Racialized Nationalism: Ethnorace and the Politics of Inclusion in Iran

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Nations and Nationalisms (Table 1)

Abstract

Classic theories of nationalism were developed from Western European experiences, where nation-building was explained through industrialization, shared language, and centralized education (Anderson 1983; Gellner 1983; Smith 1991). Postcolonial scholars challenged this model by showing how nationalist projects in the Global South adapt and resist Western forms (Chatterjee 1993). Yet studying nationalism outside Europe often focuses on colonial contexts and interprets exclusion mainly as a legacy of empire (Bhambra 2014; Wimmer 2013), leaving out how hierarchy emerges inside non-colonial states. Research on racialization shows how social differences become treated as natural and permanent, but most studies examine Western liberal democracies (Hochman 2019; Mills 1997). This leaves an important question: how does racialization operate in non-Western nation-building projects?
This paper brings nationalism and racialization together by examining the MENA context, where studies of nationalism often emphasize homogenization rather than racialization. I distinguish conceptually between homogenization and racialization. Homogenization assumes populations can become national through language, schooling, and citizenship (Weber 1978; Gellner 1983). I argue racialization often appears when homogenization fails, producing hierarchy inside projects that claim unity through ethnorace, categories that promise inclusion but mark groups as permanently different (Alcoff 2000; Brubaker 2016). The argument is developed through a historical study of Iran from the late Qajar period to the early Pahlavi state (1828–1940), a non-Western country never formally colonized. Through language policies, educational reforms, and national historiography, Iranian elites reclassified long-standing communities, especially Turks, as internal others while still including them in the nation (Asgharzadeh 2007; Marashi 2008; Zia-Ebrahimi 2018). The findings show Iranian nationalism functioned as a racial project without colonial rule. Nation-building produced ethnoracial categories that blurred race and ethnicity, creating graded forms of belonging. By examining this case, the paper demonstrates that racialization can emerge from nation-building itself and expands sociological theories beyond Western and colonial frameworks.

Author

• Sevil Suleymani, Northern Kentucky University