CHAPTER l

CHAPTER I

CONFLICT LINKAGE , SUB - NATIONAL, NATIONAL

AND INTERNATIONAL: A THEORETICAL FORMULATION

The Theory of Linkage

The study of politics within nations and among them has traditionally been

done along two separate, exclusive ways. One deals with national politics as the sole

domain of its study and lays emphasis on domestic factors alone. The other isolates

external policies of nations as factors in the political processes, in the international

system. Lack of any effective dialogue between the two levels of analysis; one at

the level of comparative politics and other at the level of international relations; has

made them indifferent to each other's areas of research and thu~ they are sceptical of

each other's paradigms and conceptual orientations; so much so that they have often

nourished an inhibition that any interaction between them 'may diminish the elegance

of existing models and require substantial revision in their central concepts' . 1 And the

theories of national as well as international politics, seem to be spelt around mutually

exclusive conceptual terrains. As Kenneth Waltz would say:

'National politics is the realm of authority, of administration, of law. International politics is the realm of power, of struggle, and of accommodation. The international realm is prominently a political one. The national realm is variously described as being hierarchic, vertical, centralized, heterogeneous, directed and contrived; the international realm, as being anarchic horizontal, decentralized, homogeneous, undirected and

James N.Rosenau, Of Bridges and Boundaries - A Reoort on Conference on the Interdependence of National and International.Political System (Princeton: Centre of International Studies, 1967) Research Monograph no.27, p. 7.

mutually adaptive'. 2

While analysing the character of international relations scholars are unanimous

in opinion that international relations is passing through 'a stage of anarchy, devoid

of law and order'. 3 Leurdijk writes:

,,

'.... the formulation of an anarchy-order dichotomy characterizing respectively the international and national political systems served to strengthen the assumption of autonomy of the political process in both spheres because this dichotomy was supposed to exclude an explanation of process in the same terms'. 4

Hanrieder has formulated the distinguishing features that seek to compartmentalize

the two disciplines: the comparative politics focuses on 'internal- motivational-

psychological phenomena' and International politics focuses on 'external- operational-

contingencies'. 5

The consequences of this exclusive compartmentalization have been

detrimental to the growth of the discipline on either side. Upon close examination,

one finds that the disciplines, underneath their seemingly incompatible methodologies

and paradigms, have commonalities that can strike a chord of unity among them: the

2 Kenneth N.Waltz, 'Anarchic Orders and Balance of Power' in Robert O.Kehone, ed .. Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986) p.lll.

3 J.Henk Leurdijk, 'From International to Transnational Politics: A Change in Paradigm, International Social Science Journal, Vol.26, No.1, 1974, pp.56-57.

4 Ibid., p.57.

5 Wolform F. Hanrieder, 'Compatibility and Consensus: A Proposal for the Conceptual Linkages of External and Internal Dimensions of Foreign Policy', American Political Science Review Vol. 61, No.4, December 1967, pp.97l-975.

2

boundaries of nation-state look permeable; the institutions and personalities that shape

the destinies of a nation, also determine the external relations of the same nation and

thus influence international politics; sometimes the scale and magnitude of

international events collapse; the boundaries, exposing the domestic environment to

unprecedented convulsions from all sides.

ChaUenges to the Territorial State :

The technological changes that revolutionised communication and shrunk time

and space have inevitable impact on political organization in domestic as well as

international spheres. The conquest of time and distance has made the world 'a global

village' and has resulted in the blurring of boundaries between domestic and

international politics. This has happened because the conventional ideal of a

territorial, isolationist state; with minimum stakes in international politics; has

suffered a set back with the onslaught of communication all around, which has made

states permeable and thus exposed to unavoidable external influences. This has diluted

and circumscribed state sovereignty and given rise to concepts of 'global

interdependence', 'transnational politics'. Kenneth Boulding would tell us:

6

1%2).

' .... everywhere is now accessible to everybody; there are no nooks, corners or retreats left, and no snugly protected centres of national power. The great continental heartlands are as exposed to aerial warfare as are the coasts to naval bombardment. The result is a sudden and dramatic collaps.e of unconditional viability'. 6

Kenneth E.Boulding, Conflict and Defence: A General Theory (New York: Harper & Row,

3

Similarly Oran R. Young would harp on the plurality of actors in the

international arena, qualitatively diverse, begging precedence over one another. He

would observe that this is 'a movement away from a world system dominated by a

single type of actor' and towards 'a system characterized by extensive interactions

among several qualitatively different types of actors'. 7 This shows a decline in the

monopoly of state as the sole actor, and rise of transnational actors8 making the study

of international politics more complex and challenging. The role of 'non-state actors'

. has been an engaging theme of study in international politics.

