Entangled Identities, Cultural-Political Mediation and the Longevity of Nations: A Cross-National Analysis of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

本项目以印度、巴基斯坦和斯里兰卡为例，对国家建设过程中政治和文化机构的相关性及其在创建现代国家中的作用进行了调查。独立后，三国开始了各自的建国之路，但结果却各不相同。多亏了调解机构，印度成功地处理了文化多样性问题。另一方面，巴基斯坦于1971年分裂，而斯里兰卡经历了一段内战时期，导致了最恰当的描述为沉闷的和平。当新的国家建立时，政治和文化机构是至关重要的代理人，它们的任务是在以前存在差异的地方建立共同点。通过对这三个国家的比较，分析了这些制度在弥合和容纳文化差异方面的作用。国家的寿命是这里的因变量，其变化是根据身份的纠缠和适应的自变量来解释的。文化领域是决定社会包容程度和社区归属的重要场所。对这三个国家的一系列政治机构的工作和影响进行深入调查，将为了解机构对国家和社会的稳定性、弹性和凝聚力的重要性提供至关重要的比较见解。此外，非国家行为体发挥着至关重要的作用，因为他们提供了另一种话语，并经常提供与国家给出的相冲突的制度情景的解释。分析的关键领域是民族的理论-概念基础，国家的制度化，以及国家和民族的可视化。虽然哲学思想，无论是内生的还是外生的，都融入了制度、图标和符号的设计，在将一种思想转化为一种形象的过程中，国家作为一个想象的共同体可以认同，这是国家建设的一个组成部分。该项目旨在通过跨学科方法，将政治学和新制度方法与政治哲学和政治肖像学相结合，提高对政治问题的理解。艺术史、文化理论和媒体研究被用来丰富政治学，并使这门学科能够调查图标在国家建设过程中的作用。该项目将有助于加强跨学科的方法，建立理论，并将在方法学上对未得到充分探索的政治肖像学领域作出贡献。最重要的是，这项研究将全面阐述文化在国家形成中的作用，并调查文化和政治制度对稳定政治制度的影响。

This project constitutes an investigation into the relevance of political and cultural institutions in the nation-building process and their role for the creation of modern states with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as case studies. Following Independence, the three states set off to the path of nation-building, however, with different results. India successfully managed to cope with cultural diversity, thanks to mediating institutions. Pakistan, on the other hand, broke apart in 1971, while Sri Lanka went through a period of civil war leading to what can best be described as sullen peace.When new states are created, political and cultural institutions are the crucial agents whose task it is to build commonality where previously difference existed. By means of a comparison of the three states the role of these institutions in bridging and accommodating cultural difference is analysed. The longevity of the nation is the dependent variable here, the variation in which is explained in terms of the independent variables of the entanglement and accommodation of identities.The cultural sphere is an important site on which the degree of inclusivity of a society, and the belonging to a community are determined. An in-depth investigation into the work and impact of a range of political bodies in the three states will provide crucial comparative insights into the significance of institutions for the stability, resilience and cohesion of state and society. In addition, non-state actors play a crucial role as they provide alternative discourses and often offer interpretations of the institutional scenario that conflict with those given by the state. The arenas crucial for analysis are the theoretical-conceptual foundation of the nation, the institutionalisation of the state, and the visualization of the state and the nation.While philosophical ideas, be they endogenous or exogenous, feed into the design of the institutions, icons and symbols, in transforming an idea to an image that the nation as an imagined community can identify with, are an integral part of nation-building. This project seeks to enhance the understanding of political problems by means of an interdisciplinary approach combining political science and neo-institutional approaches with political philosophy and political iconography. Art history, cultural theory and media studies are used to enrich political science and to enable the discipline to investigate into the role of icons in the nation-building process. The project will contribute to a strengthening of interdisciplinary approaches, to theory-building, and will constitute a methodological contribution to the ill-explored field of political iconography. Most importantly, this research will generate a comprehensive account of the role of culture in the making of the nation, and investigate into the implications of cultural and political institutions for a stable political regime.