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Multiculturalism
and Modes of Ethnic Coexistence in South and South-East
Asia |
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The
project on multiculturalism was conceived as component
of the larger programme on Culture, Identity and Ethnic
Coexistence supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation,
Tokyo, Japan. Ethnic identity and plurality of social
composition under common nationhood throw open a spectrum
of issues for consideration. These range from conflict
management to ethnic accommodation and integration and
the role of institutions of the state and civil society
to achieve these.
This
project was successfully completed. Four papers commissioned
by the project were published as a single volume in
October this year by Sage Publications, New Delhi. This
volume, titled Ethnic Futures: The State and Identity
Politics in Asia, was edited by Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
and Dr. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka. A second volume collecting
another seven papers is being prepared for publication
by Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake.
The
Multiculturalism Research Group began its work in August
1994. Its key research institution is the International
Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Sri Lanka. Its Key
Researcher was Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam, Director of ICES
in Colombo.
- The
principle goals of the Multiculturalism Research
Theme are to identify the cultural dynamics of peaceful
ethnic coexistence within select and culturally
diverse Asian polities and
- traditions of multiculturalism that are common to
South and Southeast Asia and that could be used
to further peace in conflict situations.
The
project is comparative in scope and consists of a series
of thematically organized studies of select South and
Southeast Asian countries. Through these specific sites
of discourse, the project aims to explore areas which
constitute gaps in conventional regional as well as
international fields of inquiry regarding ethnicity,
nationalism and conflict. In each of the countries identified
for research, the work focuses on the region-specific
peculiarities of cultural diversity and the contentious
issues emerging from them. The empirical studies and
data collected so far reflect four interrelated dimensions
of multiculturalism:
- the historical basis/chronology of events leading
to the creation of distinctive groups and the consolidation
of different identities;
- the perception different communities have of each
other, including prejudices, attitudes, stereotypes
and other sociological factors that ascribe and
often calcify particular identities;
- the communal interaction and sociological factors
that shape the confrontational perceptions that
lead to antagonism, conflict and/or accommodation;
and
- state responses to cultural diversity. These dimensions
form the core of the project.
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| Project Team |
| Principal Researcher/ Project Leader |
| Neelan Tiruchelvam |
| Radhika Coomaraswamy |
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| Researcher/ Investigator |
| India |
Shail Mayaram
Institute of Development Studies
Jaipur, India |
Ashis Nandy
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Delhi, India |
| Malaysia |
Mala Dharmananda
Australia |
| Nepal |
Birendra Dhakal
Nepal |
David Gellner
Brunel University
Uxbridge,
United Kingdom |
| Arjun Gunaratne |
Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka
Switzerland |
Satyabhama Shrestha
Nepal |
| Sri Lanka |
Sasanka Perera
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
Colombo, Sri Lanka |
Darini Rajasingham
International Centre for Ethnic Studies
Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Thailand |
Lindsay French
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode Island
U.S.A. |
Stanley Tambiah
Department of Anthropology
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts
U.S.A. |
Deborah Tooker
Department of Sociology and Athropology
LeMoyne College
Syracuse, New York
U.S.A. |
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| Published/ Unpublished Documents |
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