The word ethnicity comes from the root word ethnic which loosely means race. An ethnic community does not strictly have a racial connotation. A community can be distinct from others in many ways: their racial stock or origin being one of them. A community may distinguish it self from others by way of a particular or distinctive culture, language, religion or a combination of all these.
Because of this distinctive aspect the ethnic communities often come in conflict with other communities with whom they come in contact. Hutchinson and Smith consider below characteristic features of an ethnic group.Various Posts and Blogs are available in internet for further information.
Definition of Ethnicity:
Ethnicity pertains to the word based on of mankind race. It is employed ins broader sense to signify self-conscious of group people united, or dosely related, by shared experime such as language, religious belief.
Characteristic features of an ethnic group:
A common proper name, to identify and express the essence of the community,
A myth of common ancestry that includes the idea of common origin in time and place and that gives an ethnic a sense of fictive kinship.Shared a historical memories, or better, shared memories of a common past or pasts, including, events, and their commemoration,
One or more elements of common culture, which need not be specified but normally includes religion, race, customs, and language.A link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical occupation and ancestral land, as with daspe ra peoples and a sense of solidarity on the part of at least some sections of the ethnic’s population.
The Problem of Ethnicity:
Ethnic activity and separation came in a big way in the post colonial, newly emerging nations like Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria etc. This was easly and cridely explained away as tribalism, back- wardness etc.
But ethnic activity affected even the developed West; the problem of Welsh and the Scota, Wallon-Flemish conflict in Belgium, the Basques in Spain, to name only a few.Even the seemingly egalitarian conflictfree melting pot America has been shattered by black ethnic activity.
The erstwhile Socialist block, now, and for a long time, has been cauldron of ethnic crisis, with Crotian, Serbiane, Bosnians, Slovak, Czech etc. in a conflict. In fact, ethnicity has now become a worldwide phenomenon.
The problem of ethnicity and national had been widely discussed over the past few decades phenomenon of ethnicity has become all w ponent of the socio-political realities of plural cultural societies, specially in a way India.
In India, with its variety of pluralities, is termed guage, race, religion and so on storie wie become a part of the political scenario, in most tries, including ours, the processes of dedos and change have generated , as the fruits of these development pros come to be distributed unevenly.
Also the nature a character of the studios and nude of the plea leadership have their role to play.
Ethnic group is therefore defined as a cultural g wise members either share some or al of the flow ing features – a common language, region, auntiion languang,race, endogary, customs and belek Member my aloo share a belief in common descent.
On the base of this definition we may say that the Jews, James Japanese, Muslime, Munda, Oraon all firm distanc ethnic groups. Ethnic group tous refers to a group people wiss alhare some common pitsical and scultural characteristics.
Ethnocentrism: It is a word coined by WC Summer and used in his book Folkways. It is a technical a for the view of things in which one’s own group centre of everything and all aber groups are scaled
and rated generally inferior to it.
The ethnic groups are understood with the cultural differences with other groups.
The ethnic groups are not found in isolation but found nicity is the application of systematic distinctions in relation to other groups only. The first fact of eth- between insiders and outsiders or between ‘Us’ and Them. In the present day, due to increase of urbanisation, industrialisation, globalisation and market system the people sensing things irrespective of ethnic boundaries.
Perspectives on Ethnicity:
The conception that ethnicity is culturally predetermined with its primordial loyalties and sentiments is largely discounted among social scientists. By and large scholars agree that an ethnic group is essential a social group when it is mobilised for collective action in pursuit of the interest of the group.
Writing on the politics of ethnicity in India and Pakistan, Hamza Alavi feels that the boundaries of ethnic categories are not ‘objectively’ pre-given, for whenever there is change of interest or situation, realignment has occurred as is evident from experiences. A so called objective criterion like, religion can be abandoned in favour of another like region or lan- guage. Alavi further states that the ethnic communi- ty, therefore, is not simply a politically mobilised
Ethnicity condition of a pre-existing set of people, described as an ethnic category. The ethnic categori- sation itself is dependent in some way in the very emergence of, the community. Experience shows that both ethnic category and ethnic community are simultaneously constituted in a single movement. Writing about ethnicity and nation-building in Sri Lanka, Urmila Phadnis says that ethnic identity is a significant but not a sufficient requisite for evoking ethnicity.
Characteristics of Ethnicity:
Following are some of the characteristics of ethnicity. Ethnicity relates to ascriptive identities like caste, language religion, region etc.Ethnic groups that use ethnicity to make demands in the political arena for alteration in their status, in their economic well-being, etc. are engaged very often in a form of interest group politics.
Before we try to understand the role of ethnicity in Indian politics, it is important to stress that whatever the difference between ethnic groups, the focus of their interaction finally boils down to the centrality of politics of who gets what, when and how? As already stated the focus of interests of an ethnic group, is to get some benefits for itself.
The group often uses ethnic criterion like religion, language or caste to mobilise itself to give identity to itself which separates it from other group or groups. Thus, delineation of boundary of an ethnic group Identity, Dignity and Social Justice of community is an important aspect of ethnicity markers.
This adds fluidity to the situation and makes the identity projection a dynamic phenomenon. The nature of identity shifts along with changing circumstances and calls for change in boundary or a change in identification. The seeming singularity of identity, by and large, conveys a notion only. In reality, plurality of identities appears much more wide- spread than it ordinarily appears to be.
Indian Society
Inequality in terms of sharing power between two ethnic groups results into conflict. The ethnicity is socially mobilised and territorially confined. It has numerically sufficient population, and is a pool of symbols depicting distinctiveness. It has a reference group in relation to which/whom a sense of relative deprivation (real or imagined) is aggregated
Being left out of the developmental process or even being a victim of uneven development, ethnicity causes ethnic movements. Ethnicity is manifested in Indian politics not merely due to grassroot discontent but is also a creation of vested political interest.
But exactly which one will get projected at a specific point of time would usually depend on where or how the person draws the boundary. Since delineation of the nature of boundary rests on the conditions exist- ing at a given moment, the whole exercise becomes a response to the specific conditions.