Page 25 - Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization

Fighting Against the Injustice of the State and Globalization
•
16
either the best or worst sense, we will not be indifferent to what we do as scholars.And
what better norm for the scholar than human freedom and knowledge? Perhaps too we
should remember that the study of man [and woman] in society is based on concrete
human history and experience, not on donnish abstractions, or on obscure laws or arbi-
trary stems.The problem then is to make the study fit and in some way be shaped by the
102
experience, which would be illuminated and perhaps changed by the study.
As Said suggests, scholars need to study and understand the experiences of subju-
gated peoples to find appropriate solutions for their problems. From the perspective
of subjugated peoples, oppressed nationalism involves politics and knowledge that can
be seen as an integral part of the struggle for identity and human dignity as well as for
economic, cultural, and human rights. Following Eric Wolf and exposing the arro-
gance of some liberal and Marxist scholars who consider subjugated peoples as the
peoples without history, Bereciartu explains that the “‘peoples without history,’ who
had seemingly been condemned to oblivion, not only have ‘returned to history’ now
seem on the brink of becoming coparticipants and protagonists, along with ‘historical
103
peoples,’ in the creation of future society.”
The idea that nationalism is invented
105
104
does not capture the whole character of oppressed na-
from above
or imagined
tionalism since it helps to reclaim, recover, or restore lost cultural, economic, and
human rights of the subjugated people.
Without understanding critically how an oppressive and exploitative social system
and colonial education creates a nationalist leadership, some scholars see nationalism
as a phenomenon invented from above. 106 Eric Hobsbawm asserts that nation and na-
tionalism are “constructed essentially from above, but . . . cannot be understood unless
analyzed from below, that is in terms of the assumptions, hopes, needs, longings and
interests of ordinary people, which are not necessarily national and still less national-
ist.” 107 Of course, oppressive socioeconomic conditions do not necessarily produce
nationalism; nationalism cannot be invented from above by elites without the exis-
tence of oppressive and exploitative conditions. “Social, economic, and political
change act indirectly upon incidence and forms of conflict by changing the mobi-
lization potential of various social formations,”Anthony Oberschall notes,“by chang-
ing the social milieu and ecological locus of capabilities of authorities.” 108 National
consciousness emerges from certain structural changes and social conditions that fa-
cilitate the development of a human agency that attempts to change oppressive struc-
ture by mobilizing cultural, ideological, and material resources that are essential for
creating a national movement.
The cases of the African American and Oromo movements clearly demonstrate this
reality.“Collective ethnic renewal involves the reconstruction of an ethnic community,”
Joane Nagel notes,“by current or new community members who build or rebuild in-
stitutions, culture, history, and tradition.” 109 Intellectual and professional groups de-
velop political and ideological strategies depending on their political maturity,
available political opportunities, indigenous institutions, and the level of their com-
mitment for the liberation of their people. Breuilly notes that the development of
“capitalism has created new social groups with new objectives and ways of seeking
those objectives which nationalism might help serve.” 110 Benedict Anderson believes
that nationalism creates an imagined community, although he is not restricted by this
idea; he recognizes that “nation-ness, as well as nationalism, are cultural artefacts of a
particular kind.To understand them properly we need to consider carefully how they