1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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of community, but the sensed bonds of religion, I Anglo-Indians, Europeans, and Scheduled Castes as
would argue, were generally weaker, at least among well as for such special interests as Indian commerce
Hindus, than were those of caste. and industry, European commerce, landholders, labor,
and even women. Whether the course adopted was an
The unification of India under the British and the attempt to gradually establish a liberal representative
accelerating expansion, thereafter, of the transporta- democracy or a cynical policy of "divide and con-
tion and communications network, literacy, the press, quer" depends on whose version of history one
and notions of democratic governance brought about a chooses to believe. In any event, a policy of recogniz-
number of important changes in the way that people ing the en bloc claims of particular constituencies to a
saw themselves and in their patterns of interaction. share of the political pie was set firmly in place,
While identification with and loyalty to one's caste thereby reinforcing ethnic sensitivities.
remained important, other social attributes became
increasingly salient as wider arenas of economic and The establishment of quotas remains a part of the
political interaction were established. New, more-or- political modus operandi to this day, although the
less Westernized commercial and bureaucratic elites rules for fixing quotas varied from one context to
came into being. Although they were mainly Hindu, another. Some quotas are in strict proportion to popu-
these new elites drew also fronh other religious com- lation. Depressed groups-officially designated
munities and from many linguistic regions. In some "Scheduled Castes" and "Scheduled Tribes"-are
situations, especially after the creation of the Indian guaranteed certain numbers of seats in national and
National Congress in 1885, they formed the nucleus state legislatures, of positions in various lower and
for an emerging PanIndian, nontraditional, national- middle levels of government employment, and of
ism. In other contexts, however, socially and cultur- acceptances to institutions of higher education. Rules
ally defined groups vied with one another for privilege of this type are institutionalized in the Constitutions of
and power. Thus, in addition to their caste and reli- India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Other informal quo-
gious identities, many Indians became increasingly tas for places on party tickets, for participation in state
aware of regional attachments that were previously and provincial ministries, or for a share of the eco-
only dimly sensed within areas dominated by a partic- nomic largess over which certain agencies of govern-
ular language or dialect. The range of politically rele- ment have control, are more flexible and situation-
vant primordial loyalties-those that form the basis specific. These informal quotas are often determined
for what we now recognize as ethnicity-was by deals made by party bosses in response to promises
expanded accordingly. In a sense, then, we may say of support or various pressures by specific groups.
that one's identity-or jati-today means much more Institutionalized religious quotas are presently
than caste alone. unthinkable within the secular democracy of India, but
the Muslim voting bloc-roughly one-ninth of the
The British rulers recognized the latent potential for total Indian electorate and much more than that in sev-
disunity inherent in the social and cultural complexity eral regions-retains an informal claim to a share of
of the subcontinent, and they responded fitfully and power. In Pakistan the small Ahmadiya sect, which
often grudgingly to Indian demands for greater control the Constitution has declared to be outside the pale of
over their own destinies. In each of a series of major Islam, has been allotted reserved seats in both the
constitutional reforms, such as the Indian Councils national and provincial legislatures, as have other
Act of 1909 and the Governmeht of India Acts of minorities and women.
1919 and 1935, they acknowledged the claims of spe-
cific minorities to separate electorates to guarantee Sociocultural identities in South Asia have never been
some semblance of fair representation in the evolving fixed. The corporate mobility of particular groups,
legislative apparatus. At first only the Muslim popula- some ascending and others descending in the local
tion was accorded special recognition. Subsequently,
concomitant with an expanding franchise, elected
seats were reserved also for Sikhs, Indian Christians,
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