Nation-building Process Research Articles

Bargaining with Virginity: Regulating Practices in Post-socialist Kyrgyzstan

Abstract This article explores systems of social control over women’s bodies demonstrated by discourses and practices which regulate women’s virginity in Kyrgyzstan. Emergence of these discourses are shaped by Kyrgyzstan’s continued post-independence nation-building processes and economic instability. In this context, women’s bodies are at the center of political contestation, ethnic nationalism, and collective power. Findings suggest that women have learned to use their bodies in economic struggles as sources of individual resistance. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnography of social media, we identify how young Kyrgyz women relate to the issue and its associated practices. We investigate their strategizing mechanisms and analyze how, in the attempts to undermine patriarchal oppression and optimize their opportunities, their coping strategies may actually contribute to perpetuate them.

ROLE OF EXPONENTS IN REVITALIZATION OF CLASSICAL DANCE IN INDIA

India has a rich tradition of classical arts, such as music, dance, painting, architecture and many other. Performing arts like classical dance, classical music were spiritual in nature. These forms were considered as means of worshipping Gods. All these forms have a long cultural, spiritual and social history. Due to social, economic and political reasons these art forms faced many ups and downs in different periods. Revitalization of these art forms can be considered as a step towards nation building process. The present paper discusses the efforts taken by the revivalists in order to revive these arts especially the classical dance forms and the contributions of the revivalists in nation building process.

A New Quality of Identities and Nation-Building in the Modern Age

The article discusses the relationship between identities and nation-buil-ding processes in the Modern Age. Identity is an inseparable characteristic of a person, which is manifested, on the one hand, in the recognition of their uniqueness, and on the other - in the sense of belonging to a particular community. It is emphasized that it is in the Modern Age, namely capita-lism in economics and liberalism in politics, that nation-building processes begin. The most important features of the nation are formed: common myths and historical memory; common language, civic culture; uniform legal rights and obligations for all members; common economy with the ability to move within the national territory, the national idea (which includes a political program of community development); the primacy of the national in the hierarchy of community identities. The process of forming a political nation in France and a nation based on ethical, cultural and historical ties in Germany is considered. As nation-building processes unfold, national identity begins to take shape, which appeals to such markers as national language, state border, national culture, national character, and modernization processes.

Imperial Loyalties: Pluralism of Belonging, Territories, and Spaces in the 19th Century

AbstractThe Habsburg Monarchy has often been called a “Europe en miniature.” A diversity of political territories and spaces, nations and nationalities, languages, denominations, and churches was typical throughout the 19th century. This article addresses the complexity with a fresh approach. Drawing on the new history of emotion, it combines new perspectives of territories, spaces, and loyalties in order to shed fresh light on nation building processes within the empire.

Legitimizing the Separatist Cause: Nation-building in the Eurasiande factoStates

AbstractThis article compares the nation-building processes in four well-established Eurasiande factostates. Although all four pursue a set of identity politics that would legitimize the separatist cause, comparing them reveals important differences in boundary-making strategies. While maintaining the image of the enemy parent-state and of an imminent external threat is a common endeavor, they face different challenges and thus have pursued different strategies of identity-building. Transnistria and Abkhazia are two ethnically heterogeneous entities while Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia are more homogeneous since (forced) displacements, mostly of non-titular ethnicities, took place. The Abkhazs, Ossetians, and Armenians claim titular status in their respective regions, but only the latter two have kin in neighboring countries with whom they want to unify. Meanwhile, the “Transnistrian people” is a newly invented construct. Despite their lack of international recognition, the article demonstrates that – apart from a special emphasis on cultivating the image of the “enemy parent-state” – the nation-building mechanisms in the de facto states do not substantially differ from the processes at work in other post-Soviet states presented in this Special Issue.

Chechen Nation-Building under Kadyrov: A Belated “Korenizatsiya”?

ABSTRACT Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime in Chechnya has been shaped by a republic-level nation-building process. To outbid his nationalist and religious rivals, the Chechen leader has followed a political strategy that bears some similarities to korenizatsiia, the early Soviet policy of establishing a strong interconnection between administrative structures and ethnicity. Under Kadyrov, Chechen nationalism has thoroughly penetrated the state institutions of the republic. A new ethnic Chechen bureaucracy has emerged, one with durable connections to federal institutions. Thus, with this sustained emphasis on Chechen nationalism, Kadyrov has made Chechen society far more deeply integrated with Russia than it has been in decades.

