NCERT Solutions for Class 11 Political Science Chapter 17 - Nationalism

59. How is a nation different from other forms of collective belonging?

Ans. Nation has several distinct features as compared to collective belonging such as family ties or ties between the tribal groups.

(a) In family ties the individuals has face to face relationship and are aware about the behaviour of their different family relations. The identity of every individual in these relationships is known to each other.

(b) In tribal groups or clans most of the people are related to each other through common descent or are associated with the ties of marriage.

(c) Nationalism does not have any direct relationship with the individuals. It is a sense of feeling of common brotherhood among the different sections of the society living in the same nation.

(d) The feeling of the nationalism is very strong and helps in the development of feeling of unity among the people who belong to other religious or cultural groups.

60. What do you understand by the right to national self-determination? How has this idea resulted in both formation of and challenges to nationstates?

Ans. The right to self–determination is a political ideology under which a nation state seeks independence in its political as well as other matters.

(a) Generally the claim for right to self-determination comes from the people who have inhabited a specific region for a very long time and have shared values and beliefs.

(b) Under the right to self-determination a nation seeks legitimacy from other foreign nations to be recognised as a separate political entity and accept the authority of its national government over the region.

(c) The right to self-determination believed in the concept of giving the national leadership of the nation freedom to decide what kind of government and policies is best for them.

(d) However this right also caused some sort of separatist’s movements in some parts of the several countries as the people of these parts were agitating for their rights.

(e) It can lead to the weakening of the unity of the Nation.

61. “We have seen that nationalism can unite people as well as divide them, liberate them as well as generate bitterness and conflict”.
Illustrate your answer with examples.

Ans. Nationalism has both positives and negatives associated with it:

(a) It has led to the unification of the people at several places and at the same time. Such as unification of Germany and Italy has also led to the division of many sections of the society. We have seen the example of the division of India into two nations.

(b) It has played an important role in the liberation of the people from colonialism and at the same time has led to wars like World War I and II.

(c) It has led to the redrawing of the boundaries of the nations and division of nations on the grounds of ethnicity and other parameters.

(d) It has strengthened the idea of the nation states but at the same time could not stop the separatist movements as several places. In India we have seen several separatist movements.

(e) These examples suggest that idea of nationalism has both positives and negatives as well as generate bitterness and conflict associated with it.

62. Neither descent, nor language, nor religion or ethnicity can claim to be a common factor in nationalisms all over the world. Comment.

Ans. (a) It is commonly believed that nations are constituted by a group who share certain features such as descent, or language, or religion or ethnicity. But there is in fact no common set of characteristics which is present in all nations.

(b) Many nations do not have a common language, Canada is an example here. Canada includes English speaking as well as French speaking peoples.

(c) India also has a large number of languages which are spoken in different regions and by different communities. Nor do many nations have a common religion to unite them.

63. Illustrate with suitable examples the factors that lead to the emergence of nationalist feelings.

Ans. (a) The people of a nation also identify themselves with common historical traditions.

(b) The common cultural and political past of the large group of people develops a sense of common belongingness and led to the rise of the feeling of nationalism.

(c) The historical records, cultural and religious traditions and administrative structures of the past are utilised by the nationalist leaders for the rise in the feeling of nationalism.

(d) In India the nationalists made use of the rich ancient civilisation of India to claim that the Indian civilisation has been in existence from the hundreds of years.

(e) The cultural heritage plays a significant role in the veneration of feeling of brotherhood among the people living in the same geographical location.

64. How is a democracy more effective than authoritarian governments in dealing with conflicting nationalist aspirations?

Ans. Democracy has been able to meet out the challenges raised by the regional aspirations of the different sections of the society. It has been able to meet those challenges in different ways:

(a) Authoritarian government believes in the power of suppression, however democracy believes in the power of negotiation and deliberation and only engages in displaying power when necessary. This way the government manages to take all the stakeholders into confidence and finds out the best possible solutions.

(b) Democracy held accountability for their actions and ensures that rights and liberties are secured to every citizen of the country irrespective of their region, race, caste and sex.

(c) Democracy are run by the collective decision making and the decisions are made after lot of deliberations which has high chances of resolving disputes. In Authoritarian government do not follow these process for decision making.

65. What do you think are the limitations of nationalism?

Ans. Some of the negatives of nationalism are:

(a) It has led to the redrawing of the boundaries of the nations and division of nations on the grounds of ethnicity and other parameters.

(b) It has strengthened the idea of the nation states but at the same time could not stop the separatist movements as several places. In India and many other country we have seen several separatist movements.

(c) Nationalism can also led to the generation of independent identities which can hamper the globalisation of the world.