Resumo de Identity And Violence ; The Illusion Of Destiny

The economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen?s latest book ?Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny? is in the nature of a refutation of Samuel Huntington?s ?The Clash of Civilizations??that appeared as an article in Foreign Affairs journal in 1993, and which was expanded into a book form in 1996. Sen uses the word violence and not clash. But remember that Huntington came out with another book in 2004 titled ?Who are we? The Challenges to America?s National Identity? wherein the picture is painted of a future America with the Latinos dividing the country into two languages and two cultures.

What is the sum and substance of the advocacy of Sen? To know that, let us see what Huntington had to say. He said ?It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic?the dominating source of conflict will be cultural?. That was to say that since the Cold War on ideology of democracy versus communism was over, the new conflicts will be culture-based. He divided the world?s culture into seven civilizations mostly based on religion ?Western, Muslim. Hindu, Confucian etc. (It is strange that Israel was included in Western and Buddhism was totally left out). Islam was made out to be a particular villain as ?Islam has bloody borders?.

Amartya?s thesis is that you cannot put humanity into just seven compartments that are expected to clash. Religion as the singular or primary identity is anathema to him. An individual actually belongs to a variety of groups. As he says, ?The same person can be without any contradiction, an American citizen, of Caribbean origin, with African ancestry, a Christian, a liberal, a woman, a vegetarian, a long-distance runner, a historian, a school teacher, a novelist, a feminist, a heterosexual, a believer in gay and lesbian rights, a theatre owner, an environment activist, a tennis fan, a jazz musician?? Therefore every person has plural identities with the availability of choice and reasoning. Therefore, ?Our shared humanity gets savagely challenged when the manifold divisions in the world are unified into one allegedly dominant system of classification ? in terms of religion, or community..?.

Indeed wars of civilizations are not new. The Crusades between Christians and Islam are perhaps the foremost example of it. Today, a thousand years later, can we think of civilizational clashes when nuclear deterrence prevents any two powers (civilizations) from clashing? Pakistan coming under the Islamic brush has nuclear strike power. Was Huntington dreaming or aiming at some wish fulfillment?

And of what avail is the lengthy description by Sen of the plural identities of an individual, while analyzing the root cause of clashes? You don?t witness wars between vegetarians and non vegetarians, long distance runners and short distant runners, historians and non-historians, school teachers and non-school teachers, novelists and non-novelists, heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals, theatre lovers and non-theatre lovers, tennis fans and non-tennis fans etc. Sen has missed the obvious point that indeed the major dividing factors among human beings are religion and culture.

However, credit must be given to him for his handling of the issue of multiculturism. Western nations have gone multi-ethnic, and ethnic clashes are being witnessed from time to time. Sen has cited the example of Britain that has deftly and successfully handled the differing ethnic communities since the riots of 1981. Sen however rightly points out that Britain?s policy of aiding the setting up of community based schools (like Hindu schools, Muslim schools) is not at all a good palliative. He calls this ?Plural Monoculturism? and not true ?Multiculturism? wherein real integration of the communities are expected to take place. Integration of communities at the school level is most important. Though inter-community marriages are on the rise, that kind ofmulti-cultural integrating platform only gives slow and marginal results.

Sen has also admirably taken the opportunity to chastise the rich G-8 nations for provoking conflicts through mindless sale of arms. America, the so-called champion of democracy, has endlessly propped up ruling tyrants in various countries and selling to them arms over arms. Sen points out that 85 percent of world sales of arms are by the G-8 countries. Two thirds of these armaments go to poor developing nations. In the background of this scenario, the West?s concern for and advocacy of peace and democracy are empty shibboleths.

Sen?s book derives its significance from his passionate advocacy for individual choice and reasoning, determination of human destiny on the basis of a plurality of factors and circumstances and not by religious compartments, and the lessening of the possibility of conflicts by the elimination of arms sales by western powers.

by Dr.V.S.Gopalakrishnan

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