15
also when he or she faces something abstract such as his or her own motivations. In this case, conflict is categorized as inner conflict 2009: 123.
3. Theory of Nationalism
a. Definition and Description
Nationalism , since its emergence in Europe, has been understood,
described, and defined differently by people all over the world. This understanding has kept changing along with the development of human thought
and various problems in many parts of the world. Benedict Anderson, in Imagined Communities
, offered a way to understand nationalism. He, firstly, proposed an understanding that people can understand nationalism if they can understand what
a nation is. Anderson himself gave his definition that a nation is an imagined community
. In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the
nation: it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both
inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never
know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion Anderson, 1991:
5-6.
Thus, his definition implies that a group of certain people believing that they and certain other people are in a unity, though they may not know each other,
is called a nation. He further explained that it is not only a matter of ‗imagining‘ certain people as a unity but also a matter of how they also understand that their
community is different from other communities other nations. Anderson characterized that point with the word limited. It is not about territory. Limited
16
means no matter how big the number of the members of certain community; they are still limited to particular characteristics showing that they belong to certain
community nation 1991: 6-7. The last thing he identified about the term nation is sovereign. The word
sovereign is to identify that when the members of a community nation have
understood that they are limited and tied each other in their group, and then they realize the need for sovereignty. Sovereignty is the key of a nation to show its
existence among many other nations in the world. Moreover, it guarantees its freedom from being intervened by other nations Anderson, 1991: 7.
The three characteristics, of what-so-called a nation, proposed by Anderson imply that a nation is in the minds of its members. It builds comradely
relationship among the members. Then it can be understood why certain people feeling that they belong to a certain nation sometimes make irrational acts or even
killings because of their nation. ‗Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it
possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings
,‘ Anderson, 1991: 7. The willingness or awareness of certain people for their nation is how to
describe nationalism. Such a feeling or spirit, later, manifests many different actions. The actions are usually led by a leader, or to be easier people call him or
her a nationalist. As mentioned previously, the names such as Soekarno, Mahatma Gandhi, and José Rizal are considered as nationalists. They brought with them
nationalism for their nations. They manifested nationalism in different ways.
