The purpose of Chatterjee's book The Nation and Its Fragments seems to be to thoroughly explore the idea of nationalism, apart from political nationalism, especially in terms of India's history. The concept of nationalism seems so deeply entrenched in European thought that Chatterjee's perspective brings the reader into a dialogue with one's own misconceptions and prejudices regarding what it is to be a country.
Chatterjee leads the reader to confront the idea that all people within a country are the same. He discusses the nationalism of India in terms of the elite and the common person with a separation between the political nationalism and the spiritual nationalism. Class is not something that the western person comfortably deals with, as there is the supposition in the U.S. that all people are created equal, whether or not they actually are. Chatterjee clearly discusses the composition of each of the classes in India. Of interest is the middle class, which was "placed in a position of subordination in one relation and a position of dominance in another."
Chatterjee's book has the purpose of education for any person who wants to be informed and thoughtful about the concept of nationalism and its application for any country, not just India and Bengal. The book is practical in terms of the history of India during colonial and postcolonial times and theoretical in terms of comparisons with any other country, especially the American and European countries, as works from this perspective tend to dominate western ideas regarding history and politics. The inclusion of the spiritual component, in like manner, stimulates the western person to move past the separation of church and state type of thinking and ponder what the spirituality of western nationality might be. Chatterjee states that Europe considers nationalism "one of its great gifts to the world." In western thought colonialism and nationalism are deeply, intermi...