NATION AND STATE

 NATION AND STATE

Q: Define the following terms:

(a) Nation (b) State (c) Government

Answer: According to Ramsay Muir, a nation may be defined as a body of people who feel themselves to be naturally linked together by certain affinities, which are so strong for them to live together, they are dissatisfied when disunited and cannot tolerate subjection to people who do not share the same ties. 

Dr Garner has given a very good definition of State. According to him, "The state as a concept of Political Science and Public Law, is a community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, independent or nearly so of external control and possessing an organised government to which a great body of inhabitants renders habitual obedience."

The purpose for which people live together cannot be realized unless they are properly organized and accept certain rules to conduct. The agency created to enforce rules of conduct and ensure obedience is called government.

Q: Name the elements which help the formation of nationality and explain any two of them.

Answer: The elements which help the formation of nationality are:

1. Common Geography.

2. Common Race.

3. Common Language.

4. Common Religion.

5. Common Political framework.

6. Economic factor.

7. Common Subjugation.

8. Common Political aspirations.

Two of them are explained below:

Common Political framework: The existance of a common political framework or state is an important element of nationality. People living in a state are knit together through the laws. Living under a common state creates a sense of unity. As Gilchrist aptly observes that "a nationality lives either because it has been a nation. with its own territory and state or, because it wishes to become a nation with its own territory and state."

Common subjugation: The feelings of natinality arose due to common subjugation as it created a feeling of oneness among the people. In India, a common Indian nationality arose due to the common colonial exploitation.

Q: What is the state? Briefly explain the elements of the state.

Answer: The term 'state' is central to the study of political science. But it is wrongly used as a synonym for nation, society, government etc. But in Political Science, we use this term differently, it has a more specific meaning.

Some of the definitions of the concept of the State are as follows:

According to Bluntschli, "The state is the politically organized people of a definite territory."

According to Garner, "The state as a concept of Political Science and Public Law is a community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, independent or nearly so of external control and possessing and organised government to which a great body of inhabitants render habitual obedience."

According to Woodrow Wilson, "State is a people organized for law within a definite territory."

The State possesses four essential elements:

1. Population - The state is a human institution. It is the people who make a State. The population must be able to sustain a state. Plato fixed the number of people in an ideal state at 5040. Aristotle laid down a general principle that the state should neither be large nor small; it should be large enough to be self-sufficient and small enough to be well-governed. Rousseau fixed the number at 10,000. But it is difficult to fix the size of the people of a state. 

Q: Are the following states? Give reasons for your answer in a single line.

(a) India (b) United Nations  (c) Bihar (d) the United States of America 

Answer: Every state must have a population, a definite territory, a duly established government and sovereignty. 

(a) Yes, because it has all the four elements of a State.

(b) United Nations is not a state because it lacks two elements of a state - territory and sovereignty. 

(c) Bihar is not a state because it lacks sovereignty.

(d) the United States of America is a state because it has all the four elements of a state.