Encouraging cultural diversity – ( using case of India as a Nation-state)

1. The Indian Nation-state is socially and culturally one of the most diverse countries of the world.
2. It has one of the largest populations speaking multiple languages (dialects).
3. It consists of multiple religions, plural in beliefs and practices.
4. In terms of Nation-state’s relationship with community identities, the Indian case fits neither the “assimilationist“nor the “integrationist” model.
5. The Constitution declares the State to be a secular state, but religion, language and other such factors are not banished from the public sphere.
6. By international standards, very strong constitutional protection is offered to minority religions.
7. India’s problems have been more in the sphere of implementation and practice rather than Laws or principles.

Civil society is much broader than the domain of state and market. It is beyond the private domain of the family. It is public domain in which institutions and organisations are created voluntarily. It is the sphere of active citizenship, in which individuals take up social issues, try to influence the state or make a demand on it, pursue their collective interests or seek support for a variety of causes. Institutions like political parties, media, trade unions, NGOs, religious movements, etc. are the entities formed in civil society.

Relevance of civil society

1. Civil society through its voluntary organisations can interfere in the state functions where it is deemed that the state is turning into an authoritarian.
2. As civil society is beyond the control of state and market, it has sufficient power to prevent all that is not good in the common interest of people.
3. As civil society is not a purely commercial profit-making entity, it highlights the corruption, criminalisation and discrimination practised on part of the government or any other group of people. Eg. private TV channels, trade unions are civil societies.
4. During emergency of 1977, it was a civil society with its various institutions like media, trade union, pressure groups etc. who launched movements pertaining to the environment, human right against forced sterilization and Dalit movements
5. Campaign for the right to information is the most recent act of cultural society. It began with an agitation in rural Rajasthan and soon ft became nationwide agitation. The government had to pass the new law namely, the Right To Information Act, 2005.

International non-governmental organization (INGOs) can be founded by private philanthropy.For example Greenpeace, The Red Cross,  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and etc.

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.

(i) In democratic politics, it is always possible to convert a numerical majority into political power through elections.
(ii) The dominant majority uses the state machinery to suppress the religious or cultural institutions of the minorities; forcing them to abandon their distinctive identity.