Compensation and Kin Selection in the Long Nineteenth Century Translationscapes

Using network models and quantitative methods, the present article provides a bird’s-eye-view of the Romanian novelistic translationscape published in volumes during the “long 19th century”. The study approaches the cultural production of translated novels in the selected period from a relational perspective, aiming to investigate the connections between different publishers, with their respective editorial practices, and the translated authors selected from both major and minor source cultures. With this in mind, our paper will attempt not only to analyze the actor-network aspect of the translational networks established in the country, but also to provide an interpretive model for the selection of specific translated authors over others and their role in the cultural and nation-building process of early-modern Romanian culture.

Denationalisation and discrimination in postcolonial India

With the recent National Register of Citizens updating process in Assam (a northeastern state in India) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA 2019), there have been significant changes to India’s citizenship laws and policies. This may create one of the world’s largest stateless populations in modern times. These changes manifest the government’s othering process of creating binaries of belonging and non-belongingness between the majority Hindus and minorities (especially followers of the Islamic faith). In this article, taking these recent changes to citizenship as a case study, I discuss how India’s colonial past, the experience of partition, and the henceforth nation-building contributed to perceiving the ‘citizen’ primarily along Hindu majoritarian lines. I argue that the nation-building process in India was based on retaining and simultaneously re-establishing the ‘others’, thereby reinforcing colonial legacies in the structure and functioning of the postcolonial state. Consequently, this article deals with two questions, first, how the adoption of discriminatory citizenship laws and the risk of statelessness in India is rooted in its complex history, the impact of British colonial expansion and the postcolonial realities and second, what role ‘law’ has played in the process.

From Borderlands to Boundary Lines: Mapping on the Edges of the Ottoman Empire

ABSTRACT The evolution, nature and characteristics of boundary mapping in Central and Eastern Europe were distinctive, especially considering the imperial borders of states neighbouring the Ottoman Empire. Affected by strong military and geopolitical needs, demarcation maps were not based on cadastres or property mapping undertaken by civil authorities but exclusively on military mapping. The maps were a part of peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire, which gave them the power of legal documents. Moreover, boundary maps constituted an important tool in defending state sovereignty and subsequently in the state- and nation-building processes. In this article I analyse how countries bordering the Ottoman Empire made their demarcation maps, which strategies they applied, what level of cooperation they had with Ottoman cartographers, what cartographic conventions they met, and how these maps were received at the Ottoman court. I argue that boundary mapping was the key driver of territorial statehood in the region.

Revival of Russian Language in Central Asian Republics in the Twenty First (21st) Century

Russian language went into a decline during the 1990s when Central Asian Republics (CARs) simultaneously embarked on the process of nation and state building along with economic transition. The CARs desired to diversify their political and economic relations and to lessen their dependence on Russian Federation during their early transition period. Due to its own economic and political problems associated with its transition, Russia could not pay full attention to its former Soviet states during the immediate post-Soviet period. However, due to the Tsarist and particularly Soviet legacies, the economic connectivity and interdependence of former Soviet states on Russian Federation proved long lasting. The revival of Russian language in former Soviet Central Asian Republics is mainly due to the theory of Economics of Language which explores mutual effects of language and economic variables. It says that fluency and command over a dominant language i.e., a language of science and technology and trade provides more dividends. The CARs are still heavily dependent on trade and remittances of their nationals working in Russia. A large number of workers from the countries of Central Asia work in the Russian Federation. Their remittances contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product (GDPs) of these countries. The CARs re-started promoting Russian language in their countries due to a significant role of this language in their economies and economic relations with Russia. Since 2000, the Russian economic revival has naturally strengthened its political and economic role in the former Soviet space which also includes Central Asia. Consequently, the Russian language also received fresh emphasis.

Barishaler Jogen Mandal: Construal of the Undisputed Dalit Leader of Undivided Bengal through a Twenty-first Century Bengali Novel

Barishaler Jogen Mandal is a Bengali novel by Debes Ray, published in 2010 from Kolkata, India. The book revisits the socio-political arena of Bengal during the final decade of colonial rule by construing Namasudra politician Jogendranath Mandal (1904 –1968) as the central figure. This article studies the novel as a literary appendage to anti-caste thought—as an attempt to reclaim the Dalit history of the nation and re-establish the significance of J.N. Mandal in the history of anti-caste politics. My reading of the novel reflects Bakhtinian perspective of inseparability between form and content. The novel traces evolution of J.N. Mandal’s political disposition through novelisation of history, while addressing the nation building processes in late colonial South Asia and developing conceptual understanding of Dalithood in terms of imposed powerlessness as well as wisdom and culture acquired in the intimate connection they share with the habitat through everyday struggle for survival. I argue that the author develops his locus throughout the novel by adopting J.N. Mandal’s own standpoint. With adherence to a definite sudra perspective, the text navigates history, challenging many of the discipline’s standardised interpretations. It engages with the discourse of power by strategically situating itself at the peripheral locus of the Dalit life-world, and develops the narrative of power as it would appear from that fringe. By doing so, it effectually calls for a conceptual inversion of power, re-centring it in terms of Dalit history.

