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Paradoxes of Asian Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Rupert Emerson
Rupert Emerson
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Sweeping and remoulding Europe in the 19th Century, nationalism has swept on in equally revolutionary guise to remould Asia in the 20th, and is now penetrating Africa. In the study of its impact and development almost every aspect of human society is involved, positively or negatively, and at least every social science discipline has its part to contribute to the analysis of an exceedingly complex whole. In the Asia of today and of the recent past we have a whole series of new nations coining forward to assert their claims in the world. A laboratory has been made available in which we can observe and analyze the growth of nationalism, catch it in its earliest stages and trace it through to its maturity, as well as at least noting in passing the countervailing forces of the past and present. The raw material, vibrant with a new and dynamic life, is there for our taking, and it would be tragic if we were to let it slip through our fingers without gathering it and subjecting it to the closest possible investigation.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , February 1954 , pp. 131 - 142
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1954

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References

1 This assumption receives explicit, if not quite unchallengeable, statement in a comment by President Sukarno to the effect that God Almighty created the map of the world in such fashion that even a child can tell that the British Isles are one entity—which might surprise the Irish—and that a child can see that the Indonesian Archipelago is a single entity stretching between the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Asian and Australian continents, from the north tip of Sumatra to Papua. The Indonesian Review, Jan. 1951, p. 13.

2 Cf. Hayden, Joseph Ralston, The Philippines (New York, 1942) p. 21.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Thompson, Virginia and Adloff, Richard, The Left Wing in Southeast Asia (New York, 1950) p. 252Google Scholar.

4 Yat-Sen, Sun, San Min Chu I (Shanghai, 1929) p. 16Google Scholar.

5 An opposing point of view is stated by Northrop, F. S. C., The Taming of the Nations (New York, 1952) pp. 68–69Google Scholar, who contends that a study of developments in the Middle and Far East shows that the Muslims and Asians are not pursuing nationalist aspirations as the West understands them: “They are working toward the resurgence of their respective submerged civilizations. What Western reporters have described as the coming of Western nationalism to the Middle East and Asia is really the return of Islamic or Far Eastern ways and values…. It is culturalism rathet than nationalism that is the rising fact of the world today.” But Northrop immediately qualifies this statement by adding that the contemporary mind of Islam and Asia is also seeking to ingraft from the West the factors needed to raise the standard of living of the masses.

6 Karl W. Deutsch, “The Growth of Nations: Some Recurrent Patterns of Political and Social Integration,” World Politics, Jan. 1953, pp. 168–196.

7 Report on the Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria (Lagos, 1919)Google Scholar.

8 Zinkin, Maurice, Asia and the West (London, 1951), p. 285Google Scholar.