of Tibetan people.. The
Chinese in their attempt to impose policies of
socialization have eroded the social and
cultural fabric of that society... the Tibetan
language in itself has suffered immensely.
The new generation of Tibetans in Tibet have
started to speak Chinese and taken in the
Chinese culture all along with the education
that the government have provided. This has
made some Tibetans worried about their

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cultural heritage. I have had the pleasure of

friendship with some Tibetan diaspora in
India. According to them keeping the Tibetan
language is quintessential to the survival of
Tibetan freedom struggle. Many self-exiled
people both in and outside Tibet are trying
to keep their language and custom alive. For
me this shows the importance of language in
a society. For the Tibetans their language is
the storehouse of their culture and customs.
Even after the passing of His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, the Tibetan people hope to
continue the struggle. To them their language
will show the freedom and heritage of their
society. So the struggle continues to carry on
in their language.

Nationalism
Taking the role of language in forming
nationalism further, the ruling class in Europe
used different language from their masses.
Taking the example of England, the ruling
class in England used French as the official
language. We see the influences of French in
many works of this period. Infect early
English had more commonality with French
language. It is only after Chaucer that the

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English language began its own identity and

well lead to the idea of English as a nation.
Such is the case with France, German
unification and other nation states that
emerged in that era. It is the language their
ethnic identity that lead to the formation of
these nations. What I am trying to stress at
is the power of language which makes
people associate themselves with the same
language community. Firstly, speaking the
same language give people the platform to
connect more directly and intimately.
Secondly speaking a language means we
understand the nuances and different tit-bits
of that particular culture. Certainly someone
who doesnt speak French cannot understand
the French culture more than someone who
speaks it.
Nationalism in my point of view is not
only based on linguistic but also ethnocentric.
Communities from time immemorial have
settled base mostly on ethnicity. A family is
made up of same ethnicity, the family settles
on a village which have some similar
background, and that village somehow
connects with other ones base on ethnicity
or language. Off course people move and
travel, a village is not only made up of one

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ethnic group. But that comes under minority.

If we look at all the emergence of nation
states during the seventeenth and eighteenth
century most of these nation based their
idea of one nation on the ethnicity of their
community and off course same language. No
wonder nationalism emerged so profoundly
during this period. It is also completely
possible to have a nation without having a
nation state. For instance Germany before
the unification had more than thirty separate
entities but they all called themselves
German because they shared a cultural
affinity. In our modern world, the idea of
Kurdistan is another good example of having
a nation without a nation-state. The Kurds
live in part in Turkey and some part in Iraq.
They are divided between two countries.
They were promised a homeland after the
treaty of versatile which was never
realized. Now the United States takes the
help of Kurds to fight ISIS. I used the
analogy of Kurdistan because I wanted to
dispel the idea of a nation with that of a
nation-state. Even though the Kurds are
considered to be part of two different
nations. They rule and govern themselves.

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I have promptly related the idea of

nationalism itself with language and ethnicity.
I have mentioned Nationalism as a sort of
idea that connects a nation, more like an
identity that holds a nation together. But the
process of nation building itself has less to
do with ethnicity but more with economic
and political situations.
I would like to mention the unification of
Germany as an example... as we all have
learnt throughout history, political and
economic power has a major role in forging
a nation. More so the improved infrastructure
made people to travel more and more and
connect the different German speaking
regions. Prussia emerged as the leader for
German unification during this period. Infect
Prussia had to fight three wars to consolidate
the entire principalities. Even though the
various German states shared same language
and culture. They were polarised between the
major power politics of European powers
during that time. Prussia and Austria became
the two dominant states for smaller German
principalities to look up. Prussia led the
northern German confederations and Austria
mainly the southern catholic dominated
states. The Austrian-Prussian war of 1866

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made Prussia the dominant state to lead the

German unification. The Franco-Prussian war
of 1870 consolidated the German unification
movement. By 1870 three of the important
lessons of Austrian-Prussian war had become
apparent; firstly a powerful state through
force of arms could challenge the old
establishments. Secondly through shrewd
diplomacy a skilful leader could make a rival
state to declare war first, and thus forcing
states allied with Prussia to come to its aid.
Since the defeat of Austria, Prussia was the
only state which could protect the German
principalities from external aggression. Otto
Von Bismarck through cunning diplomacy
made such a situation that made France look
like the aggressor and Prussia as the
protector of German rights and liberties. But
Prussia not only united Germany through war,
Bismarck embarked on policies such as
Kulturkampf which tried to limit the catholic
power in southern stronghold. So religion also
has much importance in forming a nation.
Bismarck also removed trade barriers in the
German regions so that trade can flourish
and people can move more freely and thus
lead to people to people connection. An
important point which well see through
history.

