CHAPTER II.

Indian Nationality.

WHAT are the things which make possible national
self-consciousness, which constitute nationality ?
Certainly a unity of some sort is essential. There are
certain kinds of unity, however, which are not essential^
and others which are insufficient, Racial unity, for
example, does not constitute the Negroes of North
America a nation. Racial unity is not even an essential;
the British nation, is perhaps more composed of diverse
racial elements than any other, but it has none the less a
strong national consciousness. To take another example,
many of the most Irish of the Irish are of English origin ;
Keating and Emmet, for instance, were of Norman
descent; but neither they nor their labours were on that
account less a part or an expression of Irish national
feeling and self-consciousness. Neither is a common and
distinctive language an essential; Switzerland is divided
among three languages, and Ireland between two.

Two essentials of nationality there are,—a geographi-
cal unity, and a common historic evolution or culture*
These two India possesses superabundantly, beside many
lesser unities which strengthen the historical tradition.

The fact of India's geographical unity is apparent on
the map, and is never, I think, disputed. The recognition
of social unity is at least as evident to the student of
Indian culture. The idea has been grasped more than
once by individual riders,—Asoka, Vikramaditya and
Akbar. It was recognized before the Mahabharata was
written; when Yudhishtim" peiformed the Rajasuya
sacrifice on. the occasion of his inauguration, as sovereign,,