Nationalism - Big Ideas
David Blunkett
Nationalism - A Sense of Belonging
David Blunkett
This is the story of an idea that has radically shaped our lives
over centuries. It has fostered freedom and democracy and destroyed
oppression but, it has also inspired some of the most horrific acts
that human beings have ever committed. This idea is still at the
heart of some of the biggest challenges that the world faces today;
Immigration, Asylum and Racism. This idea is Nationalism.
David Blunkett, the MP for Sheffield, Brightside and former Home
Secretary and Education Secretary shares his views on nationalism
Over the past 10 years I've become a champion of British National
Identity. There is a certain irony to this, because when I started
out in politics, over 40 years ago, it was the last thing I thought
I would end up doing. My political career has been a journey from a
young man deeply sceptical about nationalism and all that it meant
in the 20th century through to the present day where I'm now
convinced that a sense of identity and belonging is crucial to our
well-being.
My own sense of nationalism led to me introduce a number of
reforms which I hoped would strengthen a wider national identity,
including controversial exams, in English and the British way of
life, for everyone who wants to join our country. In 2003, I
introduced laws which ensure that all those seeking British
citizenship had to take an examination in English and in British
values. To obtain a British passport they have to go through a
citizenship ceremony and swear allegiance to our country and Queen.
Growing up as a child in post-war Britain made national identity
very simple, it was the spirit of the 1940s. For my generation, the
war had defined our national identity very clearly. We, the British,
had had won the battle against the Germans; we knew who we were.
Today it's all very much more complicated, our country has changed
beyond recognition. Substantial numbers of new migrants have changed
the face of Britain and, of course, Britain's role in the world has
changed. All of this has has meant that defining who we are has
become much harder. We clearly need a new definition that suits our
age. To find one, I believe we need to explore the idea that lies
behind national identity; Nationalism.
At the heart of the discussion is a shared human need for a sense of
belonging. If you delve into the history books, you can see that
people have always yearned for a sense of belonging; to the family,
to the tribe, to the people. We've always had a fierce passion for
the culture of the people we belong to. some of these cultural
identities have been around for 2,000 years or more. These passions,
strong as they are, are not what we define as nationalism today
Quite simply, that's because the nation state, as we think of it,
didn't exist.
Although people saw themselves as German, Italian or Dutch, in fact,
most nation states didn't come into being until the last 200 years.
Until the 16th century, most of Europe was made up large empires,
small kingdoms or principalities.
Our relationship with 'the state' was also very different to the one
we have today. People, literally and legally, belonged to their
ruler. They were subjects who could be passed around, like property,
between royal families. Changing hands for inheritance, marriage and
war. People held duty to their local squire through to the duke or
monarch in their region.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
In 1762, the French philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau shocked the
ruling elite of Europe. He argued that countries should not belong
to all-powerful monarchs but, to the people themselves. It was a
revolutionary idea and the French Revolution was the result. Between
1789 and 1799, the French revolutionaries abolished the power of the
king and gave it to the people.
In a literal sense, the people became the nation of France. The fact
that the French now felt that they owned their nation gave them a
deeper sense of belonging. For the revolutionaries, this was not
enough. They created rituals of modern nationhood, in order to
foster national identity. They created the world's first national
anthem; La Marseillaise. They developed the French flag and a
national slogan; Liberty, Freedom, Fraternity. At the heart of this
movement was a radical principle. It was that anyone, from any
country, could become a citizen of the new French nation as long, of
course, that they swore allegiance to it's values. This type of
nationalism is called civil nationalism and is the foundation of
many modern nation states.
Civil nationalism wasn't the only type of nationalism. Around the
same time, a more visceral form of nationalism was developing in
Germany. It sought to argue that human cultures were as different as
species of animal. It argued that those with a similar culture
should live in defined nation states, in order to live fulfilled
lives. In it's most extreme form there was an insistence that the
nation should be purified of all foreign cultural influences. A
nation had to share a racial or ethnic origin. This king of
nationalism is called ethnic nationalism. It became more exclusive
and, inevitably, divisive than civil nationalism.
Over the next two centuries, a combination of these ideas spread,
like wildfire, across Europe and the Americas. The result was a
string of new nation states, many of the modern ones we recognise
today. Empires crumbled, people rebelled and rulers were tumbled.
The idea of nationalism fundamentally changed the way in which we
saw our world.
The question of national identity has always been more complex in
Britain than in most other countries. For one thing the boundaries
of England, Scotland and Wales have been fixed by the sea, so we had
a sense of political nationhood ahead of some other countries. The
British nation state only came into being 300 years ago when, in
1707, the Act of Union merged the English and Scottish parliaments.
Our national identity is also unusual because, right from the
beginning, we started to develop a vast multinational empire. The
British ruled a significant proportion of the world giving us a
common sense of purpose and of pride.
The Nazis took the idea of German ethnic nationalism to absolute
extreme. They set out to create the, so-called, pure ethnic Arian
nation. In that nation they saw no place for other races or cultures
including, as we know notoriously, the Jews.
Multicultural
In the UK today, around 10% of the population have their origins in
other countries. We now have a whole variety of languages, food and
cultures. Gradually assimilating, but still with their own identity.
This has changed the nature of how people feel about themselves. We,
on the liberal left, welcome these people to the United Kingdom; and
quite rightly. They've provided much needed labour and brought
economic prosperity to our nation.
But, we failed to recognise the incredible change that this brought
about on particular communities as well as the nation as a whole.
People feared losing their jobs and their sense of identity. We
accepted that all cultures could live alongside each other without
the common bond, the glue, of having something in common. Because we
drifted into a kind of woolly multiculturalism, we failed to take on
the challenge of developing a real and progressive sense of national
identity.
English Fervour
A recent poll showed that only a third of Britains now define
themselves as British. First and foremost, people define themselves
as Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or English, so we developed a
Welsh Assembly, a Scottish Parliament, and a devolved assembly in
Northern Ireland. This was seen as addressing the political rise of
nationalism in the parts of Britain. But as, historically, the most
dominant force in the United Kingdom, the English haven't felt the
need to define their identity for many years. English people felt
that Englishness and Britishness were synonymous. With devolution,
with the emergence of cultural, not just political, nationalism in
other parts of Britain, that has all changed and with it has changed
the perceptions of the English.
Thankfully, it is now possible to celebrate Englishness again, to
celebrate St George's Day and to wave the English flag. This is a
good thing. But, we're still working on how to define a modern
English identity within our British identity.
CREDITS: All of the above information was taken from the UK's Channel
Five series "Big Ideas"
Further Reading:
 |
 |
Nationalism: History and Theory - Paul Lawrence |
|
|
The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism - Robert Kee |