The theme of 'interdependence, 9 has also corroded the inviolable image of

'state-sovereignty'. Studies of Andre Gunder Frank, 10 Samir Am in, 11 Ronald

7 Oran R. Young, 'The Actors in World Politics' in James N.Rosenau et at. eds., The Analaysis of International Politics (New York: Free Press, 1972) p.l25-144.

8 Phillip Taylor, New State Actors in International Politics: From Transnational to Sub-state Organizations (Boulder & London: Westview Press, 1984), Karl Kaiser, 'Transnational Politics: Towards a Theory of Multinational Pofitics', Intemational Organization, Vol. 25, Autumn 1971, p. 790-817, Sushi! Kwnar, 'Transnational Approaches for a Changing International Environment' in K.P.Mishra and Richard Smith Beal, eds., International Relations Theory: Western and Non-Western Perspective (New Delhi: Vikas, 1980), p.141-157.

9 For different definitional meanings see E.L.Morse, 'Interdependence in World Politics' in James N.Rosenau and others, eds.; World Politics: An Introduction (New York: The Free Press, 1976)~ P.E.Reynolds and R.D.McKinley 'The Concept of Interdependence: Its Uses and Misuses' in Goddman and G.Sjostedt, eds.; Power. Capabilities and Interdependence: Problems in the Study of International Influence (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979), p.l41-66. R.J.Barry Jones, 'The Definition and Identification of Interdependence in R.J. Barry Jones and Peter Willets, eds., Interdependence on Trial: Studies in the Theory and Reality of Contemporary Interdependence (London: Francis Pinter, 1984), p.31.

10 Andre Gunder Frank, On Capitalist Underdevelopment (Bombay: OUP, 1975).

11 Samir Amin and others eds., Dynamics of Global Crisis (London: MacMillan, 1982), p.9.

4

Chilcote12 and a host of other writers on the theme of underdevelopment emphasize

how the world capitalist system has become a 'holistic phenomenon' which conditions

'the experiences and opportunities of member societies'.

All these developments have made international politics too complex and

effected profound structural changes in the domains of domestic as well as

international politics, breaking open the compartments that sought to divide them. As

Fred W.Riggs suggests that the policy formulation and allocation of values within the

states 'do not respond to the domestic configuration of forces and given choices but

also tremendously affected by the inputs from the international environment' } 3

R. V .Burks also pleads along the same line that 'the domestic life of any country is

affected to a greater or Jesser degree by the circumstances which prevail in the

outside world and the converse of this proposition is also true}4 Peter Gourevitch 's

arguments echo this point of view: 'the international system is not only a consequence

of the domestic politics and structures but a cause of them' . 15 J.D.Singer emphasized

that:

12 Ronald H.Chilcote and Joel Edelstein. eds .• Latin America: The Struggle with Dependency and Beyond (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974), p.l-87.

13 Fred W.Riggs, 'The Theory of Developing Politics' World Politics, Vol.l6, No.I, October 1963, p.171.

14 R.V.Burks, 'The conmmnist Parties of Eastern Europe' in James N.Rosenau, ed.; Linkage Politics: Essays On the Convergence of National and lntentational Systems (New York: Free Press, 1969), p.301.

15 Peter Gourevitch, 'The Second Image Reversed: The Intenntional Sources of Domestic Politics', Intenntional Organization Vol.32, No.4, Autumn 1978, p. 911.

5

'Thus, it may be argued that any description of national behaviour in a given international situation would be highly incomplete, were it to ignore the link between the external forces at work upon the nation and its general foreign policy behaviour' . 16

Singer goes on to moot the idea of a 'combined framework' which would none

tbe less be difficult given the lack of any interaction between the two levels of

analysis.

