Cultural Nationalism in a Multi-National Context: The Case of India

Nationalism is generally seen as a political principle for establishing sovereign nation-states. In this paper, it is argued that nationalism in a multi-national context is viewed differently at different levels. By analysing several cases of linguistic and provincial movements in India, it tries to demonstrate that in multi-national countries, such as India, nationalism assumes a political connotation at the macro level and a cultural connotation at the regional level. While the political connotation symbolises the establishment of a sovereign nation-state at the macro level, the cultural connotation, by and large, underlines the protection of distinct cultural nation/nationality in a given provincial political space within the common sovereign state.