Insiders and Outsiders in India: Primordial Collectivism and Cultural Pluralism in Nation-Building

Abstract

The emergence of the Three Worlds eventuated in the crystallization of three expectancies. While the First World gave birth to liberal expectancy and the Second World to radical expectancy, the Third World latched its faith to nationalist expectancy. Not only have these expectancies not come true, the possibility of their realisation in the manner in which they were conceptualised remains utterly bleak. Invariably primordial collectivism of the cultural mainstream is defined as nationalism, while the collective aspirations of dominated or marginalised collectivities are labelled as anti-national or at best sub-national. It is suggested in this paper that cultural pluralism should be the cornerstone on which authentic nation- building can be attempted. In contemporary India the juxtaposition of insiders and outsiders and the processes of expansionism and exclusivism are widespread. The leading bases of categorising collectivities as insiders/outsiders are religion, caste, tribe, language and region. Through expansionism the dominant collectivity attempts to assimilate all those social collectivities defined as insiders into the cultural mainstream thereby threatening their socio-cultural identity which may lead to culturocide. Through the process of exclusivism the very belongingness of outsiders to the nation-state is questioned, which alienates them. It is argued that India cannot build an authentic nation-state by establishing the dominance of a cultural mainstream reducing the numerous collectivities of the periphery to the status of marginals. India should have a nation-state with multiple cultural centres.

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