Merits & Demerits of Nationalism

Merits

• Patriotic spirit is ingrained by nationalism. A guy is willing to give up all for the honor and security of his nation.
• Nationalism serves as a uniting element. It fosters cultural and religious harmony.

Drawbacks

• Global peace is threatened by nationalism. Wars frequently start because of nationalism. People who identify as members of a minority or from a different country often feel excluded, which fuels conflict and violence.
• A nation that upholds nationalism’s ideals hates other nations because it believes its own is superior than all others. Hitler, for instance, believed that the Aryan race was superior to the Jewish race. and so, in an effort to eradicate the Jewish people, Hitler committed mass murders.

Tagore opposed nationalism as a concept

• Rather than supporting nationalism, he supported internationalism.
• He held that national boundaries or other divisions cannot separate humanity.
• Everyone needs to be treated with equal rights and decency, regardless of whether they are Arabic, American, Indian, or both.

People often think that a nation is made up of people who have similar backgrounds, languages, religions, or ethnicities. But there isn’t a single universal set of traits that all countries have in common. A nation is built up of its people; it is not made up of mountains, hills, land, infrastructure, natural resources, etc. It only exists when individuals feel a sense of unity.

It alludes to the shared identity and plans of a group of people who want to live free and independent political lives. They firmly believe that they are a single unit and that they must work as a cohesive team to advance their nation. We are united as a single entity by our shared history of freedom movement.

In the article, we shall discuss more on Nationalism!