ABSTRACT
The economic model of the nation regards it as a certain sort of society: 'A society in this sense is a group of individuals connected by an intense division of labour, and separated from other societies by a marked drop in this level of intensity'. Macaulay's remarks on India introduce a very different notion of language culture from this relatively superficial and instrumental one. It is a conception which links having a common language culture to being a certain kind of person. Membership of a language culture which communicates attitudes as well as information might constitute membership of a nation in a different way. For participation in such a culture might be taken to be engagement in a certain kind of life. Membership of a supposedly national culture is commonly taken to be constitutive or partly constitutive of national membership, but different accounts can be given of what membership consists in and the kind of cultural nationalism advocated varies accordingly.
