09/17/07 Precis

Benedict Anderson Hobsbawn describes national identity as being something made up by elites seeking power. Have just discussed Yugoslavia and the conflict in Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jenny Alexander (I think) wanted to know more about the conflict with Kosovo. Kosovo, a very small region in Serbia (not even recognized by my NeoOffice), consists mostly of ethnic Albanians (Muslims). Being Albanian, the Kosovar sought independence from Serbia. The latter didn't want to let Kosovo become independent and begun a campaign to crush the Kosovar independence campaign. In the end NATO ended up bombing Serbia to end the war. Peace keepers entered Kosovo and pushed out Serbs. The U.N. has talked about giving Kosovo its independence (especially the U.S.). If this happened, Serbia would have a lot of trouble not feeling offended. With injured pride, they wouldn't enter the EU (as the west focuses on “hurting” them). We then talked about K.B.Hedgewar and the RSS. Shivaji led a Hindu rebellion against the Muslim Moogle empire. He then influenced the creation of the Maratha empire. The RSS, the right wing party in India, believes that Shivaji intended to create a purely Hindu empire. Therefore it believes that all the Muslims in India do not have a right to stay there. They have led many assaults against Muslim, and though the RSS forms only a minority of the population, it has a lot of power. A scholar looked up Shivaji's legacy and found that he had no intentions of creating a Hindu empire. The scholar was burned in effigy and the library burned to the ground. Getting back to Serbia and Kosovo, I asked the question of who Serbia would turn to if it turned its back to the EU? We then discussed many other examples where a province of a country wants independence. Those countries may back Serbia because of their similar situations. Would these countries really turn their backs on the west (especially China) to back a weak country such as Serbia? If Serbia will lose Kosovo no matter what, why not just try to enter the EU? Does nationalism still completely dominate their political system?