Linkage Politics: Rosenau's tbeorisation

James N.Rosenau was the first to take up the challenge and criticised the

tendency to study comparative and fnternational politics as unrelated disciplines:

'They are kept apart not by mutual antagonism but by reciprocal boredom. Each group is trapped, as it were, in its own conceptual jail and like all prisoners, its members rarely get a glimpse at the life of those incarcerated elsewhere. 17

Such impassioned invective against 'exclusivists' indicated the urge to fuse the

two levels of analysis together at the level of theory for lasting benefit of the student

of international politics.

James N.Rosenau coined a particular term (Linkage)to launch his initial

conceptualizations on the theme. The origin of the effort can be traced back to the

international relations programme of American Political Science Association

16 J.David Singer, 'The Level of Analysis Problem in Intemational Relations' in Klaus Knorr and Sidney Verba, eds.; The International System: Theoretical Essays (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1961}, p.87.

17 James N.Rosenau, 'Towards the Study· of National Intenuttional Linkages' in Jan1es N.Rosenau ed., The Scientific Study of Foreign Policy (London: Frances Pinter, 1979) p.373.

6

convention which was held in March 1966, where it was urged upon the scholars to

explore and isolate points where the functioning of national systems, and international

politics, depended upon each other. It was in 1969 that James N.Rosenau's seminal

work; Linkage Politics: Essays on the Convergence of National and International

Politics was published which provided the pl.atform for theoretical innovations along

the line of linkage-politics.

It has to be emphasized here that the rudimentary idea behind 'Linkage' was

not altogether novel, and that over the years;the phenomenon of interaction between

internal and external political environment has been referred to in the writings of

classical writers like Plato and Thucydides. But it goes to the credit of Rosenau et al.

to give it a sy~tematic, coherent perspective.

Linkage Politics is designed as bridge across the conceptual gap that divides

comparative politics from international politics. It makes it urgent on the part of a

scholar to study the overlapping area between domestic and international politics, so ·

long hidden from the eye;due to the want of any adequate theoretical paradigm

yielding space for such a possibility, at the level of conceptualization. Linkage politics

is defined by Rosenau as 'any recurrent sequence of behaviour that originates in one

system and is reacted to in another' . 18

Rosenau distinguishes between two stages of linkage process: 'the initial' and

'the terminal'. The initial phase refers to those sequences of behaviour which

originate within the polity or in the-external environment and influence external policy

and domestic politics respectively. Rosenau calls these influences as 'outputs'. The

18 Ibid., p.45.

7

terminal refers to the sequence of behaviour that takes place within the polity or in

the external environment, being necessitated by the 'outputs' at the level of external

environment and polity respective! y. He termed them as 'inputs'. For further

conceptual clarity he categorized the inputs and outputs as direct and indirect outputs

or inputs depen4ing on the responses they invoke.

As far as linkage processes are concerned, Rosenau divides ·them into three

types: penetrative, reactive and emulative. 19 When an outside polity influences

domestic elite in decision-making, the process is called 'penetrative'. When the actors

who 'initiate the output do not participate in the allocative activities of those who

experience the input the process is called 'reactive'. Here, the behaviour of those who

experience th~ inputs, is the response to the behaviour of actors who initiate the

outputs, even though the latter does not take part in the input. In the emulative

process, the inputs are 'not merely a reaction to the outputs but essentially take the

same form as the outputs'. Apart from these three kinds ·of linkages, there could be

yet another form of linkage which Rosenau termed as 'fused linkage'. Fused linkages

emerge from 'the continuous reinforcement of outputs and inputs in a reciprocal

relationship in the sense that outputs fosters in input that instead of ending there, 'in

turn fosters an output in such a way that they cannot meaningfully be analyzed

separately'.

The processes apart, which outline the concept of linkage; what constitutes

linkage between the domestic and international politics is not the single occurrence

of an action in one system and reaction to it in the other, rather it is the recurrence

19 Ibid., pp.383-385.

8

of such process which established the linkage. To quote Rosenau; " ... given a

recurrent behaviour within a polity, external reaction to it are not considered to form

linkages with it unless they too are recurrent". Linkage politics also refers to

processes in which interactions among the actors within the domestic politics affect

their relations at the international level and vice versa. That is how, the interactions

between the actors in the international system affect their domestic political process

in particular, and of the other not involved in such interactions in general.

Moreover, linkage is not confined to inter-governmental interactions based on

direct or indirect output-input convergence but also expands to 'those recurrent

activities that private persons or groups undertake with the intent of preserving or

altering one ~r more aspects of the polity's external environment'. Interactions

between private persons and groups across the boundaries refer to the roles played

by actors other than states alone.

