The Challenges of Cultural Diversity

2.1 Core concepts

• Different social institutions, ranging from family to market, can bring people together and strengthen cohesion, but the same institutions can also be sources of inequality and exclusion. This chapter focuses on tensions and difficulties associated with cultural diversity (NCERT §Intro, p. 97).
• The term 'diversity' emphasises differences rather than inequalities. When we say India is a nation of great cultural diversity, we mean many different types of social groups and communities live here — defined by cultural markers like language, religion, sect, race or caste. When these diverse communities are part of a larger entity like a nation, difficulties may be created by competition or conflict between them (NCERT §Intro, p. 97).
• Cultural diversity presents tough challenges because cultural identities are very powerful — they arouse intense passions and mobilise large numbers. Cultural differences sometimes overlap with economic and social inequalities, and measures to address one community's injustices can provoke opposition from others. The situation worsens when scarce resources — river waters, jobs or government funds — have to be shared (NCERT §Intro, p. 97).
• Community identity is based on birth and 'belonging', not on acquired qualifications or accomplishment — it is what we are rather than what we have become. We don't have to do anything to be born into a community (family, caste, region, country). These identities are called 'ascriptive' — determined by birth, involving no choice on the individual's part (NCERT §6.1, p. 98).
• Belonging to ascriptive communities is accidental, unconditional and almost inescapable — yet generates deep emotional attachment. Conflicts involving our communities (nation, language, religion, caste, region) are very hard to deal with — each side sees the other as a hated enemy and exaggerates one's own virtues and the opposite side's vices. At war, patriots on each side see the other as the enemy aggressor, believing God and truth are on their side; it is very hard to see they are constructing matching but reversed mirror images of each other (NCERT §6.1, pp. 98–99).
• A second feature of ascriptive identities is that they are universal — everyone has a motherland, mother tongue, family, faith. Every person is committed and loyal to their respective identities (NCERT §6.1, p. 99).
• Communities, Nations and Nation-States: at the simplest level, a nation is a community of communities whose members share the desire to be part of the same political collectivity, usually expressed as the aspiration to form a state. In Max Weber's well-known definition, a state is "a body that successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force in a particular territory" (Weber 1970:78) (NCERT §6.1, p. 99).
• For every possible criterion of nationhood (common language, religion, ethnicity) there are exceptions and counter-examples; many languages, religions or ethnicities are shared across nations, but this doesn't form a single nation of all English speakers or all Buddhists. The criterion closest to distinguishing a nation is the state — nations are communities that have a state of their own; hence the term nation-state. The one-to-one bond between nation and state is a recent development, not historically necessary (NCERT pp. 99–100).
• Examples that complicate the one-state-one-nation bond: the Soviet Union explicitly recognised that the peoples it governed were of different 'nations' — more than one hundred internal nationalities. There are more Jamaicans living outside Jamaica than in Jamaica — non-resident Jamaicans outnumber resident ones. Dual-citizenship laws allow citizens of one state to simultaneously be citizens of another — Jewish Americans may be citizens of Israel and the USA, and can even serve in either country's armed forces without losing citizenship (NCERT p. 100).
• In modernity, democracy and nationalism have become dominant sources of political legitimacy. Today "the nation" is the most accepted justification for a state, while "the people" are the ultimate source of legitimacy of the nation — states need the nation as much as nations need states (NCERT p. 100).
• Box 6.1 — UNDP HDR 2004 on policies of cultural homogenisation: most states have tried to reduce or eliminate cultural diversity. Two strategies (NCERT Box 6.1, p. 101):
• Policies of assimilation — persuade, encourage or force all citizens to adopt a uniform set of cultural values and norms (usually those of the dominant social group); subordinated groups expected to give up their own values. Concrete examples — imposing a unified legal/judicial system based on dominant group's traditions, adopting the dominant group's language as the only official 'national' language, promoting that language and culture through national institutions, state symbols celebrating the dominant group's history/heroes/culture (national holidays, street names), seizing lands/forests/fisheries from minorities and declaring them 'national resources'.
• Policies of integration — different in style but not in objective: insist that public culture be restricted to a common national pattern, while non-national cultures are relegated to the private sphere; the dominant group's culture is treated as 'national' culture.
