SOCIO-POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES: CONTRADICTIONS AND COMPLEMENTARITIES
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME II
The defining characterises of a genuine democracy, one in spirit not just form, is the quest for justice as the common good, by the committed pursuit of liberty, equality, fraternity. This vision for the Republic of India has been so very evocatively articulated in the Preamble to our Constitution. These form an integrated holistic aspiration that must hold the delicate balance between all three ideals in the pursuance of a just common good. While those on the Right of the political spectrum emphasise liberty, and oppositely those on the Left prioritise equality, it is fraternity as an inclusive social solidarity that is necessary to hold the two in balance and contain the tension and apparent contradiction. Click to read more…
For liberty will inevitably have consequence corresponding to the choices. This cannot but bring unequal results. When the inequalities that follow are carried over generations they get structured into hierarchies and strata. When these are then are ideologically rationalised they perpetuate unjust inequalities. A deeper and more social inclusive solidarity for the common must reverse this spiral of increasing injustice.
The essays in this volume address this dilemma of liberty and equality by foregrounding fraternity to contain the contrary consequences within a democratic framework. The contradictions of our polity precipitate a populist politics that seems to thrive on authoritarianism and hate. This is negate of democratic rights and civil liberties. The state keeps the form of an electoral democracy but is drained of the substance of a liberal state. Scapegoating on minority communities becomes par for the course. This is the very negation of an inclusive, fraternal politics. The articles in this volume should open an alternative discourse for a truly substantive democracy.
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Socio-Political Perspectives: Contradictions and Complementarities
LIST OF ARTICLES WITH ABSTRACTS IN VOLUME II
1. MINORITY RIGHTS AND RESERVATION POLICY TOWARDS COHERENCE AND CONSISTENCE
Abstract: It is religious communalism that undermines minority rights, often with attacks from the outside by religious communalists from the majority community, but also with misadventures from the inside by extremists from the minority itself.
2. ETHNICITY, CLASS AND NATION INTERRELATIONSHIPS IN A MULTI-CULTURAL STATE
Abstract: Modernisation, whether state-planned or market-driven, is premised on progress as economic growth, and has eventually promoted homogenised development. In choosing ‘another development’ we need to formulate ‘another politics’ which will incorporate the liberating aspects of modernist endeavour into a communitarian model focused on dignity of person, respectful of ethnic identities and socio-politically participative.
3. IMAGINED COMMUNITIES, INVENTED TRADITIONS: SUBALTERN ALTERNATIVES IN IDENTITY AND IDEOLOGY
Abstract: The essay explores the subaltern alternatives in constructing imagined communities with invented traditions
4. RECONCILIATION AND COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE: MEDIATION BETWEEN VICTIM AND VIOLATOR
Abstract: This essay is a multi-level analysis of collective violence is and the reconciliation needed for a comprehensive healing process. Besides the socio-psychological one, we must consider other dimensions of discourse as well: the socio-political, the socio-cultural and the socio- religious.
5. UNRAVELLING THE SECULAR: A PROJECT FOR LIBERATION
Abstract: An analysis of the secular and its role in our society cannot be bypassed. Implicit in the worldviews prevalent today are alternative understandings of the secular, its relationship to economic development, to religious culture and to democratic equality. The approach here is to unravel the secular and seek therein not just as a sine qua non for tolerance in a multi-cultural society, but also as a project for liberation in a pluri-religious one. For although secularism may be foreign in its origins as an ideology, it is not alien in the aspirations it inspires among our people.
6. CIVIL SOCIETY FOR DEMOCRATIC POLITICS: SOCIAL CAPITAL IN A CIVIL STATE CIVIL SOCIETY
Abstract: Social capital is the infrastructure for the democratic politics in a civil state.
7. JUST ENDS JUST MEANS: JUSTICE AS LIBERTY, EQUALITY, SOLIDARITY
Abstract: Our understanding of justice must be inclusive of the fourfold context, i.e, justice as virtue, justice as equitable exchange, distributive justice and social justice. Thus, the virtue of the righteous person must carry over into equitable relationships, which, in turn, must sustain this virtue. Together these must facilitate just distributive social institutions and set the norms and values for just social structures, even as these structures must bring about fair distribution and just institutions, sustained by equitable relationships and personal virtue.
8. DEMOCRATISING DEMOCRACY: CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
Abstract: Social capital is the infrastructure for the democratic politics in a civil state.