The Lost Circassia and the Found Circassians: Caucasian Migration to the Ottoman Empire

The article deals with the history of pan-Caucasian (Circassian) nation-building in the context of international relations, which helps to provide a new look at the migration from the North Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. The author analyses a wide range of materials including archival documents, historiographical works, and the British and French press to show that subjectification of the Caucasus in the international arena and Circassian nation-building were the real triggers of migration. The success of Western (primarily British) diplomacy can be seen in the formulation of the Circassian question and the emergence of a pan-Caucasian national project. However, Russia's military advancement in the Caucasus, and the difference between British and French foreign policy strategies halted the nation-building process. Besides, the efforts of nation-builders were not enough to unite North Caucasians, due to such obstacles as the lack of experience of common statehood, and linguistic and ethnic diversity. Thus, migration was the result of the failure of the British Circassian nation-building project, and it summed up the long period of subjectification of the North Caucasus in the international arena in the 19th century.

TURKISM IN THE BUILDING OF THE TURKISH NATION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SINO-TURKISH RELATIONS

The purpose of the research. The article discusses the process of nation building in Turkey. The influence of nation-building on the transition of the Ottoman Empire to a modern nation-state is analyzed. The purpose of the research is to identify the influence of Turkism in the construction of the Turkish nation, emerging in the second half of the 19th century, and its influence on Chinese-Turkish relations. As grounds, the influence of foreign Turkic intellectuals and Turkish intelligentsia on the construction of the Turkish nation is highlighted. Results. As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that Turkism does not fundamentally differ from Western ideas about nation building. It should be noted that the genesis of Turkism became entirely possible thanks to the borrowing of the methods of Western social science and the adoption of the principle of language as the most important. In the conditions of development, Turkism tries to use the principles of Orientalism and linguistics. However, in modern Turkey, Turkism/Pan-Turkism has always shown a tendency towards extremism that transcends the boundaries of the nation-state. The author concludes that dissatisfaction with the nation-state and self-identification makes pan-Turkism the desire of many people in Turkey to go beyond the territorial nation-state. A number of examples from the history of foreign policy have emerged and Ankara's repeated gross interference in China's internal affairs for diplomatic purposes.

The Children;s literature as a nation-building tool

It is no unknown fact that children's literature has a very pivotal role in the nation-building process. Although many modern nations do not need this genre as a nation-building tool as they have support from their rich, well-recorded, socio-cultural history that has evolved over time to suit their own specific set of needs. But since our nation is a new addition among those older, deep-rooted nations, we need to utilize every tool at our disposal to make sure that we build a nation that is strong at its roots. In this article, this aspect of children's literature is scrutinized in length.
 References
 
 Waheed Qureshi, Dr., Pakistani Qumiyat ki Tashkel e No our dosray Mazmoon, Lahore, Sang-e-Mail Publications, 1984, pg: 98
 Khushal Zaidi, Dr., Urdu my Bachon ka adab, Kanpur (India): Idara Bazm Khizr Rah, 1989, pg:34
 Niaz Ahmed Singhera, Chaudhry, Pakistan my Qomiyat Sazi ka Amal, Lahore, Book Home, 2008, pg:152
 Mahmood-ur-Rahman, Urdu my Bachon ka adab, Delhi: National Publishing House Limited, 1970, pg:34

Analysis on Human Resource Management and Conflict Resolution in The Long Road of Indonesian Era

As a nation, Indonesia is still in the process of nation-building. Since the beginning of Indonesia's independence, youth or young groups have played a key role in the nation-building process that determines the direction of the next development of the Indonesian state. Young people, from time to time, have distinctive characteristics that are influenced by the socio-cultural-political conditions in which they grow up. The interactions that occur between young people and the government will have an impact on future leadership styles. This paper aims to describe the pattern of human resource management in Indonesia's nation-building process, particularly in analysing the pattern of conflict resolution between the youth and the government in each era of Indonesian leadership (Old Order, New Order, and Post-Reformation)

The Nation-Building Process: Historical Significance and Examples

In the article, the author explores the problem of nation-building, which is considered one of those processes that still require study in modern social and humanitarian science. In particular, the author determines the degree of study of the problem in modern science and its relevance, revealing the meaning of the concept of «nation-building». In addition, the researcher examines its theoretical problems and makes a comparative analysis. Also, in the main part of the article, the author examines their main features and nature, general trends and course, by reviewing historical examples of the nation-building process in world practice. The author investigated the peculiarities of the national construction of Kazakhstan. It also shows the historical significance of the problem of nation-building. As a result of the study, it was observed that the formation of a nation as a nation is carried out by a set of actions of the state for a certain purpose. The author investigated the peculiarities of the national construction of Kazakhstan. The author had the opportunity to delve deeper into the problem by performing a comparative analysis in the process of processing the data provided on the research problem. And by the method of generalization, he was able to distinguish the general trends of historical examples of nation-building. At the end of the article, based on the results obtained, the author offers his own final conclusions. The results of this work contribute to further research and scientific work related to nation-building in Kazakhstan.

