Globalisation and Nationalism

8/7/2019 Globalisation and Nationalism

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GLOBALISATION VERSUS NATIONALISM

Globalization and Nationalism may at first seem to be completely different

phenomena. But one thing that can be said to be a similarity is that they are both gaining

momentum; in the Indian world at least. Globalization is a trend in which people look

more towards spreading their cultures all over the world, so that the world becomes a

closer place and Nationalism is a trend in which people try to promote their own country

as superior or follow the culture of their country and feel proud about it. Both

Globalization and Nationalism have got their good points and their bad ones. Aurea

mediocritas is a Latin phrase for golden mean. It is mainly used to describe a situation

in which both too less and too much are bad. It can be used here to describe the effects of

globalization and nationalism. Too much of either is bad and too less is also bad. Aurea

mediocritas is perfect and best. Too much of globalization results in what is called as a

culture clash with nationalism taking hold over people who oppose countrymen

bringing in facets of other countries culture to their country. Too less globalization is

bad too as it results in no intermixing of cultures, thereby lessening the value of our

world; as it is only a mixture of flavors that make a good food. A singularly salty food is

certainly not tasty and likeable. Variety on the other hand makes a culture both tasty and

rich: the hallmarks of good food.

Thus we see that globalization and nationalism are in some ways fighting with

each other. An excess of both is undesirable as in extreme cases a countrys richness and

individuality is at stake. However, we see all around us that globalization has become

rampant. Western civilization has infiltrated all over our culture. In all facades of our life

western civilization has its mark. People are forgetting about their own rich culture and

blindly aping the things that they see in the television-a medium of communication from

the west. In our country at least, Globalization has the upper hand.


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Accordingly, globalization is not only something that will concern and threaten

us in the future, but something that is taking place in the present and to which we must

first open our eyes said Ulrich Beck, a Germansociologist who holds a professorship

at Munich University and at the London School of Economics. He should know.

Globalization has brought about several changes for the good as any one can see.

Technology, business, development of infrastructure and an umpteen number of other

things have been introduced to us by the West. Undeniable. Apart from these, changes

have also been made on the social front. Abolition of practices such as Sati, polygamy et

al. has been made possible I must say only because of globalization. Globalization has

improved the lives of many a people in many a country. It has brought human kind to a

stage from where he can alter the earth to suit his own purposes. There is even talk of

changing our solar system in advanced scientific circles, but all that is far ahead of our

time. Globalization has brought about invaluable changes in the field of science and

technology-changes that have changed our world. I do not think people understand the

effect of globalization properly because we have been affected by it completely. We

should see cultures that have been isolated from globalization to see its true effects. We

may still have been hunting and eating animals if not for globalization.

Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of

globalization said Lawrence Summers, an American economist and the Director of the

White House's National Economic Council for President Barack Obama. On the other

hand, Globalization also has had a multitude of bad impacts on the world. Development

has led to pollution and it has also led to the loss of several cultural values. The values

associated with one culture i.e. the west has spread all over the world and the culture of

several other countries has been lost. An undesirable effect as one can see. And old rule

of nature is that variety must be present for any person or group of people to develop, toevolve to become stronger and stronger. Without variety, as I said earlier, the contents on

the plate become bland. A variety of genes allows organisms to adapt-that is the key

word. What holds for a single individual must hold for a group of individuals. A singular

lifestyle every where I must say will be detrimental to the world at large. But the biggest

problem that I think globalization has been responsible for is pollution, a phenomenon
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that threatens to destroy our world. We may have been better off as Stone Age hunters

than waging a losing battle against an unsustainable environment in some ways!

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and a common fear

of its neighbors said William Ralph Inge an English author, Anglican priest, professor

ofdivinity at Cambridge, and Dean ofSt Paul's Cathedral, which provided the appellation

by which he was widely known, "Dean Inge." Nationalism has been taking a back seat to

globalization over the last few decades. However, it can be aroused to a searing, burning

passion among the people as Hitler showed in the Second World War. It can be seen in

the people of every country. It is a dormant passion in many ways. It can be aroused in

such a way as to make the people of a country a force. Some times we see instances in

which this passion flares up. We see activists who seek to preserve Indian culture. The

Sri Ram Sena is a prime example of this. Every citizen has nationalism embedded in him

in one way or the other and in the end if this force, this spirit is utilized, the effects can be

destructive. Jawaharlal Nehru in his book The Discovery of India remarked that

nationalism is an extremely powerful force indeed.

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception said Eric Arthur Blair,

better known by his pen name, George Orwell, an English author and journalist. In some

ways Nationalism is good and in other ways Nationalism is bad. It is bad in the sense that

people some times resist the changes that are happening due to Globalization and this

results in the lack of development in a country. For example if Nationalism had been

present in an extreme form, Sati may have still been present now. On the other hand, if

Nationalism is very weak among the people in a country, it may result in the values,

culture and traditions of a country being lost to the world at large. In our strife to become

better and better, and adapt to the changing world, by Charles Darwins survival of thefittest theory, that will be a loss that will set people back by quite a bit. So what is

required for a country to survive and prosper and try to achieve a utopian condition, it

will require the powers of Globalization and Nationalism to balance each other. This will

result in an amalgamation of the cream of a variety of cultures thus a country can achieve

a form of social nirvana
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In some ways the whole issue of the Sri Ram Sena business can be seen as an

example of Globalization versus Nationalism. The Sri Ram Sena say that they are the

champions of the Hindu (or Hindi, as Nehru said) way of life. They feel that love should

not be expressed publicly and disapprove of publicly seen relationships. They also are

against fashion shows and Valentines Day. They genuinely feel that the Indian way of

life, as perceived by them is losing ground due to globalization and that they have to do

some thing in order to stop this free fall. On the other hand, its opponents feel that the Sri

Ram Sena is doing wrong by violating the freedom of people, a basic freedom that every

one needs and has to have. They feel that Pramod Muthaliks Sri Ram Sena is abusing

people wrongly and that there is no wrong in showing love publicly, or with fashion

shows. The Sri Ram Sena can be seen as a manifestation of the forces of fervent

nationalism and its opponents can be seen as the forces of globalization. Both are right in

some ways and both are not completely wrong.

PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR

[email protected]

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Globalisation and Nationalism