Benedict Anderson suggested that we could think of a nation as an 'imagined community'. Choose the correct option that justifies this statement:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → People of a nation who would never meet each other get a sense of togetherness through nationalism
Option (1) People of a nation who would never meet each other get a sense of togetherness through nationalism — Correct. From the mid-19th century newspapers reached a mass audience, and people in different corners of the country read or heard the same news. This made them feel connected and develop a ‘we feeling’. Benedict Anderson argued that it helped the growth of nationalism, the feeling that people who did not even know of each other’s existence feel like members of a family. Because it gave people who would never meet each other a sense of togetherness, the nation can be thought of as an ‘imagined community’.
Option (2) It is because the colonial Government imposed censorship — Incorrect. The colonial government did clamp down on the nationalist press and impose censorship, for instance during the Ilbert Bill agitation of 1883. But that is a fact about the press and the colonial state; it does not explain why a nation is a community that exists in the minds of its members.
Option (3) It is because the print media expressed people’s ideas of a free India — Incorrect. The nationalist press did nurture anti-colonial opinion. Anderson’s point, though, is not what the newspapers said but that reading the same news made strangers across the country feel that they belonged together.
Option (4) It is related to people’s imagination and creativity — Incorrect. ‘Imagined’ here does not mean made up or creative. A nation is imagined because its members never meet most of the others, yet each carries the idea of belonging to one community.
NCERT (2025-26): “7.1 The Beginnings of Modern Mass Media … It was only in the mid 19th century, with further development in technologies, transportation and literacy that newspapers began to reach out to a mass audience. People living in different corners of the country found themselves reading or hearing the same news.…” “…The well known scholar Benedict Anderson has thus argued that this helped the growth of nationalism, the feeling that people who did not even know of each other’s existence feel like members of a family. It gave people who would never meet each other a sense of togetherness. Anderson thus suggested that we could think of the nation as an ‘imagined community’.” “…Anti-colonial public opinion was nurtured and channelised by the nationalist press, which was vocal in its opposition to the oppressive measures of the colonial state. This led the colonial government to clamp down on the nationalist press and impose censorship, for instance during the Ilbert Bill agitation in 1883.…” |