RACIAL, ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS SOCIAL DISTANCE IN SURINAM - AN EXPLORATION OF THE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE HYPOTHESIS IN A CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

The poly-ethnic Caribbean can be seen as a laboratory for the study of the evolution of inter- and intra-ethnic relationships. Using the Car ibbean experience as context, the present study begins by focusing on the dynamics of Muslim-Hindu relations in Surinam and then extends its analysis to South Asian-Creole relations. Building on the work of van der Burg and van der Veer (1986), the study develops and examines a ' strategic alliance hypothesis': that Hindus and Muslims have avoided o vert conflict in their Surinamese homeland in order to advance their c ommon interests against the country's other major ethnic groups, and, by extension, South Asians have joined multi-ethnic coalitions to adva nce these same interests. To explore these strategic alliance hypothes es, 376 secondary-school students in western Surinam were administered a modified Bogardus (1925) social distance scale in order to measure the degree of reciprocal tolerance that the sample's respondents expre ssed towards Surinam's prominent ethno-religious groups. The survey re sults offered qualified support for the strategic alliance hypothesis - the degree of preferential closeness Hindus and Muslims in the sampl e would tolerate for each other fell approximately midway between the social distance they would allow between themselves and the Creoles, t heir major competitors, and the distance preferred for members of othe r sects within their own religion. These data are contextualized withi n Surinam's ongoing struggle to restore the independent and civilian c onstitutional government that was overthrown in a 1980 military coup.