Ethnicity in India.
- New Delhi Inter India. 1991
- 246p.
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.