GS 1, Indian Society, TLP-UPSC Mains Answer Writing
How does the diversity of India’s population, with regards to religion, language, ethnicity, and caste, impact the country’s social and political landscape? Explain with the help of suitable examples.
धर्म, भाषा, जातीयता और जाति के संबंध में भारत की जनसंख्या की विविधता देश के सामाजिक और राजनीतिक परिदृश्य को कैसे प्रभावित करती है? उपयुक्त उदाहरणों की सहायता से व्याख्या कीजिए।
Approach–
Candidates can start the answer with giving basic definition of moral attitude and simply write about its different facets and relate it to suitable real time examples.
Introduction–
The term ‘diversity’ in Indian case means collective differences, that is, differences which mark off one group of people from another. These differences may be of any sort: biological, religious, linguistic etc. Thus, diversity means variety of races, of religions, of languages, of castes and of cultures.
Body–
Diversity impacting social and political landscape:
- Regionalism: Regionalism tends to highlight interests of a particular region/regions over national interests. It can also adversely impact national integration. Law and order situation is hampered due to regional demands and ensuing
- Divisive politics: Sometimes, ascriptive identities such as caste, religion etc. are evoked by politicians in order to garner This type of divisive politics can result in violence, feeling of mistrust and suspicion among minorities.
- Inter-religious conflicts: Inter-religious conflicts not only hamper relations between two communities by spreading fear and mistrust but also hinder the secular fabric of the country.
- Inter-state conflicts: This can lead emergence of feelings related to regionalism. It can also affect trade and communications between conflicting states. For instance, Cauvery River dispute between Karnataka and Tamil
- Geographical isolation: Geographical isolation too can lead to identity issues and separatist The North-East is geographically isolated from the rest of the country as it is connected with the rest of the country by a narrow corridor i.e the Siliguri corridor (Chicken’s neck).
- Development imbalance: uneven pattern of socio-economic development, inadequate economic policies and consequent economic disparities can lead to backwardness of a region. For instance, due to economic backwardness of the North East region, several instances of separatist demands and secessionist tendencies have sprung up in the NE India.
- Ethnic differentiation and nativism: Ethnic differentiation has often led to clashes between different ethnic groups especially due to factors such as job competition, limited resources, threat to identity for example frequent clashes between Bodos and Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam.
Factors Leading to Unity:
- Fairs and festivals: They also act as integrating factors as people from all parts of the country celebrate them as per their own local for example Diwali is celebrated throughout.
- Sports and Cinema: These are followed by millions in the country, thus, acting as a binding force across the length and breadth of country.
- Institution of pilgrimage and religious practices: Closely related to them is the age-old culture of pilgrimage, which has always moved people to various parts of the country and fostered in them a sense of geo-cultural unity.
Conclusion
Eventually, it is the responsibility of the political and religious leadership, civil society, intelligentsia and the media to uphold the values of mutual respect and tolerance to stress societal solidarity and tolerance.