• Suppressing cultural diversity can be costly — alienating minorities and intensifying community identity by the very act of suppression. So encouraging or at least allowing cultural diversity is good policy from both practical and principled standpoints (NCERT p. 102).
• Cultural diversity and India as a Nation-State: India has a population of about 1.21 billion (Census 2011) — soon to be the largest. Indians speak about 1,632 different languages and dialects; twenty-two of these are officially recognised and placed under the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. About 80% Hindus, 14.2% Muslims (India is the world's second-largest Muslim country after Indonesia and Pakistan), 2.3% Christians, 1.7% Sikhs, 0.7% Buddhists, 0.4% Jains (NCERT pp. 102–103).
• India fits neither the assimilationist nor the integrationist model. The independent Indian state has ruled out assimilation; though 'national integration' is a constant theme of state policy, India has not been 'integrationist' in the Box 6.1 sense — religion, language and other factors are not banished from the public sphere; communities are explicitly recognised by the state, and very strong constitutional protection is offered to minority religions (NCERT p. 103).
• Box 6.2 (UNDP HDR 2004) — State-Nation: India is a good example of a 'state-nation' — a single state polity where various ethnic, religious, linguistic and indigenous "nations" can co-exist peacefully and find institutional incentives to build a feeling of unity in diversity — a "we" feeling. The Constitution is amended to accommodate group claims while protecting individual rights; India's performance on identification, trust and democratic support is high despite its diverse and stratified society. The state-nation model is based on accommodation and conflict resolution through democratic means and the recognition of multiple and complementary identities (NCERT Box 6.2, pp. 103–104).
• §6.2 Regionalism in the Indian Context: regionalism in India is rooted in diversity of languages, cultures, tribes and religions, encouraged by their geographical concentration, and fuelled by a sense of regional deprivation. Indian federalism has been a means of accommodating these regional sentiments (Bhattacharyya 2005) (NCERT §6.2, p. 104).
• After Independence the Indian state initially continued with British-Indian large provinces called 'presidencies' (Madras, Bombay, Calcutta — all three since renamed). Soon after the Constitution, these were reorganised into ethno-linguistic States within the Indian union in response to strong popular agitations (NCERT p. 104).
• Box 6.3 — Linguistic States and Indian Federalism (Ramachandra Guha): The Indian National Congress reconstituted on linguistic lines in the 1920s. After 1947 Partition, demands for linguistic States grew louder. In October 1953, the Telugu martyr Potti Sriramulu died on a fast — leading to the immediate formation of Andhra Pradesh and the constitution of the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC), whose report was implemented on 1 November 1956. Far from undermining Indian unity, linguistic States have strengthened it — being Kannadiga and Indian, Tamil and Indian, are consistent (NCERT Box 6.3, pp. 104–105).
• In 2000, three new States — Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand — were created not on language but on a combination of tribal identity, regional deprivation and ecology. Currently there are 28 States (federal units) and 8 Union Territories within the Indian nation-state (NCERT p. 105).
• Note (p. 106): in this chapter, "State" with capital S = federal units within the Indian nation-state; lowercase 'state' = the broader conceptual category.
• Respecting regional sentiments requires institutional structure ensuring viability as relatively autonomous units within a larger federal framework. India does this through Constitutional lists (subjects exclusively for State, for Centre, or in the Concurrent List), the Rajya Sabha composition (determined by State legislatures), and periodic bodies on Centre-State relations — the most important being the Finance Commission, set up every five years to decide on sharing of tax revenues between Centre and States. Upto 2017 each Five Year Plan also involved detailed State Plans prepared by State Planning Commissions. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council includes State members (NCERT pp. 106–107).
• §6.3 Religion-related Issues and Identities: perhaps the most contentious cultural-diversity issues. Two related groups: the secularism–communalism set and the minority–majority set. Questions of secularism/communalism concern the state's relationship to religion; questions of minorities/majorities concern how the state treats communities unequal in numbers or power (NCERT §6.3, p. 107).
• Minority Rights and Nation Building: In Indian nationalism the dominant trend was marked by an inclusive and democratic vision — inclusive because it recognised diversity, democratic because it sought to do away with discrimination. The term 'people' was not seen in exclusive terms. Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore criticised exclusive nationalism — Tagore: "the hurt you inflict upon other races will not infect you" (Box 6.4) (NCERT p. 107).
