DIVERSITY AND PLURALISM IN SOUTH ASIA: Protecting Minority Rights and Elaborating the Regional Standards

Introduction

Fifty years after the transfer of power from its colonial masters, South Asia is engaged in a critical evaluation of its political structures. At the time of the transfer of power South Asian polities adopted constitutional and political structures inherited from their colonial masters. With these structures, South Asian polities had until recently been able to manage, with vary degrees of success, the challenges of diversity and minority protection. During this decade however, these structures have been put to their sternest tests yet. Although Sri Lanka has been grappling with a major ethnic crisis at least since 1983, the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1991 can be seen as a more general indicator of the crisis in the region. In the recent past these issues have again come into bold relief, especially with the increasing incidence of violence against Christians and Dalits in India, and religious minorities in Pakistan.

This crisis has evoked energetic and critical responses from academics and scholars who have brought with them an entire spectrum of opinions and approaches. These responses have focused on the causes and consequences of ethnic conflict and on developing alternative frameworks for understanding the phenomenon of ethnicity and diversity. While there is a large body of information and literature relating to collective violence, community level co-existence, structural arrangements for promoting diversity, multiculturalism and other issues relating to the politics of identity, there has been no systematic attempt made by social science scholars to influence the process of policy formulation and value formation within South Asia. The basic aim of the proposed project is to move beyond the conceptual and theoretical debates that have been going on and to provide a framework for constructive co-operation and interaction between scholars and policy makers. Secondly, the project also aims to empower the national level institutions established to facilitate a dialogue between ethnic groups. Thirdly, to encourage the establishment of similar institutions in other South Asian countries which face problems and challenges of diversity. And finally, to develop South Asian perspectives and South Asian standards with regard to minority protection issues.

ICES has for the last few years been working with the UN Working Group on Minorities and with the Minority Rights Group. It has been supporting the UN Working Group on Minorities in increasing awareness of the latter's work in the international community in general and in South Asia in particular. ICES is also currently involved in a regional research project on minority protection in South Asia.

The Proposed Project on Diversity and Pluralism in South Asia

The proposed project will have three components:

Major International and Regional Instruments Referenced by this Project

The project on Diversity and Pluralism in South Asia is inspired largely by international efforts to advance minority protection. ICES sees an opportunity to draw on existing international and regional standards to strengthen national bodies that promote diversity and protect minorities and to move towards developing regional standards of minority protection that can serve as a benchmark for South Asia.

The primary guiding document for the project in the international arena is The UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious, and Linguistic Minorities. Proclaimed in 1992, the Declaration aims to promote effective implementation of the rights of minorities. Inspired by the provisions of Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it seeks in particular to address the specific challenges minorities face in attaining human rights protected by major international and regional instruments.

Of particular relevance to the project's work on regional standards for South Asia are the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, adopted in 1994 and other regional instruments and recommendations. These include the Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities, the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities; and The European Charter for Regional or National Languages.

Regional work on specific provisions for minority protection was pioneered in Europe during the 1970s and the extensive thinking and documentation from this process is of great value to those working to promote diversity and minority rights in South Asia. The project has drawn on these instruments and documents for inspiration and discussion with the aim of developing similar mechanisms that will be valid and useful regionally. Differences in the South Asian context - particularly complications in terms of the scale of religious, ethnic, and linguistic diversity and more regionally specific issues such as caste - mean that these instruments serve as rich stimulus for thought on the needs of South Asian societies. Any answers to the challenges of diversity and minority protection in South Asia, however, will have to come through local, national and regional projects such as this one.