Ethnic Diversity, National

Integration and Political

Polarization
Asif Raza

LCA 06.07.23
 Ethnic Diversity
• Ethnicity refers to the identification of a group based on a perceived
cultural distinctiveness that makes the group into a “people.” This
distinctiveness is believed to be expressed in language, music, values, art,
styles, literature, family life, religion, ritual, food, naming, public life,
and material culture (Encyclopedia Brittanica)
• Core-Primordial affinities derived from the place of birth, Kinship
relationship, religion, language and social practices
• Unconsciously present-can be rekindled by external stimuli
• Collective Name, common myth of descent, shared history, distinctive
shared culture, association with a specific territory, sense of solidarity,
shared language, common religion
Ethnicity and Pakistan
• ‘Pakistan is one of the world’s most ethnically and linguistically
complex states’ (Cohen, 2005, p. 201)
• Bengalis, Punjabis, Pakhtoons, Balochs, Sindhis and Muhajirs
• Linguistic diversity-Bengali, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi/Brahvi, Sindhi,
Seraiki, Urdu
• Language issues in Bengal, Sindh Mutthida Mahaz, Jeay Sindh, Baloch
Verna, Pakhtun Zalmry, NAP
• Pakistan emerged as a state but failed to create nationalism (Raunaq
Jahan 1972)
Sources of Ethnic Conflict
• Economic Disparities
 Failure of State to protect Individual Rights
 Socio-economic Injustice
• Modernization and Dwindling Natural Resources
 Uneven Development
 Relative Deprivation
• Historical and Cultural Factors
• External Factors (Fall of Dhaka)
• Political Factors
• Demographic Factors (Karachi, Balochistan)
 National Integration
• Integration is a process by which members of a social system develop
linkages and cohesion, so that the boundaries of the system persist over
time, and boundaries of sub-systems become less consequential in
affecting behavior. In this process, members of the social system
develop an escalating sequence of contact, cooperation, consensus, and
community (Morrison et al. 1972:385)
• Political development includes the process by which heterogeneous communal
elements are gradually integrated and homogenized into a single nation (Hayes 1931;
Kohn c 1979:36-70).
• Inevitability of integration vs pluralistic thesis
• Modernization involves social mobilization; social mobilization
generates communal identity and interaction; communal conflict and
violence are the inevitable result (Huntington 1972)
National Integration
• 'the attainment within a territory, of a "sense of community", and of
institutions and practices strong enough and widespread enough to assure,
for a long time, dependable expectations of peaceful change among its
population' (Deutsch et al. 1966:2)
What Causes Nations to Integrate?
• Stability-persistence of a lack of conflict, common experience and
values, types of political structures, degree of compliance with
government directives
• Homogeneity-Is it a necessary causality ?
• Shared Values and beliefs
• Absence of Coercion- presence of consensus and negotiation
• The association of integration with political consensus is an association
of integration with democracy- “stable, democratic, nation state”
• The process is 'the progressive reduction of cultural and regional
tensions and discontinuities on the horizontal plane, in the process of
creating a homogeneous, territorial, political community' (Coleman and
Rosberg 1964:9).
 Democratic Implications of Integration
Identity with Central Regime
High Low

• Elite Cooperation 1 • Pluralism 3

• Normative Consensus • Authoritarianism
• Consociational Democracy • Rule by Force
Identity with subgroup
High

