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Growth of Democratic Nation-State!
H.T. Mazumdar is of the opinion that the nation state born of competition and conflict. He writes, ‘The Hundred Year War (1337-1453) gave rise to two rival groups across the English channel, each feeling a “consciousness of kind” the English ; the French. The War of the Roses (1453-1485) gave rise to a unit English nation under the Tudor dictatorship. Rivalry in discovery and piracy on the high seas cemented national solidarity among the participants—the English, the French, the Portuguese, the Spaniards.
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The American Nation was born of conflict (1776-83), Napoleon of the French Revolution of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity overran most of Europe (1798-1815) and thereby sowed the seeds of national consciousness among defeated countries. The kingdom of Prussia was one of the notable products of the Napoleonic wars. The German Nation was born of conflict of war with France (1870-71).
The Italian Nation, under Mazzini and Garibaldi, came into being as a resurgent movement in protest against Austrian domination (1859-70). The Hindu Nation came into being in 1885 as a protest against British exploitation…………. Either competition or conflict, or possibly a combination of both, has given rise to political nationalism’.
The idea of democratic nation state is of recent growth. Politically, the first step was the unification of all authority in the hands of powerful centralized independent monarchies which took the place of ineffective and petty feudal authorities. After innumerable conflicts and vicissitudes the principle of state absolutism became supreme in Europe.
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All the great reformers of Protestant Reformation enjoined on their followers passive obedience to the state and taught “that the powers that be are ordained of God.” They held that the rulers to whom obedience was due ruled by divine right.
In England their teaching paved the way for Tudor and Stuart despotism. In France, Louis XIV said ‘I am the state’. The general tendency of Reformation was to strengthen despotism in the political sovereign. It was both a nationalistic and a religious movement.
Such despotism, however, did not long remain unchallenged. The people, with the growth of enlightenment and realisation of their power and importance, slowly but surely obtained certain rights from the ruler. The common man realised the fact that government existed not for its own sake, but for the good of the governed.
The monarch lost his status of a superior being with divine rights. Royal absolutism, at one time necessary to weld people together and to bring order and unity out of feudal disorder and disunity, was no longer necessary once that object was fulfilled. Political parties grew stronger and developed into open organisations representing liberal attitudes on various questions of interest to the constitutional group.
The democratic movement started. In France it meant a violent revolution. In other countries, the monarchs willingly yielded to the popular will and were content to remain as figureheads under a democratic government. The sovereignty of the people became recognised and the democratic national state came to be established.