what according to Renan were the attributes of a nation ? why in the view are Nations important?
Answers
(i) A nation is not formed by a common language, race, religion or territory.
(ii)To form a nation, social capital, common glories and deeds of the past and common will are necessary.
(iii) Nation is a large scale solidarity.
(iv) Inhabitants of a nation have the right to be consulted in reference of large scale solidarity.
(v) The existence of a nation is not only a good thing but also a necessity.
(vi) A nation has never any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will.
Importance of Nation according to Renam:
(i) Existence of the nation is a guarantee of liberty.
(ii) Liberty will not be more in case the world had only one law and only one master.
In a lecture delivered at the University of Sorbonne in 1882, the French philosopher Ernst Renan (1823-92) outlined his understanding of what makes a nation. The lecture was subsequently published as a famous essay entitled ‘Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?’ (‘What is a Nation?’).
In this essay Renan criticises the notion suggested by others that a nation is formed by a common language, race, religion, or territory: ‘A nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavours, sacrifice and devotion. A heroic past, great men, glory, that is the social capital upon which one bases a national idea. To have common glories in the past, to have a common will in the present, to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more, these are the essential conditions of being a people. A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity … Its existence is a daily plebiscite … A province is its inhabitants; if anyone has the right to be consulted, it is the inhabitant. A nation never has any real interest in annexing or holding on to a country against its will. The existence of nations is a good thing, a necessity even. Their existence is a guarantee of liberty, which would be lost if the world had only one law and only one master.’