Abstract:
The Age of Enlightenment, industrialisation with capitalist production, and colonialism are
interconnected historical phenomena. The growth of science as a mechanical stream and
intellectual mode of reasoning postulated twofold reformations. While it transformed society
from an agrarian economy with a feudal state into an industrial economy with a centralised
bureaucratic state, its firm emphasis on positive knowledge as the only authentic source of
knowledge diminished the conventional social prominence of traditional religions and
challenged social morality. Rapid industrialisation in Europe augmented the pace of
urbanisation, and new towns came into existence where workers from diverse countryside
regions started to migrate in search of employment. These pluricultural and multilingual towns
began to face difficulties, such as a deficiency of vehicular language between people of diverse
linguistic backgrounds and the clash of identities, which consequently began to affect industrial
production. At this juncture, the state-sponsored universal vis-à-vis uniform education
gradually developed a lingua franca, cultivated a sense of belongingness and class fraternity
among workers, and facilitated labour-capital industrial transactions. The linguistic
homogeneity accompanied by cultural assimilation and sentiments of fraternity fostered the
growth of nationalism: the linguistic, cultural, political, and economic homogenisation and
standardisation of a geographical territory as a nation-state. This integration process
horizontally separated the community into society and state. This separation widened the scope
of functions and powers of the state and provided it with a reverential identity. The state became
the epitome of identity and pride, culminating in the emergence and expansion of the nation
state epoch.
