Editing Nationalism (section)

=== Anti-colonial ===
[[File:Crowd demonstrates against Great Britain in Cairo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Crowd demonstrates against Britain in [[Cairo]] on 23 October 1951 as tension continued to mount in the dispute between Egypt and Britain over control of the [[Suez Canal]] and [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan]].]]
Anti-colonial nationalism is an intellectual framework that preceded, accompanied and followed the process of [[decolonization]] in the mid-1900s. [[Benedict Anderson]] defined a nation as a socially constructed community that is co-created by individuals who imagine themselves as part of this group.<ref name="Mylonas"/><ref name="Anderson">{{Cite book|last=Anderson|first=Benedict|title=Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism|publisher=Verso Books|location=London|year=1983}}</ref> He points to the [[New World]] as the site that originally conceived of nationalism as a concept, which is defined by its imagination of an ahistorical identity that negates colonialism by definition. This concept of nationalism was exemplified by the transformation of settler colonies into nations, while anti-colonial nationalism is exemplified by movements against colonial powers in the 1900s.

Nationalist mobilization in French colonial Africa and British colonial India developed "when colonial regimes refused to cede rights to their increasingly well-educated colonial subjects",  who formed indigenous elites and strategically adopted and adapted nationalist tactics.<ref name="Mylonas"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Adria |title=Imperial rule and the politics of nationalism : anti-colonial protest in the French empire |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York, NY, USA |isbn=9781107640757}}</ref><ref name="Tudor">{{cite book |last1=Tudor |first1=Maya Jessica |title=The promise of power : the origins of democracy in India and autocracy in Pakistan |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781139519076}}</ref> New national identities may cross pre-existing ethnic or linguistic divisions.<ref name="Mylonas"/> Anti-colonial independence movements in Africa and Asia in the 1900s were led by individuals who had a set of shared identities and imagined a homeland without external rule. Anderson argues that the racism often experienced as a result of colonial rule and attributed to nationalism is rather due to theories of class.<ref name=":8" />

[[Gellner's theory of nationalism]] argues that nationalism works for combining one culture or ethnicity in one state, which leads to that state's success. For Gellner, nationalism is ethnic, and state political parties should reflect the ethnic majority in the state. This definition of nationalism also contributes to anti-colonial nationalism, if one conceives of anti-colonial movements to be movements consisting of one specific ethnic group against an outside ruling party.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gellner|first=Ernest |title=Nationalism |date=1997|publisher=New York University Press|isbn=0814731139|location=Washington Square, N.Y.|oclc=37353976}}</ref> Edward Said also saw nationalism as ethnic, at least in part, and argued that nationalist narratives often go hand in hand with racism, as communities define themselves in relation to the other.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Said|first=Edward W. |title=Orientalism|date=1978|publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=0394428145|edition=First |location=New York|oclc=4004102}}</ref>

Anti-colonial nationalism is not static and is defined by different forms of nationalism depending on location. In the anti-colonial movement that took place in the Indian subcontinent, [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and his allies in the [[Indian independence movement]] argued for a [[composite nationalism]], not believing that an independent Indian nation should be defined by its religious identity.<ref>{{cite web|last=Grant|first=Moyra|title=Politics Review|url=http://moodle.collyers.ac.uk/file.php/465/Politics_Review_articles/nationalism_expansionistanddesrtuctive.pdf|url-access=subscription|access-date=16 April 2011|publisher=Politics Review}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="BennemaBhakiaraj2011">{{cite book |last1=Bennema |first1=Cornelis |last2=Bhakiaraj |first2=Paul Joshua |title=Indian and Christian: Changing Identities in Modern India |date=2011 |publisher=SAIACS Press & Oxford House Research |isbn=978-8187712268 |page=157 |language=en|quote=Both these approaches are shown to be within the framework of 'composite nationalism', where Indian Christians maintained their communal distinctiveness while aspiring for national integration.}}</ref> Despite large-scale [[Opposition to the partition of India|opposition]] by the [[Indian National Congress]] supporters, the insistence of the Muslims under the separatist [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] resulted in the [[Indian subcontinent]] being [[Partition of India|partitioned]] into two states in 1947 along religious lines into the Muslim-majority [[Dominion of Pakistan]] and the Hindu-majority [[Dominion of India]].<ref name="Chitkara1988">{{cite book |last1=Chitkara |first1=M. G. |title=Converts Do Not Make a Nation |date=1998 |publisher=APH Publishing |isbn=9788170249825 |page=240 |language=en}}</ref>

Because of colonialism's creation of state and country lines across ethnic, religious, linguistic and other historical boundaries, anti-colonial nationalism is largely related to land first. After independence, especially in countries with particularly diverse populations with historic enmity, there have been a series of smaller independence movements that are also defined by anti-colonialism.

Philosopher and scholar Achille Mbembe argues that post-colonialism is a contradictory term, because colonialism is ever present.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mbembe|first=Achille |title=On the postcolony|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520917538|location=Berkeley |oclc=49570017}}</ref> Those that participate in this intellectual practice envision a post-colonialism despite its being the defining frame for the world. This is the case with anti-colonialism as well. Anti-colonial nationalism as an intellectual framework persisted into the late 20th century with the [[Revolutions of 1989|resistance movements]] in Soviet satellite states and continues with [[Arab Spring|independence movements]] in the Arab world in the 21st century.