Multinational state
A multinational state or a multinational union is a sovereign entity that comprises two or more nations or states. This contrasts with a nation state, where a single nation accounts for the bulk of the population. Depending on the definition of "nation", a multinational state is usually multicultural or multilingual, and is geographically composed of more than one country, such as the countries of the United Kingdom.
Historical multinational states that have since split into multiple states include the Ottoman Empire, British India, Qing Empire, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, the United Arab Republic and Austria-Hungary. Some analysts have described the European Union as a multinational state or a potential one.
Definition
Many attempts have been made to define multinational states. One complicating factor is that it is possible for members of a group that could be considered a nation to identify with more than one nation-state. As Katiambo explains in ', many countries are multination states and there are only "few nation-states with a perfect match between the nation and the state." Ilan Peleg wrote in Democratizing the Hegemonic State:A state may also be a society, and a multiethnic society''' has people belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies that are ethnically homogeneous. By some definitions of "society" and "homogeneous", virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic. The scholar David Welsh argued in 1993 that fewer than 20 of the 180 sovereign states then in existence were ethnically and nationally homogeneous, if a homogeneous state was defined as one in which minorities made up less than 5 percent of the population. Sujit Choudhry therefore argues that "he age of the agriculturally homogeneous state, if ever there was one, is over".
Modern multinational states
Africa
Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are former colonies and, as such, are not drawn along national lines, making them truly multinational states.Ghana
There is no ethnic majority in Ghana. The plurality group, the Akan people, are a meta-ethnicity. While Akan is the most-widely spoken language in Ghana, English is the official language of government.Kenya
is home to more than 70 ethnic groups; the most populous of which are the Kikuyu, at about 20 percent of the population. Together, the five largest groups—the Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, Kamba, and Kalenjin—account for 70 percent of Kenyans. The major impediment to nation-building in Kenya is the schism caused by the failure to align the mystically bonded ethnic groups to the state so that the state territory can simultaneously be the national territory and vice versa . According to https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3TWRGEUCHBGIJED5AJJU/full?target=10.1080/14725843.2024.2439423#abstract Katiambo although the hegemony of the nation-state should ideally lead to each state having one nation, regardless of Kenya’s deliberate nation-building efforts aimed at reversing the fragmented ethnic nations of the colonial epoch, the nation-state is still in competition with ethnic sub-nationalism.[Nigeria
The largest nation in Nigeria is the Hausa-Fulani, which accounts for 29 percent of the country's population. However, the group actually encompasses two distinct ethnicities: the Hausa and the Fulani. While both ethnicities are found in large areas of West Africa, it is only in Nigeria that they are classified as a single ethnic group for political expediency. Nigeria is also made up of many other ethnic groups like the Yoruba, Igbo and Ibibio. Prior to colonialism, they were not self identified as one ethnic nationality but are so today along with the three Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo which classification does carry between each group of who is part of and not part of the group aside from them Nigeria as about 250–500 other ethnic nationalities considered minorities with some large enough to control the outcomes of elections in states such as the Igala and Urhobo. While some are so small that they only show up in one local Government area.South Africa
Present-day South Africa is the successor state to the Union of South Africa, which was formed from four British colonies in 1910.South Africa has eleven official languages and formally recognizes several other languages spoken by minority nations. Speakers of each language may be of a different nationality—for example, some members of the Ndebele and Tswana nations speak Zulu, and groups such as the Thembu and Hlubi speak Xhosa.
As is the case throughout Africa, the nations of South Africa mostly correspond to specific regions. However, large cities such as Johannesburg are home to a mixture of national groups, leading to a "melting pot" of cultures. The government has continuously attempted to unify the country's various nationalities and to foster a South African identity.
Many of the nationalities found in South Africa are also found in bordering countries, and in some cases, more members live in South Africa than in the country where the group originated. For example, there are more Sotho, Tswana, and Swazi people living in South Africa than in the bordering nation states of Lesotho, Botswana, and Eswatini, respectively. In the past, this has led to conflict. Lesotho still claims large swathes of South Africa, and attempts have been made to cede some South African territory to Botswana and Eswatini. All three states were intended to be incorporated in the Union of South Africa, but those plans never came to fruition because of power struggles within their apartheid governments.
