106.3
Imagination of Nation in Multi-Ethnic Situation: Understanding Ideological Conflicts and Ethnic Exclusions in the Imagination of 'bharat Mata'
The idea of nation has traversed a long path of contradictory conceptualization based on the perspective adopted and the context where it is done. Debate on the precedence of nation and state is continued along the basic question of the idea of nation itself. Historical specificity lead to precedence of nation before state in Europe, but state formation followed by attempt to create a corresponding nation is more visible in the case of post colonial countries of Asia and Africa, although exceptions are also visible. The post colonial state formed mainly with the formulation of the colonial masters, which are many times not suits the ground realities thereby opens the scope for ethnic assertions among multiple groups. This lead to two important questions: the validity of state formation in the multi-ethnic situation and what leads to the formation of the nation? Although both questions need special attentions but addressing the second question can also lead to some clues to the first question.
We see that the imagination of bharat mata in the Indian context as separate nation is totally different from the western idea of imagination of a nation. Rather than simple imagination, it is more to do with darshan which has more to do with seeing beyond the eternal reality. Such philosophical underpinnings of the imagination of the Indian nation lead to emergence of distinct nature of Indian imagination which has more to do with dominant Hindu ideology, and thus excluding all others who don’t come in its fold. This inherent exclusion that takes place in the imagination of bharat mata is manifested as routine part of life thereby became tragic.