Imagined Communities Imagined Communities Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism BENEDICT ANDERSON Revised Edition First published by Verso 1983 This edition published by Verso 2006 © Benedict Anderson, 1983, 1991, 2006 new material © Benedict Anderson, 2006 All rights reserved The moral rights of the author have been asserted 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG USA: 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014–4606 www.versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Left Books ISBN–13: 978–1–84467–484–8 (ebook) ISBN–13: 978–1–84467–086–4 (pbk) ISBN–10: 1–84467–086–4 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh Printed by Quebecor World, Fairfield For Mamma and Tantiette in love and gratitude Contents Preface to the Second Edition 1 Introduction 2 Cultural Roots 3 The Origins of National Consciousness 4 Creole Pioneers 5 Old Languages, New Models 6 Official Nationalism and Imperialism 7 The Last Wave 8 Patriotism and Racism 9 The Angel of History 10 Census, Map, Museum 11 Memory and Forgetting Travel and Traffic: On the Geo-biography of Imagined Communities Bibliography Index Acknowledgments As will be apparent to the reader, my thinking about nationalism has been deeply affected by the writings of Erich Auerbach, Walter Benjamin and Victor Turner. In preparing the book itself, I have benefitted enormously from the criticism and advice of my brother Perry Anderson, Anthony Barnett, and Steve Heder. J. A. Ballard, Mohamed Chambas, Peter Katzenstein, the late Rex Mortimer, Francis Mulhern, Tom Nairn, Shiraishi Takashi, Jim Siegel, Laura Summers, and Esta Ungar also gave me invaluable help in different ways. Naturally, none of these friendly critics should be held in any way accountable for the text’s deficiencies, which are wholly my responsibility. I should perhaps add that I am by training and profession a specialist on Southeast Asia. This admission may help to explain some of the book’s biases and choices of examples, as well as to deflate its would-be-global pretensions. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain. Walter Benjamin, Illuminations Thus from a Mixture of all kinds began, That Het’rogeneous Thing, An Englishman: In eager Rapes, and furious Lust begot, Betwixt a Painted Britton and a Scot: Whose gend’ring Offspring quickly learnt to bow, And yoke their Heifers to the Roman Plough: From whence a Mongrel half-bred Race there came, With neither Name nor Nation, Speech or Fame. In whose hot Veins now Mixtures quickly ran, Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane. While their Rank Daughters, to their Parents just, Receiv’d all Nations with Promiscuous Lust. This Nauseous Brood directly did contain The well-extracted Blood of Englishmen . . . From Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman