Ethnic Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent: Assessing the Impact of Multiple Cleavages. (December 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Ethnic Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent: Assessing the Impact of Multiple Cleavages. (December 2019)
- Main Title:
- Ethnic Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent: Assessing the Impact of Multiple Cleavages
- Authors:
- Das, Soham
- Abstract:
- Abstract: As majoritarian electoral politics and religious conservatism are rising in the major multi-ethnic South Asian countries, such as India and Pakistan, the events of mob lynching, ethnic clashes and targeting non-plural and minority communities are becoming more frequent. This article analyses which cleavages of marginalisation make some ethnic groups prone to violent social movements vis-a-vis others. Theoretically, through social constructivism and horizontal inequality, the study argues that socioeconomic condition, religion and language are the three broad cleavages that influence political behaviour of ethnic groups. Explicating the theory about underlying versus facilitating conditions of ethnic–civil conflicts, this article examines the prerequisites of ethnic conflicts. Thereafter, it evaluates which single cleavages and combinations of the aforementioned cleavages increase the probability of conflict occurrence in the Indian subcontinent. The argument is empirically evaluated on a sample of 60 ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinents over the period of 1947–2013. We find that groups affected by reinforcing cleavages of religious and economic marginalisation, and religious, economic and lingual marginalisation have engaged in active violence over the period of our study. Additionally, the reinforcing cleavages of language and economy, and language and religion are associated with sporadic violence. Apart from the combined effects, we find that the ethnicAbstract: As majoritarian electoral politics and religious conservatism are rising in the major multi-ethnic South Asian countries, such as India and Pakistan, the events of mob lynching, ethnic clashes and targeting non-plural and minority communities are becoming more frequent. This article analyses which cleavages of marginalisation make some ethnic groups prone to violent social movements vis-a-vis others. Theoretically, through social constructivism and horizontal inequality, the study argues that socioeconomic condition, religion and language are the three broad cleavages that influence political behaviour of ethnic groups. Explicating the theory about underlying versus facilitating conditions of ethnic–civil conflicts, this article examines the prerequisites of ethnic conflicts. Thereafter, it evaluates which single cleavages and combinations of the aforementioned cleavages increase the probability of conflict occurrence in the Indian subcontinent. The argument is empirically evaluated on a sample of 60 ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinents over the period of 1947–2013. We find that groups affected by reinforcing cleavages of religious and economic marginalisation, and religious, economic and lingual marginalisation have engaged in active violence over the period of our study. Additionally, the reinforcing cleavages of language and economy, and language and religion are associated with sporadic violence. Apart from the combined effects, we find that the ethnic groups facing economic disadvantage alone can also engage in violence. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of Asian security and international affairs. Volume 6:Number 3(2019:Dec.)
- Journal:
- Journal of Asian security and international affairs
- Issue:
- Volume 6:Number 3(2019:Dec.)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 6, Issue 3 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0006-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 229
- Page End:
- 253
- Publication Date:
- 2019-12
- Subjects:
- Conflict -- ethnic groups -- political behaviour -- marginalisation -- horizontal inequality -- South Asia
Security, International -- Asia -- Periodicals
National security -- Asia -- Periodicals
Asia -- Foreign relations -- Periodicals
Asia -- Politics and government -- Periodicals
327.095 - Journal URLs:
- http://aia.sagepub.com/ ↗
http://www.uk.sagepub.com ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1177/2347797019886689 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2347-7970
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 12123.xml