SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES:  PLURALISM AND  MULTIPLE IDENTITIES

INTRODUCTION TO VOL I

The issues around socio-cultural pluralism concern how a society and its subgroups cope with ‘difference’, which inevitably poses a question to the relationship of the ‘self’ the other. Accepting difference as complementary and enriching is a necessary condition for an overarching consensus that unifies the diversity; rejecting difference leads to an imposed uniformity that can only impoverish society and its groups. READ MORE…

Given that in any society we all have multiple identities to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the complexity of the network of social relationships in which we are nodes. Pluralism requires unity in diversity for a consensual society or rather diversity in unity. The essays in this volume approach this issue from variously nuanced perspectives.

Today our cultural diversity is threatened by a majoritarianism that seeks to flatten minority cultures into a single communal uniformity. This will fracture rather than enhance the unity of our peoples in the common good of all. The essays in this volume flag this danger and hopefully will help to create a counter discourse to anticipate and overcome this. 

TO READ AND DOWNLOAD VOLUME I (PDF format) CLICK THE TITLE BELOW

Socio-Cultural Perspectives: Pluralism and Multiple Identities

LIST OF ARTICLES WITH ABSTRACTS IN VOLUME 1

1. DIALOGUE IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SOCIAL SCIENCES      

Abstract: This essay is an exploration of the many facets of dialogue in the socio-cultural context of India, from a multidisciplinary perspective. The essay walks one through the complexities involved.

2. SUBALTERN ALTERNATIVES ON CASTE, CLASS AND ETHNICITY

Abstract: The challenges to the dominant hegemony in this land have focused on the key issues of equity and justice that underlie the quest for identity and dignity. Setting these in a more integrated and holistic context we focus on three crucial issues: caste and hierarchy, caste and class, and caste and ethnicity.

3. SUBALTERN INTERROGATIONS: NEED FOR A NEW SUBALTERN HERMENEUTIC           

Abstract: In sum, subaltern alternatives do represent a horizon of revolt and revolution, which can fuse with others to construct the identities and ideologies for a brave new world.  Some important leads which could be further pursued: a subaltern hermeneutic, a new understanding of the fragmentation and shift in our present electoral politics, and the dilemmas of intervention by the state, social movements and market mechanisms.

4. GLOBALISATION, CULTURE AND RELIGION: CONTRADICTIONS AND DILEMMAS     

Abstract:  Contemporary globalisation is the rapid and radical interconnectivity that impacts transnational and domestic structures of society at various levels, creating new challenges, demanding new responses, a ‘second modernity’. This article has focused on two dimensions of this process: the cultural and the religious. Ultimately globalisation and localisation are complementary processes, and their interaction can be seen in the Universalising of the particular and vice versa, the particularising of the Universal.

5.  ART AND ITS PROPHETIC ROLE: COUNTER-CULTURE ILLUSTRATED IN FONSECA         

Abstract:  This is an attempt to locate art as the prophetic in culture and religion with reference to Angelo da Fonseca. 

6. SINKING OLD HORIZONS, IMAGINING NEW ONES: DEBUNKING EXCEPTIONALISM

Abstract: A book review of ‘Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny’ by Amartya Sen

7.    TOWARDS A DIALOGUE OF CULTURES     

Abstract: Dialogue is a most fundamental condition of existence, the very language of our being, the essential hermeneutic of all our experience. We need to to reverse cycles of communal clashes and spiralling violence, to heal old wounds, to create a new future; with tolerance and dialogue, creativity and critique.

8.  DEVELOPMENT FOR MODERNITY: WHOSE DEVELOPMENT, WHAT MODERNITY?

Abstract: The development policies have not effectively reached the vast masses of our people, leaving the vulnerable more defenceless and desperate. A million mutinies at the grassroots, hopefully presaging a more sustainable paradigm for an inclusive development. 

9.  SEARCH FOR IDENTITY, QUEST FOR DIGNITY: THE DALITS’ LONG MARCH           

 Abstract: Development too has been a very real threat to the cultural identity and human dignity of marginalised peoples. We need to restructure our economic development and political participation. An accompanying cultural hegemony subverts their identity, and undermines the cultural resources, which they could have mobilised to resist this dominance.

10. GOA 50 YEARS AFTER LIBERATION: LIGHT AND SHADOW

Abstract: Goa is the smallest state in the Union of India. After 50 years of liberation from five centuries of colonial rule, its challenge now is to be a beacon of light for the rest of the Union rather than a replication of its shadow side.

11. MODERNISATION AND NEW AVATARS OF CASTE

Abstract: Modernisation in India is significant but will the modernizing elites be able to carry the tradition-bound masses or will caste transmute into new avatars?

12.  DIVERSITY AND DIFFERENCE: CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY AND AFFIRMING DIGNITY IN A PLURALIST WORLD

Abstract: Indic civilisation has served as a common meeting ground for diverse historical or religious traditions. However, in an imploding globalising world, a multicultural, pluri-religious society becomes problematic, and hegemonic dominance or exclusivist posturing by the protagonists does not make for social integration or communal harmony.

13.  RELIGIOUS DISARMAMENT: METAPHOR FOR TOLERANCE AND DIALOGUE    

Abstract: Against the background of the historical trajectory of violence in religious traditions, we will first clarify an understanding of violence and the relationship of power and peace. This will be the basis for an elaboration of the ideal of tolerance, which in turn becomes the sine qua non for a multidimensional dialogue.

In the context of violent religious conflict, religious disarmament becomes the metaphor for a radical reorientation to deeper tolerance of the ‘other’ and more open inter-religious dialogue.

14. ART AND EQUITY

Abstract: In society, art is in the domain of culture; equity is in that of structure. Any holistic transformation of a society must impact both these domains. One without the other will become tragedy or farce.

15. CELEBRATING THE ORGANIC INTELLECTUAL

 Abstract: For middle-class academics and activists, who are alienated from the grass-roots people in the field, the challenge  to become organic intellectuals is a difficult and delicate task: for academics to ground their abstract theory in the field and for activists to articulate their learnings from the field. This presentation is in three parts: the first takes up various aspects of the divide between professionals and people; the second looks at procedures of academy and spells out the implications; the third describes alternative programmes outside the academy. Finally, the conclusion celebrates the organic intellectual.

 16.  OVERFLOWING DIALOGUE: A CHRISTIAN  HUMANIST RESPONSE TO INDIA’S CULTURAL CHALLENGES 

Abstract: The contradictions and dilemmas sketched here are the challenging context of any effective evangelisation in India today. They must be contextualised in the concrete political, cultural and religious dynamics of a region.