Citizenship, Nationality and Ethnicity: Reconciling Competing IdentitiesISBN: 978-0-7456-1620-9
Paperback
280 pages
December 1996, Polity
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Oommen conceives of the nation as a product of a fusion of
territory and language. He demonstrates that neither religion nor
race determines national identities. As territory is seminal for a
nation to emerge and exist, the dissociation between people and
their 'homeland' makes them an ethnie. Citizenship is
conceptualized both as a status to which nationals and ethnies
ought to be entitled and a set of obligations, a role they are
expected to play.
Analyses of three historical episodes - colonialism and European
expansion, Communist internationalism and the nation-state and its
project of cultural unity - are examined to provide the empirical
content of the argument.
This book will be essential reading for second-year undergraduates
and above in the areas of sociology, anthropology and cultural
studies.