• Authoritarian Regime

• Homogenous population or • Apathy or alienation 4

cross cutting cleavages 2 • Mass Society
Low

• Totalitarianism
• Normative Consensus
• Centralized Democratic State
8
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Religious Ground
• Islam as an ideological anchor and a potential homogenizing force-
bedrock of stability-but is it so ?
• Manipulation of religious identity by religious parties such as JI, and
JUI instead of forging cohesion
• Exploitation of sectarian tensions-Politicization of Ahmadi issue
• Shia-Sunni Conflict in Zia Era
• Language
• Bengali and demand for declaration of Bengali as national language-
student riots and a sense of alienation
• Sindhi and riots in 1972-Sindh Assembly’s bill for Sindhi as national
language of Sindh and ensuing riots by Urdu speaking Muhajirs in
Karachi and Hyderabad
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Ghaus Bakhsh Bizenjo declared Urdu as the language of official
correspondence in Balochistan-1972
• NAP unlike its historical stance declared Urdu as the national language of
NWFP
• Start of Seraiki national movement in South Punjab
• Territoriality
• NFC-sole criteria of population until 7th award
• Water sharing issues between provinces
• 1956 Constitution-Federal, Provincial and concurrent list
• 1962 Constitution- presidential form of Government-centralized at best
• 1973 Constitution- Federal, Provincial and Concurrent list with residuary
powers with the provinces
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Abolition of concurrent list in 18th amendment in 2010
• Caste
• Arains of TT Singh, Makhdooms of Hala, Chaudhris of Gujrat-election
specific kinship groups and conflicts-a detriment to representative
democracy ????
• Distribution of Resources
• Population based criterion for distribution of resources of Federal
Consolidated Fund
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Official version of Homogeneity in Pakistan is doctrinaire uniformity based on
one nation (Pakistan), One language (Urdu) and One People (Muslim) (Dixit 1996)
• East Pakistan
• 54% of the population
• Minimal representation in services and denial of political representation
• Dismissal of United front Ministry in 1954 and imposition of one unit in 1955
• Decision of Quaid-i-Azam to declare urdu as official language 1948
• 1956 Constitution did not prevent provinces to adopt a provincial languages
• Ethnic exclusiveness and absence of democracy resulted in failure of federal
experience
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Balochistan
• Surge of Baloch ethnic sentiments due to distrust over distribution of power
and resources
• Dismissal of Ata Ullah Mengal Government 1973-55000 Balochs and 70000
Pakistan troops
• Resurgence in 2004
• Killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti-August 2006
• Aaghaz I Haqooq I Balochistan by PPP in 2009
• Khyber Pakhtunkhawa
• Greater history and depth of ethnicity and cohesion
• Dismissal of Dr Khan Sbs Govt in first week after Independence
• Diffusion of ethnic tensions and integration into Pakistani identit well on
course
Ethnic Tensions in Pakistan
• Sindh
• Cauldron of various ethnicities due to inland migration
• Competition of rural sindhis with upwardly mobile urdu-speaking
Muhajirs
• Muhajirs are 50% in Urban Sindh
• GM syed’s Sindhudesh movement in 70s, but petered out now
• Muhajirs
• 1980s rise of MQM- a classic case study of ethnic mobilization
• Claim to be Ideologues and creators of Pakistan
• Muhajir Nationalism and vie for social justice and equal rights
 Fault lines
• First post-colonial state to suffer from a successful secession
• Pakistan had little history of national unity (Keith Callard)-Nationality as a
exclusivist binary of Hinduism
• The Muslim elite did not make a serious effort to translate this 'Islamic ideology'
into a concrete economic, political, sociocultural, and religious organization for the
state of Pakistan (Binder 1964:4; Ahmed 1983)
• Failure of the state to translate ethnic and cultural diversity in political terms
• Stigmatization of Provincialization
• Equation of Federal rights with secession
• Chasm between ideology and sociology-assimilation against accommodation
• Punjabization (Talbot 2002)
• Denial of representation
Way Forward
o Policy areas affecting integration
• Institutional-Devolution, Representation

• Cultural-Language as a dominant media

• Resource distribution- material resources, government and military

jobs
Integration Strategies
• Coercion-deprivation of material resources and political power

• Co-option- Done by utilitarian regimes, granting of concessions,

amnesties, token redistribution of wealth etc.

• Normative Action-creation of symbols (national flag, national hero,

national holidays), propaganda etc.
Way Forward
• 18th Constitutional amendment and 7th NFC is a good start
• Live with ethnic cleavages and identities rather than eradicate them
through coercion and assimilation
• Elite consensus is a must for moving towards accommodation
• Consociational democracy-Proportional representation and
Federalism-Negotiation and accommodation
• Arendt Lijphart’s four stages of cosociational democracy
 Grand coalition of all ethnic groups
 Mutual veto in decision making
 Ethnic proportionality in allocation of offices and opportunities
 Ethnic autonomy i.e Federalism
• Leadership of exceptional ability, skill and integrity
References
• Ahmed, Abdulla, 1973. The Historical Background of Pakistan and its People. Karachi: Tanzeem Publishers.
• Ake, Claude, 1967. A Th eory of Political Integration. Homewood: Dorsey Press.
• Binder, Leonard, 1964. 'National Integration and Political Development' , American Political Science Review 58(3):622-3
1
• Callard, Keith, 1957. Pakistan: A Political Study. London: Allen & Unwin.
• Cohen, Stephen P., 1976. 'The Military ', in Henry C. Hart (ed.), In dira Gandhi 's India: A Political System Reappraised.
Boulder: Westview Press, pp207-39.
• Huntington, Samuel P., 1972. 'Foreword', in Eric A. Nordlinger (ed.), Conflict Regulations in Divided Societies. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Center for International Affairs, Occasional Papers in International Affairs No. 29.
• Lijphart, Arend, 1968. 'Typologies of Democratic Systems ', Comparative Political Studies 1(1): 3-44.
• Nordlinger, Eric, 1972. Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for
International Affairs, Occasional Paper No. 29.
• Rounaq Jahan, Pakistan: Failure in National Integration, New York, Columbia University Press, 1972, p.4
• Cohen, S. P. (2005). The idea of Pakistan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
• Lijphart, A. (1977). Democracy in plural societies: A comparative explanation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Dixit, A. (1996). Ethno-nationalism in Pakistan. Delhi Papers 3, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, 3(1), 6.
• Deutsch, Karl et al. , 1966. Political Community and th e North Atlantic Area (International Political Communities: An
Anthology). New York: Doubleday