The Pluralistic Nature of Indian Society

Regional pluralism

Region overlaps language but is not the same thing. It is the attachment to a territory with its own history, economy and cultural style, and it operates at several scales at once: the state, the sub-region within a state, the metropolitan city.

Its bases. Distinct pre-colonial political histories; sharp differences in economic development, which generate grievances about the sharing of resources, of river waters and of central revenues; distinct cuisines, dress, festivals and literatures; and geography itself.

Its expressions. State-level political parties with no national presence, which is one of the most striking features of Indian politics; demands for new states, several of which have succeeded; movements for autonomy; and hostility to migrants from other regions, which has appeared repeatedly in Indian cities including Mumbai.

The institutional response. A federal constitution with a division of legislative powers; the ability of Parliament to form new states; special provisions for particular states and areas; and the Fifth and Sixth Schedules for the administration of Scheduled Areas and tribal areas.

Ethnic pluralism

The word MU prints is "Ethic", which is a printing slip for ethnic. An ethnic group is a group whose members share a sense of common descent, history and culture, and are recognised by themselves and others as distinct. Ethnicity is dealt with fully in [Race and Ethnicity]; here it is one axis of Indian plurality.

The tribal dimension. The Constitution provides for the specification of Scheduled Tribes, and the 2011 Census returned Scheduled Tribes at a little over eight per cent of the population, with several hundred communities notified. They are concentrated in central India and the North East, they speak languages of families quite different from those around them, and their relation to land and forest differs fundamentally from that of the surrounding peasant society.

The North East. The region contains a large number of distinct communities within a small population, which is why the Sixth Schedule provides for autonomous district councils rather than the ordinary pattern of administration.

Ethnicity is not race. Race, so far as it means a biological classification of humanity, is not a useful category and is dealt with as a social construct in [Race and Ethnicity]. Ethnicity is about descent as socially understood, culture and identification.

Cultural pluralism

Culture is the widest of the four axes and includes the others, so an answer should treat it as the general case.

Religion. The 2011 Census returned Hindus at a little under eighty per cent of the population and Muslims at a little over fourteen per cent, with Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains making up most of the remainder. Each of those figures conceals internal plurality: there is no single Hindu or Muslim practice across the country.

Caste. Caste is a form of cultural and social plurality peculiar to South Asia, and is treated in [Caste].

Custom and personal law. India's most striking institutional recognition of cultural pluralism is that family relations are governed by different bodies of law for different communities, alongside a secular alternative. This is legal pluralism in the strict sense, and it is taken up in [Legal Pluralism].

Everyday culture. Food, dress, kinship terminology, marriage rules, inheritance practice, festivals and calendars all vary sharply, and none of it is uniform even within a single state.

The institutional response, gathered

For an examiner, the list of arrangements is what turns a description into an answer.

A worked example

A central law makes registration of marriages compulsory and provides a single form and a single registering authority.

• Linguistically, the form exists in a limited number of languages, and a couple who read none of them depends on an intermediary, which is where cost and misdescription enter.
• Regionally, the registering machinery is dense in some states and thin in others, so a formally uniform obligation produces very different real burdens.
• Ethnically, communities whose marriage is constituted by a ceremony recognised by the community and by no document at all must now translate that event into a category on a form.
• Culturally, the definitions in the form, of marriage, of the date of marriage, of who may attest, fit some communities' practice closely and others' badly.

The law is the same everywhere. Its social meaning and its practical cost are not, and predicting that is the professional value of this chapter.

The criticisms and the debates

1. Does recognition entrench division? The standing objection to accommodating groups is that it makes group identity more, not less, salient in public life. The standing reply is that difference does not disappear when it is ignored, and that unrecognised minorities fare worse.
2. Uniformity against pluralism. The debate over a uniform civil code is the sharpest instance, and it is a genuine conflict between two goods, equality of citizens and respect for communities, not a conflict between right and wrong. [Legal Pluralism] treats it.
3. Plurality within groups. Every group named here is itself plural, and speaking of the interests of a community can conceal the subordination of women and of lower-status members within it.
4. Composite culture. Against every account of India as a set of separate blocks stands the observable fact of shared practice, common festivals, syncretic traditions and constant borrowing, and an answer that describes only separation describes the country badly.

Quick revision

1. Pluralism is organised, persisting group difference within one political society, not mere diversity and not assimilation.
2. Linguistic: 22 Eighth Schedule languages; 121 languages with 10,000 or more speakers in the 2011 Census; no language is spoken by a majority; states reorganised on language from 1956.
3. Regional: distinct histories, uneven development, strong state parties, demands for new states, hostility to migrants.
4. Ethnic: Scheduled Tribes a little over eight per cent in 2011; the North East; Fifth and Sixth Schedules. MU prints "Ethic", meaning ethnic.
5. Cultural: religion (Hindus a little under 80 per cent, Muslims a little over 14 per cent in 2011), caste, custom, personal laws.
6. The institutional response runs through federalism, language provisions, protective schedules and separate personal laws.
7. Debates: does recognition entrench division; uniformity against pluralism; plurality inside groups; the composite culture reply.

Test yourself

1. What is pluralism, and how does it differ from diversity and from assimilation? Pluralism is the coexistence within one political society of distinct groups that persist as groups, carrying their own institutions and acting collectively in public life. Diversity is the mere fact of difference among individuals; assimilation is the process by which difference dissolves into a common identity. Pluralism is organised difference that endures rather than dissolving.

2. Describe India's linguistic plurality and the arrangements made for it. Twenty-two languages are listed in the Eighth Schedule and the 2011 Census recorded 121 languages with at least ten thousand speakers; no single language is spoken by a majority. The arrangements include Hindi as the official language of the Union with English continuing in use, the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines from 1956, the power of a state to adopt its own official language, and safeguards for instruction in the mother tongue for linguistic minority children.

3. Why does regional pluralism produce demands for new states? Because region combines a distinct history and cultural style with uneven economic development, so a sub-region that believes it is neglected within a larger state has both an identity to appeal to and a grievance to mobilise around. The constitutional power of Parliament to form new states makes the demand a realistic one, and several such demands have succeeded.

4. How does India's law recognise cultural plurality, and what is the objection? Chiefly by governing family relations through different bodies of personal law for different communities, alongside a secular alternative, and by guaranteeing religious freedom and minority educational rights. The objection is that differential treatment entrenches group identity and can leave individuals, especially women, subject to internal norms less favourable than the general law would give them.

5. Give one criticism of describing India as a plural society. That an account built entirely out of separate blocks misses the composite culture: shared festivals, syncretic religious traditions, common languages of exchange and constant cultural borrowing are as much a part of the observable record as separation is, and a description that omits them misdescribes the country.