Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

IRINA CULICtions. 6 Nations are ineluctably related to states, as a means to legitimize competingpower claims and institutional goals. It is a mutually reinforcing relationship,as states relentlessly redefine the content of their relation with theirsubjects, 7 thus creating an arena of political struggles for membership in and“ownership” of the nation. The organization of the political system and theway it institutionalizes membership in the political community providesa framework for constructing the nation and nationhood. Thus the ethno-culturalcomponent of identity, understood as an instrument to organize perceptionand action, is imbued with political connotations. Consequently, ethnicityand nationality are interchangeable terms in this study. In any of thewordings, they are conceived of as crucial for the identity of the actors. 8The following sections are devoted to various issues of self-identificationand identification of the other concerning the Romanians andHungarians living in Romania, with a particular concern for the latter.At this point, the author acknowledges her “situation” of being an ethnicRomanian from Transylvania. It is therefore the perspective of an ethnicRomanian, with an advanced degree in sociology, and interacting ona continuous basis with ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania, that is presentedin the following. Even though the considerations of this study are basedon the particular case of Romanians and Hungarians living in Transylvania,I believe that their pertinence can be extended to other cases that aresimilar in some relevant respects. 9Two Historical ProcessesThe modernization process in Romania encompassed ethnicity, understoodas “ethnolinguistically or ethnoreligiously embedded culture,” 10 asthe constitutive element of the nation-state. Once the unification of theterritories inhabited by Romanians was accomplished, supplementing theefforts of economic and social integration, the political elite in Bucharestopted for a policy of homogenizing nation-building, which aimed at mergingboth the “regional identities” and the minority ethnic groups (particularlythe Hungarians) into the body of the Romanian nation. 11Communist ideology and policies tackled the problem of the state ina different manner. Nicolae Ceauºescu’s personalized rule can be bestexpressed as one where no individual, group or institution escaped the arbitraryintervention of the ruler, in the public space as well as the private. 12As elsewhere in the former communist block, nationality was shapedthrough institutionalized forms. 13 At the same time, as Katherine Verderyshowed, the recourse of the communist party to the national ideology andthe intellectuals’ continuous elaboration of the national idea indigenizedand overthrew the Marxist discourse. 14228