The Contemplation Toward a Theory of National Consciousness

The concept of nation is one of the most stridently debated and discussed issues in the contemporary world, giving rise to various protracted and prolonged polemics and conflictual and contradictory intellectual stand points and opinions. A nation’s existence and its place in the context of the relationship with the individuals has been a matter of serious academic interest world wide which found a new relevance in the contemporary struggle of various socio-cultural and ethnic fractions. The contemporary clash of civilizations has its ischolar_mains in the various national identities which are often at the logger heads due to various historical and political reasons and thus creating a world inherently split, fractured and divided on various points. This paper tries to understand the origin and the essence of a nation and the way through which the nations are born, consolidated and sustained in the memory of the individuals. The concepts such as nation, state, nationalism and national consciousness are analysed by giving attention to the role of individual consciousness in the creation, formation, transformation and transfiguration of the nation and in the transmutation and articulation of the national consciousness in the discourse.