NATIONALISM
(Assistant Grade, 1995)
 Nationalism, of course, is a curious phenomenon which at a certain stage in a country’s history gives life, growth and unity but, at the same time, it has a tendency to limit one, because one thinks of one’s country as something different from the rest of the world. One’s perspective changes and one is continuously thinking of one’s own struggles and virtues and failing to the exclusion of other thoughts. The result is that the same nationalism which is the symbol of growth for a people becomes a symbol of the cessation of that growth in the mind. Nationalism, when it becomes successful, sometimes goes on spreading in an aggressive way and becomes a danger internationally. Whatever line of thought you follow, you arrive at the conclusion that some kind of balance must be found. Otherwise, something that was good can turn into evil. Culture, which is essentially good becomes not only static but aggressive and something that breeds conflict and hatred when looked at from a wrong point of view. How are you to find a balance, I don’t know. Apart from the political and economic problems of the age, perhaps that is the greatest problem today because behind it there is a tremendous search for something which it cannot find. We turn to economic theories because they have undoubted importance. It is folly to talk of culture or even of God when human beings starve and die. Before one can talk about anything else one must provide the normal essentials of life to human beings. That is where economics comes in. Human beings today are not in the mood to tolerate this suffering and starvation and inequality when they see that the burden is not equally shared. Others profit while they only bear the burden.
1. The most suitable title for the above passage would be
 (a) Nationalism- a road to world unity
(b) Nationalism breeds unity
(c) Nationalism and national problems
(d) Nationalism is not enough
2. Aggressive nationalism
 (a) isolates a country
(b) endangers national unity
(c) leads to stunted growth
 (d) breeds threat to international relations
3. The negative national feeling can make a nation
(a) dangerous
(b) indifferent
(c) self-centred
(d) selfish
4. ‘The greatest problem’ in the middle of the passage refers to the question
(a) how to curb international hatred
(b) how to share the economic burden equally
(c) how to contain the dangers of aggressive nationalism
 (d) how to mitigate hardship to human beings
 5. ‘Others’ in the last sentence refers to
(a) other neighbours
(b) other nations
(c) other communities
(d) other people
ANSWERS:-
1. (d)
 2. (a)
3. (c)
4. (c)
 5. (d)
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