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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social hierarchy, has been abundantly documented. So was the idea that India's population consisted essen-
too has been the frequent creation of new groups tially of a Hindu nation and a Muslim nation whose
through fission of older ones and the less common core identities and goals were so fundamentally differ-
amalgamation or fusion of-groups when that suited a ent that there was no hope that they could coexist
particularpurpose. While these processes have oper- within a single independent state without serious
ated since ancient times, the pace of change has accel- adverse consequences for the Muslim minority. In
erated greatly over the past century. Many new fortes 1947, Jinnah's dream of an independent Pakistan was
of identity have been socially, and often deliberately, fulfilled. At the same time, the Congress dream of a
constructed in response to the evolving corporate secular, all-embracing Indian nation was shattered.
agendas of would-be players on the political stage.
The institutionalization ofdemocracy and the atten- Partition and the massive population transfers that fol-
dant politicization of more and more previously inert lowed still left roughly a third of South Asia's Mus-
groups underlie these changes. Clever politicians have lims in India; this concentration continues to provide a
recognized that "pushing the right buttons" to elicit basis for ethnic tensions. The more than 100 million
some sort of ethnically rooted response-whether Muslims in India today constitute by far the world's
based on religion, language, caste, tribal affiliation, or largest ethnic minority. Few parts of the country are
regional sentiment-was the most efficacious way of- without a significant Muslim presence. Within the
attracting a following and attaining power. Temporary Indian-held portion of the disputed state of Jammu
alliances of convenience with others playing the same and Kashmir, Muslims form a substantial majority.
game were often established. This strategy was espe- The dispute over Kashmir has been the cause of two
cially common in regions where few persons held wars between India and Pakistan, and the area also fig-
deep ideological convictions. ured prominently in the war that led to the indepen-
dence of Bangladesh. Within Kashmir a bitter
multisided insurrection is now in progress as some
Types of Ethnic Identity in the 20th Century separatists seek an independent state and others union
with Pakistan. Sustained Indo-Pakistani enmity pern-
Emergent Nationalism odically makes life precarious for India's Muslims
Twoe itl atieasm cle for the despite the country's constitutional commitment to a
xpression f emergent Nationalism during the pre- secular state with religious liberty for all.
independence period. The creation of the Indian
National Congress in 1885 was an outcome of a newly Muslims, of course, are not the only significant reli-
nascent Indian nationalism. The Congress quickly gious minority in India. Five of India's 25 states have
became the principal Pan-Indian vehicle for the free- Sikh, Christian, or animistic majorities (figure 10)of
dom struggle. When the Muslim League came into and, with the exception of the mainly tribal state of
being in 1906, however, it embarked on a more paro- Arunachal Pradesh in the far northeast, all have been
chial course. It set its agenda as much by its percep- scenes of bitter ethnic struggles in the postindepen-
tions of the likely effects of Congress activities on the dece period. The most intense of these struggles is
welfare of India's Muslim community as on its views that of Punjab's Sikhs for an independent Khalistan,
of the British raj. Not surprisingly, the League vacil- waged intermittently since 1981. The present period is
lated between periods of cooperation with the Con- one of relative quiescence, but the problem remains
gress and periods of fierce opposition to it. As powers unresolved. I shall defer trill later discussion of the eth-
were devolved toward the provinces, the importance nic struggles of several tribal regions.
of success in electoral contests gradually widened the
rift between the two parties. Yet it was not until 1940
that the die was irrevocably cast in favor of establish-
ing a separate state for India's Muslim community.
The requisite ethnic rationale invented for that state
was Muhammad Ali Jinnah's "two-nation" theory. It
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