How did nationalism take root in asian countries?
Lord Acton, writing in 1862, argued that nationalism, though ‘more absurd and more criminal than the theory of socialism’, was a necessary step in the evolution of human society. This is because it was the only force strong enough to replace the ‘two greater evils’ of his time, ‘the absolute monarchy and the revolution’. Nevertheless, he presciently warned that if (as was not unlikely) liberty and democracy were thwarted because of the progress of nationalism, nationalism would inevitably lead to a nation’s downfall. There is little doubt that political activity in Europe in the 19th century and particularly during its last decades was, as Eric Hobsbawm puts it, ‘convulsed by the principle of nationality’. Despite its recognized risks of isolationism and suppression of minorities at one extreme and external aggression at the other, the desire for the congruence of nation and state (however theoretically impossible), turned out, at least for several decades, to be a better driving force
