Indian Exceptionalism or Indian Model: Negotiating Cultural Diversity and Minority Rights in a Democratic Nation-State

2005 ◽  
pp. 288-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gurpreet Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Democratic Nation

The Stakes of Decolonization, 1945–1960

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talbot C. Imlay
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Majority Rule ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Common Position ◽  
Human Individual ◽  
Post War

In examining the efforts of European socialists to forge a common position towards the issue of post-war empires, this chapter highlights some of the political stakes involved in decolonization. As debates between European and Asian socialists suggest, the process of decolonization witnessed a struggle between competing rights: national rights, minority rights, and human (individual) rights. Each set of rights possessed far-reaching political implications, none more so than minority rights, as they were often associated with limits on national sovereignty. These limits could be internal, such as constitutional restraints on the working of majority rule; but they could also take the form of external constraints on sovereignty, including alternatives to the nation state itself. The victory of the nation state, in other words, was inextricably tied to the defeat of minority rights as well as the growing predominance of human rights.

scholarly journals Sacred Spaces in a Holy City. Crossing Religious Boundaries in Istanbul at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 34-56
Author(s):  
Méropi Anastassiadou-Dumont
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The City ◽  
Holy City

The article examines Muslim pilgrimages to Christian places of worship in Istanbul after the 1950s. It aims to answer whether and how the Ottoman heritage of cultural diversity fits or does not fit with the pattern of the nation-state. After a brief bibliographic overview of the issue of shared sacred spaces, the presentation assembles, as a first step, some of the key elements of Istanbul’s multi-secular links with religious practices: the sanctity of the city both for Christianity and Islam; the long tradition of pilgrimages and their importance for the local economy; meanings and etymologies of the word pilgrimage in the most common languages of the Ottoman space; and the silence of the nineteenth century’s Greek sources concerning the sharing of worship. The second part focuses more specifically on some OrthodoxGreek sacred spaces in Istanbul increasingly frequented by Muslims during the last decades.

Comparative Theory and Political Practice: Do We Need a ‘State-Nation’ Model as Well as a ‘Nation-State’ Model?

2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred Stepan
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Matched Pair ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
Type I ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Comparative Theory

AbstractSome polities have strong cultural diversity, some of which is territorially based and politically articulated by significant groups that, in the name of nationalism, and self-determination, advance claims for independence. In this article such polities are defined as ‘politically robustly multinational’. If the goal is peace and democracy in one state in such a polity, this article advances theoretical and empirical arguments to show that ideal typical ‘nation-state’ making policies are less appropriate than policies associated with new ideal type I construct called ‘state-nation’. Countries discussed are Spain, Belgium, and Canada and the ‘matched pair’ of successful Tamil political integration via state nation policies in India, and failed Tamil political integration due to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka.

Contesting Interpretational Authority: Democracy and Fascism in the Indian ‘Empowered Public’

2014 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta Ohm
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Democratic Nation ◽  
Filtering Function ◽  
Popular Power

Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in India's television landscape, this article works with two terms – ‘interpretational authority’ and ‘star-anchor’ – so as to elucidate the ambivalence of empowerment in what Arvind Rajagopal has called her postcolonial ‘split public’. I understand interpretational authority, in the ambiguous context of the ‘democratic nation-state’, as professional journalism's filtering function of both direct democracy and popular majoritarianism. Along four genealogical variants of empowerment, I relate democratisation and anti-elitism in and through evolving Indian news television to Walter Benjamin's deliberations on the aesthetics of fascist communication, and argue that, in a swiftly ‘entertainmentised’ TV journalism, interpretational authority was rendered somewhat dysfunctional before it could actually establish itself both in vernacular and English-language channels. The ‘star-anchor’, in order to still reach a public, becomes the embodiment of ultimately compromised interpretational authority and a reified, socio-economic hierarchisation in a TV journalism that competes with the immediacy of popular power.

scholarly journals Friction within harmony: Everyday dynamics and the negotiation of diversity in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin de Jong ◽  
Argo Twikromo
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Special Region

Most studies on diversity in Southeast Asia focus on the nation-state, with much less attention given to everyday encounters and the negotiation of diversity in local contexts. This article investigates the discourses and practices of various actors in the historically tolerant, generally peaceful, and diverse city and special region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This study examines this ethnic, religious and cultural diversity and illustrates the negotiations among various interest groups and actors that strive to maintain this balance, or sometimes to strategically disrupt it. As such, the findings offer a different way to understand and interrogate the challenges confronting present-day diversity both on a local level in Yogyakarta, and also for Indonesia and Southeast Asia at large.

scholarly journals Language and Universalization

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Gregory Meyjes
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Linguistic Minority ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Cultural Justice

In this article, interpretation of Bahá’í writings regarding language, cultural diversity, and worldwide communication leads to the seemingly paradoxical position that the promotion of linguistic minority rights in must coincide with promotion of an International Auxiliary Language (IAL). Opposing trends toward increased globalization and growing nationalism are noted and their concurrence explained. The notion of “cultural justice” is expounded and the unregulated global spread of English today critically assessed in its light. By contrast, from the perspective of Bahá’í writ, IAL emerges as a language intended to facilitate worldwide communication without unduly impinging on humankind’s native linguistic traditions. Thus, Bahá’í writings appear to support a worldwide linguistic ecology better planned, more equitable, less prone to precipitous change, and more cognizant of the singular role of language in humanity‘s individual and collective identity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document