How (and why) the new nationalism is all about building a nation-brand for the global economy
An excerpt from ‘Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India’, by Ravinder Kaur. An Incredible India poster in Malayasia. | Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters
The spectacular appearance of the brand new nation might seem off- script or even plain ironic to those familiar with the story of globalisation – like a late-twentieth-century shorthand for the unhindered movement of capital, labor, goods, and people – and the opening up of the world. Weren’t we once told that the nation-state had been made “obsolete,” a superfluous political artefact in the age of globalisation? And that the nation-state was standing on “its last legs,” faced as it was with “crisis” and potential demise?