A question from Yahoo! Answers:

What do u understand by the term nationalism?

It depends on where in the world (and in time) you are.

In Europe, nationalism was a movement for independence of nation-states from the Catholic church (and, until its demise, from the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation).

In a similar vein, in colonies, nationalism was the movement for independence from the colonial power.

In the Soviet Union, nationalism was a label that was assigned to separatist movements working towards forming independent nations in place of Soviet republics (as in, for example, “Ukrainian nationalism”).

In India, nationalism is a movement for independent and politically unified India (i.e., unlike the Soviets, who thought nationalism was a separatist ideology, the Indians think that nationalism is the opposite of separatism, which they also call “regionalism”).