The idea of a 'Nation-State' - a political arrangement meant primarily to assure the safety and security of its people from within its borders and defend them against external aggression - has been the accepted entity, since the Peace of Westphalia (1648) till date. Interestingly, the Treaty of Westphalia put an end to sectarian wars fought between the Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburgs and other Christian Kingdoms, such as France, Spain and Sweden.
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<I>The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:
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All parties would recognise the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, in which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
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Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.
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General recognition of the exclusive sovereignty of each party over its lands, people, and agents abroad, <B>and each and several responsibility for the warlike acts of any of its citizens or agents.</B> (Wikipedia).</I>
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Thus the birth of Nation-state began as an entity to protect and defend the religious rights of diverse sects within the same religion. The term 'Nation -state' includes a social phenomena and a legal entity. The 'State' is a sovereign legal entity with a clearly defined territory over which it exercises complete control and establishes relations with other states on an equal footing in the comity of nations. The term 'Nation' refers to a group of people living inside a well defined and accepted boundary with a shared history, be it mono-ethnic or multi-ethnic communities with diverse languages, cultures and religions. This Nation State strives to promote and sustain such diversity among its citizens.
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No doubt this arrangement has its imperfections and several ethnic minorities living within its boundaries have sought independence and secession on grounds of repression or inadequate sharing of the common pie. Recent division of Yugoslavia into five different States on ethnic lines and now the troubles between Russian minorities and the Ukrainians in Ukraine (both these threats, incidentally, emerged after active support from other Nation-states in their neighborhood and from afar) and also the call for a referendum on Scottish independence are indicative of the challenges that the 'Nation-states' are facing in Europe. The other challenge is the trend of states coming together to form Confederations or Unions such as the European Union.
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Historically speaking, the Nation State is an older political entity than the Islamic State, though there have been many Caliphates and Empires that espoused Islam as their religion and staunchly propagated it with brute force. The first Islamic State, in the 20th century, that was so formed with a deliberate intent is Pakistan in 1947, whereas the birth of Nation States is generally traced to the post-Napoleonic era in Europe. Of course, communities of people with diverse languages, religions, ethnicities, cultures and customs have lived together within a shared geographical boundary for centuries before the birth of Nation states. And some of these large 'civilizational states', such as China and India, have had no grave difficulty in becoming Nation states, as they got rid of their colonial rulers.
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An 'Islamic State', some believe is a contradiction in terms, for they declare that Islam is an Ummah (a community of believers) that cannot be constricted by narrow confines of geography. This is evident in how the faithful protest right from Morocco to Malaysia, as one single community without borders, over an offensive cartoon of their Prophet.
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Here, the State - the legal entity - is clearly subordinate to religion and it is expected to protect, defend and promote the religion. The State is an instrument for the service of its co-religionists and not for Kafirs, the non-believers.
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How does such a State relate to Nation-states that are secular and how does it interact with others in the comity of nations? Often, Islamic States have become crusading States that propagate their brand of religious beliefs, even at the cost of undermining the security and stability of other states. In such a context, can an Islamic State be a Nation-State? Is it not time re-assert the principles of Westphalia and let each Sovereign country decide the religion of its own people and live in peace with others?
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Returning to the birth of Pakistan, one must note that within the early years of its creation, its leaders fought over the identity of the country as to whether it should be a 'State for Muslims of the Indian sub-continent' or an 'Islamic State'? The first position was clearly untenable as more Muslims stayed back in India than those that migrated and the latter notion remained an ideal to be achieved rather than an accomplished fact. And once the leaders decided to make it an Islamic Republic, two unexpected eventualities emerged. Firstly, the faith needed a defender and the Army took upon itself to be the 'Guardians of the Faith'. Secondly, there emerged groups of religious fanatics who claimed to be 'more Islamic than thou'. While the emergence of more and more fundamentalist interpreters of the Word of God was to be expected, the role of the Army came as a rude shock to the civilian leadership in Pakistan.
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Interestingly, while the Armed forces in Egypt and Turkey have traditionally stood against the tide of religious fanaticism to protect and defend the notion of a secular State, the Pakistan Army propped up religious forces so as to get legitimacy from a source higher than the Constitution of the Republic. The Army's 40-year old dalliance with the religious right has so endangered the Nation-state in Pakistan that today the Taliban have become defenders of the faith. In this context, can Pakistan remain a Nation state against the onslaught of an Islamic state remains to be seen. <B>And should it not be held responsible for the warlike acts of its citizens and agents?</B>
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The other Islamic State that was so formed after a socio-political revolution that overthrew a dictator is the Islamic Republic of Iran. For most Westerners, the sight of an octogenarian Ayotallah descending from a plane and kissing the soil of Tehran, in September 1979 to the rapturous welcome by millions of Iranians, was the dreaded beginning of an Islamic State. Iran, unlike Pakistan, had no identity crisis. Once established, it became a crusader State. That's what led to Henry Kissinger's famous remark "Iran should be clear as to whether it wants to be an idea or a State". It has taken a long while for Iran to clarify that, but now with President Rouhani they are realizing that it is better to be a State than an idea. And the idea is Islam.
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Meanwhile, there are certain Kingdoms - a clear anachronism in the 21st century - which are using Islam not only to legitimize themselves in power but as a strategic force-multiplier to topple regimes that are not to their liking. They are sponsoring and funding extremist Islamist groups to undermine Nation-states and set-up Caliphates of Islam. Now, is the Caliphate a stage higher than the Islamic state? Well that's what the soldiers of Islam firmly believe in. Presently, the path to this Caliphate is strewn with death and destruction. How should Nation-states respond to the Caliphates?
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Do all states with Muslim majority have to be Islamic? Not necessarily so. Indonesia, a state with the largest Muslim population is not Islamic, nor is Malaysia, though it proclaims Islam as the State religion. Not even Bangladesh, in our own neighborhood, is an Islamic state. And all of them are multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic. This points to one simple conclusion, that if a country has a democratic polity, it is less likely to be Islamic.
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<em>(The writer is a Visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi) </em>
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