Both India and Europe have been undergoing a difficult process
of negotiating cultural, religious and ethnic diversity within
their democratic frameworks. In fact, recent incidents of
xenophobic backlash against multiculturalism and minority
communities in Europe, as well as myriad movements for
constitutional recognition of castes, tribes and languages and the
emergence of Islamophobic terror in India, question the
conventional idea of democracy as the idyllic preserver of
diversity.
This volume contests the simplistic connection between democracy
and diversity by proposing that democracy, in fact, produces,
sediments and reinforces cultural heterogeneity. It argues that in
democratic polities, disparate cultural practices are often
converted into identity categories, with disturbing implications
for national identity, constitutionalism, political governance and
citizenship. While mobilizations on the plank of cultural
differences are typically viewed as being born in undemocratic
spaces with little toleration for diversity, they also find fertile
soil in democracy insofar as democracy celebrates diversity and
allows cultural dissent to thrive. Such dissent, while essential
for democracy, has difficult consequences. Examining the
fundamental conflict between constructions of particular cultural
identities and mandates of a unifying democratic ethos, the book
brings forth the complexities underlying the politics of identity
recognition and national integration.
In making a radical intervention in the discourse, this volume
offers a critique of existing paradigms of multiculturalism. It
will interest scholars and students of political science,
sociology, and postcolonial and comparative studies.
General
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