Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism

full executive powers. This led to urban disturbances, which, in turn, resulted in a new government and the abolition of the monarchy on May 14, 2008. By contrast, in Bhutan, the monarchy has remained strong by adapting to the changes under King Jigme Singye Wanchuk, who succeeded his father to the throne in July 1972. The modernization was gradual, leading to general elections in March 2008. In neighboring Sikkim, the state rejected the joining of the Indian Union and the ruler, Sir Tashi Namgyal, and his son, Palden Thondup Namgyal, managed to maintain Sikkim as a special protectorate until 1975, when it formally became an integral part of India. Justin Corfield Geelong Grammar School See Also: Afghanistan; Bhutan; India; Pakistan. Further Readings Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre. Freedom at Midnight. London: Collins, 1975. Corfield, Conrad. The Princely India I Knew. Madras: Indo-British Historical Society, 1975. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. Burke’s Royal Families of the World, Vol. II: Africa and the Middle East. London: Burke’s Peerage, 1980. Ramusack, Barbara N. The Indian Princes and Their States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Multiculturalism Multiculturalism has often been used synonymously with cultural diversity. In speaking of west, central, and south Asia, it is important to distinguish between the existence and cohabitation of culturally diverse groups and an explicit policy or program of multiculturalism that was desired and/or adopted by the modern state. In the countries of Asia, especially central and south Asia, it is not uncommon to find a large number of ethnolinguistic and religious groups coexisting. For example, the 2001 Census of India identifies about 223 recognized and unrecognized language groups and dialects, and a significant presence of all major religions. Because of their very long histories of trade, foreign invasions, and colonial influence,

255

diversity has been an accepted facet of the fabric of societies of this region. However, premodern cultural heterogeneity and relationships of various groups with each other are available for modern understanding primarily through the lens of colonial narratives or reconstructions. In south Asia, the British colonial state as well as European anthropologists and ethnographers constructed distinct ethnic and religious identities through policies (e.g., the institution of a census, the strategy of “divide and rule,” the formation of separate electorates) and academic studies (e.g., studies on caste and race). While it is agreed that these factors impacted the formation of modern identities, scholarship is divided on the nature and degree of this impact and the basis of these identities in precolonial community relationships. Central and South Asia In central Asia, the former Soviet Union, on the one hand, attempted to homogenize and “Russify” the culturally diverse regions, and on the other hand, imposed arbitrary borders and created “homelands” that are still contested. For example, the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand that are part of modern-day Uzbekistan have been claimed as historically Tajik, and therefore belonging to Tajikistan. Even though the imposition of borders was not meant to create a sense of common culture, it did set some grounds for future nation formation in the central Asia region. Furthermore, in the 1930s and 1940s, there was widescale immigration from European regions of the former Soviet Union to the central Asian region, adding to the already-rich cultural diversity of the region. In the first few decades of the 20th century, a number of regions in south Asia were in the midst of anticolonial or independence movements, attempting to consolidate a unified national identity. Cultural diversity was sometimes acknowledged, but largely subordinated to the drive toward a more homogeneous national identity based on religion (Islam in Pakistan, Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka), language (Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, Bangla in Bangladesh), and ethnicity (Pashtun/Afghan in Afghanistan). In central Asia, this consolidation of national identity came about along with the breakup of the former Soviet Union. While the nationalist movement on the Indian subcontinent attempted to present an undivided India as

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 3/31/2014 10:31 PM via AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AN: 474225 ; Stanton, Andrea L. L., Elliott, Carolyn M. M., Seybolt, Peter J. J., Ramsamy, Dr. Edward.; Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa : An Encyclopedia Account: s2773470

1900 to Present

Copyright © 2012. SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.



1900 to Present

Copyright © 2012. SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

256

Musharraf, Pervez

one cultural unit, it was clear long before the partition that the politics of identity and recognition had set their tone. As early as 1909 (three years after the formation of the All India Muslim League), the Indian Councils Act introduced separate electorates for Muslims. This helped create conditions for the eventual formation of Pakistan in 1947 and Bangladesh in 1971. The very inception of these new nations in south Asia was tainted by chronic violence that forced the states to recognize and address questions of pluralism, multiculturalism, and governmental policy. Pluralism of India and Sri Lanka For nations such as India and Sri Lanka, the commitment to pluralism goes hand in hand with democratization and self-identification as secular socialist democratic republics. The Indian nation, for example, adopted the policy of secularism or dharmanirapekshita (religious equality/indifference) and enshrined it in its constitution. Although these countries have defined their own past as deeply syncretic, their constitutional commitment to religious and cultural pluralism has not meant a complete lack of majoritarian violence and state-sponsored acts of brutality toward minorities. For example, the state has been implicated in the mass murders of Muslim minorities during the riots in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002. These countries have also witnessed a number of separatist movements asserting regional and communal identities. Examples include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Tamil separatist group in Sri Lanka, and a number of militant movements in northeast India and Kashmir. For countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, the question of multiculturalism becomes an especially problematic one. Even though historically, these regions have known great ethnic diversity (the ancient Indus Valley civilization in Pakistan and the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, are evidence of this) and tolerance, the modern nation-states have declared themselves Islamic republics. These nations have also evidenced long-term military and fundamentalist rule throughout the 20th century, making questions of multiculturalism pressing but difficult to resolve given the absence of democratization. The nations of central Asia gained independence from the Soviet regime in the last decade of the 20th century. Civil unrest, persecution, and ethnic cleansing

followed almost immediately in most of the countries, especially in Tajikistan, where a full-blown civil war between Russian and Islamist groups stretched from 1992 to 1997. In this period, more than half the ethnic Russian population fled to Russia or other European countries. Kyrgyzstan has also been a hotbed of ethnic conflicts that have accelerated since the Tulip Revolution of 2005. The 2010 riots in Kyrgyzstan started as protests against the government, but turned into civil riots between the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz. Ethnic cleansing of the Uzbeks has been a violent, if not frequent, occurrence in Kyrgyzstan. The issue of multiculturalism is critical for questions concerning constitutional and human rights, as well as in determining citizenship. While democracies such as India, Bangladesh, and Uzbekistan are faced with reconciling particularistic demands of minorities with uniform laws for all citizens, states such as Pakistan struggle with the demands of minority rights and ethnic and religious plurality in a monolithic state. Meera Ashar University of Cambridge See Also: Afghanistan; Bangladesh; Democratization; India; Kyrgyzstan; Pakistan; Tamil Insurgency in Sri Lanka; Uzbekistan. Further Readings Bhargava, Rajeev, Amiya Kumar Bagchi, and R. Sudarshan. Multiculturalism, Liberalism, and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Kymlicka, Will. Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Kymlicka, Will and Baogang He. Multiculturalism in Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Taylor, Charles and Amy Gutmann. Multiculturalism and “The Politics of Recognition”: An Essay. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Musharraf, Pervez General Pervez Musharraf, military leader and 12th president of Pakistan, was born on August 11, 1943,

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 3/31/2014 10:31 PM via AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY AN: 474225 ; Stanton, Andrea L. L., Elliott, Carolyn M. M., Seybolt, Peter J. J., Ramsamy, Dr. Edward.; Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa : An Encyclopedia Account: s2773470