The linkage between domestic and international system has been theorised at

many levels. Some scholars maintain that linkages are possible due to 'parallelism'

present between the processes of domestic and international politics. There are some

others like Hanrieder20 dismisses this proposition as too immature because mere

parallelism would not make the effect emulative. He agrees, nonetheless, that the

'isomorphism' that these scholars hint at can be forged into the theoretical construct

they are attempting but 'isomorphism' has to be differentiated from 'parallelism'. He

would argue that the concepts that emphasizes the isomorphic quality of the two levels

of analysis (domestic and international) are: compatibility and consensus. He defined

20 Hanrieder, op.cit.. p. 972.

9

'compatibility' as a feasibility relationship between foreign policy and its operational

environment; that is, foreign policy goals must be compatible with the conditions

prevalent in the operational environment and be deemed appropriate by outside

observers'. On the other hand consensus refers to domestic homogeneity in the State

on the ends and means of foreign pol icy. Hanrieder contends that once these two

conditions between states like 'India and Pakistan', 'France and Germany, Korea and

Japan, Greece and Turkey and Israel and Egypt', may allow 'close-at-hand

environment' to dominate 'foreign policy' and 'internal-life' more extensively than

'remote environmental ties', and still such linkages have largely been underscored and

have 'never been subjected to the systematic and comparative analysis that is inherent

in the linkage-framework'. 21

The case for Conflict Linkage:

The scope of this study, as an effort at conflict-linkage, is limited. It seeks to

·explore the links that bind intra-state conflicts with inter-state ones. The various

approaches to the study of conflicts have to be briefly stated here to facilitate

understanding of the course the present research would take in the following pages.

At the socio-psychological level the formulations of George SimmeJ22 and

Lewis A. Coser23 (who modified Simmel 's postulates) acknowledge the effect of

domestic conflict on external conflict. They start from the assumptions that social

21 Hanrieder, op.cit.. p.977.

22 George Sinmtel, Conflict tr(l. Kurt H. Wolff (Glencoe: llte Free Press, 1955).

23 Lewis A.Coser, The Functions of Social Conflict (New York: The Free Press, 1956).

10

systems require some cohesion to maintain an integrated socio-political environment,

and lack of such cohesion devotes internal instability and internal dissension. But such

dissension may operate at a facile, non-disruptive level and at such a stage,

engagement in a war with an external enemy may wipe out all dissension and enforce

unity in society. And in case such dissension is disruptive of unity, an, external

engagement may rather hasten the process of disintegration.

Out of this assumption, comes the hypothesis that temptations to look for an

enemy and target one's hatred against it, may be too high for a group when internal

harmony is at stake. External conflict as such may havetr~ability to limit or intensify

conflict in the internal sphere. Simmel thus formulates his famous 'scapegoat' theory

where a society looks for a scape-goat, either 'outer or external' or 'inner or

internal', to tide our internal conflicts. The study of some psychologist also attests

such formulations. 24 They agree that outside attack heightens each individual's sense

of insecurity and the group as a whole realizes that joint defense in the best way to

face up to danger. Thus there is a remarkable agreement among studies at th{

socio-psychological level that conflict between groups, societies and states can be

exploited to create internal solidarity within a group, society or state.

The classical or traditional approach also recognizes that 'to indulge in foreign

was as a diversion from domestic ills ' 25 has been a common theme in international

politics (Quincy Wright). People like Henry Kissinger agrees that 'if domestic

24 Leonard Berkowitz in Aggression: A Social Psychological Analysis (New York: McGraw Hill, I 962) and Mark A.May in A Social Psychology of War and Peace (New Haven: Yale University Press, I943).