Americas
Bolivia
Since 2010, under the presidency of Evo Morales, Bolivia has been officially defined as a plurinational state, which recognizes the national distinctiveness of various indigenous peoples.Canada
Whether Canada should be described as "multinational" is an ongoing topic in academia and popular discourse. The current policy of the federal government is that Canada is bilingual—English and French are both official languages—and multicultural. In 2006, the House of Commons of Canada voted in favour of Government Business No. 11, which states that the Québécois "form a nation within a united Canada". According to Canadian political philosopher Charles Blattberg, Canada should be seen as a multinational country. All Canadians are members of Canada as a civic or political community, a community of citizens, and this is a community that contains many other kinds within it. These include not only communities of ethnic, regional, religious, and civic sorts, but also national communities, which often include or overlap with many of the other kinds. He thus recognizes the following nations within Canada: those formed by the various First Nations, that of francophone Quebecers, that of the anglophones who identify with English Canadian culture, and perhaps that of the Acadians.Asia
Afghanistan
While Pashto and Dari being Afghanistan's two official languages, the nation is separated into several ethnolinguistic groups which the major ones include the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Aimaqs, Turkmens, Balochs, and Sadats. Among the minor groups are the Pashayis, Nuristanis, Pamiris, Kurds, Kyrgyz, Gujjar and several others.Bhutan
The four major groups that compose Bhutan's ethnic population are the Ngalops, which make up the majority, the Sharchops, the Lhotshampas, and the aboriginal or indigenous tribal peoples living in villages and communities scattered throughout the country. There are also Tibetan refugees that have been around since 1959 during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion.Cambodia
While the ethnic Khmer make up 90-94% of Cambodia, others consists of four different major minority groups: the Chams, the indigenous highland Khmer Loeu tribes, the ethnic Chinese, and the ethnic Vietnamese, in addition to other smaller minority groups such as the Khmer Krom.China
The People's Republic of China is a multinational state consisting of 56 ethnic groups with the Han people the largest ethnic group in mainland China. As of 2010, 91.51% of the population were classified as Han. Besides the Han Chinese majority, 55 other ethnic groups are categorized in present China, numbering approximately 105 million people, mostly concentrated in the bordering northwest, north, northeast, south and southwest but with some in central interior areas.The major minority ethnic groups in China are Zhuang, Hui, Manchu, Uyghur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongolian, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh and Dai. At least 126,000 people from Canada, the US and Europe are living in Mainland China. In addition, there are also unrecognized ethnic groups, for example: Chuanqing people, and others, who account for over 730,000 people.
However, the Republic of China, which ruled mainland China from 1912 to 1949 and currently governs the island of Taiwan since 1945, had recognized five main ethnic groups under Five Races Under One Union: Han, Hui, Manchu, Mongol and Tibetan. Since retreating to Taiwan, the ROC government recognizes 16 groups of Taiwanese aborigines, which constitutes a number 569,000 or 2.38% of the island's population. The PRC classifies them as Gāoshān.
India
has more than 2,000 ethnolinguistic groups which includes over 645 indigenous tribes with 52 major tribes among them, and over 80,000 subcultures, and every major religion is represented being Hinduism, Islam, Adivasi, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Christianity as are four major language families and a language isolate.Each state and union territory of India has one or more official languages, and the Constitution of India recognizes in particular 22 "scheduled languages". It also recognizes 212 scheduled tribal groups, which together constitute about 7.5% of the country's population.
Most of its states are based on a linguistic ethnicity, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha, Goa, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Sikkim. Jammu and Kashmir is the only union territory in the country based on this which is home to the Kashmiris, Dogras, Ladakhis, Gujjars, Bakarwals, Paharis, Dards, Hanjis, and several other people groups.
Furthermore, several other Indian states are themselves ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse. The tribes of Uttar Pradesh are Agarias, Baigas, Bhars, Cheros, Gonds, Kolis, Korwas, Tharus, Bhoksas, Bhotiyas, Jaunsaris, and Rajis; Madhya Pradesh is where tribes such as the Gonds, Bhils, Baiga, Korku, Bhadia, Halba, Kaul, Mariya, Malto and Sahariya; Chhattisgarh's tribal population consists mainly of the Gonds, Kanwars, Brinjhwasr, Bhaina, Bhatra, Uraon, Oraons, Kamar, Halba, Baiga, Sanwras, Korwas, Bhariatis, Nageshias, Manghwars, Kharias, and Dhanwars; Bihar has the Bhojpuris, Maithils, and Magadhis, and Jharkhand has the Santhals, Oraons, Mundas, Kharias, and Hos while both states are home to several other groups like the Hindustani-speaking peoples; Uttarakhand is where the Garhwalis, Kumaonis, and tribes like the Jaunsaris, Bhotiyas, Tharus, Bhoksas, Rajis, and Banrawats resides; Karnataka houses the Kannadigas, Tuluvas, and several others; Himachal Pradesh is home to tribes like the Kinnauris, Gujjars, Lahaulis, Gaddis, Swanglas, Pangwalis, Khampas, and others; Arunachal Pradesh being the home of various tribes like the Abor, Hruso, Apatanis, Nyishis, Tagins, Galos, Khamptis, Mishmis, Monpa, any Naga tribes, Sherdukpens, and Singpho; the Assam includes the Assamese, Bodo, and Karbi peoples.