Panel abstract EASAS conference

Convenor: Prof. Dipak Malik, Faculty of Commerce, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Co-convenor: Prof. John P. Neelsen, Institute of Sociology, Tübingen University, Germany

Panel Abstract: The challenge of Maoist guerillas in Nepal, the rise of islamic fundamentalism accompanied by a military dictatorship in Pakistan, the civil war in Sri Lanka threatening to split the country apart, the Hindu-Muslim confrontation in India together with government sponsored ”cultural nationalism”, are ”inspite of all the divergencies- the manifest symptoms of a general turning point in the history and the polities of the societies on the subcontinent.
Apparently, the post-independence period aimed at nation building based on an increasingly industrialized modern (class-) society with a strong centralized state as its pivot has come to an end. The task of creating a common national identity around the core values of democracy, secularism, economic development and social justice (equal opportunity) superseding the multitude of primordeal, rather localized, groups based on caste, ethnicity, language or religion, has failed. If not the paradigm as a whole, at least the state in its intended functions, in its constitution, in its role and legitimacy has been put into question. The future seems to hold not only growing inequalities and conflicts, the geo-political map of South Asia may even be redrawn.
The panel would like to sollicite thematic case studies of the different countries of South Asia from the various social science disciplines. Identifying the (new) principal actors, exploring the manifestations and major lines of conflicts, the primary focus of the contributions should be on their internal social, cultural and political dimensions and causes (without neglecting the influence of and interaction with external factors whether they are regional or international).

Papers accepted for presentation in the panel:

INDIA

Paper Giver 1: Hiroichi Yamaguchi, Former Professor, Bunkyo University, Japan

Paper 1 Title: Gandhi’s Relevance in the Context of Decentralization and Fragmentation in India

Paper Abstract: Overview of contents:
1. Nation-building defined as centralization vs. decentralization in India’s case:

Paper Giver 2: Nani Gopal Mahanta, Dept. of Political Science, Gauhati University, India

Paper 2 Title: The State vis-à-vis the Periphery: Issues of Identity and Violence in North-East India

Paper Abstract: In the post-independence period the first challenge to the Indian State as one unified nation had come from the North-East (NE). The area is not only socially very heterogeous in view of its 250 social groups and more than 75 languages divided into seven predominantly tribal states, i.e. Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram. The fact that the region shares long international borders with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar provides, in addition, a new dimension to the whole identity issues of the sub-national groups.
The paper will focus on the following points:
1. It is argued first that the challenges to the Indian State can be primarily attributed to the nature and formation of the nation-state itself. Derived from the European experience based on a monolithic credo and the unitary state, its mechanical application on a deeply divided multicultural society negates diversity and human interaction. Thus, the idea of one nation, based on one dominant language and the ‘mainstream culture’, while viable in a few northern Indian states, does not correspond to the complex mosaic of different nationalities in the NE. Here, beginning with the Nagas (a cluster of 17 tribes) soon followed by other sub-national groups in Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram, violent secessionist movements focussing on issues of uneven development and the prevalent idea of ‘mainstream’ have been launched challenging the legitimacy of the Indian state and questioning the entire process of nation-building.
The paper will examine in greater detail two such sub-national identity movements in Assam and Nagaland which the Indian State took no time to declare them as ‘anti-national’. By the same token, it adopted a military approach, instead of trying to incorporate them through a democratic political process,
2. A second aspect concerns the causes and manifestations of such sub-national movements. While the claim for ”self rule” by Nagas and Mizos could be justified in terms of their historical isolation, the struggle of the Assamese for an independent homeland has different roots. The Assamese were directly involved in the anti-colonial struggle and also share distinct socio-religious bonds. Their collective identity has been shaped by such notions as ‘the failure of the Indian State in protecting the Assamese identity from being submerged by a continuous flow of migrants from across the border’ (more particularly from Bangladesh) and ‘the unscrupulous plunder of resources (such as oil and tea) for the benefit of other centers of India’. In other words, the Indian State is perceived as an alien authority without any particular concern for the socio-economic issues of Assam.
3. A final argument deals with a critique of these sub-national movements (both violent and non-violent) in that they simply reproduce the logic of the State having failed to produce any viable alternative framework. Thus, in the 1980s a massive anti-foreigner movement was launched by the All Assam Student’s Union (AASU). Largely supported by both caste Hindus and tribal groups, it marginalised other groups and differed in no way from the policy of assimilation pursued by the ruling elites at the centre. No wonder that the alienated tribes such as the Bodos, Karbis, and Rabhas today demand separate states to be carved out of Assam. Qith regard to the insurgent groups, the situation is even worse. While claiming to replace the state authority, they operate according to extremely authoritarian principles and reveal all the authoritative, undemocratic, bureaucratic and military properties of the state apparatus. Claiming to fight a war on behalf of the people they do so without a popular mandate.
In terms of a solution it is argued that the logic of a centralized strong state has to be replaced by reformed institutions of the state where power is transferred to the grassroots. A bottom-up rather than a top-down approach of the nation-state is all that is required.