• Minority (sociological sense): more than a merely numerical distinction — it usually involves relative disadvantage and collective solidarity. Privileged 'minorities' such as the extremely wealthy are not usually called minorities without qualification ('privileged minority'). The sociological sense implies group members form a collectivity — a strong sense of group solidarity, togetherness and belonging, heightened by experience of prejudice and discrimination (Giddens 2001:248). Thus left-handed people or those born on 29 February are statistical but NOT sociological minorities because they do not form a collectivity (NCERT §6.3, p. 108).
• It is possible to have anomalous instances — religious minorities like Parsis or Sikhs may be relatively well-off economically but disadvantaged culturally because of small numbers relative to the overwhelming majority of Hindus. Religious/cultural minorities need special protection because of the demographic dominance of the majority (NCERT p. 109).
• Box 6.5 — Religious demography (Census 2011): Hindus ~966 million, 80% of total; regionally specific, plural in beliefs, divided by castes and languages. Muslims 172 million, 14.2% — India is the world's second-largest Muslim country; constitute a majority in Jammu and Kashmir and have sizeable pockets in West Bengal, UP, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere. Christians 27.8 million (~2.3%) — Christian majorities in NE: Nagaland 88%, Mizoram 87%, Meghalaya 74%; sizeable in Goa (25%) and Kerala (18.4%). Sikhs 21 million (1.7%) — concentrated in Punjab where they are a majority (58%). Buddhists 8 million (0.7%) — highest in Sikkim (27%) and Arunachal Pradesh (12%); Maharashtra largest state has 6%. Jains 4.5 million (0.4%) — highest in Maharashtra (1.3%), Delhi and Gujarat ~1% each (NCERT Box 6.5, p. 109).
• 'Unity in diversity' became shorthand for the plural Indian society. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, chief architect of the Constitution, made clear in the Constituent Assembly that minority safeguards were essential — Box 6.7 records Ambedkar's response to "diehards who have developed a kind of fanaticism against minority protection". Non-recognition of group rights can have grave implications — the formation of Bangladesh owed in part to the Pakistani state's unwillingness to recognise Bengali cultural-linguistic rights; the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka had its backdrop in the imposition of Sinhalese as a national language. Forcible imposition of language or religion on any group in India would weaken national unity (NCERT pp. 110–111).
• Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution: Article 29 protects any section with a distinct language, script or culture; Article 30 gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice (NCERT Box 6.7, p. 111).
• Minorities exist everywhere — not just in India. Even in nearly-homogeneous countries (Iceland, Sweden, South Korea), modern capitalism, colonialism and large-scale migration have brought in pluralities of groups. Even the smallest state will have minorities — religious, ethnic, linguistic or racial (NCERT p. 111).
• Communalism: in everyday South Asian language, refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious identity. Chauvinism sees one's own group as the only legitimate or worthy group, with other groups seen as inferior, illegitimate, opposed. Communalism is an aggressive political ideology linked to religion — distinct from the neutral English "communal" (relating to a community). The South Asian sense is strongly charged — communalism is about politics, not religion. A communalist may or may not be devout; devout believers may or may not be communalists (NCERT §6.3, pp. 111–112).
• Key feature of communalism: religious identity overrides everything else, constructing diverse groups as singular and homogeneous. India has a long history of communal riots (going back to colonial times), but also a syncretic tradition including Bhakti, Sufi, Kabir (Box 6.8) (NCERT p. 112).
• Secularism (Western sense): separation of church and state, tied to the broader process of secularisation — the retreat of religion from public life into the private sphere, associated with the rise of science, rationality and modernity (NCERT §6.3, p. 113).
• Secularism (Indian sense): in everyday Indian language, 'secular' is the opposite of 'communal' — meaning equal respect for all religions, not separation/distancing of state from religion. The Indian state declares holidays for festivals of all religions; communities are recognised in the public sphere. The Indian model differs from the Western model (NCERT p. 113).
• §6.4 Civil Society: the non-state, non-market public domain — voluntary associations formed by citizens. Includes political parties, media, trade unions, NGOs, religious organisations and many others. Two criteria define an organisation as civil society: (i) not state-controlled, (ii) not a purely commercial profit-making entity. Civil society is the active expression of citizenship through which people put pressure on the state for desired outcomes (NCERT §6.4, pp. 113–115).
• The Right to Information Act, 2005 (Act No. 22/2005) is a major civil-society achievement — passed on 15 June 2005, came into force 13 October 2005. The Act overrides the Official Secrets Act, 1923; public authorities must reply within 30 days. The campaign for RTI began with a rural Rajasthan agitation by villagers demanding information on village development funds — illustrating that civil-society pressure can change the law (NCERT Box 6.9 and §6.4, pp. 114–115).