25 Quincy Wright, A Study of War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, I 964, abridged).

11

structure are relatively stable, temptations to use an adventurous foreign policy to

achieve domestic cohesion are at a minimum. 26 Richard Rosecrance, perhaps has the

most tentative of conclusions to offer, out of his study across nine international

political system, but still the hint at an inter-connection between internal conflict and

external-conflict comes out emphatically through:

'There tends to be a correlation between international instability and domestic insecurity of elites. The correlation does not hold in all instances3war may occur in the absence of internal instability, internal friction may occur in the absence of war. 1-n many of the chaotic international patterns of modern times, however, the two factors were associated. 27

When we switch over to quantitative, empirical approach we come across a

host of researchers who conducted studies on the theme. The studies of Rudolph

Rummel28 (across 77 countries over a period of 1955-1957) and Raymond Tanter9

(across 83 states for another 3 year period 1958-1960) who borrow the tools of

analysis from Rummel, are more marked by an overarching enthusiasm to chance

upon some concrete metaphysical truth in the realm of international politics through

employment of scientific tools. Thus J while Rummel Tanter, found no relation

26 Henry A. Kissinger, 'Domestic Structure and Foreign Policy' Daedalus, Spring, 1966, p.503.

27 Richard N .Rosecrance, Action and Reaction in World Politics (Boston: Little Brown and Co .• 1963) pp.304-305.

28 Rudolf J.Rummel, 'Dimensions of Conflict Behaviour within and Between Natiott'i' in Jonathan Wilkenfie1d, ed., Conflict Behaviaur and Linkage Politics (New York: McKay Company. 1973). pp.59-l06.

29 Raymond Tanter, • Dimensions of Conflict Behaviour Within and Between Nations 1958-1960'. Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol.lO, 1966, pp.41-64.

12

whatsoever between the two levels of conflicts; the latter (Tanter) qualified his

conclusion with a suspicion that such relationship could emerge with a 'Time-lag'.

Leo Hazelwood's30 'Diversion-Encapsulation Study' also emphasized on 'some time

points' when 'domestic conflict-foreign conflict relationships' may be correlated.

Jonathan Wilkenfield shifted the discussion to types of governments and states. Leo

Hazelwood, in yet another study sought to explain how and why. such type of

government affects this linkage-relationship. Basing on thisJ Wilkenfield and Diana

Zinnes31 reached the conclusions that previous level of internal conflict behaviour

affects the level that follows afterwards, while the external conflict behaviour

influences these transitions'.

A brief study of all these approaches shows that the traditional and

socio-psychological approaches hypothesized the possibility of a linkage without

taking care to elaborate much on the theme, while the quantitative approach, in its

urge to quantity such linkage-themes and arrive at a cut-and dried precise, scientific

theory, bypassed the particular areas where such linkages could be operative. A

search for a general scheme might seem fashionable in natural science but when it

comes to behaviour of nations and the behaviour of individuals who constitute such

nations, such efforts may at times prove too ambitious.

30 Leo Hazelwood, 'Diversion Mechanisms and Encapsulation Process. l11e Domestic Conflict -Foreign Conflict Hypod1esis Reconsidered', in Sage International Yearbook of Foreign Policy Studies Voi.III, Patrick J.McGowan, ed., (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1975), pp.213-244.

31 Jonadlan Wilkenfield and Diana A. Zi1mes. • A Linkage model of Domestic Conflict Behaviour' in Jonathan Wilkenfield, ed. Conflict Behaviour and Linkage Politics' op.cit., pp. 325-356.

13

The Present Study :

The present studyJ as such; confines the scope of its theorization and

generalization to a specific strategic environment (South-Asian sub-continent) and has

taken up two states (India and Pakistan), which are lodged in an unending belligerent

relationship with each other, despite or more probably, because of their common

historical experiences. The initiatives for peace and cooperation between the two

states have led to intervening periods of lull (rather than peace) only to be vitiated by

conflictual encounters between the two neighbours in any one of the many probable

levels of interactions.

Moreover, historical reality suggests that the creation of Pakistan was the

result of a separatist claims of a self-defining Muslim nation, in contradistinction to

the fast-precipitating anti-colonial nationalism that bore alleged streaks of majoritarian

Hindu ethos. From the other end of the spectrum the call for a separate political

dispensation for a religious community smacked of renegade medieval bigotry which

was decried as communalism, which sought to tear asunder the secular fabric, woven

with care under the non-communal political organisation of the Indian National

Congress. Such mutually exclusive perceptions between two major contenders for

power in the event of withdrawal of the colonial administration, was suppesed to lead

to large scale communal violence and as such the lesser evil of secession (not

partition from international law point of view because independent Indian inherited

all its international stature from the erstwhile colony it used to be till then) was

preferred to civil war.

14

to the organisation of a politicar community which is based upon chief

'organisational principle of ethnic groups', that is very often dismissed as

'antiquated, demotic and plebian'.