Paper Giver 3: S. Shahi, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, & S. Rao, Gorakhpur University, India

Paper 3 Title: Dalit Writer's Movement in Hindi Belt: An Instrument of Nation Building

Paper Abstract: The central concern of this paper is to highlight and evaluate the role of the Hindi Dalit literary movement in nation building.
The Dalit movement underlines in a new way an important question left out by the 19th century Indian Renaissance. It represents a marked extension of the socio cultural and political consciousness pioneered by B.R.Ambedkar.
The idea that the real hero of Indian society was dumb rankled Ambedkar's mind when launching Mooknáyaka in 1920. In his urge to give voice to this dumb hero, Ambedkar made Dalits conscious about their identity and inspired them to fight for their rights. This resulted in the emergence of Dalit politics and Dalit literature. It first emerged in Marathi, its echos being heard in Hindi for a long time to come. In the Hindi belt, Dalit writings gained in strength along with the emergence of Dalit consciousness in politics. Thus, a large group of Dalit writers such as Dr. Dharambir, Om Prakash Valmiki, Kanwal Bharati, Jayaprakásh Kardam, Shyoraj Singh Bechain, Mohan Das Naimishroy, or N. Singh emerged, when Kanshi Ram and Mayavati appeared on India's political scene. Conversely, many erstwhile committed Marxist like Dr. Tulsi Ram were transformed into Dalit thinkers.
The mainstream literature at first ignored Dalit discourse and Dalit literature. But faced with the inbuilt moral strength of the Dalit issue, it could not last long; and today it is an well-established part of Hindi literature. Now Dalit writers concentrate on evaluating mainstream tradition, and also question the sayings and writings of non Dalits. Committed Dalit attacks on mainstream art, sensibility, values, intellectuality, progressivism is entirely a new experience which has given a serious jolt to established sensibilities.
Major concerns of the Dalit writing in Hindi may be summed up as under:

PAKISTAN

Paper Giver 4: Nosheen Ali, Dept. of Development Sociology, Cornell University, USA

Paper 4 Title: The Imagination of the State: The Politics of Rule in the Northern Areas of Pakistan

Paper Abstract: The "Northern Areas of Pakistan" occupy a paradoxical place in the construction of the nation-state of Pakistan. Claimed by both Pakistan and India (as part of the "Kashmir dispute"), but controlled by Pakistan, these areas have neither been accorded a provincial nor an autonomous status like that of Azad Kashmir. Instead, they are centrally administered by the Pakistani state, and their inhabitants lack fundamental constitutional rights such as the right to vote and right to appeal in a high court. Moreover, while the "Northern Areas" are mapped within Pakistan, they are not officially recognized as part of the territory and culture of the country as these are identified in the constitution or in school and university textbooks. Hence, the people of the Northern Areas are excluded from the "nation" of Pakistan, as well as from citizenship rights that are guaranteed to other subjects of the Pakistani "state". As such, the region offers a unique possibility for exploring the mutually constitutive relationship between the political and cultural processes of nationalism and state-formation.
The paper examines this relationship by focusing on two main themes. Firstly, the discursive practices through which the Pakistani state has sustained a particular construction of the Northern Areas enabling it to enforce its rule in the region, without granting it a place in the nationalist ideology, are explored. Secondly, it is argued that these representational strategies of the state have shaped the exclusionary ways in which the rest of the Pakistani "nation" has come to imagine the Northern Areas in such a way as to eventually ensure the continued marginalization of the region. Finally, on the basis of the specific case of the Northern Areas of Pakistan, more general, theoretical insights are sought. Problematizing the hyphen between the nation and the state an attempt is made to denaturalize the claims to power of the nation-state.