2.2 Definitions to memorise

2.3 Diagrams / processes to remember

• Hierarchy on pp. 97–99: Diversity → Community identity (ascriptive) → Nation (community of communities) → State (Weber's monopoly of force) → Nation-state.
• Box 6.1 (p. 101): Two state strategies against diversity — Assimilation (erode differences) vs Integration (single public identity, private differences allowed) — both assume singular identity.
• Box 6.3 (pp. 104–105): SRC timeline — Congress reconstituted on linguistic lines in 1920s → 1947 Partition → Oct 1953 Potti Sriramulu's fast → Andhra Pradesh formed → SRC 1956 (implemented 1 Nov 1956) → 2000 three new States.
• Religious demography table (Box 6.5, p. 109): Hindus 80% (966 mn) · Muslims 14.2% (172 mn) · Christians 2.3% (27.8 mn) · Sikhs 1.7% (21 mn) · Buddhists 0.7% (8 mn) · Jains 0.4% (4.5 mn). Christian-majority NE states — Nagaland 88%, Mizoram 87%, Meghalaya 74%. Sikhs concentrated in Punjab (58%).
• Articles 29 & 30 box (Box 6.7, p. 111) — distinguish cultural-rights (29) from minority educational-institution rights (30).
• Box 6.8 — syncretic tradition (Bhakti, Sufi, Kabir).
• Box 6.9 — RTI Act 2005 key facts: Act No. 22/2005; passed 15 June 2005; in force 13 October 2005; 30-day reply; overrides Official Secrets Act 1923.
• Two-set framework for religion-related issues (p. 107): secularism–communalism vs minority–majority.

2.4 Common confusions / NTA trap points

• Diversity ≠ Inequality. NCERT explicitly says diversity emphasises differences, not inequalities; trap option will swap these.
• State (lowercase) vs State (capital S). Capital S = federal unit within India; lowercase = the broader conceptual category. The textbook itself flags this on p. 106.
• Assimilation vs Integration. Both aim at a singular national identity; the difference is that integration permits cultural difference in the private sphere while assimilation erodes it altogether.
• Communalism is political, not religious. A communalist may not even be devout — the trap question will tie communalism to "deep religious faith."
• Indian secularism ≠ Western secularism. Western = separation of church and state; Indian = equal respect for all religions. NCERT calls the Indian sense the opposite of communalism.
• Minority in sociology vs statistics. Left-handed people / those born on 29 February are statistical minorities but NOT sociological minorities because they lack collectivity and disadvantage.
• 2000 States — Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand — were NOT formed on language. They were formed on tribal identity, regional deprivation and ecology.
• RTI Act details: Act No. 22/2005, passed 15 June 2005, in force 13 October 2005, reply within 30 days; overrides the Official Secrets Act 1923.
• 8th Schedule lists 22 languages (not 18, not 1,632 — that is the total of languages/dialects).
• Parsis/Sikhs anomaly: economically well-off but culturally disadvantaged — NTA may invert this.
• SRC implementation date: 1 November 1956 (not 1 January 1956).
• Weber's definition uses legitimate force (not just "force") — careful reading.
• India: 28 States + 8 UTs — number frequently tested.
• Potti Sriramulu was Telugu (not Tamil) and his fast in October 1953 led to Andhra Pradesh.

2.5 Thinkers & theories