However, such consciousness of an exclusive identity never takes place in a

vaccum. It is 'relational ' 36 in the sense that it is built up to define the cultural

frontier/boundary that separates its cultural matrix from that of a neighbouring

community. More often than not such communities are found to be lodged in an

unequal power relationship with each other and the subordinate community always

'compares its standing in society against that of groups in close proximity' 37 It leads

inevitably to a competitive paradigm and ethnic feelings are aroused to bring about

solidarity that goes into the making of an assertive community which makes its bid

for 'power equivalency'. 38 Thus, we find that both 'instrumental' as well as

'affective' factors reinforce each other to draw the contours of an ethnic group. 39

When such an ethnic group gets embroiled in a ga~e for power, its demands

often go unheeded which may force the group to turn violent and look for

sympathisers, outside the confines of the system it operates in. This makes the

36 Eugene E RooseilS, Creating Edmicity (Newbury Park: Sage PublicatimlS, 1989) p.l9

37 Anthony D Smidt would say dtat edmic movements require an edmic core d1at is horn out of 'tbe stimulation of primordial edmies'. The 'demotic and plebian' roots are dlus embedded in invented or recreated historicities dlat tickle a sense of solidarity among t he members. (AnHwny D Smitb, opcit.p.212) -

38 Ibid.

39 David Carment and Patrick James. • Intental Conflicts and Interstate Ethnic Conflict: Towardsa crises-based assessment of Irredentism' in Journal of Conflict Resolution (New York, 1995) vol.39, No.1, pp.82-109.

18

Such a communal division could never have been fool-proof and as a result

a sprawling Muslim population was left in India for whose protection the ideologues

of secession/partition were claiming a separate state. Moreover, when such a state

was made a near theocracy, the consequences had to spill over its territorial bounds.

When a community is spread across two sovereign state;,. systems and especially when

one of the states has a monopoly rule of the said community, the politics of such a

state had to affect and be affected by the fate as well as the condition of such

community in the other state when they are in minority even though it might carry

an extra-territorial obligation or loyalty, from territorial-nationalistic point of view.

As such it is observed that external relations between the two countries have

many domestic referents. A study of conflict-linkage that would draw up the

correlation between conflicts at the intra-state lev:el with conflicts at the inter-state

level has to be limited;given the historical specificity of the environment (cultural and

political) in which the states are embedded. At the domestic levels the separate

political systems have to be studied from the point of view of the ideology they

throw-up. The impact of such ideoiogy on the external behaviour of the concerned

state has to be analyzed too.

The conflicts at the domestic level which we further limit only to ethnic and

communal violence have to be isolated and contextually defined. Conflict situations

would then be taken up on a selective basis to cater to our analysis.

When we come to analyse inter-state conflicts, we will take up periods when

the relationship between two states approximated to war or proxy encounters along

borders, as well as exchange of strong verbal censures which tend to vitiate an

15

atmosphere of friendship. Here one is in near-agreement with Rosenau's conclusions

after a breath-taking empirical research on conflict behaviour that 'lack of

differentiation between cooperative and conflictful behaviour is so uniform that it

seems justified to abandon the original conception of them as the obverse of each

other' and that 'increased international activity implies increased cooperation as well

as increased conflict'. He elaborates further that:

'Whatever the history of enmity or amity out of which such relationships emerge, they cannot be sustained by conflict or cooperation alone, else they will lead to either total war or total unification. In the case of conflict behaviour, for example, it must be offset by cooperative acts if a S-ituation is to resolved or escalation to outright war avoided. Not every conflictful act may be followed by a conciliatory reaction, but the overall balance between the two must be such as to prevent a complete breakdown of the relationship'. 32

It is along this line of broader connotation of conflict that relationship between

India and Pakistan shall be studied.

Ethnicity and Communalism and Inter-State Relations: Some theoretical considerations.

To come down to attempt a definition of 'ethnic and communal conflicit' (or

violence), one finds that concepts of 'ethinicity', 'communalism', 'nationalism' shade

off into one another at the conceptual level. In fact they seek to explain (as well

operate in) the same terrain of abstraction, where group takes precedence over the

32 James N.Rosenau, wid1 George H.Ramsey Jr., 'External and Internal Typologies of Foreign Policy Behaviour: Testing dle stability of an intriguing set of findings' in Sage International Yearbook of Foreign Policy Studies. Vol.III. Patrick J.McGowar ed., 1975, pp.245-262.