Paper Giver 5: Dr Adeel Khan, Lecturer in Health Management, Program Director, School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, Australia

Paper Abstract: Ideological engineering is one of the main concerns of the nation-state because it has to justify its individuality, its separateness and its nation-ness. For Pakistan, this has been a daunting task for many reasons. In this respect, the rulers’ ineptitude has been as pronounced as it has been in the area of state formation. A country that was created in the name of religion has not even after over 56 years of its existence been able to determine what role religion should have in the affairs of the state.
Also contentious is the very definition of the Pakistani culture that has sparked debates on whether Pakistani culture is different from Indian culture and if so what makes it different.
The paper proposes to discuss the Pakistani political leadership and intelligentsia’s efforts to create a new identity for the state. It also discusses how the insecure leadership tried to suppress regional and ethnic voices raised for preserving their respective identity.

NEPAL/BHUTAN

Paper Giver 6: Rajesh Kharat, Reader, Dept. of Politics, University of Mumbai, India

Paper 6 Title: Nation-Building Process in Bhutan and Nepal: A Comparative Perspective

Paper Abstract: The post-cold war period, dominated by an era of globalization had a direct impact on the countries of the Third World, especially in South Asia. Thus, Nepal and Bhutan, the only surviving monarchies in the region, are suffering from the problems of dissidence, secessionist movements, ethnic crises, cross-border terrorism, insurgencies and human rights violations. In a vulnerable geo-strategic location and economically backward, Nepal and Bhutan, are militarily weak and incapable to defend themselves. However, despite being exposed to socio-political instability, underdevelopment, and corruption, both countries are engaged in resurgent nation-building activities.
Thus, the two Himalayan Kingdoms have instituted a process of devolution of power to avoid any fragmentation or threat to nation building. Nepal started this process in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the party-less panchayat system was introduced to counter the autocratic Rana regime. Bhutan embarked on this process only in 1998 by establishing a constitutional monarchy.
Despite these changes on the level of democratic government, Nepal faces problems of instability in the socio-economic and political sphere. Thus, from 1993 to 2003, more than thirteen governments and prime ministers came in and were thrown out of office. Moreover, in the rivalry for power the whole royal family was assassinated giving a big jolt to the nation building process.
As a direct result of nepotism, abuse of political power, underdevelopment, and exploitation of poor agrarians by the established rich, a Maoist insurgency has been gaining ground. The conflict which has brought the country to the verge of civil war has been exacerbated by the ethnic heterogeneity of Nepalese society which presents another challenge national identity. In the case at hand, a majority of the ‘Magar’ community feeling neglected and marginalised has joined the Maoist movement. Different in culture, race and physical appearance, they do not want to associate with the local ethnic Nepali.
With reference to Bhutan, its nation-building efforts were severely tested when first the Prime Minister of Tibetan origin, Jigme Palden Dorjee, was assassinated in 1964 and when a similar attempt was undertaken against King Jigmy Wangchuuk in 1965. The two events compelled the government to propose measures aimed at the devolution of political power.
The large number of non-ethnic Bhutanese, especially Tibetans and Nepalese, represent another challenge to the process of nation building in Bhutan. Initially welcomed despite the extra economic burden, the refugees from Tibet were offered Bhutanese citizenship in order to faciliate their integration. But the Tibetans’ refusal out of a sense of cultural superiority hurt the pride and national consciousness of the Bhutanese. Eventually viewed as a major threat to national integration and fearing the security risks of people entertaining extra-territorial loyalties, the government decided in 1974 to expel many Tibetans to the Indian border. Others were compelled to become Bhutanese citizens.
As to the ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan, their disproportionate number has created apprehension among the ruling Drukpas. For fear of being outnumbered, existing immigration laws were reinforced. Those who were unable to prove their domicile prior to the cut-off year 1958, were turned into refugees. Many left for Nepal where they posed in turn a problem for national identity, leading to conflict not only within Nepalese civil society but also to a deterioration of the bilateral relations between the two Kingdoms. Interventions by the Nepalese government and international human rights organisations finally obliged Bhutan to repatriate the refugees. However, the ethnic crisis has remained an obstacle in the nation building process. The pro-democratic forces within Bhutan have meanwhile succeeded in transforming the political system from absolute to constitutional monarchy.
The differences in size of population, geography, and especially in cultural composition (Nepal being a multicultural society) notwithstanding, a comparison of processes, programmes and strategies in nation building between the two kingdoms is made, answers to the following questions are sought:
ÿ What are the domestic and international options for Bhutan and Nepal to cope with the challenges of nation building in view of their socio-economic and political problems as well as the threats they face from within and without?
ÿ How far have they been successful in their efforts to keep their respective national identity?
ÿ What is the role to be assigned to the introduction of constitutional monarchy and the devolution of power in nation building?
ÿ How far have the bilateral relations between the two countries directly or indirectly influenced their respective nation building processes?

