Sons of the soil: migration and ethnic conflict in India

Myron Weiner's study of the relation ship between internal migration and ethnic conflict in India is exceptional for two reasons: it focuses on intercultural and interstate migration throughout the nation, rather than on merely local or provincial phenomena, and it examines both the social and the political conse quences of India's interethnic migrations.

Professor Weiner examines selected regions of India in which migrants domi nate the modern sector of the economy. He describes the forces that lead individ ual Indian citizens to move from one linguistic-cultural region to another in search of better opportunities, and he at tempts to explain their emergence at the top of the occupational hierarchy. In addi tion, the author provides an account of the ways in which the indigenous ethnic groups ("sons of the soil") attempt to use political power to overcome their fears of economic defeat and cultural subordina tion by the more enterprising, more highly skilled, better educated migrants.

In addressing the fundamental clash be tween the migrants' claims to equal ac cess to their country and the claims of the local groups to equal treatment and pro tection by the state, Professor Weiner considers some of the ways in which gov ernment policy makers might achieve greater equality among ethnic groups without simultaneously restricting the spatial and social mobility of some of their own people.

Myron Weiner is Ford International Professor of Political Science at the Mas sachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of numerous books on South Asian politics.