16

individual through 'romanticisation of the community' 33 and an attendant

homogenisation of the culture that defines the web of relationship among the

members and makes them aware of their exclusive subjectivities. Then comes the

question of identity formation on the basis of homogenized community which in due

course of time tries to project a political ima~e and from a 'cultural community', a

'political community is born which proceeds to claim the rights to legislate for itself. 34

Even though there is no fixed pattern according to which such exclusive

identity is formed and nourished for subsequent political use, many students of

ethnicity feel that there are two motivational factors which guide the process. One

is 'instrumental' which hints at a leadership which tries to manipulate undefined

collateral cult~ral ties that bind a group at the psychological level and thus 'invents

communities'. 35 The other one is 'affective' which says that the groups grow their

own ethnic consciousness and throw up a leadership to guard their interests. The

pattern upon which, such community is structured is often the selfsame primordial kin

groups, where the group overrides the individual in terms of itself. Then comes the

reconstruction of an ethnic past that creates a positive self image which asserts the

'right to be culturally itself' and to receive the means necessary to do so. This leads

33 Anthony D. Smith, Ethnic Origin of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986) p 22.

34 Neeraja Gopal Jayal, 'Ethnic Diversity and the Nation State' in Joumal of Applied Philosophy (Oxford, 1993), voi.IO, No.2 pp 147-153.

35 1l1e concept of invented or imagined conmmnity has been advocted by many scholars of ethnicity, among whom the most discussed is the work of Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1991) Revised edition.

17

problem assume an international dimension through 'conflict extension' when an

ethnic group seeks to become a self-deliberating political communtiy and elicits

foreign intervention. Moreover, if the said group has strong ethnic links with a

political community in a neighbouring political system, it may lead to 'irredentist'

claims as well, and what starts as an inter-ethnic strife within a political system or

state gets transformed into inter-state conflict.

The inter-state conflictual atmosphere may, also create the conditions

conducive to the rise of further ethnic assertions in either of the states because in that

case the asserting group gets a ready sympathiser in the other state. This, in turn,

erodes the possibilities of resolution of inter-state conflict, making the problems

almost intractable.

Coming back to our case-study in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent, the nature

of politics during the British colonial rule that culminated in the partition as well as

the post-partition politics in the region, throw up a typical political environment

susceptible to ethnic claims built around the central theme of religion. 40 The

protracted nature of conflict that characterised Hindu-Muslim relations during the

colonial period has made such an atmosphere possible. Such ethnic assertions have

been given a specific name even: communalism. The Indian state after weathering

a partition on the basis of religion, shows a reflexive avers4on to claims that go by

the name of a religious community, which might also be explained otherwise as an

40 This is not to ignore ethnic identities built up around various other factors like language, region, tribe. In that sense India has been an ethnic melting pot and its diversity is inclusive of all these identities that sometimes find themselves in conflict against one another. But, the arguement tries to emphasize that neither such ethnic assertions have external patrons like the ethnic assertions on the basis of religion, nor have they been as much dissociative of the central integrative principle.

19

attempt to gloss over its proclivities in the field. Thus the problems in Punjab and

Kashmir (as they are associated with religion) are always inseparably linked up with

questions of national survival. At the other end of the spectrum, Pakistan's national

identity is built up around a nationalism that is perceived by India as divisive

communal and corrosive of Indian national unity. Pakistan's taking up the Kashmir

issue with 'irredentist' claims has made effective dialogues between the two states

impossible. In this context the division of Pakistan which squashed its claims of

nationhood on the basis of religion has redoubled its urge to restore its rei igious­

national-identity, which India decides to be communal and medieval in outlook. This

decision has· even made this task more urgent and often contingent on simultaneous

disavowal of India's secular identity. The Hindu-Muslim riots in the eighties,

supplied Pakistan with the necessary lever to rip open Indian secularism.

Simultaneously the ethnic separatist movements in Punjab and Kashmir have drawn

enormous sympathy for they also disprove Indian secular-national credentials.

All this has led one to believe that the communal conflict and inter-state

relations in this situation are inextricably linked up and the linkages are not too

difficult to find. The study in the subsequent chapters seeks to establish the links that

connect the two, in a detailed manner through employing· an historical-analytical

method of research, within the span of a decade during the eighties.

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