• Dr. Pankaj

Nationalism, both ideologically and culturally is a construct that has created the modern world today through creating a sense of collective identity, at the same time creating the hard boundaries that distinguish communities. The realm of English literature, which is a product of the historical connections between the empire, colonialism, and the process of globalization, provides an exclusive site to explore interrogation of these borders both geographical and psychological. This paper reconsiders the possible meaning of nationalism by considering the ways in which canonical, post-colonial and diasporic texts can re-subvert the traditional meaning of nationhood and belonging. Using the theoretical models of “Imagined Communities” (Benedict Anderson), Orientalism (Edward Said), the concept of hybridity (Homi Bhabha) and critique of nationalist exclusions (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak), the work examines colonial accounts, as well as contemporary migrant fiction. The concepts of fluid societies and fluid cultural identities are portrayed in such texts as the books such as Midnight Children by Salman Rushdie and The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh tear down the permanence of political borders. On the same note, diasporic writers, such as Jhumpa Laddari and Zadie Smith, forward hybrid, transnational subjectivities; subjectivities that are not bound to a single national pledging. The conversation is also involved in intersectional critique of nationalism and how gender, caste and class shape national identity in novels such as The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Furthermore, the paper deals with the place of literature in reaction to global crises, which has been climate change, mass migration, requiring a rethinking of solidarity outside the reach of the territorial principle. it is the content of the study that argues that English literature is not only the reflection of the nationalist ideologies but it actively contributes to the breaking down of these strictures. Literary texts stimulate a creative way of thinking about borders, making them permeable and subject to negotiation and negotiation, and encourage the reader to imagine less exclusive, less mutually exclusive varieties of belonging. Resituating nationalism in the light of literature has the potential not only to extend the political language, but also a validation of how narratives change the way in which we can ultimately build a future.

Nationalism, Borders, Postcolonial Literature, Diaspora, Hybridity, Orientalism, Cultural Identity.

"Borders and Boundaries: Rethinking Nationalism through English Literature", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 8, page no.d373-d383, August-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2508342.pdf

"Borders and Boundaries: Rethinking Nationalism through English Literature", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 8, page no. ppd373-d383, August-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2508342.pdf