Common Past, Different Visions: The Ukrainian-Russian Encounters Over School History Textbooks 1990s–2010s’

This article deals with the Ukrainian-Russian encounters in the field of school history education in 1990s–2010s. The theme investigates the context of the state- and nation-building processes in both countries. Three major topics are considered: history education and textbooks as a tool of civic education and citizenship building, the problem of unification and homogenization of the representations of the past in the light of citizen education, the attempts of Russia to promote a common vision of the past with neighbors, and Ukrainian responses. The major theme ends with the highlights from the most recent developments in the field of school history curriculum and textbooks in both countries in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and war of 2014–2021.

Tracing Karma in Meiji Japan

Abstract Despite its doctrinal importance, the concept of karma or karmic causality has come to occupy a complicated place in contemporary Japanese Buddhism, due to its historical connection with discrimination against outcast groups and disabled people. Furthermore, among post-war Japanese intellectuals, the idea of karma has often invoked criticism in the context of modern values such as free will and human potential. Against this conventional framework, this paper demonstrates how the concept of karma was the focus of intense interest among Meiji Japanese intellectuals and a center concern in the developing global network of modern Buddhists. At the intersection of the multifaceted problems facing the Buddhist world at that time—namely, the Buddhist search for scientific religion, civil morality in the nation-building process, reformulating Buddhism for non-Japanese audiences, and the confrontation with competing forms of Western thought—lies the relatively unexamined story of karma in Meiji Japan (1868–1912).

Curing Leprosy with DDS: Metamorphosis of Colonial Medicine into Global Health

This article addresses the question of how the belief that leprosy is curable became an accepted scientific statement during the processes of colonization and postwar nation-building. Following the use of chaulmoogra oil to the introduction of diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) as a cure for leprosy, the article shows how medical workers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, two contact zones in the global leprosy network, helped transform leprosy medicine into a set of practices centered on the mass administration of DDS. Focusing on the idea of a cure and looking for all the transformations this idea went through afterward, this article argues that it was chaulmoogra oil that created the research and management infrastructure for DDS. DDS did work, but it worked because chaulmoogra oil had already produced the conditions for a cure. This article contributes to recent calls to “provincialize STS” and to investigate postcolonial technoscience by examining the situated production of the global leprosy infrastructure. It shows that by serving as laboratories and extending the network in which the belief of a cure was embedded, the colonies were key to each stage forming the cure for leprosy as an accepted scientific statement.

The Soldier and Education in the First Republic of Georgia: 1918-1921

The establishment of the capitalist system contributed to the formation of new social classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The removal of serfdom significantly changed the political, social, and economic system. New demands and cha-llenges have emerged in the new environment. Not only the proletariat and the bourgeoisie but the whole society underwent fundamental transformations. Especially since the national liberation movement in Europe in the XIX century was quite strong, which led to the formation of nation-states. Georgia perceived these changes differ-rently. As an occupied part of the Russian Empire, it was naturally influenced by the ongoing events there. While the process of nation-building was underway in Europe, Georgia was looking for new ways to fight for freedom. The Georgian cultural and political elite, via raising public awareness, tried to create a common Georgian space and involve all social strata equally in the struggle for independence. This process was in progress from 1918-1921. Therefore, it is important to raise a point and analyze how the process of the national movement was manifested. The period of the First Republic is one of the most difficult periods in the history of Georgia. On the one hand, the ideological forms of the national movement were being formed and developed, the primary expression of which was an educated society, aware of the history of its own country. As it has been already mentioned, the process of the national-liberation movement starting from the 50s of the XIX century was aimed at the formation of an educated and conscious society imbued with the national idea. The logical continuation of these processes was the current events of 1918-1921. Independent Georgia took the path to the West and its goal was the Europeanization of various spheres of the country, and among them, a special place was occupied by the education factor. The starting point of the Georgian authorities was to transform the Georgian army, not only from a military-professional point of view but also they aimed to raise their educational and national consciousness. Before that, i.e. until 1918, such a thing was unimaginable for the Georgian soldiers, who were the main backbone of the Russian imperial court and the executor of its will. The national government, in turn, focused primarily on strengthening the soldier's national self-awareness