Short Answer TypeExplain the politics of assimilation and integration used to establish a national identity.
Assimilation: Assimilation is a process of cultural unification and homogenisation by which newly entering or subordinate groups lose their distinctive culture and adopt the culture of the dominant majority. Assimilation can be forced or voluntary.
For example: Seizure of lands forests and fisheries from minority groups and indigenous people and declaring them national resources.
Intergration: Integration is a process of cultural unification whereby cultural distinctions are relegated to the private domain and a common public culture is adopted for all groups. This usually involves the adoption of the dominant culture as the official culture.
For example: Adoption of state symbols celebrating the dominant groups history, heroes and culture reflected in such things as choice of national holidays or naming of streets etc.
Encouraging cultural diversity is good policy from both the practical and the principled point of view. Justify the statement using India’s case as a Nation-State.
Read the passage given below and answer the following question:
Data from the National Sample Survey studies of 1999-2000 and from the 2001 Census of India reveal a sharp fall in the rate of employment generation (creation of new jobs) across both rural and urban areas. This is true for the young as well. The rate of growth of employment in the 15-30 age group, which stood at around 2.4 percent a year between 1987 and 1994 for both rural and urban men, fell to 0.7 for rural men and 0.3 percent for urban men during 1994 to 2004. This suggests that the advantage offered by a young labour force is not being exploited.
Strategies exist to exploit the demographic window of opportunity that India has today. But India’s recent experience suggests that market forces by themselves do not ensure that such strategies would be implemented. Unless a way forward is found, we may miss out on the potential benefits that the country’s changing age structure temporarily offers.
a) What is the demographic dividend?
b) Do you think that India is indeed facing a window of opportunity created by demographic dividend?
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