edinburgh university press the future of multicultural britain confronting the progressive dilemma oct 2008

THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN Pathik Pathak Edinburgh This book identifi es two key themes: • That contemporary global politics has rendered many of the world’s democracies susceptible to the rhetoric and policy of majoritarianism; • That majoritarianism plays on popular anxieties that invariably gravitate towards cultural identity. Global politics are deeply affected by issues surrounding cultural identity. Profound cultural diversity has made national majorities increasingly anxious and democratic governments are under pressure to address those anxieties. Multiculturalism – once heralded as the insignia of a tolerant society – is now blamed for encouraging segregation and harbouring extremism. Pathik Pathak makes a convincing case for a new progressive politics that confronts these concerns. Drawing on fascinating comparisons between Britain and India, he shows how the global Left has been hamstrung by a compulsion for insular identity politics and a stubborn attachment to cultural indifference. He argues that to combat this, cultural identity must be placed at the centre of the political system. Written in a lively style, this book will engage anyone with an interest in the future of our multicultural society. Pathik Pathak is a lecturer and writer on Comparative Politics, based at the CRUCIBLE Centre for Human Rights, Citizenship and Social Justice Education at the University of Roehampton. ISBN 978 0 7486 3545 0 Edinburgh University Press 22 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LF www.euppublishing.com Cover photograph: The Fifth Test: England v Australia – Day Five; phot ographer Clive Rose; reproduced with permission of Getty Images. Cov er design: Barrie Tullett THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN Confronting the Progressive Dilemma Pathik Pathak THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN Pathik Pathak The Future of Multicultural Britain [...]... ‘Hinduise’ the nation Nanda narrates how the most sophisticated technological advances have been credited to the expression of Hindu dharma and the glory of the Hindu rashtra (nation) In Breaking the Spell of Dharma she documents some of the attempts by the VHP to ‘Hinduise’ the nuclear test at Pokharan in 1998: There is plenty of evidence for a distinctively Hindu packaging of the bomb [ .] Shortly after the. .. perceptible renunciation of welfare as a state concern – a clear abandonment of the premise of Nehru’s developmental state – and the consolidation of elite and middle-class power The mushrooming presence of the ‘new middle classes’, the primary beneficiaries of the NEP, has compounded the Indian state’s plunging disregard for poverty The dissolution of the licence Raj’ and the ascendancy of market freedom... .] the Hinduization of the bomb has continued in many ways: there are reports that in festivals around the country, the idols of Ganesh were made with the atomic orbits in place of a halo around his elephant-head The ‘atomic Ganeshas’ apparently brought in good business Other gods were cast as gun-toting soldiers.35 20 The Future of Multicultural Britain A disturbing example is the appearance of Vedic... of those culpable for the genocide are in custody: the vast majority of those behind prison bars are either Dalits (untouchables), Muslims or adivasis (tribals) Modi retains ministerial control of Gujarat Muslims, on the other hand, have borne the brunt of the rule of law Over a hundred Muslims implicated in the attack on the Sabarmati Express have been detained under the controversial Prevention of. .. (POTA), India’s equivalent of Britain s new terror laws Of communities and citizens Weeks after the Gujarat massacre, at the Bangalore session of its annual convention, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ideological father of the BJP and the ‘moral and cultural guild’ of its top brass – passed a resolution that unless minorities ‘earn the goodwill of the majority community’, their safety could not... tolerance’ that the face of race relations acquired liberal characteristics Equal opportunity was treated with the soporifics of the Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968 that gravitated towards conciliation rather than prosecution Racism was given renewed 12 The Future of Multicultural Britain respectability with the 1968 Kenyan Asians Act, which barred the free entry to Britain of its citizens on the simple... and the media I call it the majoritarian reflex The majoritarian reflex This reflex draws its strength from the isolation of so-called minority blocs from mainstream society by expressing exasperation 10 The Future of Multicultural Britain at the reluctance of those communities to ‘integrate’ Majoritarianism exploits popular anxieties, which are inflated into a mandate for the rightward shift of the. .. what means, would they assert the rights of the violated? How would they speak in the defence of the victims, and how would they seek to mobilise public opinion? These are the questions that preoccupy this book, described in short as facing up to the progressive dilemma I have defined this as an ethical question for those who oppose the majoritarian reflex: what role, if any, should progressive voices... outside the government vowed to build a temple dedicated to Shakti (the goddess of energy) and Vigyan (science) at the site of the explosion The temple was to celebrate the Vigyan of the Vedas, which, supposedly, contain all the science of nuclear fission and all the know-how for making bombs and much more [ .] Plans were made to take the ‘consecrated soil’ from the explosion site around the country... and the trafficking of Hindu girls to Asia’s Islamic bloc were propagated by the agencies of the Sangh Parivar with the connivance of the Gujarati press. 5 In January 2000 the BJP’s paranoia was given legislative expression A bill against religious conversion was proposed to the Gujarat state assembly, even though it directly contravened an article of the Indian constitution Gujarat was the apogee of . BRITAIN Confronting the Progressive Dilemma Pathik Pathak THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN Pathik Pathak The Future of Multicultural Britain