This study examines the process of national identity formation. It argues that national discourse are systems of meanings in which identities develop via difference.

The book examines the process of national identity formation. It argues that identity, whether of a small community, a nation, an ethnic group, or a religious community, requires an Other against whom it becomes meaningful. In other words, identity develops via difference from Others against whom our sense of self becomes meaningful. This thesis emerges out of the synthesis the study develops from the from the various modern and poststructuralist theories of identity and nationalism.