National and Ethnic Identities in South-East Asia

Abstract

Emergence of ' nation-state' as the dominant societal type is one of the most striking and significant historical developments of our time. It is significant in the sense that until about the end of the 19th century it was very much a European phenomenon but in the post-World War I period it has become a model of political and social development for the new states emerging from the former colonial empires of the European nations. This emulation has in return resulted in considerable economic, social, political and cultural upheavals in the new states which, notwithstanding their impressive programmes of national integration and development, often designed with the expert assistance from the American and European academic establishments, have done little to resolve the underlying causes of these problems. This paper is an attempt to understand the problem of national development and ethnic loyalties in the new states. We begin with a brief examination of the notion of nation-state.