Stateless nation is a political term for ethnic/national minority that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any nation state. The term implies that the group "should have" such a state. Members of stateless ethnic groups may be citizens/nationals of the country in which they live, or they may be denied citizenship by that country. Stateless nations are usually not represented as a nation in international sports such as FIFA, Olympics or in international communities such as the United Nations. Nations without state are classified as fourth world nations. Some of the stateless nations have a great heritage and a long tradition of statehood in the past and some were always a stateless nation, which was dominated by another nation for a large part of its history.
Contents
- Nation states and nations without states
- Consequences of colonialism and imperialism
- Nationalism and stateless nations
- Claims of stateless nations
- References
Stateless nations either are dispersed across a number of states (for example, the Yoruba people are found in the African states of Nigeria, Benin and Togo) or form the native population of a province within a larger state (such as the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China). Some stateless nations historically had a state, which was absorbed by another; for example, Tibet's declaration of independence in 1913 was not recognized, and it was invaded in 1951 by the People's Republic of China which claims that Tibet is an integral part of China, while the Tibetan government-in-exile maintains that Tibet is an independent state under unlawful occupation. Some ethnic groups were once a stateless nation that later became a nation state (for example, the nations of the Balkans such as the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Kosovars and Macedonians were once part of a multinational state of Yugoslavia. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia many nation states were formed). Stateless nations can have large population. For example, the Tamil people are one of the largest stateless nation with a population of more than 70 million. Tamils speak Tamil, a language belonging to the Dravidian languages. Although there are more than 200 million Dravidian speakers in South Asia, there is no sovereign state in South Asia with a Dravidian majority. The Romani people may be a special case, being distributed among numerous countries with no clear homeland; as a traditionally "nomadic" people, the Romani/Roma are a classical "stateless nation" without aspiration to sovereign territory. As not all states are nation states, there are a number of ethnic groups who live in a multinational state without being considered "stateless nations".
Nation-states and nations without states
The symbiotic relation between nations and states arose in early modern Western Europe (18th century) and it was exported to the rest of the world through colonial rule. Whereas the Western European nation-states are at present relinquishing some of their powers to the European Union, many of the former colonies are now the zealous defenders of the concept of nation-state.
Only a small fraction of the world's national groups have associated nation-states. The proportion was estimated to be 3 percent by Minahan. The rest are distributed in one or more states. Of the 192 member states of the United Nations in 2006, fewer than 20 are nation-states. Thus nation-states are not as common as often assumed, and stateless nations are the overwhelming majority of nations in the world.
Consequences of colonialism and imperialism
During the imperial and colonial era, powerful nations extended their influence outside their homeland and this resulted in many colonized nations ceasing to be self-governing and have since been described as stateless nations. Some nations have been victims of "carve out" and their homeland was divided among several countries. Even today the colonial boundaries form modern national boundaries. These often differ from cultural boundaries. This results in situations where people of the same language or culture are divided by national borders, for example New Guinea splits as West Papua (former Dutch colony) and Papua New Guinea (former British colony). During decolonization, the colonial powers imposed a unified state structure irrespective of the ethnic differences and granted independence to their colonies as a multinational state. This led states with many minority ethnic groups in the successor states. Some of these minority groups have campaigned for self-determination. Because of the ethnic differences in some countries, problems such as discrimination, ethnic conflict, separatism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced assimilation, and partition have occurred.
Nationalism and stateless nations
Most peoples have their own history, language, culture, religion and customs, but the emergence of their own national consciousness makes them into nations. A nation can exist without a state, as is exemplified by the stateless nations. Citizenship is not always the nationality of a person. In a multinational state different national identities can coexist or compete: for example, in Britain both English nationalism and Scottish nationalism exist and are held together by British nationalism. Nationalism is often connected to separatism, because a nation achieves completeness through its independence. Throughout history, numerous nations declared their independence, but not all succeeded in establishing a state. Even today, there are active autonomy and independence movements around the world. The claim of the stateless nations to self-determination is often denied due to Geopolitical interests and increasing globalization of the world. Stateless nations often show solidarity with other stateless nations.
Not all peoples claim themselves to be nations or aspire for a state. Some identify themselves more as part of the multinational state and believe that their interests are well represented by it. This is also associated with Pan-nationalism. (Spanish nationalism, Indian nationalism or Chinese nationalism).
Claims of stateless nations
The following is a list of stateless nations that meet these criteria: