Views from the Indian Electorate: Satisfactions and Dissatisfactions with Democracy, Politics and the Economy

In this paper I present findings from Chapter 2 of the forthcoming book by Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yadav titled "Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies". The results presented here are largely drawn from responses to the National Election Studies (NES) and the State of the Nation Surveys coordinated by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, India over six national elections between 1971-2009. We focus on questions as they pertain to support for democracy, political efficacy and political participation in India. In particular, I focus on the responses of the seven most marginalized groups in the country based on their caste, religious, economic and gender status. These groups are Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Muslim, Very Poor, Poor, Illiterate and Female respondents. The first section of the paper outlines the details of CSDS surveys, how they were conducted and how they compare to alternative national surveys in India and elsewhere. Subsequent sections delve into why India makes a critical case for the "State-Nation" model in our book and the results of the surveys. In the final section of the paper I present results from questions on the Indian economy and how economic change has affected people's perception of their wellbeing

Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a 'Tamil diaspora', they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as 'aesthetic' and 'moral' communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, 'membership' of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly - based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil 'victimhood' that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences. © 2013 Taylor & Francis

Multiculturalism and moderate secularism

What is sometimes talked about as the ‘post-secular’ or a ‘crisis of secularism’ is, in Western Europe, quite crucially to do with the reality of multiculturalism. By which I mean not just the fact of new ethno-religious diversity but the presence of a multiculturalist approach to this diversity, namely: the idea that equality must be extended from uniformity of treatment to include respect for difference; recognition of public/private interdependence rather than dichotomized as in classical liberalism; the public recognition and institutional accommodation of minorities; the reversal of marginalisation and a remaking of national citizenship so that all can have a sense of belonging to it. I think that equality requires that this ethno-cultural multiculturalism should be extended to include state-religion connexions in Western Europe, which I characterise as ‘moderate secularism’, based on the idea that political authority should not be subordinated to religious authority yet religion can be a public good which the state should assist in realising or utilising. I discuss here three multiculturalist approaches that contend this multiculturalising of moderate secularism is not the way forward. One excludes religious groups and secularism from the scope of multiculturalism (Kymlicka); another largely limits itself to opposing the ‘othering’ of groups such as Jews and Muslims (Jansen); and the third argues that moderate secularism is the problem not the solution (Bhargava)

Friends or foes? migrants and sub-state nationalists in Europe

How do sub-state nationalists respond to the growing presence of cultural diversity in their ‘homelands’ resulting from migration? Sub-state nationalists in Europe, in ‘nations without states’ such as Catalonia and Scotland, have been challenging the traditional nation-state model for many decades. While the arguments in favour of autonomy or independence levelled by these movements have become more complex, sub-state nationalist movements remain grounded by their perceived national community that is distinct from the majority nation. Migration to the ‘homeland’ of a sub-state nation, then, presents a conundrum for sub-state elites that we label the ‘legitimation paradox’: too much internal diversity may undermine the claim to cultural distinctiveness. We engage with three common intervening variables thought to influence how sub-state nationalists confront the ‘legitimation paradox’: civic/ethnic nationalism, degree of political autonomy, and party competition. Our overarching argument is that none of these factors have a unidirectional or determinate effect on the sub-state nationalism-immigration nexus, which is why the nuanced case studies that comprise this Special Issue are worthwhile endeavours

Views from the Indian Electorate: Satisfactions and Dissatisfactions with Democracy, Politics and the Economy

In this paper I present findings from Chapter 2 of the forthcoming book by Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yadav titled "Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies". The results presented here are largely drawn from responses to the National Election Studies (NES) and the State of the Nation Surveys coordinated by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, India over six national elections between 1971-2009. We focus on questions as they pertain to support for democracy, political efficacy and political participation in India. In particular, I focus on the responses of the seven most marginalized groups in the country based on their caste, religious, economic and gender status. These groups are Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Muslim, Very Poor, Poor, Illiterate and Female respondents. The first section of the paper outlines the details of CSDS surveys, how they were conducted and how they compare to alternative national surveys in India and elsewhere. Subsequent sections delve into why India makes a critical case for the "State-Nation" model in our book and the results of the surveys. In the final section of the paper I present results from questions on the Indian economy and how economic change has affected people's perception of their wellbeing