{"id":6970,"date":"2021-03-24T16:52:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T16:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/?p=6970"},"modified":"2025-07-25T15:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T10:51:06","slug":"of-nation-states-and-inclusive-political-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/of-nation-states-and-inclusive-political-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Of nation-states and inclusive political solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world is currently steeped in political conflicts due to the deep fractures caused by colonialism with conflicts such as the Israel-Palestine having no clear end in sight. However, a solution could be available on the horizon provided people are willing to first realize the socio-political constructs of nation-states they have been placed in and work on a new alternative that promotes alliance rather than distinction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These themes were explored in the second session of Habib University\u2019s fourth Post-colonial Higher Education Conference titled \u2018Repairing Politics\u2019. Dr Mahmoud Mamdani, a professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, and Nandita Sharma, Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii, were the esteemed guests on the panel.<\/p>\n

The session was chaired by Dr. Massimo Ramaioli, Assistant Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Habib University, and included Dr. Nauman Naqvi, Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities at Habib University.<\/p>\n

The session delved into the intractable problems of contemporary politics of the world, the formation of modern nation-states and how it is deeply rooted in both colonialism and racism. Both panelists offered an emancipatory image of how the new world order could and should look like.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mamdani began with an overview of the key arguments in his book, \u2018Neither Settler nor Native\u2019, which centers on the nation-state and post-colonial modernity. He went on to explain that the liberal notion of the nation-state turned the majority and minority into permanent political identities. Only the majority had sovereignty, and the minority could not participate in the political process because they were not sovereign. The idea of a sovereign majority alongside a non-sovereign minority was the original sin in the liberal theory of the nation-state, he argued. In his book, Dr. Mamdani also explored the construction of an epistemological project that grounded the political distinction between sovereign and non-sovereign subjects in an epistemic and legal distinction.<\/p>\n

He proceeded to ask what we can learn from the failure of the \u2018Nazification in the relative success of post-apartheid South Africa. He takes a look at the last chapter of his book that views Israel-Palestine from a South-African lens. By taking the US as a case, he sought to compare the conquest of Indians and the domination of Africans to distinguish between colonial conquest and racial domination. He argued that these were two different modern strategies of subjugation, each with a different consequence.<\/p>\n

Dr. Mamdani spoke about the different ways of thinking about political identity \u2013 one that is historical and changeable and the other being natural and permanent. He suggested decoupling the nation and the state as we seek an alternative to the nation-state.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the difference between immigrants and settlers, he explained that immigrants are those that come to join existing polities, seeking equality or advantage in them, while settlers come to displace existing polities and establish their exclusive sovereignty. Indian reservations in the US, in particular, were not part of the sovereign state, he argued. Abraham Lincoln\u2019s contribution in the second half of the 19th century was to establish a sovereign state alongside a non-sovereign state. He wished to provide a permanent solution to the Indians who had survived the genocide.<\/p>\n

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Watch the session<\/strong>
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