Revisiting the Concept of Nationalism in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

It is generally believed that the conceptof nationalism and multiculturalism are not complementary to each other because whenever we talk of nationalism we attach a particular notion of culture to it whereas multiculturalism talks of endorsing all the cultures. In deciding the issue which should be given precedence i.e. nationalism or multiculturalism, one should remember the fact that culture is not a static thing and is always in the process of evolution which means new cultures keep on evolving through cultural synthesis. Nationalism can be made compatible with multiculturalism if we revise the concept of nationalism. It can be done if we do not grade nationalism in civic and ethnic terms because civic nationalism talks of neutrality and ethnic nationalism talks of one state comprising of one nation. Rather than defining nationalism in ethnic and civic terms we should try to define nationalism in such a way that it is not caught in the civic-ethnic dichotomy. This paper aims to establish a link between nationalism and multiculturalism in such a way that the problem of conceptual incompatibility between the two concepts is resolved.