Religion and Nationalism

Religion and Nationalism

Fall 2010

Mark Woodward

In this seminar we will consider relationships between nations, nationalisms and religions, both as conceptual categories "imagined" and "objective/objectified" realities. We will be especially concerned with the ways in which religions and nationalism shape or determine each other. In the introduction to the first book that we will consider Hobsbawm offers the conjecture that if "alien" (in the sense of extra-terrestrial) scholars were to peruse the archives and libraries of a world depopulated by neutron bombs (that kill people but do not destroy property) they would conclude that in its final centuries the hapless inhabitants of this now dead planet had been obsessed with the idea of the "nation" and had used it to organize themselves into increasingly competitive and hostile communities. Much the same could be said about the idea of "religion."

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was more of an empire than a nation, scholars and others have become increasingly concerned with ethnic and religious nationalism, generally considering them to be a threat to the established world order. Some would say that this "threat" is a positive development because of its liberating potential, others that these supposedly "new" nationalisms are among the greatest dangers the world faces in the Post Cold War era.

The literature on these concepts is enormous and fraught with controversy, even about definitional issues. We can not expect to do more than scratch the surface. Our goal is not to be comprehensive, but by examining a variety of examples to acquire the intellectual tools necessary to think critically about what we encounter in our individual work.

Questions of nationality are impossible to avoid in the study of religion in the contemporary world. Similarly, questions about religion are impossible to avoid in the study of nations and nationalisms. There are, to be sure, nations that would like to avoid religion and deem themselves to be secular. But for a nation to claim secularity, is to take a position on religion and its role in public life. There are also religious communities that reject the idea of nationality. They choose between hiding from it and confronting it, but ultimately can not ignore it.

Course Structure and Requirements

This seminar will be conducted in a hybrid format. It will be partly face-to-face and partly on-line. If technological arrangements can be made, we will schedule some sessions by "Skype." We plan to hold four sessions in the first two weeks of the semester, which should allow us to consider most of the pertinent theoretical issues in person before moving to the case studies.

There will be a blackboard page for the class which we will use for discussion purposes. Everyone is expected to participate actively in the discussion board and to make weekly postings of approximately 1,000 words on the assigned readings. The major requirement for the class, which will constitute 75% of the final grade is a research paper of 20 to 25 pages. This is to be a case study of a nationalist movement, or nation state of your choosing that addresses the theoretical issues raised in the coure.

Reading List and Schedule

All of these books will be available in the ASU bookstore. They can also be purchased on-line. Some may be available, at least in part, through Google Books and other on-line sources.

There are three theoretically oriented books: These will be considered in sessions one - four.

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (New Edition) (Paperback) Benedict Anderson Verso; New Edition (November 17, 2006) sessions one and two

Nations and Nationalism (New Perspectives on the Past) (Paperback) Ernest Gellner · Cornell University Press; 2 edition (May 15, 2009) · ISBN-10: 0801475007 ISBN-13: 978-0801475009 session three

Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Canto) (Paperback) E. J. Hobsbawm, Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (October 30, 1992) ISBN-10: 0521439612 ISBN-13: 978-0521439619 session four

There are seven case studies (eight books total)

France - Basic theme-secular nationalism and cultural hegemony.

Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 by Eugen Weber ( Paperback - June 1, 1976) Stanford University Press; 1 edition (June 1, 1976) · ISBN-10: 0804710139 ISBN-13: 978-0804710138 Chapters1,2,6, 12, 16-29 are required. Sessions five and six

United States - Basic theme - 18 th century debates concerning "Freedom of Religion"< /span>

The First Liberty: America's Foundation in Religious Freedom by William Lee Miller ( Hardcover - Apr. 2003) Georgetown University Press; Expanded edition (April 2003) ISBN-10: 0878408991 ISBN-13: 978-0878408993 Session seven

South Asia (India and Pakistan) - Contesting Religion, Ethnicity and Language

Language, Religion and Politics in North India (Paperback) Paul Brass

· Publisher: Backinprint.com (March 18, 2005) ISBN-10: 0595343945 ISBN-13: 978-0595343942 Sessions eight and nine

Zionism - From Trans-national Political Movement to Nationhood

The History of Zionism by Walter Laqueur (Paperback - Aug. 22, 2003) · Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks; 3rd edition (August 22, 2003) ISBN-10: 1860649327ISBN-13: 978-1860649325 Sessions ten and eleven

Japan - Indigenous religion, nationalism and modernization

Shinto and the State, 1868-1988 by Helen Hardacre, Princeton University Press, 1991 ISBN13:978-0-691-02052-5 Session twelve

Malaysia - Ethno-religious nationalism in a plural society

Malaysia: State and Civil Society in Transition by Vidhu Verma ( Hardcover - June 2002) · Lynne Rienner Publishers (June 2002) ISBN-10: 1588260917 ISBN-13: 978-1588260918 Session thirteen

Thailand - Conflicting ethno-religious nationalisms

Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (Paperback)

by Thongchakul Winichakul University of Hawaii Press (August 1, 1997)

Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand (Paperback) by

Duncan McCargo , Cornell University Press (September 2008)

Think about these examples carefully. If we all work well on this there is a possibility that we could have an edited book resulting from your papers.

Cheers

Mark