ABSTRACT
In the late twentieth century despite talk of transnational cultural forms and global economic systems, conflicts around national identity continue to fill the world’s stage.1 Further, salient political contests often occur within nation-states, and around differing conceptions of citizenship (Hall and Held 1989; Hall 1993). Many nation-states have witnessed an increase in both movements of an intolerant and ‘populist’ majoritarian Right as well as the assertive identity politics of minorities. Within this conflicted field, as Chatterjee points out, some of the fundamental tenets of Western liberalism are being questioned (1995:11). For example, in India, as well as in Ontario, Canada, the Right have gained power through mobilizing precisely the key concepts and images thought to be the prerogative of the left, such as images of populism and the ‘people’.
