In this contribution I want to first examine some aspects of the influence of Orientalism and Christianity on the construction of a notion of Hinduism which could serve as the basis for nationalism. Second, I want to explore two influential claims about the uniqueness and superiority of the Hindu religion and its practitioners. The first claim is that Hinduism is the religion of a superior race, namely the Aryan race. The second claim is that Hinduism is a religion which is spiritually superior to other religions. These two claims are never completely separate from each other, but are differently emphasised by different Hindu movements.

Writers on nationalism have continued to use the distinction between civic and cultural nationalisms; and to suggest that the former has liberal connotations while the latter is intrinsically illiberal and authoritarian. This rests in part on the argument that the civic bond is rational and voluntaristic while the cultural bond is irrational and ascriptive; in part on the argument that the presence of the middle classes is conducive to liberal politics; and in part on the argument that cultural nationalism is illiberal because of its reactive origins. These arguments are critically examined, and then are reformulated to suggest that the liberalism or illiberalism of nationalism might not be related to its cultural or civic basis, but might depend both upon whether the class articulating the nationalism is marginalised or upwardly mobile; and upon whether the wider society becomes focused upon ressentiment in relation to threatening others, or on developing a self-generated identity.

On 22 May 1998 Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland held successful referenda on the so-called Good Friday Agreement that provided a proto-constitutional settlement to the violence that had plagued Ulster for almost thirty years. This article analyses the prospects for a lasting, stable settlement in Northern Ireland. Experience has shown that construction, like reform, of constitutions and constitutional frameworks in deeply divided societies is no mean task. This article draws lessons from Canada's failed Charlottetown Accord (1992) to suggest that two fatal flaws – expanding the agenda to include the demands of multiple groups, and opening the constitutional process to mass legitimisation through use of referenda – can undermine political stability and the prospect of settlement. Canada, a country that like Northern Ireland features a long string of failed constitutional settlements, provides an excellent illustration of the problems involved. As is the case in Northern Ireland, the Canadian constitutional quagmire has grown out of the imperative to reconcile the rights of an entrenched ethno-national minority with majority rule. In both countries the traditional defining cleavage is ascriptive. In both, centuries of resentment, as well as expectations raised and dashed by constitutional failure, have led to political instability. In Canada, this has meant threats to the integrity of the country itself. In Northern Ireland the consequences have been even more serious.

Gellner, Ernest. Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski, and the Habsburg dilemma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Modernity and nationalism are intrinsically linked. This verdict is shared by most scholars of nationalism, and even ‘anti-modernists’ subscribe at least partially to this view – although they prefer to focus on the doctrine's more ancient roots. But perhaps none better than Ernest Gellner (1925–95) has expressed this relationship with such a sharp rigour. For Gellner describes with powerful metaphors and ‘mathematic’ lucidity the emergence of nationalism following the shift from agricultural to industrial society. During this passage, the basis and legitimation of the social order mutuated from religious-theocratic to scientific-secularist forms.

Gershoni, Israel and Jankowski, James P. Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Sayigh, Yezid. Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Jankowski, James and Gershoni, Israel (eds.) Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

The enormous volume of writing on nationalism in recent years has tended both to anticipate and reflect geopolitical events in the world. Neglected in the wake of the Second World War for which it was blamed by many, nationalism as a subject began to attract scholarly attention again in the early 1980s, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union made it a central focus for academics. Nowadays, the number of postgraduate courses, conferences, journals and books devoted to nationalism demonstrate how important and fashionable it has become.