The concept of national identity

Abstract Although national identity is a subject of much agonised debate in almost all countries today, the debate is marred by several dubious assumptions. These include such beliefs as that national identity consists in being different from others and is diluted by intercultural borrowing, that it is historically fixed, that it is the sole or the major source of political legitimacy, that the state's primary task is to maintain it, and that national identity defines the limits of permissible diversity. The author challenges these and related assumptions. He argues that national identity is a not a substance but a cluster of tendencies and values, that it is neither fixed nor alterable at will, and that it needs to be periodically redefined in the light of historically inherited characteristics, present needs, and future aspirations.