BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

NATION BUILDING AND STATE FORMATION IN MULTI-ETHNIC SOCIETIES: FOCUS ON SOUTH ASIA

Author: Rupinder Kaur Dhillon

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2001v22n2a3

ABSTRACT

One of the most daunting tasks before the post-colonial states to the Third World was to gain viability and legitimacy as independent political entities. For this purpose, the twin tasks of nation building and stale formation were high on their agenda. The accomplishment of these tasks required a finer distinction between state formation and nation building in terms of approaches and strategies. But in South Asia, as elsewhere in the Third World, these got blurred and started working at cross-purposes. The reaction and resistance of the minority ethnic, religious and linguistic groups to the homogenisation processes, assimilationist policies and hegemonic approach of the dominant ruling elite. was put down with a heavy hand. Thus, models of nation building are proving to be a big failure. The post-nationalist debate tends to focus upon the ethnicity as the sole factor in nation building process. The conclusion that we can draw is that the whole process of nation building is nowhere near completion. The only thing that we can hope of these societies is that there should be constitutional revisions and reframings, that encourage accommodation and acknowledge rather than assimilation and homogenisation.