Read the passage and answer the following question.
Historically, states have tried to establish and enhance their political legitimacy through nation-building strategies. They sought to secure... the loyalty and obedience of their citizens through policies of assimilation or integration. Attaining these objectives was not easy, especially in a context of cultural diversity where citizens, in addition to their identifications with their country, might also feel a strong sense of identity with their community - ethnic, religious, linguistic and so on. Most states feared that the recognition of such difference would lead to social fragmentation and prevent the creation of a harmonious society. In short, such identity politics was considered a threat to state unity. In addition, accommodating these differences is politically challenging so many states have resorted to either suppressing these diverse identities or ignoring them on the political domain.
Policies of assimilation-often involving outright suppression of the identities of ethnic, religious or linguistic groups-try to erode the cultural differences between groups. Policies of integration seek to assert a single national identity by attempting to eliminate ethno-national and cultural differences from the public and political arena, while allowing them in the private domain. Both sets of policies assume a singular national identity.
Assimilationist and integrationist strategies try to establish singular national identities through various interventions like :
- Centralising all power to forums where the dominant group constitutes a majority, and eliminating the autonomy of local or minority groups.
- Imposing a unified legal and judicial system based on the dominant group's traditions and abolishing alternative systems used by other groups.
- Adopting the dominant group's language as the only official 'national' language and making its use mandatory in all public institutions.
- Promotion of the dominant group's language and culture through national institutions including state-controlled media and educational institutions.
- Adoption of state symbols celebrating the dominant group's history, heroes and culture, reflected in such things as choice of national holidays or naming of streets etc.
- Seizure of lands, forests and fisheries from minority groups and indigenous people and declaring them 'national resources'....
The nation-state is what kind of a concept?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Political category
Option (1) Political category — Correct. A nation is a large-scale community whose members share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity, and this desire usually shows itself as the aspiration to form a state. The state is a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a territory and its people. Nations are communities that have a state of their own, which is why the two words are joined into ‘nation-state’: the term names the political unit that a nation forms.
Option (2) Socio-cultural category — Incorrect. Language, religion, ethnicity and shared culture are the bases on which communities are formed. Any of them may or may not lead to a nation; what turns a community into a nation-state is acquiring a state, a political fact.
Option (3) Socio-religious category — Incorrect. Religion is only one of the many bases of community identity. A nation-state is not defined by the religion of its people; India’s own Constitution declares the state to be a secular state.
Option (4) Socio-economic category — Incorrect. Socio-economic categories, such as class, income or occupation, rank people by their economic position. The idea of a nation-state rests on a people and its state, not on wealth or work.
NCERT (2025-26): “Communities, Nations and Nation-States … At the simplest level, a nation is a sort of large-scale community – it is a community of communities. Members of a nation share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity. This desire for political unity usually expresses itself as the aspiration to form a state. In its most general sense, the term state refers to an abstract entity consisting of a set of political-legal institutions claiming control over a particular geographical territory and the people living in it.…” “…The criterion that comes closest to distinguishing a nation is the state. Unlike the other kinds of communities mentioned before, nations are communities that have a state of their own. That is why the two are joined with a hyphen to form the term nation-state.…” |