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The more I think of it, formation of a nation

state has more to do with political and
economic situations. The best example I can
give in forming a nation-state and trying to
forge a common identity is the idea of a
united Europe. The European nations are in
the process of forming a nation or at least a
confederation like the German confederation
in nineteenth century. If we look at the way
they call themselves during European
parliamentary elections. They call themselves
European no matter what the nationality.
The European project started by removing
trade berries between the European nations
for ease of doing business. This was needed
to rebuild Europe after the devastation of
Second World War. Then they placed a
parliament for political union, then a single
currency Euro for economic union and free
movement of citizens. Each country in Europe
have their own unique identity but they
came together to form this super-state called
European Union. Thats why I say that in our
modern world the forming of a nation state
has more to do with political and economic
means than just linguistic and cultural affinity.

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Having said that lets not forget the

importance of Language also, it does provide
the idea of a larger and shared community.
The idea of a nation is a recent development
that took place most notably in the
eighteenth century Europe. According to
Benedict Anderson a nation is a imagine
community which shares a name, myth,
territories, culture, economy, rights and
duties. And what holds all of these together
are a shared language or communication.
Even though a nation building process is not
entirely motivated by language, language
certainly helps to keep a nation intact. Thats
we see education reforms and linguistic
restrictions by nation which governs other
culturally different region. Britain introduced
English as the Language in India in order to
consolidate her rule in the subcontinent.
According to them the introduction of English
would start to civilized the Indians. In fact
the study of English literature was introduce
precisely for this reason, it was introduced by
English missionaries to educate the Indians.
And later it became the necessary language
for administration in the Indian subcontinent
which we see in effect till to this day.

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Religion and nations

Religion in past have been a major issue in
the building of a nation. In fact some
countries still rely on religion to be selfimage of a country. For Example, countries
like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia etc... But in this
modern globalizing world religion becomes
less and less important and more countries
are headed towards religious pluralism. The
fact is, it becomes harder for a nation to
give emphasis on one religion when the
world becomes more pluralistic. And more
movement of people around the world makes
it harder to make it so. Yes, its true that
religion still holds an important aspect in the
mind-set of the people but its more or less
the mind-set that have remained from the
previous centuries where religion played more
of a political role in nations. Moreover,
religion rivalries have led to so many
conflicts throughout history. The Shia-Sunni
conflict is still relevant in the Middle East. In
fact the recent conflict in Yemen between the
rebels and the government is now polarized
between Shia and Sunni conflict. Iran, a Shia
stronghold supports the rebel and Saudis, a
Sunni stronghold supports the government. A
problem such as this arises when a nation

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gives importance to the identity of a nation.

As I have mentioned before just like
language is sensitive when emphasis is given
to one particular language for a countrys
identity, religion works the same. Nothing but
resentment and intolerance emerge out of
this.

Language and religion.

Language is intimately involved in
understanding a religion, with words stem
allowing for whole different interpretation of
the meaning. For example, take the word
bar mitzvah in Jewish. The word literally
means son of the commandments it refers
to Jewish boy coming of age. However, the
stem mitzvah in its own right has deeper
meaning referring to the 613 commandments
given in the Torah in Mount Sinai. Language
has been instrumental in preserving the
religion and culture for generations. Moreover
learning the language in which the script is
written will help to prevent misinterpretation
of the religious text. For example, the word
jihad is often misinterpreted for holy war
but the word actually means struggling or
surviving.

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Works cited:1)
Divine words: what does language
learning play in religious practice,
theguardian.com[web]
2)
Language and nationalism in Europe,
ukcatalogue.oup.com[web]
3)
German unification, Wikipedia.org[web]
4) Know about India, mypromovideos.com