Collaborators: H Zeynep Bultugil
My research on nationalism and state formation investigates why the relationship between language and state authority varies across Europe and Asia. The project develops a comparative framework to explain how different types of state–language relationships emerge and evolve. It combines large-scale historical data on the role of language in education, bureaucracy, and law with comparative analysis of Eurasian states since the 19th century. The research examines both the endogenous processes through which heterogeneous states fragmented into more homogeneous units and the exogenous historical conditions that produced linguistic convergence before the rise of nationalism. Together, these analyses advance theoretical debates on state formation, nationalism, and linguistic homogeneity.
Neeraj Prasad 