Paper 7 Title: The Nepalese ‘People’s War’: from ethnic conflict to a Maoist revolution

Paper Abstract: In contrast with the general view (both within and outside Nepal), which sees the education system as a major and rare success of more than five decades of the multi-million joint national and international project of modernisation and development, this paper argues that the Nepalese education system and the content, values and ideology it inculcated played a large part in the rise of the Maoist ‘People’s War’. In short, it is not merely the disproportionate representation of certain ethnic groups at the centres of power and the political disenfranchisement felt amongst low castes, or the general failure of the democratic governments since 1990 that gave rise to the Maoist movement.
Rather than focusing on the ideology and values of democracy and liberal civil society and providing the tools for social integration, the Panchayat education system introduced the controversial notion of the united Hindu kingdom of Nepal as a supreme value, using modernity and development as hollow categories and titles without giving them any concrete content. Modernisation and development were largely depicted in terms of movement away from a state of backward ‘villageness’ to ‘modernity’ within an urban environment with its superior facilities.
No doubt, this system also played a part in the transformation of the bitter ethnic feelings and rivalries, which towards the end of the 1980s were largely expected to stir up a severe ethnic conflict, into a ‘class struggle’. To a large extent, the ‘success’ of the Nepalese education system helped to channel the strong feelings and to transform the consequent frustration into open rebellion of the poor rural periphery, irrespective of caste or group affiliation, against the central elitist government and the King.
Nepalese civil-society is still in its infancy. Democratic and liberal values are rarely adhered to in practice. There is a fundamental lack of trust within the public domain and the political arena appears to be rather chaotic. What must be understood is that these should not be considered to be inherent South Asian cultural or social traits. Instead, they are the direct outcome of particular historical and social circumstances, limited education and an almost total lack of experience of true democratic behaviour, accountability and civic transparency.
Couching the present conflict in class rather than ethnic terms may imply a greater chance of success for any future attempts to resolve it. Yet, it is argued that the only solution to the current urban-rural gap threatening Nepalese society may come from long term changes in the perceptions that formed it. The paper further suggests that while a general restructuring of the education system and transformation of its content may be hard to imagine, a highly promising social tool, which has the potential to change the above rooted mind-set, lies within the sector of informal education.

Paper 8 Title: Conflict in Nepali Society: A look from the theories of state, modernization and government

Paper Abstract: Nepal, as an emerging state, has over the last decades been faced with serious challenges of failure. The process of modernization and interventions of external forces have put pressure on the indigenous notion of the state. Over time, various social and political controversies have gained in intensity and dynamics, and conflict has erupted in the form of a bloody insurgency. They manifest the underlying contradictions in existing social relationships.
In contrast to those who identify the caste based social structure and hegemonic state as the root causes of the entire social, economic and political problematique, this paper analyzes Nepalese society from the perspective of the ‘sociology of government’ and the ‘sociology of science and technology’. It concentrates on the macro politico-economic situation in which the traditional state regime got transformed into a welfare state and shows how the technocratic prescription of development ultimately led the state into failure. In the course of the argument, an attempt is made to ‘deconstruct’ the statutory para-statal organization in the binary framework of actor and agency, while retrospective and discursive evidence will be employed. Examples from various sectors, i.e. agriculture, irrigation, forestry, education and local development are cited to demonstrate the dichotomy between policy planning and program implementation.
The argument will develop the following points in greater detail:
1. Based on imported concepts of development, the societies of the Third World were to be moulded in the image of the industrialized West with failure being attributed to structural obstacles inherent in the recipient countries, such as predominance of traditional customs and thought, unequal social configuration or lack of adequate economic resources. By contrast, this paper argues that ‘resistance’ to and ‘failure’ of development are mainly due to the contradictions and problems created by an inappropriate institutional choice, and an overreliance on techno-centric prescriptions while local knowledge has been disregarded, the local community being perceived as a vacuum of knowledge. Thus, there was an overreliance on para-statal agencies as sole agents for the delivery of development services. These remained however largely ineffective because the rule of law, an independent and professional bureaucracy and democratic practices were still in their infancy and the realm of their formal and real validity being essentially limited to particular areas or communities.
2. Similar contradictions can be observed in the field of technology where a purely technocratic approach inevitably invited failure. Advanced technological models were transplanted wholesale and without regard to their compatibility with the local social organization in terms of economic system, required management skills, or access to information and communication. The strength of existing patterns of indigenous knowledge (where technical and institutional arrangements are fused in symbols, rituals and in oral-lore which in turn are vehicles of knowledge and skills) and the grasp of local adaptation systems were systematically overlooked.
The contradictions between the traditional and the implanted knowledge systems in conceptualizing nature, natural process and their utility eventually led to resistance because the local communities perceived the prescriptions of development as leading to the erosion of nature and culture jeopardizing the long-term sustainable supply of natural resources.
3. Apart from a serious absence of coordination which characterizes the Nepalese administration, additional problems arose from the emphasis on building infrastructure and installing highly sophisticated equipment. While officials were attracted to such projects because of the hidden personal benefits they derived from them, they proved expensive in terms of the required outlays for operation and maintenance apart from the scarcity of the necessary skilled manpower in the country.
4. Finally, the paradoxes in institutional choice as well as the development initiatives taken in Nepal are critically examined from a perspective of social inclusion and exclusion. For, the bureaucrats are not just technocrats. These as much as the national planners, development consultants at GOs, the representatives of NGOs as well as of donor agencies, they all come from urban backgrounds or from the rural elite with educational degrees from Western institutions. They are hardly serious about the problems rural people face nor do they have the necessary practical experience. In such a rigid structure, there has been nothing but frustration left for people from rural areas with no access to the elite network of the capital of the country. No doubt, it has contributed to expand the popular base of the insurgent Maoist group.