9. HOLDING UP HALF THE SKY: RESERVATIONS FOR WOMEN IN INDIA
Abstract: Political representation is a necessary condition for a liberal democracy. Political quotas are meant to address the absence of those who are excluded because of the inegalitarian social structures in which political processes are enacted. This is accepted as a legitimate justification for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe quotas in legislatures and Parliament. Reserved quotas for women are a fair extension of that same principle. The Women’s Reservation Bill must empower women to address their situation politically, not to serve the old hierarchies once again. An effective implementation of reserved quotas for women in legislatures and Parliament is a must to bring a more participative and inclusive, a more egalitarian and sensitive citizenship for all.
10. SPINNING MYTHS, CONFRONTING REALITIES: ELECTION 2014 AND THE MARGINALISED AND MINORITIES
Abstract: This essay is an analytical commentary on the general election in India of 2014
11. INDIA’S UGLY NATIONALISM
Abstract: Hindu Rashtra is a Hindudom seeking to sacralise the state as once Christendom did in mediaeval Europe.
12. THE ADIVASI OTHER: ETHNICITY AND MINORITY STATUS
Abstract: If fundamental questions of tribal identity and dignity are to be faced, we must go beyond such ‘vague’ descriptions of them as indigenous peoples, or treat them as merely an a colonial administrative categories or identify them as a contemporary ideological category. A historical-evolutionary approach takes us beyond such pragmatic operational definitions. Here we argue that to preserve the identity and dignity of these threatened people today, tribal ethnic identity needs to be mobilised to overcome their minority status, so that in their integration into the national mainstream, the distinctive contribution they make will be appreciatively acknowledged and the incisive challenge they pose honestly faced by this larger society. However, to do this effectively we must take into consideration the class dimensions of ethnicity.
13. NATIONALISM IN ITS MANY AVATARS 14. CAN INDIA’S PATRIOTISM BE BUILT ON ACCEPTING DIFFERENCES?
Abstract: There are many avatars of nationalism premised on very different understandings of ‘the idea of India.’ This demands a patriotism premised on an inclusive love of all our peoples, a commitment to their integral welfare, and faith in an idea of India with its multicultural, pluri-religious society as less a nation state than a multi-nation-state in the making. There is an obvious contradiction between nationalism and internationalism, and yet they prevail together: national chauvinism at home and international globalism abroad. Any response to such anomalies, particularly in a rapidly changing situation, must be critically assessed lest we pour new wine that cannot be contained in “old wine skins” and so burst the skins and spill the wine.
15. POLITICISING RELIGION, RELIGIONISING POLITICS: SUTRAS TO DISCERN THEIR DOMAINS
Abstract: This article addresses the dangerous mix of religion and politics
16. COMPASSION AS A POLITICAL EMOTION
Abstract: Compassion as a Political Emotion requires a discourse beyond the interpersonal level of analysis.
17. JUSTICE AS LIBERTY, EQUALITY, SOLIDARITY: BEYOND RAWLSIAN CONTRACTARIANISM
Abstract: If justice is to be understood as credible and is to be seen as implementable, we need to look at it in the context of its distinct but not separate dimensions: individual behaviour, exchange transactions, the distribution of social goods and services, and institutional structures and relationships. Contending concepts concerning justice with their rival claims to truth often diverge. Mapping a minimal common ground across these is a daunting task. For justice in a society must be founded on a consensus of moral values and implemented fairly by agreed procedures. Even as we celebrate the seminal contribution of John Rawls’ Theory of Justice (1999), this essay attempts to go beyond the contractarian framework, which Rawls pushes to its limits and goes beyond Amartya Sen’s Idea of Justice (2009) as ‘capability theory’, to follow through with Martha Nussbaum to the Frontiers of Justice (2007)
18. THE PARADOX: NATIONALISM AND PLURALISM
Abstract: The paradox of nationalist pluralism is resolved only with an inclusive nationalism and a tolerant pluralism. Nationalism is a powerful unifier and motivator, pluralism demands tolerance and understanding of difference. Our cultural diversity and religious pluralism could be an example to a broken and violent world. Unfortunately, authoritarian ethno-nationalism favours uniformity and single party dominance. It took two World Wars before the European nations were ready for the European Union. It is still a work in progress, but yet an example for The Union of India.
19. FROM AN ELECTED DEMOCRACY TO POPULIST AUTOCRACY
Abstract: We have achieved exemplary success with electoral democracy, but we have fallen grossly short on substantive democracy.
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