Meghna Amin

II sociology
In the chapter titled Official Nationalism and Imperialism of the book named Imagined
Communities (Verso, 1983) written by Benedict Anderson is based on the latter half of the
nineteenth century with the increasing number of intra-European nationalist movements
which wasnt merely a product of capitalism but also of thickening dynasty states which lead
to increased difficulties in both the cultural and political spheres. With some states being
ruled over by multiple dynasties at several points of time there was a constant need to revive
the state language. This constant state of flux was then countered by the lexicographic
revolution according to which language was part of a persons private property and a group of
individuals who spoke a common language constituted an imagined community. By mid
19thC most dynasties had adopted vernacular language of state and there was a need to move
towards national identification. But this new kind of identification came with its own set of
problems in an age of capitalism, scepticism and science. With this arise the concept of
European Official nationalism and how several countries from across the world have been fit
under one of the three types identified by Anderson. Official Nationalism was a means for
combining naturalization with retention of dynastic power. This essentially emerged as a
reaction to a number of popular national movements that started blooming in Europe during
the 1820s.These struggles he says were historically impossible up until after the appearance
of popular linguistic-nationalisms. They emerged as responses to power groups not just in the
forms of dynasty and aristocracy but also towards these newly emerging imagined
communities. In almost every case of official nationalism that was practiced there was a
clear distinction between the national and dynastic spaces. Anderson also talks about the
constant attempts made by the Europeans on their subjects in order to better them and prevent
them from fighting against any form of foreign rule. The success of imperialism he says lies
in its quality of being a conjuring trick. Eventually it is always the ruling classes along with
the bourgeois but above all he says it is the aristocrats who morn the fall and crumbling of an
empire.