Ethnicity in India.

Through the present account the author has made
several departures from the trend of thought re-
lated to ethnicity as set in the West. Instead of
comprehending the same primarily as the system of
categorisation based on a set of fixed criteria where
inter-relationship of the national mainstream with
the so called ethnic minorities is considered impor-
tant, in view of pluri-cultural realities, ethnicity has
been perceived here as the strategy of interest
alliance : a state of dynamic equilibrium. The
nature of exposition of ethnicity under the cir-
cumstance depends to a major extent on the kind
of stimulus received by an individual or a group at
a given point of time. Such a definition of ethnicity
presupposes possible multiplicity of identities and
inherent plural loyalties on social, political, cultural
or other counts. Importance of boundary in the
understanding of the problems of ethnicity, there-
fore, is considered very crucial. What is even more
important at this stage is to accept the fact that
ethnicity in its broader perspective manifests the
apparent clash of cultural and political mechanisms
of boundary maintenance that are basically unlike.
Lider the given constraints, expectations for the
spirit of uniformity, as it appears, is required to be
replaced by that of harmony acknowledging the
distinctions of those that are really different.