What is a nation?

How does a nation relate to the people or the citizens of a country?

A Nation is…

… imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.

- Benedict Anderson

A nation is…

a group of people who feel connections to one another in some way

*Ethnic Background and ancestry*Cultural values and beliefs*History*Language and communication*Religious or spiritual beliefs*Geography*Politics and Citizenship

What makes up a Nation?

A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Only two things constitute this soul, this spiritual principle. One is the past…One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of remembrances; the other is the consent, the desire to live together, the will to continue to value the heritage which all hold in common.

Ernest Renan

What defines a nation is shared history and tradition…India is unique as a nation in that its sense of nationalism is founded on an age long spiritual concept of freedom and inclusiveness that has always been known as Sanatana Dharma (eternal natural law)

N.S. Ranaram

What is Canada?

What is a Nation Canada?

Nation vs Nation State Relates to

something in the feelings and minds of people

A territory with internationally recognized boundaries and a politically organized body of people under a sovereign government.

Must a Nation be a Nation State?

Nation State Sovereign – they are recognized by other

nation-states as having the right to govern themselves independently

Often Countries, with many nations existing within them.

Read pg 33 of

UNDERSTANDING NATIONALISM

Nations within Canada