Monsoon Reads: Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson

By Sammie Ng

The average person alive today would probably take the concept of nations for granted, not remembering a time when national boundaries were not drawn and passports were never thought of, let alone dictate the movement of people. Yet, the average person is also alive in a world where the flows of people, goods and information are greater than ever before. People move across national boundaries whether to work, live, play or, unfortunately, escape. At the individual level, there are thus more and more instances in which the concept of nations and citizenship look out of place. Indeed, one does not go through life not noticing the arbitrariness of nationalities. ‘Imagined Communities’ not only notices the arbitrariness of nationalities, but enlightens the reader on how it came to be, and more importantly, recognises how this belief system has shaped our world.

The book is largely ordered through time, not unlike a historical opus as Benedict Anderson first describes and illustrates a world before the nation-state before he goes on to argue for how pre-existing beliefs of the dynasty came to be disrupted and ultimately replaced by the concept of the nation. Anderson’s storytelling and analysis is not only historical, but also geographical - the story extends not only across time, but also across space. Beginning from Europe and the Americas, Anderson then brings the reader to colonial countries, giving us additional, badly-needed lessons on colonial history and post-colonialism. Also, while nationality takes centre-stage in Imagined Communities, the book also discusses other important ‘characteristics’ including language, race and class, which help make ‘nations’ a truly viable concept, or the dominant one it is today. Lastly, the book is also neutral on whether this concept of nation is good or bad. This neutrality is key to its criticality - it leaves the reader to ponder nationalism in all its manifestations throughout history, and the chance to do the same for what we observe in our world today.

A note of caution for the average reader–Imagined Communities can be overwhelming to read at times. Benedict Anderson references an incredible wealth of literature (sometimes, the footnotes take up half the page), many of them foreign to a reader who is not in arts, history or cultural studies. Nonetheless, while it is a pity that one is unlikely to manage to process let alone digest all of Anderson’s nuggets of wisdom, one should not be fearful to attempt to try anyway. The central arguments are too important to miss, and reading them from Anderson himself will prove rewarding. Anyway, this book is definitely not only worth a single read in one’s lifetime.

The book being written in the 70s, can only tell the story of nationalism up till then. However, an understanding of the past has the potential to liberate us from our future. And as Imagined Communities reminds us, each and every one of us are participants in this belief system - we are integral and we have agency. Empowered by Anderson, the world will look a little different by the end of this book; one will have found the words to describe the felt arbitrariness of one’s nationality. One will then have to decide what to do with it.