Theoretical Issues In Ethnic Politics

POLITICS OF ETHNICITY: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Rehana Saeed Hashmi
Assistant Professor Department of Political Science
University of the Punjab, Lahore.

Gulshan Majeed
Assistant Professor Department of Political Science
University of the Punjab, Lahore.

Abstract:-
Ethnicity and Ethnic Politics is an important Phenomenon of Plural Societies. In developing world, ethnic politics is one of the main reasons of internal instability. Ethnic conflict leads towards ethnic politics which is often conceived as a conflict among ethnic groups. This study has focused on the theoretical frame work of ethnic politics, and the main argument is that state has a central role in developing, escalating and diffusing ethnic conflict that is why ethnic conflict

As James G. Kellas has estimated that due to ethnic violence ten million lives were lost during 1945 to 1975. In 1990 to 94, approximately 800,000 people lost their lives in ethnic warfare between Hutus and Tutsi tribes in Rwanda and Burundi. From 1991 to 1995, Croation government officially reported 13,583 deaths and approximately 40,000 injured in the homeland war. During the same period, after the fall of soviet Union, Bosnia Herzegvina experienced the worst kind of ethnic violence, where 200,000 deaths were observed. Apart from Eastern Europe and Central Asian states, the states of South Asia like Sri Lanka, Burma, India Kashmir and Pakistan are also the potential areas for ethnic Conflict (Kellas, 1998, p.1). Smith (1995)claims that in United Nations more than ninety percent states are ethnically heterogeneous (p.10) and Cohen (1993) also analyzed in his study that there is no ethnic group in a country having fifty percent of the whole population (p. 235). Due to the fact, in all the regions ethnic conflicthas been a major concern for governments and ethnicity does matter for

Ethnic disagreements are either among various groups or with state authority. The study has its focus on ethnic conflict with state. Brass’s contribution is very important in this regard because he discussed in length the complexities of a political system, responsible for the rise of ethnic group as a challenger to state authority (Brass, 1991, p. 13-17).In his debate about politics of ethnicity and ethnic groups as a challenge to state authority, he develops his arguments with the support of instrumentalists, who believe that the promotion of socio-economic status is the main cause behind individual’s act of developing associations. They also believe that ethnicity is a mean to achieve some specific ends. Brass (1991) argues that political and economic conditions ascertain the salience of ethnicity. Ethnic elites perform instrumental role in ethnic mobilization and raise their demands. Ethnic conflict is function of different political factors and it becomes important when state