300175 Plurality and Inequality in South Asia (S) (WiSe 2010/2011)

The seminar "Plurality and Inequality" inquires into the relations of inequality and the manifold forms of collective belonging and boundary-making, currently taking place in South Asian societies. The rationale for this seminar is based on the observation that socio-economic inequality continues to be the central feature of South Asian societies and that it is decisively buttressed by collective dynamics, in particular, by social practices of boundary-making, exclusion and marginalisation. Both, socio-economic inequalities and collective dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that are strongly geared to ritual hierarchies and power asymmetries have been thoroughly examined in the South Asian research. However, the nexus between these dynamics has largely eluded scholarly attention, so far. It is therefore the aim of this seminar to inquire into the existing approaches to the diverse dimensions of inequality in South Asia as well as to learn about and to expand recent conceptualisation aimed at their interrelations. One important aspect will be the interrelation between the inter- and intra-group relations – drawing our attention towards the interplay between collective and individual processes and practices.

’Practices‘ refer here to relations of power, governmentality and their contestations; furthermore, to processes of legislation, activism as well as inter- and intra-communal negotiations and readjustments. Of major importance are here caste and ethnic hierarchies, along with relations based on gender-differentials, religious difference and belonging as well as constellations of territoriality. In the course of critical reading and discussions, students will seek to establish the major dimensions of the relation between inequality and collective values, ties, and attachments, inquiring into the intersections between collective boundedness, legal processes, and socio-economic mobility under the conditions of global reconfigurations.

The notion of ‘plurality’ refers to a broad spectrum of societal dynamics characterising multiethnic and multireligious South Asian societies. It relates firstly to collective expressions of diversity, difference and distanciation as well as to the emerging corporate character of ethnicity, religion, and caste. It secondly alludes to the increasing differentiation and (social and spatial) mobility in South Asia, giving way to dynamisation of collective orders as well as to enhancement of individual rooms for manoeuvre vis-à-vis collectivities and ensuing agency. It thirdly highlights the potentials and challenges resulting from democratisation in the quest for justice and inclusion. Inquiries into the interrelation between inequality and pluralism will consider the mutual reinforcements (low hierarchical ranks still largely coinciding with socio-economic disadvantage in important domains), the shifting collective orderings as well as the dynamics of social boundary-making – i.e. processes reinforcing boundary-drawing as well as shifting and blurring of collective boundaries.

Empfohlene Literatur:
Banerjee, Paula 2009. Negotiations with a Difference: Minority Women in the Borderlands of Sri Lanka and India. In Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario, edited by L. Ghosh. London: Routledge: 65-82.

Brubaker R. 2004. Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge Ma.: Harvard University Press.

Capotori, F. 1991. Study on the Rights of Persons Belonging to Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Geneva: UN Center for Human Rights, UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/384/Add.1-7.

Chaudhury Basu Roy, Anasua, 2009. Violence, Victimhood and Minority Women: The Gujarat Violence of 2002. In: Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario. edited by L. Ghosh. London: Routledge: 44-64.

Coomaraswamy, R. 1999a. A Question of Honour: Women, Ethnicity and Armed Conflict. Lecture delivered at the Third Minority Rights Lecture on 25 May 1999 at Hotel Intercontinental, Geneva. http://www.sacw.net/Wmov/RCoomaraswamyOnHonour.html (download 25th October 2009).

–––, 1999b. Reinventing International Law. Women’s Rights as Human Rights in the International Community. In Debating Human Rights. Critical Essays from the United States and Asia, edited Peter van (Hrsg.) London: Routledge: 167:83.

Das, Samir Kumar, and Ranabir Samaddar. 2009. Ways of Power, Minorities, and Knowledge of Minorities: An Assessment of Research Policies and Practices. Kolkata: Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group.

Eisenberg, Avigail, and Jeff Spinner-Halev, eds. 2005. Minorities within Minorities. Equality, Rights and Diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gellner, D., J. Whelpton, and J. Pfaff-Czarnecka.2008: ‘New Nepal, New Ethnicities: Changes since the mid-1990s’ In: Nationalism and Ethnicity in Nepal, edited by D. Gellner and J. Whelpton. Kathmandu: Vajra Publishers: i-xxxiii.

Ghosh, L., ed. 2009a. Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario. London: Routledge.

Ghosh, L. 2009b. Introduction: Alchemy of Community Divides: A Historical View. In Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario, edited by L. Ghosh. London: Routledge: xvii-xlii

Hasan, Z., and Ritu Menon. 2004. Unequal Citizens: A Study of Muslim Women in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

International Initiative for Justice (IJI). December 2003. Report 33-45: Threatened Existence: A Feminist Analysis of the Genocide in Gujarat: 33-45.

Kumar, Radha. 1998. Personal Law and Communal Law. In The History of Doing. An Illustrated Account of Movement for Women’s Rights and Feminism in India 1800-1990. Delhi: Kali for Women: 169-71.

Mahajan, G. 2005. Can Intra-Group Equality Co-Exist with Cultural Diversity? Re-Examining Multicultural Frameworks of Accommodation. In: Minorities within Minorities. Equality, Rights and Diversity, edited by A. Eisenberg and J. Spinner-Halev. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press: Cambridge: 90-112.

Manchanda, Rita 2009. The No Nonsense Guide to Minority Rights in South Asia. New Delhi: Sage.

Pfaff-Czarnecka, Joanna 2007: Menschenrechte und kulturelle
Positionierungen in asiatischen Frauennetzwerken: Zur Diffusion des Menschenrechtsdiskurses in der reflexiven Moderne. In Transkulturelle Genderforschung – Ein Studienbuch zum Verhältnis von Kultur und Geschlecht. Edited by Mae Michiko and Britta Saal. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 271-301.

Pfaff-Czarnecka, Joanna 2010: ‘Minorities in Minorities’ in South Asian Societies: Between Politics of Diversity and Politics of Difference. In: Minorities in Europe and South Asia. Ed. by Samir Kumar Das. Kolkata: Samya Publishing Company.

Rahman, Atiur 2009. ‘Fighting Exclusion: Towards Understanding the Predicament of Adivasis in Bangladesh. In Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario, edited by L. Ghosh. London: Routledge: 104-20.

Rajasingham-Senanayake, D. 1999. ‘Democracy and the Problem of Representation: The Making of Bi-Polar Ethnic Identity in Post/Colonial Sri Lanka’ In Ethnic Futures: The State and Identity Politics in Asia, edited by J. Pfaff-Czarnecka, D. Rajaningham-Senanayake, A. Nandy and T. Gomez. New Delhi: Sage: 99-134.

Sachar Committee Report 2006. http://minorityaffairs.gov.in/newsite/sachar/sachar.asp - (download 25 October 2009).

Spinner-Halev, J. 2005. Autonomy, Association and Pluralism. In Eisenberg, Avigail and Spinner-Halev, Jeff 2005. Minorities within Minorities. Equality, Rights and Diversity, edited by A. Eisenberg and J. Spinner-Halev. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press: 157-171.

Tikekar, Maneesha. 2009. Non-Muslims in an Islamic Republic: Religious Minorities in Pakistan. In: Political Governance and Minority Rights: The South and South-East Asian Scenario, edited by L. Ghosh. London: Routledge: 121-50.

Wimmer, A. 2008. Elementary Strategies of Ethnic Boundary Making, in Ethnic and Racial Studies 31(6): 1025-55.

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