One of the strongest criticisms against the idea of a Nation State is that it is basically a model evolved out of a unique European experience in history and cannot be generalized on other histories. But the fact that nobody can deny is, what European history culminated in the 18th and 19th Century, came to be practically the whole world`™s experience, borrowed or otherwise, thanks to the expansion of European colonialism during a period that spanned almost concurrently with the most heady days of European nationalism. Almost as if it was an inevitable process, the post-colonial history of Europe`™s former colonies has been one of the traumas and birth pangs of `native` Nation States. The struggles continue unabated till this day, dividing peoples on lines of nationalistic loyalties, and those of us in Manipur, which is in the throes of a thousand mutinies, should not in any way fail to grasp its awesome impact. Europe`™s history, it may also be interpreted, was only part of a progression that all else had to go through. It was just a question of Europe being there first. This is as against those who argue the explosion of nationalism all over the world are mere mimicry of the European experience.
While we have the luxury of hindsight in analysing events of the past, especially when there is a considerable time gap, we can hardly say the same thing about events that are unfolding in real living time. But from the look of things, another European experience is set to be replicated the world over. After giving the rest of the world the notion of nationhood, national boundaries are now melting down in Europe. The European Union is today emerging as one big supra-nation absorbing many differences between the nationalistic aspirations of peoples living within the geographical entity known as Europe. The reunification process of Europe is indeed having plenty of hiccups, the worst of it includes the rejection of a common European constitution by France and Holland some years ago. Then there is also the United Kingdom, holding on to its identity and uniquely distinct economy and refusing to give enough to the common European identity. It is still one of the few European countries that have not accepted the common European currency, the Euro. All the same, not many believe such resistance can hold out forever against the new tide, although this optimism would have suffered a jolt after witnessing the collapse of Greece.
The impact of this march of supra nationality is also felt in many other unexpected ways, not always pleasant or friction free. The EU may not have any military clout, but it is profoundly influential in many other ways. The fringe nations of Europe today are clamouring to join the EU not only for the obvious reason of economic security but also to have a share of the common European identity. This of course has had its repercussion in making Russia feel uneasy. These fringe European states, through history, had served as the buffer for heartland Russia against numerous invasions from Europe. Russia`™s violent reaction to Ukraine getting too close to the EU and the West`™s meddling in Syria, are examples of how the country these buffers disappearing as a threat to its safety. There is also the peculiar question of Islam phobia in Europe. On the one hand, it is keen for these fringe European states, which have seen extreme violence against Muslim citizens, to not abandon humanitarian law, if they wish to join the EU, but there is no gainsaying EU countries themselves suffer from a similar phobia to not as openly. The divided opinion over the accepting Syrian refugees is a case in point. It therefore is given the task of balancing its unease at ethnic blood-letting as in the former Yugoslavia at the time of its splintering, in which the country`™s Muslims were a major victim, but also its own inherent xenophobia, though much more effective disguised and indeed sublimated.
The second was the increasingly diffused understanding of nationhood in the traditional sense, in Europe of today. Many other ethnic related conflict situations in Europe have met similar resolutions in recent times. German dominated South Tyrol in Italy is another prominent case. In the changed dispensation, South Tyrol in Italy is prospering much more than North Tyrol in ethnic German State of Austria. South Tyrol`™s ethnic German population also do not have to be always equating with Rome or Italian nationalism, but perfectly legitimately with Brussels, where the EU headquarters are located, and Europeanism as well. Just as in the case of the spread of the notion of Nation State, perhaps the phenomenon of the melt-down of nations will come to spread to the rest of the world too. Who know, the softening of ethnic and national boundaries may also diffuse our own myriad conflict situations.