Ethnicity
The word ethnicity comes from the word ethnic which means race. An ethnic community does not strictly have a racial connotation. A community can be distinct from others in many ways: Their racial stock or origin being one of them. A community may distinguish itself from others by way of a particular or distinctive culture, language, religion or a combination of these. These features lead ethnic communities to conflict with other communities with whom they come in contact.
The problem of Ethnicity
Ethnic activity and separatism came in a big way in the post colonial 20th century. Many countries like Pakistan, Nigeria, and SriLanka etc were deeply affected by the ethnic problem. The ethnic activity also affected even the developed west like Welsh and Scots, Basques in Spain etc.Even the egalitarian melting pot America also faced Black ethnic activity. The erstwhile Soviet Union has been facing ethnic crisis for so long with Croatia, Slovaks, and Chehnya in conflict. The ethnicity has become a worldwide phenomenon.
The problem of ethnicity and nation building has been widely discussed over the past few decades. The phenomenon of ethnicity has intrinsic component of the socio-political realities of multi-ethnic or plural –cultural societies like in India.
In India with its variety of pluralities in terms of language, race, religion and so on ethnic conflict has become a part of the political scenario. The processes of development and change have generated conditions for ethnic conflict as the fruits of these development processes have been distributed unevenly.
Definition of ethnicity
The term ethnicity has been defined in broader sense to signify self-consciousness of a group of people united or closely related by shared experience such as language, religious belief, common heritage etc. While race usually denotes the attributes of a group, ethnic identity signifies creative response of a group who consider themselves marginalized in society.
The identity of a group is defined vis a vis another community and how this identity becomes psychologically and socially important for a member or members of a community.
Ethnicity: Perspectives
Ethnicity has become an important field of study for social scientist. There are some scholars who see the ethnic problem in terms of assimilation and integration where in an ethnic group is absorbed into the mainstream group or a dominant ethnic group: an assimilation of this kind in effect is homogenization to create a nation state. To diffuse tension and to protect the dominated group it is also suggested to co-opt the marginalized group.
According to Geertz ethnicity is a natural bond between people immutable or primordial. Thus the formation of political identity is seen by them as stemming from this loyalty. For Berge there is no difference between class interest and ethnic interest. For him ethnicity is another alternative avenue for mobility.
According to Dipankar Gupta the manifestation of ethnicity in Indian politics is not so much an outcome of popular grass root passions as it is creation of vested political interests. He uses the term conspiracy to ethnic politics in India to draw attention to the deliberate and calculated
Main characteristics of Ethnicity
Ethnicity relates to ascriptive identities like caste, language, religion, region etc.Inequality in terms of sharing power between two ethnic groups’ results into conflict.
The ethnicity is socially mobilized and territorially confined. It has numerically sufficient population and is a pool of symbols depicting distinctiveness. It has a reference group in relation to which /whom a sense of relative deprivation is aggregated.
Ethnicity causes ethnic movements after being left out of the developmental process or even being a victim of uneven development.
Ethnicity is manifested in Indian politics not merely due to grass root discontent but is also a creation of vested political interest.
Ethnic groups that use ethnicity to make demands in the political arena for alteration in their status, in their economic well being etc are engaged very often in a form of interest group politics.
The focus of interests of an ethnic group is to get some benefits for itself. The group often uses ethnic criterion like religion, language or caste to mobilize itself to give identity to itself which separates it from other group or groups. Thus delineation of boundary of an ethnic group of community is an important aspect of ethnicity. The nature of identity shifts along with shifts along with changing circumstances and calls for change in boundary or a change in identification.
Ethnicity and Plurality
India has a cultural, economic and social heterogeneity. The complex ethnic plurality is visible with ethnic groups varying in size, culture and consciousness and no clear demarcation is present between different groups. The system is highly segmented and heterogeneous. However emergence of ethnicity all around primarily on cultural grounds has put the boundary of nation state under severe stress. Usually the quest for larger identity is emphasized as it also serves some political purposes.
But at the same time, this emphasis on a large identity like nation ignores the reality of plural identities and their possible interplay and thus reverts back to the nation where religion, language etc become static categories of ethnic attributes.
