ABSTRACT

Who are you? Who am I? The answers to such questions will depend on the context as well as on the person being questioned. But individuals have only a limited say in shaping the collective to which they are deemed to belong. For example, you may think of yourself as a non-believer in national boundaries, but the state will remind you again and again about your nationality. Our rights and access to resources will often depend on our nationality in a particular country. You may not agree with ethnic classifi cation, but during a civil strife who you are seen as may determine whether you live or die. For more than a century national identity has been the primary form in which collective aspirations have been expressed throughout the world. Religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, race – all these have usually taken a backseat to the dominance of national identity. One has only to look at the willingness of millions to sacrifi ce their lives and many more to take the lives of others in the name of their nation.