Use app×
Join Bloom Tuition
One on One Online Tuition
JEE MAIN 2025 Foundation Course
NEET 2025 Foundation Course
CLASS 12 FOUNDATION COURSE
CLASS 10 FOUNDATION COURSE
CLASS 9 FOUNDATION COURSE
CLASS 8 FOUNDATION COURSE
0 votes
809 views
in Sociology by (53.9k points)

Why is it difficult to define the nation? How are nation and state related in modem society?

1 Answer

0 votes
by (90.2k points)
selected by
 
Best answer

• A nation is a peculiar sort of community that is easy to describe but hard to define. 

• We can describe many nations founded on the basis of common cultural, historical institutions like a shared religion, language, ethnicity, history or regional culture. 

• But it is hard to come up with any defining features for nation. 

• For every possible criterion there are exceptions and counter examples. 

• For example-there are many nations that do not share a common language, religion, ethnicity and so on. On the other hand, there are many languages, religions or ethnicities that are shared across nations. But this does not lead to the transformation of a single unified nation. Nation at the simplest level, is a community of communities. Members of a nation share the desire to be a part of the same political collectivity. Nations are communities that have a state of their own. 

• In modem times, there has been a one-to-one bond between nation and state. But this development is new. 

• It wasn’t true of the past that a single state could represent a single nation or every nation must have its own state. 

• For example, Soviet Union explicitly recognized that the peoples it governed were of different nations. 

• Also, people constituting a nation may actually be citizens or residents of different states. There are more Jamaicans living outside Jamaica than in Jamaica. 

• Dual citizenship could, also, be a possibility. These laws allow citizens of a particular state to also simultaneously be citizens of another state. Example, Jewish AmericansMnay be citizens of Israel as well as the USA.

• Thus, nation is a community that has been able to acquire a state of its own. It‘s, also seen that states are finding it more and more necessary to claim that they represent a nation. 

• A feature of the modem era is the establishment of democracy and nationalism as dominant sources of political legitimacy. This implies that nation is the most accepted or proper justification for a state, while people are the ultimate source of legitimacy of the nation.

Welcome to Sarthaks eConnect: A unique platform where students can interact with teachers/experts/students to get solutions to their queries. Students (upto class 10+2) preparing for All Government Exams, CBSE Board Exam, ICSE Board Exam, State Board Exam, JEE (Mains+Advance) and NEET can ask questions from any subject and get quick answers by subject teachers/ experts/mentors/students.

Categories

...