Nationalism was showing an encouraging maturity last week. In France the voters overwhelmingly backed De Gaulle's visions of national grandeur; in India 438 million people, speaking 14 major languages and over 800 dialects, closed ranks behind Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru against Communist aggression.
Both lands, for different reasons, were suffused with national pride. Under De Gaulle, Frenchmen have shaken off the apathy induced by defeat in war and decades of domestic bickering. Today France's industry is one of the sturdiest in
Europe, and Frenchmen are better clothed and fed and housed than ever in history.
Faced by the shock of war, Indians have shed illusion for the reality of a world where soft words are no substitute for bayonets when an aggressor strikes.
The force of nationalism, equally capable of good or evil, cannot be evaded in a world that since the war has seen the number of independent states rise from fewer than 70 to some 120. In the last two years alone, new nations have blossomed at the rate of one a month, ranging from countries as small as Cyprus (pop.
600,000) to Nigeria (42 million).
Spirit to Die For. Though nationalism of one sort or another seems ingrained in modern man, it is historically very young—dating from the 18th century American and French revolutions. In the ancient world, a man's loyalty was given to his city—Athens or Corinth or Sparta.
When Rome ruled most of the known world, its patriotic impulse still came from the Eternal City. The feudal lords of the Middle Ages gave their allegiance to king, not country, and French barons fighting on the side of invading English kings were considered faithful vassals, not collaborators. Writes Historian Carlton Hayes: "Nationality has always existed.
Patriotism has long existed, either as applied to a locality or as extended to an empire. But the fusion of patriotism with nationality and the predominance of national patriotism over all other human loyalties—which is nationalism—is modern, very modern." The revolutions in America and France established the principle that the citizens of any state, if dissatisfied with the conduct of their society, have the right and power to install new leaders. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, drafted by Marquis de Lafayette, proclaimed that "the principle of sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation: no body of men, no individual, can exercise authority that does not emanate expressly from it." It was this inspiration that motivated Simón Bolivar and José de San Martin in freeing the states of South America from the dead hand of colonial Spain, forged modern Germany out of a score of principalities, unified fragmented Italy with Cavour's leadership. Under this glorious banner, Irishmen and Poles and Czechs fought and died to achieve their nationhood. Its spirit was reflected in the name of the Irish revolutionary society Sinn Fein (We Ourselves).
Nationalists came to learn that their creed contained bad seeds as well as good.
The nation demanded supreme loyalty from its citizens, insisted on its superiority over other nationalities, fostered pride in the national character and destiny. Carried too far, these convictions played a part in World War I and in a perversion of nationalism, loosed the Nazi terror on the world, piling the earth with corpses.