A series of aggressions in India and its South Asian neighbourhoods against certain targeted communities is revealing the face of identity politics.
This calls for the nations to wake up and respond, to guarantee a true democracy to its citizens.
What are the recent happenings?
Recently, in many South Asian countries, there is an increasing incidence of assaults on the weaker sections by mobs on caste, class, language and religious lines.
These include -
India - assault on Dalits and Muslims employed in the cattle trade.
Bangladesh - a writer was attacked for speaking for the minorities.
Myanmar - the long pending pathetic fate of the Rohingya Muslims.
Sri Lanka - the racial oppression of Tamil minorities.
Pakistan - attacks driven by religious motives, accusations of Islamic blasphemism. Pakistan remains a State where people have suffered the most from state-sponsored identity politics.
Nepal - people of the hill country disempower those of its plains through constitutional manoeuvre.
These acts are the outcome of identity politics that enforce behaviour based on sectarian values derived from religion, language, race, caste, etc.
Notably in many of these cases, the State either remains a mere observer or in the other case an active agent of identity politics.
What impact does this create?
The curse of identity politics is ripping apart the social fabric in these supposedly democratic nations.
Identity politics is unfortunately the cause of these countries not moving forward in eliminating socio-economic deprivation.
This is because it destroys social cohesion and stands in the way of economic progress.
The result is that South Asia remains one of the most backward regions of the world and witnesses low levels of human development.
States embracing identity politics, apparently compromise many of its secular and equality principals.
What is the way forward?
In India, agitations for the formation of linguistic States had mostly taken the form of uniting people rather than dividing them.
But in recent decades the human development status of certain states like Uttar Pradesh are severely strained by identity politics.
Also, the earlier impact on states is now taking form at national levels, further threatening the democratic rights of the minorities.
Peace in South Asia and India can be assured only by secular democracy; but thrust on identity politics is only hampering it.
