IDENTITIES AND THE INDIAN STATE - AN OVERVIEW

The importance that IR theorists have traditionally given to sovereign statehood has decreased their ability to explain new issues of global heterogeneity and diversity. The need to explain the end of the cold war, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the revival of old identities as well as the eruption of ethnic conflict in various p arts of the world has, therefore, led to the return of culture and ide ntity in IR theory. The concept of nation-state in international relat ions is based on the assumption that humanity is divided into nations and each nation is entitled to a state of its own. Although a state ca n exist without a nation it does not have the same legitimacy as a nat ion-state. Thus post colonial states like India, which are often consi dered to have artificial boundaries and are made up of many ethnic gro ups, feel obliged to embark on nation-building and prove that they are a nation-state even though homogeneous nation-states are a dwindling minority. The rise of the BJP in India emphasises the importance of re ligious and cultural identities but still does not prove that India is a nation. There has always been a tension between national and subnat ional identities in India. Not everyone who lives within the territori al borders of India considers him/herself to be an Indian nationalist- for example, Kashmiris seeking independence. The central government ha s always been aware of this and has always given priority to the prese rvation of the unity and integrity of the country. Indeed the constitu tion of India, while giving recognition to the fact that India is a mu lti-ethnic state, does not given anyone the right to secede from the U nion. However, it is difficult to say how far India has progressed in the past 50 years beyond mere political integration and towards the cr eation of a nation-state through the transfer of loyalties fi-om regio nal or ethnic groups to the nation, whose legal expression is the Indi an Union. In the long run this is the only thing that will preserve th e Indian state as it exists today.