Boils down to regionalism

Just started with Political Sciene, and it is a really interesting subject.

There was this discussion on the factors responsible for the creation of Nationalism. The factors were:

(The factors should be understood as: promotes the creation of nationalism because of common background)

-Geographical
-Historical
-Political
-Cultural
-Racial
-Religious
-Economic
-Linguistic
-Psychological

First of all, there are some factors like Racial, Religious and Linguistic factors that do not promote Nationalism in India. for example, you do not feel an association with India merely becaue you are a Tamilian (I am not a Tamilian, took the example becaues Tamil is spoken elsewhere in the world). But being in France, you feel an association for the Nation because you are proud that you speak French. The same can be said for being Catholic in France or Spain or say Muslim in Pakistan. I don't know if Pakistan as an Islamic state is a common misconception, but they have the symbol on their flag, so I guess I am allowed to use the example without being too politically incorrect.

The point is that we associate ourselves with the Nation for different things. While not all factors may promote Nationalism in all countries, all remain factors in some country or another. The point is, however, that everything boils down to regionalism.

The origin of all these factors is regionalism. Regionalism is such a fierce force that even within a nation, we feel more comeraderie for say the person of the same language or religion. There tend to be local concenteration of the people of similiar religion or language. For example, although Mumbai is said to be a melting pot of all cultures, it is a known fact that South Indians are concenterated in Matunga, Gujjus are concenterated in Dadar, Muslims are concenterated in Masjid, and idiots are concenterated in Mulund (Sorry couldn't resist). There is this fierce Thane-Mulund rivalry which I will have to blog about sometime. Regionalism is so strong that not only does regionalism produce the need for a nation, as well as build up the spirit of Nationalism, but it works the other way round, by getting together people originating from the same region at some alien/foreign location. An international example would be: New Jersey is said to be full of Indians, and Chinatown full of Chineese in New York.

Maybe regionalism is so strong a force because it is an evolved form of terrotorialism from our ancestors. Amongst other animals, we think that this is stupidly storng. Because some birds cannot fly out of their own territories, no matter how hard they try. They seem to suddenly hit a glass wall and turn back. That's how strong the feeling of territory is, and maybe we are not above such instincts.