Answer:

Ethnic identity is a basis for distribution of social rewards like money, prestige and power. In most societies one or more ethnic groups dominate others in economic, political and cultural matters. Ethnic politics can, therefore, take the appearance of ‘ethnic stratification’, resulting in the emergence of ‘ethnic nationalism’.

Nations are created when ‘ethnic groups’, in a multi-ethnic state are transformed into a ‘self-conscious political entities’. The goals of ‘sovereignty and self-determination’, lead to ethno nationalism.

Often minority groups try to play the ethnic card in order to acquire a better deal for themselves in a plural society. When subjugated groups, fail to achieve success according to the norms established by the dominant group the nature of their response tends to be ‘ethnic antagonism’ which may take the form of

♤ Struggle of the indigenous people’s right to their land and culture,

♤ competition by ethnic groups for obtaining scarce resources

♤ Movements for a separate nation.

India is one of the most diverse countries in the world in terms of languages, regional disparities, cultures, ethnicity and religions. When such diverse state is engaged in nation building through the construction of national identity, smaller identities move in the opposite direction, when they feel that they are about to lose their identity. Hence, Ethno-national identities in India have been shaped by the relative concentration of these factors in a region clubbed with the sense of regional deprivation.

For Example: Instances of Naga, Mizo, Manipur ethno nationalism, Khalistan movement of 1980s

In India, post-independence, major factors that contributed to the emergence of ethnic mobilization were:

♤ the pitfalls of nation-building process,

♤ the faulty modernization process, and

♤ the nature of the nation-state.

The most important basis for the formation of identity was language. Community aspirations vented out as the demand for linguistic states, ultimately leading to major redrawing of the internal boundaries on the basis of language.

Secondly, the postcolonial development process tried to integrate and assimilate ethnic communities towards the mainstream development process while ignoring their cultural and economic specificities. The centralized planning and the capitalist modernization further lead to the exclusion of various tribal communities from mainstream. This led to the mass displacement of tribals from their historical and traditional lands, without commensurate benefits of development being provided to them.

As a result, a combination of ethnicity based on tribal identity, language, regional deprivation and ecology provided the basis for intense regionalism resulting in the formation of states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and very recently Telangana.

Similarly, the ethnic demand for homeland created a number of smaller states in the northeast. For instance, the greater Assam was Balkanized into Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram to meet the demands of these ethnic groups.

However, mere making of territorial boundary did not solve the problem; on the contrary, it further aggregated it. It is argued that the creation of separate state further fanned the fire when “various smaller and bigger communities started to demand establishment of more states; on the other hand, the state showed their inability to deliver the basic goods”

However, in the Post-independence era, there are instances of religion becoming the basis of identities especially among the Muslims and Sikhs. For example: demand for the formation of Khalistan is an evidence of religion becoming the basis of identity.

However, demands from Muslims are more concerned with their relative backwardness and poverty and a sense of security. Yet such instances of assertion of religious identities are fewer when compared to language, regional deprivation etc.

Hence, it can be said that religion has played a relatively minor though not negligible role in determining the ethno-national identities in India.

However, it must be emphasized that during recent times with the emergence of right- wing political forces in the country, religion has again come into prominence as the basis of national identity where nationalism is often misplaced with commitment to religious and cultural traditions of the majority. This may result in the right-wing forces in minorities asserting their religious identities to counter the right-wing of majority. It may lead to not a very pleasant scenario of religion becoming dominant factor in determining the identities of the communities from the minor one it currently is.