SRI LANKA

Paper Abstract: When Ceylon, as it was then called, became independent in 1948 after 450 years of foreign subjugation it appeared to face a bright future endowed as it were with a prosperous export oriented plantation economy, an experienced Western educated elite, a well established network of public services, and a democracy with a broad spectrum of political parties. The first decades seemed to justify such high hopes with UN agencies upholding Ceylon as a model for the Third World as a country with a low per capita income but a human development profile similar to the one of the developed industrialised West. Diverse in terms of race, culture, and language, with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians, Tamil and Sinhala speaking people harmoniously living side by side, the country was viewed, moreover, as an exemplary laboratory for a multi-ethnic multi-cultural society. This positive perspective, however, was not to last. A leftist insurgency by youths in the 1970s and 1980s was quelled in blood, recurring riots indicated increasing communal tensions, and the war that started in 1983 between the Sri Lankan Tamil minority in the North East and the government caused huge destruction, left tens of thousands dead, rendered hundreds of thousands homeless and turned them into refugees. If at all, Sri Lanka today has a negative reputation whether based on the various governments’ massive human rights’ violations or because of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) being considered as one of the most successful but ruthless rebel movements, that in its struggle for independence resorted first to suicide bombings as means of war. The ongoing internationally facilitated ceasefire followed by negotiations between the war parties may once again make Sri Lanka a model to be emulated provided a just solution for the ethnic conflict is eventually found.
The paper analyses the evolution from a secular multi-ethnic society to one divided along ethnic lines, engulfed in war and threatened by a break-up of the state.
In a first part, the developing ‘crisis of the nation’ is traced. While conflict of class and over socio-economic strategies dominated the political agenda for decades, from early on they were rivalled by confrontations between the Sinhala Buddhist majority and the minorities, especially the Sri Lankan Tamils. At issue were disputes over national identity and collective socio-economic status, ranging from questions of national language to the constitutional place of Buddhism, to educational policies and government sponsored agricultural settlement schemes. Both sides became increasingly radicalised in terms of demands and methods employed. In the name of cultural decolonisation and positive discrimination, the Sinhala Buddhist majority by virtue of its electoral clout appropriated and instrumentalised the state. The secular state was eventually transformed. The original goal of nation-building based on a all-inclusive concept of Sri Lankan statehood was replaced by an exclusive notion with the majority setting itself up as the sole authentic representative of the nation. Successive communal riots and pogroms ensued, eventually splitting the Westernized multi-cultural socio-political elite, and leading to civil war with the Tamils fighting for an independent state.
In a second part, the political ramifications of this process in terms of a developing ‘crisis
of the state’ are outlined concentrating on the evolution of the characteristics of the modern state, i.e. division of power, observance of human rights, state monopoly of violence, the rule of law, and democratic government. It is shown that violence became privatised, that governments resorted more and more to human rights’ violations and intimidation as a means of politics, that democratic government and the rule of law became largely replaced by emergency regulations facilitating repression, collective discrimination, and impunity. A general militarisation of society is observed where the security forces, private and government sponsored militias hold sway. The ensuing civil war in which the Sri Lankan army is viewed as an alien occupation force in the North East, which the Sri Lankan Tamils, for their part, view as national homeland and potential future independent country, manifest this crisis of the state in the form of a threat to the territorial integrity of the country.
In a third and final part, an attempt will be made to draw some conclusions from the case study in terms of a general analysis of the factors leading to the violent break-up of and eventually to what has been called ‘failed states’. Demographic aspects together with external factors and internal conditions of development specific to Third World market economies as well as the historical-cum-colonial tradition of a centralized authoritarian state are identified as favouring the rise of identity movements impeding nation-building processes, and fanning internal conflict.

Causes and Regulation of Conflicts

Paper Giver 10: Björn Hettne, Dept of Peace and Development Research, Göteborg University, Sweden

Paper Abstract: This paper compares conflict patterns and conflict management in and between different countries in South Asia, historically as well as in the more recent context of the war against international terrorism. Due to its extreme heterogeneity, the region provides an interesting base for comparative analysis of conflict, as do some of the individual countries, which are almost as complex as the region as a whole. However, because of the many cross country interconnections and the trend towards regionalisation of conflict, a regional perspective is needed. Furthermore, as this chapter argues, the conflict pattern to a large extent emerged through the break-up of British India at independence, the traumatic Partition, the forceful integration of some of the Princely States and tribal peoples, the division of some peoples through new political borders, and the non-coincidence of languages and state borders within the countries. Therefore any lasting conflict resolution must in most cases be linked to a healing of these wounds, i.e. deeper regional integration that also provides a degree of autonomy for local groups. Recently this option seems to have been more widely recognised in South Asia.

Paper Giver 11: Helén Blomquist, Lecturer in Political Science, University of Karlstad, Sweden

Paper 11 Title: Communicative setting in intercultural negotiations – how to transform a state of conflict management into a process of peace building in international conflicts

Paper Abstract: In the subject of Peace and Conflict Resolution we observe that the nature of ”international” conflicts has changed. Intrastate conflict has become the rule rather than the exception and often many different dimensions are involved. It has proved difficult to resolve these complex kinds of conflicts, particularly with the help of methods that are designed for ”traditional” interstate conflicts. The conflicts can get caught in a ”status quo” of conflict management, where the aim is the absence of direct war, a ”negative peace” frequently achieved through coercion and military means. By contrast, conflict resolution signifies a process of deeper peace-building where the aim is to create positive structures, ”positive peace”.
The paper examines first the theoretical possibilities to transform a state of conflict-management into a process of conflict-resolution in international conflicts, identifying major problems as well as the structural conditions for communication with the culture of the international system being not only a social construction but also a principal factor in conflict.
The key to change is a new kind of interaction between the parties (and possibly to integrate and recognise new parties from the civil society) with the focus on creating a talk-situation. If these could proceed for some time it would be possible to develop a new social culture of conflict-resolution. To create such a talk-situation that promotes peace building, ”universal” criteria as much as the specific cultural context have to be taken into consideration. It is hypothesised that talk-situations may be (possibly unconsciously) coloured by different cultural contexts that may obstruct the possibilities for negotiations and thus eventually peace, so much so that the possibilities to create peace through a peace-building talk-situation, would have to be increased.
Combining universal criteria with cultural theory, the paper aims at creating a framework for talk-situations as means for conflict resolution and peace building. For illustration and prove, the argument draws on specific case studies from South Asia belonging to divergent cultural contexts.

Paper Givers 12: Catarina Kinnvall, Dept. Political Science, Lund University & Sidsel Hansson, Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden

Paper 12 Title: Women as symbols in religio-political discourses in South Asia

Paper Abstract: A contributing factor to the growth of female members in, for instance, the Hindu nationalist movement may be that women’s emancipation, and their ability to act as subjects, have resulted in women’s active participation in fundamentalist movements. In this paper, we discuss these developments, and start by outlining the extent to which the growing religio-political movements have affected the feminist discourses. To understand the dilemma that many feminists and other women in South Asia have been confronted with, we then proceed to a theoretical and empirical discussion of the extent to which women act as symbols in religio-political rhetoric. This is particularly discussed in relation to Islamic and Hindu nationalist discourses. The nationalist discourse(s) has specific relevance for understanding the recent growth of women activists in the fundamentalist movements. This is the focus of the final section. We conclude by discussing the implications of all these current trends for the relationship between gender, religion and politics in South Asia.

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Panel No. 30

Panel Title: Crisis of State and Nation ” South Asian states between Nation Building and Fragmentation